Irish Radio Transmitters Society Radio News Bulletin Sunday 25th January 2009 ______________________________________________ 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 ______________________________________________ Counties Contest Logs The Contest Manager reports that, to date, he has received almost 50 logs for the recent 80 metres Counties Contest. The deadline for the receipt of logs is next Saturday, 31st January. Logs should be sent to the Contest Manager (EI2JD) at QTHR or by email to contestmanager /at/ irts.ie ______________________________________________ EI100cqd January 23rd was the centenary of the first use of wireless telegraphy in a rescue at sea when the SS Florida collided with the RMS Republic off the coast of Massachusetts, USA. The Republic, a luxury White Star vessel, was carrying over 1600 passengers and 300 crew bound for a cruise in the Mediterranean. The Florida was carrying Italian emigrants bound for the USA. The Republic was worse damaged in the collision. However, it had wireless equipment aboard. Jack Binns was the operator and, despite the wireless cabin being damaged and open to the elements, he spent many hours on the key sending out distress messages and guiding other ships to the location of the collision. All passengers and most of the crew were first transferred by lifeboat from the Republic to the Florida and later to the SS Baltic, which later arrived arrived at the scene. Only seven lives were lost and Jack Binns was hailed as a hero. Despite efforts to tow the Republic, it was too badly damaged and sank while the Florida made it back to New York. CQD was the recognised distress call used at that time. To celebrate this historic event, EI100CQD has been QRV since Friday from the vintage radio museum in the Martello Tower, Howth mostly on CW. However, from 1100 to 1300 on Sunday 25th, EI100CQD will switch to 40 metres ssb where it hopes to work some EIs. Further details about the rescue and other special event stations celebrating the historic event are available on www.jackbinns.org. ______________________________________________ DXFC EI/GI Activation The DXFC award differs from the DXCC award in that the letter F in means that scoring is made by setting FOOT in the DXCC entity and not by having a QSO with it. Extra points are scored by being active and completing at least one QSO from the DXCC listed entity. It is an informal friendly competition and scoring is based on trust and honesty On Saturday 17th January, Roger (G3SXW) and John (G4IRN) activated EI and GI in the same day. They both arrived from the UK by Ryanair and were met by Declan (EI6FR) at Dublin airport and driven to Jonesboro where they operated /M from GI on HF. Having completed a few CW contacts, Declan chauffeured the two operators to Howth where they both operated with an EI prefix using the radio equipment at EI0MAR in the Vintage Radio Museum. Pat Herbert, the museum curator, Tony (EI5EM) and Paul (EI5DI) were waiting to greet the two DXFC operators and assisted them in their operation. Having completed their QSOs, John and Roger were driven by Declan back to the airport for their return trip to the UK having successfully notched up a further two DXFC entities on their score sheet. DXFC website : www.dxfc.org Vintage Radio Museum’s website : www.ei0mar.org ______________________________________________ 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. ______________________________________________ South Dublin Radio Club At the first meeting of SDR of the New Year, Dave EI3IO gave a presentation on "Human Exposure to Electromagnetic Energy". In this presentation, Dave explained that RF energy from radio transmissions would fall into the category of "non-ionising radiation". Dave covered the ways in which this radiation can be measured, the views of various international bodies on safe limits and the precautions that can be taken to minimise exposure. He also referred to the regulations applicable to experimenters in relation to non-ionising radiation. Following Dave EI3IO's talk on RF exposure limits, the slides from the presentation have been put on the SDR website, in the talks section. South Dublin Radio Club meets every Tuesday evening at 8.00 pm in its temporary QTH at the Scout Hall, Templeogue Lodge, Templeogue Dublin. Club website: www.southdublinradioclub.ie ______________________________________________ Dundalk Amateur Radio Society The next meeting of Dundalk Amateur Radio Society is on Wednesday the 4th of February 2009,Richard MI3CQR will be giving a lecture on Digital PMR radio systems and D-Star technologies. Please check out www.ei7dar.com for more details. All are welcome to attend. ______________________________________________ 3DA0 DXpedition - operators needed The scouts in Swaziland will be running an International camp at their national camp site near Manzini from July 31st until 11th August 2009. They have requested that an amateur radio station be run at this camp. It appears that it may be possible to provide the station as requested but a team of operators would be needed to run the station. The team would probably request the callsign 3DA0SS which was used for their JOTA station last October. The station would comprise a FT1000MP with IC2KL linear into a hf log periodic antenna on a mobile tower provided by African DX Safaris. Anyone interested in joining the team should make contact by email as soon as possible. David GI4FUM/EI4DJ/3DA0DJ Email: CDXC /at/ yahoogroups.com ______________________________________________ This week in History 1904 The first military experiments with radio at the Eiffel Tower took place by French Army. 1912 First Act to Regulate Radio Communication in the USA. 1915 Bell opens the first US transcontinental telephone service. ______________________________________________ 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 ______________________________________________ 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 ______________________________________________ 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.