Archived News Script
IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday July 25th 2004
Silent Keys
Astronomer and antenna designer John Kraus, W8JK, has become a Silent Key. According to a report on the ARRL website, Kraus passed away on July the 18th last at the age of 94. A member of the inaugural "class" of the CQ Amateur Radio Hall of Fame, Kraus was world-renowned as a radio astronomer and the father of the "Big Ear" radio telescope at Ohio State University. Among radio amateurs, he was perhaps best known as an antenna designer. His designs include the famous W8JK bi-directional wire beam as well as the helix and corner reflector antennas often used at UHF frequencies.
Martin Brandeaux died in Los Angeles on the 1st of July last at the age of 80. He was the holder of two callsigns - KE6PZH and FO5GJ. Martin Brandeaux was better known to generations of film-goers as Marlon Brando the Academy Award winning actor.
Mayo Radio Experimenters Network
Results in the June competition for Mayo REN Members were as follows:
In first place was John Browne EI7FAB, John Corless EI7IQ was second and Brendan Minish EI6IZ took third place. Also, John McAndrew EI3JM was 4th, in 5th place was Mike Hayes EI2EO, in 6th place was Jimmy Kelly EI2GCB and Terry Ebdon EI9IW was 7th. The July meeting debated the continued threat from Power Line Transmissions (PLT) in Tuam, and the sub-committee gave an up to date report.
The next meeting of MREN will take place on the 4th of August which is the first Wednesday of the month as always.
DXCC
Do you qualify for DXCC Awards but have never applied because you do not want to trust your valuable QSL cards to the mail? If so, there may be a solution to your problem.
Hal Turley KC8FS is a DXCC Field Checker for ARRL who will be visiting Ireland shortly and he has offered his services to any EIs who may need to have QSL cards checked for the DXCC Program Awards. He will be doing this with the permission of the ARRL DXCC Manager. Hal will be in Ireland from August 13th to 22nd and will be staying in Galway, Killarney and Shannon. He also hopes to operate from the Signal Station at Mizen Head during part of the International Lighthouse Weekend.
If you are interested in meeting up with Hal to have cards checked, you should email him as soon as possible at KC8FS@aol.com.
Theory Examinations
A reminder that anyone who would like to sit a radio theory examination should contact Derek O'Reilly in ComReg. Contact details are: Mr Derek C.O'Reilly, Volume Licensing & Co Ordination Division, Commission for Communications Regulation, Abbey Court Irish Life Centre, Lower Abbey Street, Dublin 1. Or phone 01 804 9769, Fax 01 804 9671 or Email derek.oreilly@comreg.ie
International Lighthouse/Lightship Weekend
This popular annual August event attracts hundreds of amateur radio stations at lighthouses and lightships worldwide. It is organised by Mike, GM4SUC and Kevin VK2CE is the web master. This year the period of the event is from 0001 UTC on Saturday the 21st of August until 2359 UTC on Sunday the 22nd of August.
To assist other stations in the identification of stations, it is requested that participating stations using CW add LS after their callsign at a lightship and LT at a lighthouse. SSB and other modes should use LIGHT, LGT, LIGHTHOUSE or LIGHTSHIP after their call.
For more information visit illw.net/index.html
South Eastern Amateur Radio Group
The next general meeting of the group will take place this coming Wednesday the 28th of August at 8.00 p.m. in the usual venue of Roanmore Social and Sports Centre, Cleaboy Road, Waterford. All are welcome.
4 Metre Activity
Experimenters with 4 metre equipment are encouraged to call in on the first Tuesday of every month on 70.2652 Mhz. Several members or Tipperary Amateur Radio Group are active on the band and would be delighted to work your station. The next activity night will be on Tuesday the 3rd of August.
Solar News
The sunspot number increased dramatically last weekend when new sunspot 652 emerged over the sun's eastern limb. This active region is approximately the size of Jupiter, and easily seen from Earth. If you would like to view the sunspot, use safe solar observing techniques. Never look directly at the sun. For more information, visit spaceweather.com.
There are now two solar regions that threaten strong solar flares, the other active region being sunspot 649. High levels of solar activity are possible in the coming week.
Items for inclusion in next weeks Radio News for next week should be forwarded to Mark EI7IS. News should be submitted via e-mail to news@irts.ie for automatic forwarding to both the radio and printed news services.
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