Archived News Script
IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday June 9th 2002
New Contest Results Published
Recently published EI contest results, mainly for the years 2000 and 2001, have just been added to the website of EI8IC. Contests covered include IARU, All Asian, WPX, Worked All Germany, EUHFC, SPDX, Scandinavian Activity, and others.
Also published are a number of new pages in the Contest Resources and the Contest Tips and Techniques sections that will be of interest to all Contesters, whether experienced or just starting out.
The EI Ham Buy And Sell It Forum continues to provide a busy service for those wanting to Buy, Sell, or Exchange amateur radio equipment. There are currently 28 adverts posted, with more welcome for any item of Ham equipment, big or small. The service is free.
EI8IC's website can be viewed at www.qsl.net/ei8ic/
6 Metre Shield 2002
The 6-metre shield in now running for the third year, it has been won by Charlie EI5FK in 2000 and by Dave EI3IO in 2001. This shield has done a lot to promote 6-metre activity in EI. Rules are unchanged. It's run over a calendar year, from 1st January 2002 to the 31st December 2002. The scoring is calculated as follows: Unique contacts times Maidenhead locator squares times DXCC. All modes count.
At the end of the year, logs are to be submitted to the contest manager Noel Walsh, ei2jc@hotmail.com for both the 4 and 6 Metre Shields.
Slievenamon Perpetual 70cm Trophy 2002
The Slievenamon Perpetual Trophy was presented to the IRTS by Tipperary Amateur Radio Group in 2001. It will be awarded to the station that achieves the highest number of points in a 70cm's only competition.
Tipperary Amateur radio Group hopes that this award will in part encourage activity on the 70cm band throughout the month of July. The competition is to be restricted annually to all Sundays over the month of July and only FM simplex contacts are valid. Points are calculated as follows; 1 point per contact multiplied by the number of counties. Outside EI/GI only 1 point and no multiplier. Entrants are permitted to include contacts made during the IRTS UHF/VHF field day, so long as the contacts are on 70cms FM and simplex. There is a power restriction of 150watts. Contacts can be made mobile, portable and stationary. This is an IRTS members only competition and standard competition logs are to be submitted to the IRTS Contest Manager ei2jc@hotmail.com before the 31st of August. For further details please e-mail TRG secretary at john.burke@honeywell.com. July seems like a long way but now is the time to start planning on potential sites to use, equipment and antenna setup.
South Eastern Amateur Radio Group
IRTS President, Dave Moore EI4BZ was the guest at the last general meeting of South Eastern Amateur Radio Group. At the meeting, Dave gave a talk on operating practices and discussed the different aspects of the hobby and options available to people when they get licensed. The meeting ended with a quiz which tested members knowledge of radio and radio related topics. The club would like to thank Dave Moore for preparing the quiz and donating the prizes.
FCC Proposes New Bands for US Amateurs
The FCC which is the licensing body in the United States, has proposed to accept the requests for new secondary HF bands from the ARRL. The proposed band is from 5.25 to 5.4MHz. The FCC has also proposed to allow operation on 136kHz and to change the status of 2400 to 2402MHz from a secondary to a primary allocation.
The ARRL sought two LF allocations in 1998. The desired allocations were 135.7 to 137.8kHz and 160 to 190kHz. This action will greatly improve the ability of radio amateurs to carry out experiments in the LF portion of the RF spectrum. The 5 MHz band will be the first new amateur HF band since WARC79 if it is approved by the FCC, however it could still be a number of years before the band is available for use by radio amateurs.
6 Metre Activation
Paul G4IJE plans to be QRV from IO55 (as EI4VXB/P) until the 14th of June. Mainly SSB, a little CW if necessary and perhaps WSJT. As with his previous activities from IO41 and IO66, this will be a holiday not a DXpedition, but Paul should manage several hours operation on most days.
VHF Field Day 2002
The rules for the up coming VHF Field Day in July will be unchanged, there will be the usual 2 sections, Restricted section (2 meters only) & the Open section, 2 meters, 6 meters, 4 meters, 70cm & 23cm. (See the IRTS member directory). It's hoped that there will be plenty of active stations in EI for this contest.
World Cup Special Event
Ten Japanese special event calls will be aired to celebrate the FIFA World Cup in Korea and Japan: These callsigns are 8M1C, 8N1C, 8J1C, 82JC, 8N3C, 8J3C, 8J6C, 8J7C, 8J8C and 8J0C.
Items for inclusion in Echo Ireland should be forwarded to Dave Moore EI4BZ at 021-4883555. 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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