Irish Radio Transmitters Society Radio News Bulletin Sunday 18th January 2009 ______________________________________________ Bereavement Sad news of the death this past Wednesday of Lily XYL of Joe (EI4FV). Joe was treasurer of IRTS in the past. Lily died in St. Francis Hospice Raheny. ______________________________________________ Webmaster Wanted The job of the Webmaster is to maintain and develop the web site so that it fulfils this role in an interesting and accessible way. IRTS is looking for applications for the position of Webmaster. Like all of the society’s officer positions, this is a voluntary position. Members interested in being appointed Webmaster should indicate their interest to the society’s president Finbarr Buckley EI1CS (buckleyf1 /at/ eircom.net) and demonstrate their web skills by supplying links to web sites or web pages which they have developed. ______________________________________________ ENGINEERED...A WEEK OF WONDER! Engineers Ireland will host a "week of wonder" for Primary and Post Primary students in February 2009. IRTS in collaboration with Engineers Ireland will run a number of workshops at Engineers Ireland's Dublin headquarters. These will consist of a two-hour, hands on, programme which will act as in introduction to communications and radio technology. The Society also intends to package the programme so that clubs around the country will be able to run similar workshops. We have already approached a number of clubs and they have indicated their willingness to participate by running one or more workshops in their area. Engineers Ireland will provide clubs with local partners such as technical schools or libraries who are anxious to participate. The Society would urge clubs to commit to becoming involved as soon as possible. There are obvious benefits for all involved. With the programme packs provided by the Society, clubs would need three or four personnel to run the workshop. If your club or group are interested in helping out, contact Paul EI2CA on 087 2523908 or by email to paul /at/ comma.ie ______________________________________________ Revised Bandplans now on RSGB site The 2008 IARU Region 1 General Conference held in Cavtat resulted in some changes to the bandplans which are now available on the RSGB site. For further Information regarding Bandplans see the following website: www.rsgb.org/spectrumforum/bandplans/ ______________________________________________ 4meters in Denmark As of 1 January 2009 Danish radio amateurs can also use the 70,225 MHz channel, i.e. the segment 70,2125-70,2375 MHz. This also means that two smaller segments are now joined into one segment 100 kHz wide. For more details see the Danish bandplan: www.70mhz.org/bandplan_oz.htm ______________________________________________ Bermuda Anniversary Callsigns 2009 is the 400th anniversary of the settlement of Bermuda by Sir George Somers. Most local organisations are having an event of some kind during the year. The Radio Society of Bermuda has been issued with a special call sign that can be used all year, it is VP9400/xx. The xx suffix is the operator's call sign, i.e. VP9400/LP. There are a few novice licence holders who have a 3 digit suffix, i.e. VP9400/NMT.Special pictorial postcards will be used to QSL. ______________________________________________ Shannon Basin Radio Club The Shannon Basin Radio Club is holding its AGM on the 28th Jan at 20.30 in Hannons Hotel, Roscommon Town. All members are requested to attend. ______________________________________________ Radio Rallies The Spring Radio Rally season gets under way shortly, starting with the Coolmine Rally on Sunday 15th February. The venue is the Coolmine Community School, Clonsilla, Dublin 15, and doors open at 9.30 a.m. Rallies during March include the Radio Hobbies and Electronics Fair in the Limerick Radisson SAS Hotel on Sunday 8th March, The Lagan Valley Amateur Radio Society Rally in Hillsborough, Co. Down on Saturday 14th March and the Lough Erne Amateur Radio Club Rally in Lisnaskea, Co. Fermanagh on Sunday 29th March. The big event in April is the IRTS AGM Weekend, on Saturday 25th and Sunday 26th April. This takes place in the Shamrock Lodge Hotel, Athlone. Weekend events include the IRTS Annual Dinner, a Radio Rally and the IRTS Annual General Meeting. More details of these events will be given in later bulletins, and are also available on the IRTS web site at www.irts.ie/rallies ______________________________________________ Congratulations Congratulations to IRTS Assistant News Editor Gerard Kavanagh EI8DRB, on his recent engagement to Edel Byrne. ______________________________________________ DX News EA5GVH will be on the air from Aruba as P40PZ from January 12th to the 28th. He will operate 80 through 6 meters using SSB and the digital modes only. QSL via EA5GVH. G3NKC, G4XUM and MD0CCE will be active as MD4K from the Isle of Mann during the CQ 160-Meter CW Contest, on January 24-25.The trio will operate as a Multi-Op entry. QSL via G3NKC and be sure to include sufficient return postage with your QSL request. Palestine update The E44M Palestine operation is now QRT. you can either QSL direct or via the bureau. An online log search is available at: http://www.hamradioweb.org/e44mlogsearch.html PLEASE NOTE: The QSL Manager for BUREAU QSL CARDS is SP3DOI. The QSL Manager for DIRECT QSL CARDS is IZ0BTV. Also, BUREAU QSL CARDS can be requested via E-mail at: QSLE44M /at/ gmail.com Your request must be clear and complete with all the details (your callsign, time, RST, date, mode...). Please don't send them multiple E-mails for each QSOs, only one (with all your QSOs listed) will be enough. Any incomplete E-mails without these will be ignored. BUREAU cards will be managed after the direct ones. For updates, watch the following Web pages. The E44M Web page at: http://www.dxcoffee.com/e44m ______________________________________________ Falkland Islands YL operation An international group of YLs will activate the Falkland Islands (SA-002) between January 17-31st. Each operator will be signing with the callsign VP8YL*, where the third letter of the suffix will be assigned to each YL operator at beginning of the operation. YL operators mentioned at present include: Janet VP8AIB, Chantal PA3GQG, Unni LA6RHA, Jeanie WA6UVF, Mio JR3MVF, Liz M0ACL, Victoria SV2KBS*, Nicky M5YLO and Ruth IT9ESZ. The YL team will fly into the Falklands on January 17th. Together with Janet, VP8AIB, and other YLs from Falkland will all activate VP8YL* for 14 days. All the YLs coming from around the world will be getting their VP8 callsign on Monday, January 19th. During the first weekend they will operate as VP8YLC which is the YL club's callsign on Falkland. ______________________________________________ Items for inclusion in next weeks Radio News should be forwarded to Charlie EI8JB, via e-mail to “charlie dot Carolan at gmail dot com” Or by phone to 087-6265418 News can also be submitted via e-mail to “newsteam 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 Thursday in order to be guaranteed inclusion in the following Sunday’s bulletin.