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IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday 28st April 2013


81st IRTS AGM

Today Sunday April 28th the 81st AGM of the IRTS is taking place at the Shamrock Lodge Hotel, Athlone, hosted by the Shannon Basin Radio Club. The AGM meeting will take place at 2pm and the usual radio rally will also take place. Remember, the IRTS is the national society for Ireland and your participation is most welcome. We look forward to seeing you at the AGM meeting.


Amateur Station Licence Examination

The next Amateur Station Licence Examination will be held on Thursday 4 July at 2.00 p.m. in the ComReg offices in Dublin. The examination may be held on that day at other centres where warranted by the number of candidates. Full details, including entry procedure, examination fee and how to pay the fee on line are available at www.irts.ie/exam .There is also an exam button on the home page. Places for the examination are limited and will be allocated on a first come first served basis. Some applications have already been received. Please note that it is necessary to download the application form from the web page and forward the completed form and the appropriate fee in order to secure a place for the examination. If you pay the fee on line you must still complete and forward the application form. The closing date for the receipt of completed applications is Friday 14th June.


IRTS Technical Panel

The IRTS Technical Panel is a group of volunteers who have expertise in, or experience of, different aspects of amateur radio. The e-mail address irtstech /at/ irts.ie is a single point of contact for communicating with the Panel. Our aim is to help radio amateurs with technical or operational problems.

Send your question to irtstech /at/ irts.ie. Provide as much information as possible, including details of attempts already made to deal with the issue in question.


The North Cork Radio Group

The North Cork Radio Group will also be operating a new callsign EI75GP for the upcoming event of the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Cork Grand Prix which is to be held on 22nd - 23rd June 2013. We will also be active for another new initiative involving Fort Camden and the "Rescue Camden" effort, which aims to help in the restoration and development of Fort Camden, Crosshaven, with our members active through the months of June - September 2013, as well as taking part in the ILLW (Lighthouse & Lightship) weekend in August using the reference IE0010 from Roches Point. More details in relation to these activations will be available nearer the dates


The Latest Edition of Echo Ireland

In the latest edition of Echo Ireland, (March 2013), the Cork-based Edwin van Mierlo EI2HEB recounts the journey from his introduction as a young boy in the 1970s to the "magical" world of amateur radio by an uncle, to passing the exam and obtaining an amateur station licence in 2011. CW and QRP enthusiast Tom EI2AJ tells us how someone with a small garden and budget can get on the air with a low-cost commercial vertical antenna. Staying with verticals, Tony EI4DIB gives the results of SWR tests on a range of rubber duck antennas for 2 metres and 70 cms.

"HF Happenings" by Anthony EI2KC includes some suggestions for achieving DXCC on individual bands. Anthony also covers recent and forthcoming DXpeditions. In the "Excerpts from the HX files" Pat EI2HX talks about his efforts to fit a telescopic sight to a 10 Gigahertz dish, so that it can be used to line up two portable stations. Pat's experience while using an angle grinder on an aluminium block is worth noting!


Youngsters On The Air

During the summer of 2013, a youth radio camp "Youngsters On The Air" will be held near Tartu, Estonia from 5-12 August. There will be 10 teams participating from different European member associations of IARU R1. The camp is organised by the Estonian Radio Amateurs Union. During this week teams of young radio amateurs from 10 different European countries will be participating in different activities: presentations, Contests, visiting radio stations, observatory, etc. Young operators or SWL's aged between 14-25, are being sought to represent Ireland, and should contact Ger McNamara, IRTS Youth Co-ordinator on 087 2532512 or by email to ei4gxb /at/ gmail.com

As two previous events in Romania and Belgium/Netherlands have shown, it will be a great experience for the young hams which they will never forget.


Fingal Radio Club

Fingal Radio Club have a new Home. We had to give up our old meeting room in Erin's Isle GAA club over a year ago.

We meet most Tuesday evenings at 8.00pm in the KittyHawks Bistro in the Carlton Hotel on the old airport road just outside Dublin Airport.

We would like to hear from any amateurs who might be interested in 3 - 4 day trip to the UK to visit the enigma machine on display in Bletchley Park museum, and at the same time attend a UK rally over a long week-end around the end of August or early September. Please contact Christopher, EI7AAB,at yeatesds/ /at/ /eircom/dot/net or on 087-2463303.


DX News

Pierre HB9AMO is currently active as 5U9AMO in Niger. It is a holiday-style operation and he will be there until 30 May. Listen for his CW signal on all bands 80 – 10m. QSL manager is M0URX and logs will be uploaded to Logbook of the World.

A group of Australian amateurs will operate as VK9NT from Norfolk Island during the period 3 – 12 May. They hope to have 4 stations on the air and will operate CW, SSB and RTTY on all bands 80 – 10m.

ZL1AAO will be on Rarotonga Island in the South Cook Islands from 3 – 14 May. He will use the callsign E51AAO running 100 watts on SSB on 40 – 10m. QSLs go via the home call.

A team of Egyptian IOTA enthusiasts will operate from Nelson’s Island in the Nile Delta and Sinai Region from 3 – 10 May. The callsign will be SU8N. This will be the first operation from this island, and the Islands on the Air reference number will be AF-109.


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.

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.

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