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IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday September 9th 2001


GW3SDK Silent Key

Micháel, GW3SDK died earlier this week. Despite his battle with illness,he remained active on amateur radio. Micháel was popular among the amateur radio community and will be sadly missed by his many friends including those who he regularly conversed with in EI.

Ar dheis De go raibh a anam dilis.


ODTR holding firm on 12 wpm Morse Requirement

Candidates for Class A licenses will have to pass the 12 wpm Morse test for the immediate future at least. A spokesperson for the ODTR, the licensing regulator, has informed the IRTS that the 5 wpm test can only be introduced as part of the new license. A draft of the proposed new regulations, is expected to be published shortly, which will be followed by a consultation period. The new license is expected to provide for increased power, additional UHF bands and IRTS hosting of revised examinations, along the multiple choice format. The IRTS had put pressure on the ODTR to implement CEPT guidelines and introduce 5 word per minute code immediately. The revised license has been a matter of discussion between the national society and the regulator for a number of years now. None of the Society Officials were prepared to comment on this development in advance of the next IRTS Committee meeting.


IRTS Committee Meeting

The next IRTS committee meeting will be held on Saturday, the 15th of September at 11.00 a.m. in The Shamrock Lodge Hotel, Athlone.


South Eastern Amateur Radio Group

Congratulations to Tom Phelan, John Duggan and Robbie Power who successfully completed the South Eastern Amateur Radio Group night classes leading up to the class B licence and are now awaiting their call signs. We look forward to hearing them on the air in the very near future. SEARG would be interested in hearing from anyone interested in participating in the night classes during the coming winter. The classes take place one night a week at a nominal cost. The club can be contacted on 087-6302026 or e-mail searg@angelfire.com.


Limerick Radio Club

The Burren Walk, organised by the Thomond Mountaineers took place on Saturday,August the 25th last. This is an annual event and each year the Limerick Radio Club provide radio communications along the route. There are three different routes in the walk with the longest being 21 km reaching a height of 600 metres making communications a vital safety aspect. This year, radio communications were provided by Tony EI9IL, Peter EI3JA, John EI5FOB and Pat EI7FHB.


Rally News

The Cork Radio Club Rally will take place on Sunday, September the 16th 2001 at the Blarney Park Hotel, Blarney, Co. Cork. Doors open at 11 a.m. and admission is £3.00. This is the 10th Blarney Rally and as usual will have a selection of radios, antennas and computers etc. The IRTS will attend the rally and there will also be a bring and buy.

For more information, contact Dick EI6HH at 021 454 5154.


UK Licensing

Important Announcements on the Future of UK Amateur Licensing will be made at the Leicester Amateur Radio Show on the 21st and 22nd of September. The RSGB and Radiocommunications Agency will do a presentation on the past year or so of discussions between the RSGB, RA and the amateur radio community in the UK.


DRM Goes Live

Professional visitors to the IFA show in Berlin heard the very first live digital medium wave broadcast using the DRM (Digital Radio Mondiale) system. Deutsche Telekom AG and its partners transmitted the ORB/Radio 1 program in digital quality via the Deutsche Telekom transmitter at Schaeferberg on 891 kHz, and the results were presented at the DRM Booth. For more information visit www.rnw.nl/realradio/html/drm.html


Items for inclusion in Echo Ireland should be forwarded to Dave Moore EI4BZ at 021-4353853 in the evenings or at 021-4823172 during office hours. Items can be submitted to Dave by e-mail at ei4bz@eircom.net and you can fax him at 021-4354113.


Items for inclusion in the Radio News should be forwarded to Mark Wall EI7IS at QTHR or via e-mail to ei7is@qsl.net or cyberis@e-merge.ie. Items can also be sent to Mark over the phone at 087-6302026 ? Please note that the deadline for the radio news is 9 p.m. each Tuesday.

News can also be submitted via e-mail to news@irts.ie for automatic forwarding to both news services.

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