Archived News Script
IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday 26th June 2016
Contest Next Weekend
The IRTS VHF/UHF Field Day takes place over next weekend, 2nd and 3rd July. The contest is on 5 bands 50, 70, 144, 432 and 1296 MHz.
The Open Section covers all 5 bands, and there is a Restricted Section for those operating on just one of these bands.
The contest, which runs for 24 hours from 14:00 UTC on Saturday, coincides with similar contests in the UK and continental Europe, so it provides a great opportunity to work some DX on the higher bands.
This is a field day contest with site and power supply requirements for anyone entering; for example, the station must not be sited in any permanent or semi-permanent building, and must not use the public mains supply. Also, the antennas used cannot be installed more than 24 hours before the contest. See www.irts.ie/contests for full details
IRTS New Membership Offer
To encourage EI licence holders that are currently not members to join the society, IRTS are offering the first year of membership free of charge. This offer is open to all holders of EI licences issued after 1st January 2016, and the initiative will run until 31st March 2017. The licence must be in a personal capacity i.e. not club or special call.
Membership will give new licence holders experience of the benefits of the Society, including use of the QSL Buro.
To apply for membership it is only necessary to download and complete a membership application form available on the IRTS website, entering the note "New Licence" under your signature.
For existing members of the IRTS who obtain their full licence between the above dates the Society will give one year free membership on expiry of their current subscription. Full details available on www.irts.ie/join
South Eastern Amateur Radio Group
Congratulations to all those who recently sat the HAREC exam and got the good news in the post on Tuesday last. Many hours of happy Dx to you all and we hope to have a QSO with you soon.
For anyone that didn’t succeed we know you gave it your best shot and there is no shame in failing. Many people had to repeat and some people had to repeat several times before they achieved their goal. We hope that this small blip on the radar will encourage you even more to get good results in the next exam.
SEARG will be running refresher classes for those wishing to repeat the exam. Details of which will be announced at a later stage.
The June meeting of the South Eastern Amateur Group will take place in the Roanmore Social and Sports Centre, Cleaboy Road, Waterford on tomorrow night Monday 27th June at 8pm.
This meeting will be preceded by a Committee meeting at 7pm sharp. All Committee members are asked to attend and be there for 7pm please.
For anyone wishing to find out more about the South Eastern Amateur Radio Group and its activities you can come along to any of our meetings. You can check our website www.searg.ie and you can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
India launches ham radio satellites
On June 22nd the Indian Space Agency ISRO successfully launched several satellites carrying amateur radio payloads.
The CSAT Swayam satellite was one of those launched. The 1U CubeSat carries a digital store and forward messaging system for use by the amateur radio community.
Rupesh Lad VU2LRD / VU2COE from the College of Engineering, Pune, CSAT Team says:
"We are eagerly waiting for your reception report of CW Morse Beacon at 437.025 MHz. You can also get the decoded Beacon Data by entering beacon in Swayam Beacon Decoder available on our website."
The post launch TLEs for tracking the satellite are at www.coep.org.in/csat
DX News
Rafael NN3RP will operate holiday style from Nicaragua until 22nd July. He is using the callsign YN2RP and is active on 40m to 10m. QSLs go via NN3RP and logs will be uploaded to Logbook of The World.
Several U.S. operators will be QRV from Jamaica as 6Y7R until 5th July. QSL manager is NN7AZ.
Bruce 3W3B will make a return visit to Laos from 30th June to 12th July. He will operate 40m to 10m CW and RTTY using the callsign XW4XR. QSLs go via E21EIC.
A group of 6 operators from the United Arab Emirates will sign S79V from Mahe in the Seychelles from 1st to 10th July. They will operate 80m to 10m SSB, CW and PSK. The IOTA reference is AF-024 and the QSL Manager is IZ8CLM.
Dan HR2DMR will be active from Swan Island for several weeks as HQ8S. This counts as NA-035 for IOTA and older members will recall that Swan Island was once a separate DXCC entity when it had a KS4 prefix. It was deleted from the DXCC list on 31st August 1972 following an agreement between the U.S. and Honduras.
Radio News Service
This is a reminder to Club secretaries to submit news to newsteam /at/ irts.ie, on a regular basis for inclusion in the weekly radio news bulletins. Please make a special effort to submit items of interest.
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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