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IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday April 3rd 2005


EI Counties Contest

There appeared to be more activity than usual in the EI counties contest, both on FM and SSB. This may have been helped by the favourable weather on the day. It was also observed that there was a welcome increase in the number of GI stations on the air.

The following counties were heard by Joe (EI7GY) who was operating from Arderin, Co. Offaly.

Armagh, Carlow, Clare, Cork, Derry, Dublin, Galway, Kerry, Kildare, Kilkenny, Limerick, Longford, Louth, Mayo, Offaly, Roscommon, Tipperary, Tyrone, Waterford, Westmeath, Wexford and Wicklow.

Important Information for 2-metre Counties Contest Entrants The Spring 2 metre Counties Contest took place on Easter Monday last. The closing date for receipt of Logs is Wednesday April 27th 2005. Logs arriving after this date will not be accepted.

Important. If emailing logs please ensure that they are sent to contests at irts.ie. Please use this address only as logs sent to other email addresses may be lost due to spam filtering, all logs submitted by email will be acknowledged on receipt, if you do not receive a receipt within 24 hours contact the Contest Manager. Paper logs should be sent directly to Noel EI2JC at QTHR. The e-mail address again is contests at irts.ie.

Lough Erne Amateur Radio Club The Lough Erne ARC will hold its 24th Amateur Radio Rally on the 17th April 2005 in the new venue of the Manor House Hotel. Doors open at 12 noon On Monday the 6th of June, EI2BY will be providing emergency radio coverage of the women's mini-marathon. If you would like to take part in this special event licensed by ComReg as EI2WMM please contact George Adjaye, EI2CPB by fax on 01 4908546 or phone 086 2586103. You can also e-mail George at adjayeg at dcu.ie. Please provide your name, phone number and callsign. Also note that you will require a 2-metre rig of your own for the event.


4 metre Activity Night

The Monthly 4 Metre Activity Night will be on Tuesday night next the 5th of April from 20.00 to 22.00. Operators who are equipped for 70 MHz are invited to listen out for and join in any activity on 70.2625 MHz FM.


South Eastern Amateur Radio Group

A committee meeting of South Eastern Amateur Radio Group will take place this coming Wednesday, the 6th of April at 8.00 p.m. in the Roanmore Centre, Waterford. Committee members are asked to attend.


Theory Examination

As you know there has been no Theory Examination for the Experimenter's Licence for almost a year now. Despite repeated representations from the Society, ComReg was not prepared to hold a further examination, for a number of reasons, including that it intended to outsource the theory examination process.

Most of you will now be aware that on the 14th of February last ComReg published a document seeking expressions of interest from parties interested in setting, organising and correcting the examination for the Experimenter's Licence. Anyone interested in seeing this document will find it on the ComReg website at www.comreg.ie as Document ComReg 05/10. A group within the Society has been working hard on the Theory Examination project for some time past and on 23 March a detailed expression of interest in running the theory examination was submitted to ComReg by the IRTS.

The submission runs to over 40 pages and covers in detail such topics as the format of the examination, frequency of examinations, exam centres, measures to ensure the integrity of the process including the security of the production and transmission of question papers and the supervision of the examinations.

The Society is recommending a multiple-choice examination paper. The questions are broken down over three prescribed main sections which are Elementary Theory of Radiocommunications, National and International Rules and Operating Procedures and Safety and Electromagnetic Compatibility. There are further subdivisions of these sections covering various topics. The submission also includes a complete multiple choice sample examination paper as well as detailed letters of instructions to examination supervisors and candidates.

A number of people were involved in bringing this project to a conclusion and the President, Sean EI4GK, would like to extend thanks on behalf of the Society to all those involved for a job well done.


Cork City Gaol and Radio Museum

A permanent amateur radio station with the callsign EI0CRM is set up in the Cork Radio Museum, which is located at the Cork City Gaol Heritage Centre in Sundays Well. The station was set up and is being run by Larry O'Sullivan EI7FJB.

Cork City Gaol opened for business in 1824 and was used as a prison until 1923.

When Radio Eireann was expanding in the mid-twenties, the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs was a Bandon man, J.J. Walsh and it was decided to set up a broadcast station in Cork.

Broadcasting commenced in 1927 using the callsign 6CK and the studios, transmitter and aerials were all located within the old Cork City Gaol.

National broadcasts were made for nearly two years but due to cutbacks programming was more or less confined to Sunday nights until the 1950s when the station moved to Union Quay in the City Centre.

The broadcasting studios are fully restored and thanks to Paddy Clarke, Broadcasting Historian and RTE a fine display of radio artefacts from the earliest days are now on permanent display at the Cork Radio Museum.

The museum is open daily and is well worth a visit.


Dates for your Diary

The JIDX CW contest will take place next weekend, the 9th and 10th of April. The EU Spring Sprint on SSB will also take place next Saturday the 9th between 1500 and 1859 hours.

The Holyland DX Contest and the EU Spring Sprint (CW) will take place on Saturday the 16th of April and the YU DX contest will take place over the same weekend of the 16th and 17th.

The SP DX RTTY Contest will take place on the 23rd and 24th of April.

The National Mills Weekend in the UK takes place over the weekend of the 7th and 8th of May 2005. More information can be had from www.g4cdd.net/mills.html

The IRTS CW Field Day will take place on the weekend of June the 5th and 6th 2005.


Lighthouse/Lightship Weekend

The 2004 International Lighthouse/Lightship Weekend took place over the weekend 21/22 August 2004 when over 380 lighthouse stations were established in 52 countries. A full list of stations with their details can be found at illw.net/2004_list.htm

This year the event will run from 0001 UTC on the 20th of August until 2359 UTC on the 21st of August 2005.

Guidelines for the International Lighthouse/Lightship Weekend 2005 can be found at illw.net/index.html So come and join the fun and let us have over 400 stations at lighthouses or lightships.


World Amateur Radio Day 2005

The World Amateur Radio Day 2005 Award is designed to commemorate the World Amateur Radio Day celebrated by IARU on the 18th of April each year. It is issued by the the Polish Radio Amateurs Journal, with support of PZK, The Polish Amateur Radio Union.

WARD 2005 will be granted for at least the following numbers of contacts: either 10 QSO's on HF bands, or 5 QSO's on VHF bands. All contacts must be made between 00:00 and 24:00 UTC on the 18th of April 2005. Send a standard application form (log extract), including the list of QSO's, to:

MK QTC, The Radio Amateurs' Journal, Suchacz-Zamek, Wielmozy 5b, 82-340 Tolkmicko, Poland on or before the 31st of May 2005. The price of the WARD 2005 Award is 5 US dollars or 5 euro. The WARD 2005 Award is also available to SWL's for the same numbers of reports.


Items for inclusion in next weeks Radio News 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. Please note that items for the radio news should reach the editor no later than midday on Fridays.

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