Archived News Script
IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday January 23rd 2000
South Dublin Radio Club Spring Challenge
South Dublin Radio Club is pleased to announce that its Spring Challenge will run again this year.
The purpose of the challenge is to encourage radio experimenters to be active on the HF bands. The challenge is to work as many DXCC countries on as many HF bands as possible during the month of February. There are both Open and Restricted sections, with the Restricted section confined to CW only.
For full details and rules see page 56 of the 1999 IRTS yearbook.
With the improvement in band conditions over the past year, this years Spring Challenge is expected to be the best ever.
So HF operators, you have 29 days in February this year to re-discover the joys of working new countries!
Coolmine Rally
The Phoenix Amateur Radio Club will hold their annual rally on Sunday February the 6th next at the Coolmine Community School in Clonsilla in Dublin. This is a very convenient venue to get to but if you have any difficulty, talk-in will be provided on channel S21, that is 145.525MHz.
Doors will open to the public at 11.00 am and the admission will be £2.00.
For further information and table reservation please contact Tony McNally on 01-8252074.
Space News
Recent media reports suggest that progress on the building of the International Space station is being seriously hampered by Russian inability to fund the building and launch of the critical command module.
Apparently the US Space authorities are anxious that the Russian space station MIR be removed from orbit and all Russian efforts be concentrated on the international space station.
Reports circulating during the past week indicate that Sergei Gromov, a spokesman for Russia's Energiya says that a United States firm had promised to invest twenty million dollars in the Mir.
The company called Golden Apple will put up the money to continue Mir's scientific program and keep the ageing station in orbit.
The return to Mir still needs the approval of Russia space agency and Russian government. If they both give the go-ahead a crew of Cosmonauts could be launched in March for a forty-five day tour of duty. Whether or not the ham station on the Mir would be reactivated during such a mission was not discussed in any of the published news releases.
Contests coming up
Three popular contests are scheduled for the next weekend.
The big one for Top Band operators is the CQ Worldwide 160 metre CW contest running from Friday night at 2200 until 2200 on Sunday.
The two other contests are both 24 hour events with the French REF contest being on CW and the UBA contest on SSB.
New DXCC Awards
The DX Century Club, know as DXCC, run by the American Radio Relay League is still the premier HF award scheme worldwide.
To mark the millennium, they are offering some new awards. To qualify for the DXCC Millennium Award you need to work 100 countries during the year 2000. QSL cards are not required.
Official application forms are required and may be downloaded from the ARRL web page or by sending a self addressed envelope with an IRC to the ARRL at 225 Main St., Newington, CT 06111, USA.
A new 20 metre single band DXCC award is also being introduced as is a new challenge for holders of 5 band DXCC.
Full information on all these new awards will appear in a future issue of the IRTS Journal, Echo Ireland.
Dates for your Diary
The Cooolmine Rally will be held on Sunday February the 6th. Further information from Tony McNally on 01-8252074 An EI activity weekend is being proposed, covering the Friday, Saturday and Sunday of March the 17th to the 19th. Clubs are asked to make a special effort to activate rarer counties over the period. Please advise the news service of your intentions.
The Limerick Radio Club will hold their annual rally on Sunday the 26th of March 2000 in the Limerick Inn Hotel.
The IRTS AGM will be held in The Four Seasons Hotel on Monaghan over the weekend of April the 8th and 9th.
Enquiries to Stephen Hand GI7UIM/EI7FKB on 087-2932438.
The Worked All Ireland Island Activity weekend will be held over the third weekend in June, that’s the 17th and 18th. Clubs and groups are asked to make a special effort to activate an island.
This will be an ideal opportunity for groups planning an EJ expedition for the IOTA contest at the end of July to have a trial run.
Items for inclusion in the Radio News should be phoned to Dave Moore at 021-883555 in the evenings or to 021 823172 during office hours. You may also e-mail to ei4bz@irts.ie or to ei8ir@eircom.net Input for the Newsletter should be sent to Kevin EI7IM at QTHR, on the phone at 01-4509514 or by e-mail to ei7im@qsl.net.
Input to either the Radio News or Newsletter can be sent by e-mail to news@irts.ie for automatic forwarding to both news services.
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