Archived News Script
IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday March 14th 1999
Limerick Rally
The Limerick Radio Club's annual rally will be held on Sunday next March the 21st in the usual venue at the Limerick Inn Hotel on the Ennis Road in Limerick. Doors will open at 12 noon and among the attractions will be a display of both modern and older military communications equipment by the 3rd Field Signals from Sarsfield Barracks. A wide variety of equipment should be on offer and there will be a free raffle on the door tickets for a television, kindly sponsored by Irish Multichannel. Morse tests will also be held during the afternoon. Further information from Paul EI6FE on 061-360122.
EI Activity Day
Sunday next has been designated as EI Activity Day for 1999 and a large turnout of Echo India stations is expected on all bands. Stations in the rarer counties are asked to make a special effort to get on the air as there is great overseas interest in the Work EI Counties award. South Dublin Radio Club are travelling to County Leitrim for the day.
Overseas, W4S from Savannah, Georgia will be on for the coming week as a special event station to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. It will close down at 1700Z on Saturday the 20th It is sponsored by the Coastal Amateur Radio Society, and the frequencies are 14.265, 21.315 and 28.415 MHz. QSL to CARS, PO Box 23972, Savannah, GA 31403, USA.
Down under, there will be two Irish amateurs among the crew of a DXpedition to Woody Island, IOTA reference OC-170, from today until the 21st and they will be particularly looking out for Echo India stations. The two in question are John Coleman VK6NU and Tim Jones VK6EI/EI4HL. The group will operate both SSB and CW from four HF stations and will operate as close as possible to the recognised IOTA frequencies. QSL manager for the event is Neil VK6NE.
Wexford Radio Group
Members of the Wexford group broke new ground last weekend when they mounted an entry in the multi-two section of the ARRL SSB Contest. The operation took place from the well known QTH of Billy EI7FJ and Mick EI6GF and they finished with over two thousand QSOs, a great score considering the poor conditions on the HF bands.
As well as the aforementioned Billy and Mick, the operators were John EI2FG, Martin EI5FDB, both locals, Declan EI9HQ from Dublin and American visitor Paul K5RT.
SSB Field Day Results
An announcement was made in the December Newsletter that there was no entry in the SSB field last September. Unfortunately, this came about because of problems with the electronic mailing of the logs by the three entrants to the Contest Manager. All the entrants were from the Cork area with the East Cork Group EI7M/P, operated by John EI8IR and Jim EI8GS running up a total of 1,204 QSOs and 149 multipliers for a points total of 556.962 in the open section. In the restricted section. EI9HC/P and EI6FM/P battled it out with victory going to EI9HC/P operated by Steve EI9HC and Dave EI4BZ. EI6FM/P was a single operator effort by Dermot EI6FM. Dermot managed more QSOs but the East Cork team's greater number of multipliers made all the difference at the end.
WAI Activity
WAI activity was hectic on 7.068MHz last Sunday March the 7th, with two mobile stations out in GI-land. George GI4SRQ was mobile in counties Antrim, Derry and Tyrone, while Alex GI0TJJ was mobile in counties Down and Antrim. There were 32 stations in the net. These covered 13 different counties as well as stations from G and GM land. This kept the two net controllers Noel EI6HW and Paddy EI7GK on their toes all day. The counties available were Clare, Cork, Derry, Donegal, Down, Dublin, Galway, Kildare, Louth, Roscommon, Tyrone, Westmeath, and Wicklow. Some stations were also seeking EI counties for the WEIC award and as QSL cards are needed for the WEIC, EI stations are reminded that some QSL cards are still outstanding. The change to 40 metres has boosted activity on the WAI net with many of the stations who received awards on 80m or mixed bands now trying to complete the challenge on 40m. A reminder again that the WAI frequency on 40 metres is 7.068MHz.
Looking ahead
The IRTS 2 metre Counties Contest takes place on Easter Monday April the 5th from 1400 to 1600 UTC. The IRTS AGM and Dinner dance will be held in Dundalk over the weekend of April 24/25th. Enquiries to Aidan Noone EI7ENB at 042-9371980.
International Marconi Day will take place on Saturday April the 24th and the Region One CW Field Day will take place over the weekend of June the 5th and 6th. The Donegal Rally will be held this year on Sunday June 27th in Jackson's Hotel in Ballybofey. Enquiries to Gerry EI8HO on 072-52598.
Items for inclusion in the Radio News can be faxed to 021-632730 or passed on the telephone to Dave EI4BZ on 021-632444 during the day or at 021-883555 in the evening.
Input for the Newsletter should be sent to Kevin EI7IM at QTHR or on the phone at 01-4509514 or by E-mail to EI7IM@tinet.ie All input to either the radio news or newsletter can also be sent by e-mail to news@irts.ie
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