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IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday 9th November 2014


Galway VHF Group Projects

The Galway VHF Group have recently upgraded their APRS system to include a Weather Station and a new I-Gate to allow data to be fed direct to the website APRS.fi. Initially, information was not showing up on APRS.fi as expected. Settings on the I-Gate were reconfigured by remote access and the whole system sprang into life. A second APRS Digipeater will be located on a high spot near Abbeyknockmoy Co. Galway in the near future. This will considerably enhance the coverage allowing seamless handover to systems located in the Midlands and Southeast.

The 4 metre Echo/IRLP Simplex Gateway, EI4GCG, will be active from Tuesday the 10th of November. The Gateway is located at Mervue, Galway City on 70.425 MHz and can be accessed using a CTCSS tone of 77 Hz and should be accessible from a 25 mile radius around Galway city.

The 70 cms Repeater project has been completed and is now awaiting a convenient time to be located at Knockroe, Abbeyknockmoy, Co. Galway. The output frequency will be on 430.825 and input frequency on 438.425 - a shift of +7.6 MHz. The Repeater may be only accessed using a CTCSS tone of 77Hz. If all goes well, the majority of County Galway will be covered with overlap into neighbouring counties.

Check www.galwayvhfgroup.blogspot.com for further information.


VP8RAF/100 Falkland Islands

The RAF Amateur Radio Society, G8FC, is sending an expedition to the Falkland Islands and will be operating from the Joint Services Welfare Facility Amateur Radio Station using the callsigns VP8RAF/100 and VP8FIR/100. The callsigns commemorate the Battle of Coronel on November 1, 1914 and the 1st Battle of the Falklands on December 8, 1914. All VP8 stations are able to use the suffix /100 between 1 November and 15 December 2014. The Battle of Coronel off the West coast of Chile saw a number of Royal Navy ships sunk, both the HMS Good Hope and HMS Monmouth which were lost with all crew. What became known as the 1st Battle of the Falklands took place to the South East of East Falkland and saw the Royal Navy sink eight ships of the German Imperial Navy including the flag ship of Admiral Graf Von Spee.


SOTA

John EI5HDB and Liam EI7DSB are planning to activate two different SOTA summits today 9 November. Liam will be on Cooneen and John will be on Ballincurra. They plan to be active from about 10:30am to 12:30pm mainly on 40 meters between 7110Khz and 7200Khz. They will call in to the IRTS news on 7.123 and will also call on 2 Meters (145.500)


Limerick Radio Club

Tom EI5CA will fill in for Brendan EI0CZ this Monday evening for the CW classes on the Limerick repeater (145.725) at 20.00 and all reports are welcome.


C5, The Gambia - update

A group of UK DXers will operate as C5X from Ocean Villa Heights Lodge, on the coast at Brufut, southwest of Banjul, The Gambia, (not the old 'MW Radio Syd' site as first announced) between January 15-26th (2015).

Mark, M0DXR, had to drop out of the C5X team, but the group has added Don, G3XTT. Operators now are Steve/G3VMW, Alan/G3XAQ, Don/G3XTT and Iain/M0PCB.

Activity will be on 160-10 meters using CW, SSB, RTTY and some PSK. The group also plans to do some activity in the CQWW 160m Contest.


Weekend Solar Flares Guaranteed

Since it emerged last week, sunspot AR2205 has produced more than a dozen strong flares. The active region has an unstable 'beta-gamma-delta' magnetic field that seems all but certain to erupt again this weekend.


Amateur Station Licence Examination

The next Amateur Station Licence Examination will be held on Thursday, 27th November in the ComReg Offices, Dublin. Full details, including entry procedure, examination fee and how to pay the fee on line are available at www.irts.ie/exam . Please note that it is necessary to download the application form from the web page and forward the completed form and the appropriate fee so as 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 receipt of completed applications is Tuesday 11th November. Three Exam Reports which were previously published in Echo Ireland are now available on the Downloads section of the website at www.irts.ie/downloads under Studying for the Harmonised Amateur Radio Examination Certificate. These reports contain very useful information for anyone studying for the Licence Examination


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 may be 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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