Archived News Script
IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday February 19th 2006
Trophy Returns
It is now time to return Trophies presented at the 2005 Limerick AGM in preparation for this years upcoming AGM. The deadline for returns is the 18th of March 2006. Trophies can be returned to Peter Grant, EI4HX at QTHR, Awards Committee, or any Committee Member.
IRTS AGM 2006
Preparations are well advanced for this years IRTS AGM, which is being held on Sunday April 23rd at the Vienna Woods Hotel in Cork and is being hosted by Cork Radio Club. The weekend will follow the usual format with a dinner on the Saturday night, a rally on Sunday and the Annual General Meeting will be held on Sunday afternoon. The Vienna Woods Hotel is located on the eastern side of Cork City just off the Glanmire roundabout at the city side of Glanmire village.
For those wishing to stay in the hotel overnight, only double rooms are available and these can only be booked through Dave EI4BZ on 087-6290574 at a cost of 110.00 Euro per room with breakfast. Please note that there are only a few rooms left at the Vienna Woods. However, rooms are also available at the neighbouring Ibis Hotel at a cost of 59 Euro for a single room and 69 Euro for a double room. Breakfast costs Euro 8.50. The telephone number for the Ibis Hotel is 021-4354354. Rooms are also available at the nearby John Barleycorn Hotel at a cost of 45 Euro for a single and 85.00 Euro for a double room including a full Irish Breakfast. The telephone number here is 021-4821499. Enquiries to Finbarr EI1CS on 021-4346622 or Dave EI4BZ on 087-6290574.
Photos Wanted
A new IRTS web site will be launched next month. The new site will incorporate photographs to illustrate amateur radio activities; the photographs used will be rotated on a random basis. The Webmaster, Joe Ryan EI7GY, is looking for suitable photographs for this purpose: please forward amateur radio related photographs to him at "jryan at iol dot ie".
Club Details
All member club secretaries were asked recently to provide an update of their club details, including meeting venue and dates, activities and web site address. Many thanks to those club secretaries who have already responded: those who have yet to respond are asked to do so as soon as possible. Any club secretary who has not received a letter from the Society about this should contact Joe Ryan EI7GY "jryan at iol dot ie".
South Eastern Amateur Radio Group
The Annual General Meeting of South Eastern Amateur Radio Group will take place at 8.00 p.m. in the Roanmore Centre, Cleaboy Road, Waterford this coming Wednesday the 22nd of February. All members are asked to attend and visitors are welcome.
Marconi Contest
The 34th Annual Marconi Memorial Contest on 50 MHz will be held on Sunday next, February the 26th from 0900 to 1700 UTC on CW only.
The exchange is a progressive serial number plus your locator and participants must keep clear the frequencies between 50.100 to 50.150 MHz for DX use.
The score is calculated on a point per kilometre basis. Logs by December 31st to "iw3ri at libero dot it". Full rules are available from the IRTS Contest Manager.
AREN
An AREN training NET will take place on February the 25th next and will consist of an Introduction to Emergency Situations. It will take place on Saturday at 09:30 for 1.5 hours local. The primary frequency for this event is 7.099 MHz and the secondary frequency is 3.690 MHz.
Non-member traffic is very welcome and will be taken towards the end of the event when the training session has been completed. If you have an interest in Emergency Communications please listen to the net and you are very welcome to call when invited to do so by the NCS. This exercise has been prepared by Munster Co-coordinator, Conor O'Neill, EI4JN.
Following the success of last years AREN trip to Isle of Man for the Manx National Rally, expressions of interest are invited from any AREN members who would like to assist Raynet again this year. The rally takes places over the 5th and 6th of May. For information see www.manxrally.org Full training will be provided. For further details contact Munster AREN co-ordinator, Conor O Neill, EI4JN on 021 4801111 or e-mail "ei4jn at eircom dot net".
Coolmine Rally
The annual Phoenix Radio Club Rally will be held on Sunday February the 26th at the Coolmine Community School in Blanchardstown and not as originally planned on the 12th of February. Morse testing will be available throughout the day for anyone wishing to take the test. Doors open to traders at 9.30 a.m. and to the general public at 11.00 a.m. All enquiries to Tony on 01-8252074 or 087-2439997.
South Dublin Radio Club
South Dublin Radio Club will hold its AGM on Tuesday the 21st of February at 8 p.m. Also the club will be running the annual Spring challenge during the month of February starting on the 1st of February at 00:00 hours and finishing on the 28th of February at 00.00 hours. The rules are published in the IRTS Handbook or may be obtained from the Club Chairman or committee.
Limerick Radio Club
The Annual General Meeting of the Limerick Radio Club will be held on the 23rd of February 2006. It will start at 8.00 p.m. sharp in the limerick Institute of Technology, Moylish, Limerick. All members are requested to attend.
Dundalk Amateur Radio Society
On Thursday the 9th of February some members of the Dundalk ARS travelled to Bellaghy Co. Derry to the QTH of the Church Island Amateur Radio Group. The meeting was to celebrate the Twinning of the two clubs. Thos EI2JD Chairman of Dundalk club was given a beautiful engraved Plaque by John MI0MIO chairman of Church Island to commemorate the event. Both chairmen commented on improved cross border communications and both are looking forward to assisting each other in Amateur TV, contesting and Field day events. On behalf of Dundalk club Thos would like to thank the Church Island club for it's warm hospitality and invites them down to the next meeting in Dundalk.
CQIR - Ireland Calling: Preliminary Announcement
In 2007 the IRTS celebrates the 75th anniversary of its founding in 1932. As part of the jubilee celebrations the Society is organising an International Radio Contest, "CQIR - Ireland Calling". For this event, references to Ireland mean the island of Ireland and it’s offshore islands - both EI and GI. CQIR is a once-off event with a difference - the difference being that overseas Entrants with 75 or more QSO’s have the opportunity to win a trip to Ireland.
CQIR is a 24-hour, single-operator HF CW/SSB contest on the weekend of 29th and 30th September 2007. As this is the fifth full weekend in the month, there is no clash with any established event. CQIR is a celebration of both the IRTS Jubilee and the "Irish" amateur-radio community world-wide. It’s where the Irish, at home and abroad, work the World - and where those of Irish descent identify themselves by including their ancestral County in the exchange: County Mayo, County Antrim etc.
Full rules and county codes will appear on www.irts.ie and will be available shortly in Echo Ireland. Free software will be provided to support CQIR.
SuitSat Status
As of the 15th of February last it was clear that SuitSat-1 is functioning. It was successfully turned on by the ISS crew prior to deployment and the timing, micro controller functions and audio appear to be operating nominally. The main issue appears to be an extremely weak signal.
If the transmitter is running at full power, it is expected that the Suit would have ended operations after a few days to a week. If it is transmitting at lower power, then it will operate much longer. Telemetry has been received which indicates that the 28 volt battery is now operating in the range of 26.7 and 26.5 volts.
It is asked that those with powerful receive stations to listen for Suitsat especially during direct overhead passes when the Suit is closest to your area. If you can record these passes and send on the audio, it would be most appreciated. For contact information visit; www.suitsat.org
Items for inclusion in next weeks Radio News should be forwarded to Mark Wall, EI7IS at QTHR or by phone to 051 853806 or 087 6302026. Items for the radio news can also be faxed to 087 5 6302026. News should be submitted via e-mail to "news at irts dot 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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