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IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday 26th June 2011


Echo Ireland

The June edition of Echo Ireland will be delivered to members within the next few days. A quick preview of this issue shows that some clubs have been quite active in recent weeks.

Three clubs - Shannon Basin Radio Club, Skerries Radio Club and the Amateur Portable Group - report on their participation in "Mills on the Air", while both North Cork Radio Group and the Cork Radio Club have written about their involvement in International Marconi Day. Activities by South Dublin Radio Club, South Eastern Amateur Radio Group, Mayo Radio Experimenters and Lough Erne Amateur Club are also covered.

There is an interesting article on the ways in which the transmissions associated with the Automatic Identification System for shipping could be used for propagation studies, also more information on EI7HO's magnetic loop experiences and, of course, further excerpts from the "HX files" on Amateur Television.

DXing is well covered in the regular "HF Happenings" column - which includes some thoughts on recent propagation conditions as well as recent and future DXpeditions. And speaking of DXpeditions, Dave EI9FBB reports on his visit to Monaco, one of the rarest European DXCC entities.

Regulatory issues covered in this month's Echo Ireland include a report on the recent IRTS meeting with ComReg, the IRTS response to ComReg's Spectrum Strategy Consultation and the society's position on one of the agenda items at the forthcoming World Radiocommunications Conference - this is the item dealing with consideration of an allocation to the amateur service in the band 415 to 526.5 kHz.

June's Echo Ireland also has details of upcoming radio rallies, as well as recent and upcoming radio amateur weddings!


80 metres EI/GI Counties Contest

The June IRTS 80 metres EI/GI counties contest was on Sunday last. This is one of two IRTS 80 metres counties contests held each year, the other one being in January. The June event is traditionally the quieter of the two, which was certainly true this year.

Many counties were hardly represented at all, indeed Dublin was almost 'rare DX' for most of the three-hour long contest. Band conditions on the day were poor, with deep QSB and high background noise at times. In previous years, band conditions have picked up for the last hour of this contest, but there was no noticeable improvement as this year's contest drew to a close.

In spite of the indifferent weather, a number of portable stations were on the air - these included Mayo Radio Experimenters Network who operated from their home county, Oleg EI7KD who was portable in Dublin, Paul EI3ENB operating portable in Kilkenny and Joe EI7GY who was in the Slieve Blooms in Co. Offaly.


IRTS VHF/UHF Field Day

The IRTS VHF/UHF field day take place Saturday 2nd July and Sunday 3rd July 2011. The deadline for submission of log to contest manager is August 3rd 2011.


IRTS Committee Meeting

The next committee meeting will take place on Saturday 10th September in Portlaoise.


Introduction to Amateur Radio

The Mayo Radio Experimenters Network are holding a series of practical hands on open days throughout the summer months. The events will start at 13.00 approx (weather permitting) and will take place on the following dates: Sunday July 10th Sunday August 14th Sunday September 11th

Anyone with an interest in radio related matters, who would like to have the opportunity to participate or observe the operation of an amateur radio station, or meet club members, will receive a warm welcome. Whatever you’re level of interest, the club will be pleased to help in taking your interest further, be it a complete novice, shortwave listener or formal assistance in progressing to a full amateur radio licence.

The location for all events will be the car park at the Halfway House on the Castlebar to Westport Road. If you would like further details please contact: Padraic Baynes EI9JA on 0876957154 (email pbaynes1/at/eircom/dot/net) , email David Hatfield EI3ECB on ei3ecb/at/gmail/dot/com or text or phone the club mobile phone number 086 20 89 777


The Northern Ireland HF Conference

The GI HF conference takes place Saturday 20th August 2011 in Technology Education Centre, Omagh, BT78 1FA. Registration takes place from 11am. More details from website: wtarc.co.uk/GIHFConference.aspx . The contact person is Philip MIØMSO.


Amateur Radio at the Tall Ships

Amateur Radio will be in use in Dunmore East at the tall ships on Sunday the third of July. If you think you will be in the area, AREN member or not, bring your handheld and give EI0NC a call on Southern Ireland Repeater Network. We will be acting as extra eyes and ears on the day for the other services, so all Amateur Radio operators are encouraged to participate. For more information contact John EI7IG at +353 86 8167310.


