Archived News Script
IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday 27th May 2018
Contest News
The results of the 40 Metres Counties Contest held on 6th May have been published. 24 logs were submitted, including 9 from overseas stations, a good outcome given the difficult band conditions on the day. The submitted logs contained almost 500 QSOs involving stations in 19 EI and GI counties and 15 overseas DXCC entities. The full results can be seen at www.irts.ie/results
CW Field Day takes place over next weekend, starting at 15:00 UTC on Saturday 2nd June, and coincides with similar contests in many other IARU Region 1 countries. The contest runs for 24 hours, however members have the option of entering the Restricted Section by operating for no more than 6 hours of the contest period; operation need not be for one continuous 6-hour period, but once operation has commenced in the contest, off periods must be a minimum of 60 minutes. See www.irts.ie/contests for the full rules.
Comments Sought by Sub-Committee
At the last IRTS Committee Meeting a sub-committee was convened to develop band plans and propagation beacons for additional spectrum included in a new spectrum award.
Following a spectrum award by ComReg the entire 4m band (69.9 - 70.5 MHz) is now available to Irish licensees.
IRTS is now consulting amateur licensees on two band plans covering 40 - 44 MHz and 54 - 69.9 MHz. More details including draft band plans can be downloaded from the IRTS website, www.irts.ie/downloads
Please send any comments as soon as possible to “newspectrum /at/ irts /dot/ ie” to arrive not later than 30th June 2018.
IRTS Meetings
The IRTS would like to remind all affiliated clubs to nominate a member of their club to act as a representative for this year. Some clubs have already done so. For additional information regarding this role, please make contact with the IRTS Secretary.
IRTS Officers and Club Reps are entitled to attend the monthly IRTS meetings.
Below please find the Date - Time – Venue for the next 3 IRTS Committee Meetings.
Saturday 23rd June 11am Creggan Court Hotel, Athlone.
Saturday 21st July 11am Maldron Hotel, Portlaoise.
Saturday 15th September 11am Creggan Court Hotel, Athlone.
South Eastern Amateur Radio Group
The next meeting of the SEARG will take place on Monday the 28th of May 2018 in the Roanmore Social and Sports Centre, Cleaboy Road, Waterford at 8.00 p.m. sharp.
With the Geopark weekend and the Foxhunt approaching, Eoghan EI5HBB will be constructing some 2m clothes hanger beams. A small amount of material will be available so people wishing to construct a beam are advised to bring their own materials. New members or anyone interested in learning more about amateur radio or the group are as always very welcome to attend.
For anyone who wishes to find out more about the South Eastern Amateur Radio Group and their activities you can drop them an email to “info /at/ searg /dot/ ie” or please feel free to attend any of their meetings. You can check out their website www.searg.ie You can also join them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter.
EIDX
Beginning June 1st 2018, the EIDX Group will activate all Irish IOTA Groups. Using the 'Echo Juliet' prefix, EJ0DXG will be QRV from IOTA EU-006, EU-007, EU-103 and EU-121 this summer.
Supported by dxwanted.net a beautiful plaque will be available for whoever works them on 4 different IOTA Groups. So, as a 'Bonus' or 'Wildcard' station, EI0DXG will also be QRV from Mainland Ireland (EU-115) throughout and until September 30th 2018.
Teams are already confirmed with all necessary permissions in hand. 6m fans should note that some of these islands are also in rare Grid squares and for Worked All Ireland followers...will also count towards the Island award.
Starting off with 'Little Saltee Island' EU-103 on June 15/16/17/18th....the group will be QRV on HF and 6m bands using CW, SSB and Digital modes.
July will see activity from the Great Blasket Island EU-007 where as August will see EU-121 grace the bands from Bere Island. Their last Island activity ends September 16th as part of their DX Féile weekend from Inishmore, Aran Islands EU-006.
More information can be found on their Facebook page, just search for Irish Islands IOTA Tour 2018.
DX News
The well-known dxpeditioner Baldur DJ6SI recently turned up in Somalia using the call sign 6O0X. This initially caused some confusion as that call had been used by an Australian amateur back in 1997. The local authorities in Somalia have now amended Baldur’s licence to 6OX (Six Oscar Xray). He expects to be QRV on CW until 6th June. QSLs go via his home call.
Armin DK9PY will be active on CW from Jamaica as 6Y6N until 6th June. Look for him on all bands 160 - 10m. QSL to the home call.
The International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers is a day to remember those who served in UN peacekeeping operations. Members of the UN Global Service Centre located in Brindisi, Italy are marking the day by using the special callsign 4U29MAY until 30th June. For DXCC this counts as Italy and the QSL manager is 9A2AA.
David EB7DX will sign S9ZZ from Sao Tome Island from 1st - 9th June. This will be a holiday style operation using SSB, RTTY and FT8 and some CW. Sao Tome counts as AF-023 for the IOTA Award. QSL to the home call.
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, Mark EI6HPB on 086 355 2370.
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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