Archived News Script
IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday June 6th 1999
Midlands Radio Club
The Midlands Radio Club took part in the recent Windmills and Watermills on the air annual event organised by the Denby Dale Amateur Radio Society. This was their third year operating from the fully restored 18th century windmill at Elphin in County Roscommon. This windmill was built in the early 1700's to grind oats and wheat into meal for the local population and it operated for about 100 years before falling into disuse. In 1992, the tower was acquired by the Elphin Area Community Enterprise Limited and was fully restored. This year's event was again very successful with operation mainly on 40 metres where the demand for the station was non-stop over the two days. Equipment used on HF was a Kenwood TS180s, Icom IC735 and an FT101ZD. The aerials were a trapped dipole and a Windom. The operators were Noel EI6HW, Tom EI8AHB, Sean Martin SWL EI 1194, Tony EI3HA and Fergus EI6IB. Visitors to the station included Jack EI3FG, Jan EI6IH and Paddy EI6ID. The group would like to say a special thank you to the windmill committee especially Bernie Carthy and Noeleen Kelleher who did trojan work in supplying refreshments to the crew.
IRTS Meeting
The next meeting of the IRTS Committee will be held on Saturday next June the 12th in The Shamrock Lodge Hotel, Athlone at 11.00 am. Club representatives are invited to attend.
Mayo Radio Experimenters NetworkCongratulations to George McHugh, GI4SRQ, who has qualified for the Worked All Mayo Gold Award for working 75 Mayo squares. George is the tenth recipient of this award and achieved all 75 squares on 80 metres.
The date for the Theory and Morse examinations to be held in Mayo has been changed to Tuesday June 15th. at 2 p.m. The venue will be the Railway Hotel in Kiltimagh. Anyone wishing to sit these examinations should contact either of the course instructors, John McDonnell EI6IR on 094-60127, ei6ir@tinet.ie or John Corless EI7IQ on 094-81856, ei7iq@tinet.ie.
Dundalk Amateur Radio Society AGM
The Annual General Meeting of the Dundalk Amateur Society will take place on Tuesday June the 15th at 8pm in the Society's premises, Marconi House, 113 Castletown Road in Dundalk. All members are requested to attend this meeting where the main items on the agenda will be the election of officers.
Cork Radio Club
On May the 10th Cork Radio Club had a very interesting talk and demo by John EI9ESB on data decoding on the airwaves. John demonstrated two different programmes showing how much data was being transmitted on the amateur bands. On May the 17th, Aedan EI3EG transmitted ATV pictures to the club station at Wilton Park House on 23cms and these were received in perfect colour. This has stimulated a few members to investigate this mode of transmission and we hope to have more ATV activity soon. On May the 24th, Pat EI6DTB gave a lecture on digital logic, which was a follow on to our construction of a logic probe earlier this year. Pat put over his topic in a way that easy to understand. We expect to follow on this talk with some practical demonstrations. Cork Radio Club meets every Monday night at Wilton Park House in Bishopstown in Cork City and visitors are always very welcome.
GM Award
To celebrate the first Scottish Parliament in almost 300 years, the GM DX Group is pleased to announce that it will award a certificate to Radio Amateurs and Short Wave Listeners who make two way contact with or hear Scottish prefixes as listed below. QSL cards are not required but an alphabetic listing of QSOs certified correct by two other licensed amateurs should be sent to: GM4FDM, 3 Kings Crescent, Elderslie, Renfrewshire, Scotland, PA5 9AD. The cost is two pounds fifty sterling, five US dollars or 10 IRC's. The listing should include full callsign and name and address. Each 2S, 2A or 2T station is worth 3 points and each GM, MM or 2M is worth 1 point. The Bronze award needs 50 points, the Silver needs 100 points and the Gold needs 150 points. The special prefixes are available until 31st July. Claims for the award should only include QSOs made/heard between 6th May and 31st July 1999.
Looking ahead
The VHF/UHF Field Day will be held on July the 3rd and 4th and members of the East Cork and the Wexford VHF Groups are holding their annual dinner and VHF Field Day planning meeting in Dungarvan, at the Old Mill Restaurant, on Tuesday night next June the 8th.
Next Saturday we have the Portugal Day SSB Contest over 24 hours and the South American CW contest from 1200 to 1800. The All Asian DX CW and the RSGB Top Band CW Contests are on the 19th and the BARTG RTTY sprint is on the 26th and 27th.
The Donegal Rally will be held on Sunday June 27th in Jackson's Hotel in Ballybofey. Enquiries to Gerry EI8HO on 072-52598.
Input for the radio news should be sent to Dave EI4BZ at 021-291099 during the day or at 021-883555 in the evenings.
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 for automatic forwarding to both news services.
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