British Library makes Google search deal

Thousands of pages from one of the world's biggest collections of historic books, pamphlets and periodicals are to be made available on the internet. The British Library has reached a deal with search engine Google about 250,000 texts dating back to the 18th Century. It will allow readers to view, search and copy the out-of-copyright works at no charge on both the library and Google books websites. The library gets more than a million visitors a year.


Icann increases web domain suffixes

A global internet body has voted to allow the creation of new website domain suffixes, the biggest change for the online world in years. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann) plans to dramatically increase the number of domain endings from the current 22. Internet address names will end with almost any word and be in any language. Icann will begin taking applications next year, with corporations and cities expected to be among the first. "Icann has opened the internet's addressing system to the limitless possibilities of the human imagination," said Rod Beckstrom, president and chief executive officer for Icann.


DX News

There are several special callsigns on the air from now until 4 July in connection with the Special Olympics World Summer Games being held in Athens, Greece. Look out for SX0A, SY2011BVM and SY7SOG. .

Eric K9GY will be active from Afghanistan for the next year using the callsign T6MO. His most likely times of operation are given as 0130-0430z, 0630-0830z and 1130-1730z. QSLs go via the home call and logs will be uploaded to Logbook on th Air.

John F4FUC will operate as J28UC from Djibouti starting in July. He hopes to be there till 2013 and will be using vertical and dipole antennas on 40-10m.

Howard WB4WXE will be on the Caribbean island of St Lucia from 25 June till 15 July. He will operate using the call J68HS and asks for QSLs via his home call.


IOTA News from the Deutscher Amateur Radio Club 23

June, 2011 Island activities:

EU-006, EI, Arran Islands: EJ/G3ZAY, Dominic,EJ/M0BLF, and Tom,EJ/M0TOC will be QRV from Arran in CW and SSB on all bands from Jun 24-26. QSLs via homecalls (bureau/direct).

EU-008, GM, Inner Hebrides: A group of four is going to become active from Islay between Jun 25 and Jul 1. They will sign GM0HIK on 50 MHz and above on VHF up to 70cm. GM3IZD will be their callsign in HF. QSL via G0HIK and G3IZD respectively (bureau/direct).

EU-028, I, Toscana Region group: IA5/IK2MLS will spend his holidays on the island of Elba from Jun 26 until Jul 2 and wants to be QRV on 40m-10m. QSL via homecall (bureau/direct).

EU-121, EI, Irish Coastal Islands: After staying on Arran EJ/G3ZAY, EJ/M0BLF and EJ/M0TOC will be QRV also from Inishbofin on Jun 27/28. QSL via homecall (bureau/direct).

EU-124, GW, Welsh Coastal Islands: MW0IDX/p will be QRV from Puffin mainly in SSB on 20m only on Jun 27. He will take the kayak to the island, so operation depends also on the weather. QSL direct or via bureau.

EU-158, SV, Peloponnisos Region group: Between Jun 25 and Jul 16 SV3/DJ5RT/p will be active with QRP and vertical on 20m partly from Schiza Island, but mostly from Sapientza Island. QSL direct via DJ5RT. See also: www.qrz.com/db/dj5rt


BBC1 slips behind ITV1 in international coverage

The BBC’s flagship domestic TV channel, BBC1, now shows less factual programming than its main rival, ITV1. That’s the surprising finding of a new report ‘Outside the Box’ just published by the International Broadcasting Trust (IBT).


Danmarks Radio replaces medium wave with long wave

Danish public broadcaster Danmarks Radio (DR) is to close its 250 kW medium wave transmitter on 1062 kHz in Kalundborg, and has resumed broadcasting on long wave 243 kHz, but with a power of just 50 kW. As has been the case on medium wave, the programming on 243 kHz will be restricted to weather forecasts, communications for shipping and morning gymnastics.


Items for inclusion in next week’s Radio News can be submitted via e-mail to “newsteam /at/ irts / dot / ie” for automatic forwarding to both the radio and printed news services. Urgent news items for the radio news maybe telephoned to the radio news editor, Aidan, EI7JC on 085 7100511.

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