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IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday October 28th 2001


WRC-2003 Dominates Discussion at IARU Council Meeting

The Administrative Council of the International Amateur Radio Union met on the 6th to the 8th of October 2001 in Guatemala City, Guatemala, following the 14th General Assembly of IARU Region 2. The principal business at the Guatemala City meeting was to continue preparations for WRC-2003, which has several items of importance to the amateur services on its agenda. At the meeting, the status of IARU preparations for WRC-2003 was reviewed. The agenda items of concern include harmonisation of amateur and broadcasting allocations near 7 MHz.

The IARU Council recognised that the Morse code continues to be an effective and efficient mode of communication used by many thousands of radio amateurs,but member societies are urged to seek, as an interim measure, Morse code testing speeds not exceeding five words per minute. Setting aside any previous relevant decisions, IARU policy is to support the removal of Morse code testing as an ITU requirement for an amateur license to operate on frequencies below 30 MHz. The theme for World Amateur Radio Day, 18th of April 2002,was selected as "Amateur Radio: Continuing Innovation in Communication Technology."

The Council noted the growing popularity of the IARU HF World Championship and urged Headquarters Stations of member-societies to participate. The Council also urged the members of the regional executive committees to take part on an individual basis.

The Council received with thanks a report from the International Secretariat on new technologies being introduced in the amateur service and expressed appreciation for the contributions of the individuals responsible for these exciting developments. The next scheduled meeting of the Council will be held from the 11th to the 13th of September 2002, in the vicinity of San Marino, immediately before the Conference of IARU Region 1.


Contest Dates Confusion

There has been major confusion internationally about the dates for the forthcoming ARRL sponsored Top Band and 10 Metre contests. It has all got to do with the definition of the "first full weekend", which up to this year has been understood to mean the first Saturday and Sunday of a month. This year,the ARRL Top Band Contest, which starts on the Friday night at 2200, will be held on the 7th, 8th and 9th of December and not the week previous as generally understood outside the U.S. Consequently the ARRL 10 Metre contest also goes back a week to the weekend of the 15th and 16th of December. Please note that the dates published in Echo Ireland are incorrect. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.


Irish Amateur Television Club

The next annual general meeting of the IATC will be held (today) Sunday the 28th October in the Headford Arms Hotel, Main Street, Kells at 3.00 pm. Anyone interested in amateur television are welcome to attend.


ODTR

If there is sufficient interest in the bands above 20GHz, the ODTR will consider assigning these segments to the Amateur Radio Service in line with the European Common Allocation Table. They also mention that the 6 metre band may be extended to cover the full 50 to 52 MHz and 135.7 kHz to 137 kHz.

The ODTR is currently establishing a monitoring facility within the office and is equipping for the purposes of checking that spectrum licensees (such as FWA & GSM operators) are meeting their licence conditions. Activities include the tracing of interference to licensees and safety-of-life services,inspection of licensed installations and the prosecution of offences such as unlicensed operation of mobile radio and particularly broadcast equipment.


Tipperary Amateur Radio Group

This year's Annual General Meeting for Tipperary Amateur Radio Group members will be held on 7th November in Clonmel. The meeting starts at 8pm sharp and all Group members are requested to attend as this is a very important meeting in the groups calendar year. In other TRG news the group is happy to announce that it will be providing emergency communications for the annual Tipperary Hill walkers event in the Glen of Aherlow / Galtee Mountains on the 20th of October. Group members will be using local UHF & VHF simplex frequencies during the event. A number of portable operators will be taking part in the walk and a base station will be established with direct links to emergency services.

Brendan Trophies for trans-Atlantic QSO on 2 metres The IRTS has available two Waterford Crystal trophies to be awarded to the first stations completing a 2 metre QSO across the Atlantic. Mark Casey K1MAP and Dick Bean K1HC are actively seeking interested operators from this side of the ocean for a serious attempt next summer. They are looking at the feasibility of making the contact on PSK31, high speed CW or indeed any other modes. You may contact Mark at map@map.com or Dick at k1hc@aol.com.


South Eastern Amateur Radio Group

The South Eastern Amateur Radio Group will hold their next meeting on Wednesday the 31st of October at 8pm. They will meet in the usual venue of the Roanmore GAA centre, Cleaboy Road, Waterford City. A table quiz hosted by Mick EI6GF will be the item of interest at this meeting and all members are asked to make a special effort to attend this meeting at 8pm sharp. Visitors and new members welcome.


Items for inclusion in Echo Ireland should be forwarded to Dave Moore EI4BZ at 021-4883555 in the evenings. Items can also be submitted to Dave by e-mail at ei4bz@eircom.net 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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