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IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday May 6th 2001


IRTS Annual General Meeting

The Annual General Meeting of the Irish Radio Transmitters Society will be held at the Lakeside Hotel, Ballykeeran, Athlone on Saturday May the 26th at 1430. The venue is just outside Athlone on the Cavan Road. Full catering facilities will be available. There will not be a trade show associated with the AGM this year.

Nominations are still being sought for the following awards: Pat Conway Cup, Arup Cup and the Collins Cup. These are awarded for service to the Society or the hobby. Send your nominations to Peter Grant EI4HX at QTHR. Entries for the construction awards will be accepted up to 1400 on the day.

Irish Amateur Radio Association Blind and Disabled - EI5HAM Theory Examinations were held at St. Joseph’s School for Visually Impaired, Drumcondra On Thursday April 26th and 3 students tutored by John EI6HL, Seamus McGrory from Letterkenny, Jessie McStay from Kildare and Paul were successful. Another member of the Group, Padraig Naughton from Ballinasloe who was tutored by Michael, EI6AL Athlone was also successful.

May we offer our congratulations to them on their success as this is a big morale booster for the Group and encouragement for other students at present taking the Theory Classes at St. Joseph’s on Monday nights. IARABD would like to thank the ODTR for facilitating the Group by holding the Theory Exam at the School.


Six Metre Awards

There is some confusion about the year 2000 six metre activity award. Points will be awarded as follows, 1 point per each unique QSO. Multiplied by the total number of locator squares worked (first four characters only). And again Multiplied by the number of DXCC countries worked. Completed logs with cover sheets should be sent to the contest manager John McDonnell EI6IR at ei6ir@eircom.net Phone 094-60127.


IATV and Microwave Convention

Due to the foot and mouth situation, the Irish Amateur Television club in association with the Microwave Society of Ireland will unfortunately not be able to hold their second annual convention as planned. This event will be deferred to a later date, possibly around September. The new date for this event, when it is scheduled, will be announced in the radio news. The e-mail address of the Irish Amateur Television Club is iatc@eircom.net.


CW Field Day

The CW field day due to be held on the June Bank Holiday Weekend, will go ahead as planned this year.


South Eastern Amateur Radio Group

The SEARG website now has a buy and sell section where you can post your own advertisements, a discussion forum where you can post or reply to messages - useful if you need help with a radio related problem. The site now also contains a chat room, where radio amateurs can chat ‘real-time’ world wide. The site address is www.angelfire.com/tx3/searg/, alternatively you can use the URL www.clik.to/searg If you have a WAP enabled mobile phone, point your browser to www.wapdrive.com/searg for latest news and information regarding the groups activities, meeting times, repeater frequencies etc. The group would also welcome your comments and suggestions on the site.

Power Line Communications may hinder Amateur Radio There has been a worrying development in Power Line Communications (or PLC) technology. The RSGB understands that the German government has recently approved the introduction of Power Line Communications systems, provided they comply with a German regulation for wideband radio emissions. These regulations have been strongly opposed by radio users in Germany, but the German government has decided to "give modern telecommunications technologies a chance". The Society notes the approval of this German regulation with grave concern. The acceptable emission levels are much higher than the levels proposed by UK HF radio users as a ‘worst case scenario’ for acceptable interference from such systems. Even these levels of emission can only be met by using low power PLC systems of limited functionality. For more information visit www.egroups.de/group/save-shortwave/


AO-40 Update

AMSAT Germany is reporting that the S-band beacon on AO-40 may not be transmitting continuously during each orbit. The AO-40 team received a report from DF4PV that the signal was being lost suddenly from the S-2 beacon transmitter. DF4PV says the signal disappeared during a period where the satellite may have entered an eclipse.

AMSAT-Germany says that the onboard internal housekeeping computer runs a software task to watch for critical situations, such as low battery voltage. The system will turn the S-beacon off if the battery voltage drops below 26 volts. This was the case recently due to a bad sun angle and a solar eclipse. The beacon will be functional when these bad conditions end.


DX News

9G5MD has been very active from Ghana on 15 and 10 meters, generally between 1200 to 1800 UTC. Check around 28.500 and 21.250 MHz for his signal. QSL via F5VCR.

AP2JZB continues to be active from Pakistan on 12 meters, as well as 10 metres. Listen on these bands between 1430 and 1530 UTC around 28.492 or 24.946 MHz.


Items for inclusion in Echo Ireland should be forwarded to Dave Moore EI4BZ at 021-4353853 in the evenings or at 021-4823172 during office hours. Items can be submitted to Dave by e-mail at ei4bz@eircom.net and you can fax him at 021-4354113. Items for inclusion in the Radio News should be forwarded to Mark Wall EI7IS at QTHR or via e-mail to ei7is@qsl.net or cyberis@e-merge.ie. Items can also be sent to Mark over the phone at 087-6302026. News can also be submitted via e-mail to news@irts.ie for automatic forwarding to both news services.

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