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IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday March 16th 2003


IRTS AGM

The Irish Radio Transmitter Society Annual General Meeting will take place on Sun April the 27th at 2.30 p.m. in Jury's Green Isle Hotel, Naas Road, Dublin 22.

Nominations for all trophies must be with the awards committee on or before April the 5th. Entries for the construction trophies must present their equipment to the awards committee before 12 noon on the day. Entries for the Ian Morris Trophy must also be submitted before April the 5th. Enquiries to Sean Donelan EI4GK. There will be no rally or dinner dance associated with this years AGM.


Limerick Radio Club

The Limerick Radio Club would like to thank all those who attended their rally last Sunday. It was a great success with traders and visitors alike. Planning has already started for next year and it would appear that Icom/Yaesu and Linear Amp UK will be there again. Negotiations have commenced with a large UK based company and they seem very keen to attend as well. Next year is looking even bigger and better.


South Dublin Radio Club

The SDR Annual General Meeting took place on the 25th of February. The meeting was well attended and members took the opportunity to have a wide ranging discussion on the direction of the club. Plans were agreed for a number of events over the next few months, including outdoor activities and this year's IOTA contest. The Committee elected for 2003-2004 was as follows; Chair: Tom McGrath - EI7HT, Secretary: Mark Boothman - EI9IB and Treasurer: Mark Condon - EI6JK. Other committee members are; Peter Morrison - EI9ES, Daniel Cussen - EI9FHB, Kyle O'Connell - EI9FGB and Tony Byrne - EI9FLB.

Members of SDR are operating from County Leitrim over St. Patricks weekend and plan to operate HF and VHF from a site near Bencroy. This site has good take-off to much of the East and Midlands of the country, so expect to hear plenty from SDR on the day.

Glengormely Electronics and Amateur Radio Society GEARS, which is based in Glengormely, County Antrim, held its first Annual Table Quiz night on Friday the 28th of February. The quiz was well supported by local radio amateurs and their friends, and everyone agreed that it was a well organised and enjoyable event. A team from South Dublin Radio Club (which is twinned with GEARS) attended and, in a very close finish, the SDR members came out on top, finishing just two points ahead of their nearest rivals. So, SDR brought the Shield back to Dublin. The team representing SDR were Tom EI7HT, Mark EI9IB, Thos EI2JD, Daniel EI9FHB, Tony EI9FIB and Joe EI7GY.


South Eastern Amateur Radio Group

The next general meeting of the club will take place at 8.00 p.m. in the Roanmore Centre on Wednesday the 26th of March. All are welcome to attend.

Please note that the deadline for membership applications is the end of the month. All intending and existing members must be fully paid-up on or before the 31st of March.


Summits On The Air (SOTA)

We have referred in recent weeks to the imminent launch of Summits On The Air (SOTA) in the Republic of Ireland. Joe EI7GY has been working on this for the past few weeks, along with Joe EI3IX, John EI7GL and Tom EI2GP. They are delighted to announce that the SOTA programme in Ireland has been officially launched on Saturday 15th of March, the first day of Saint Patrick's weekend.

SOTA is designed to encourage amateur radio based activity from the summits of hills. One of the features of the SOTA programme is that operation from or in the immediate vicinity of motor vehicles does not qualify for the programme - in other words, "you must walk or cycle to the summit".

SOTA programmes are already in operation in England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Isle of Man, South Africa and Germany. Points are awarded for activating or working summits, using an incremental scoring system that gives more points for activity from the higher peaks. There are a range of awards for those who activate summits (called "activators"), those who work them from the comfort of their shacks (these are called "chasers") and for short wave listeners.

Full details of the programme, including a list of eligible summits and their respective scores, can be obtained from the SOTA web sites. The address of the Irish site is www.qsl.net/sotaei/ and this site includes links to the main SOTA programme site and the sites for individual countries.

On Monday the 17th of March, Joe EI7GY plans to activate Fairy Castle in south County Dublin. Operation that day will be on 40 metres CW only.


DX News

To commemorate the 125th anniversary of the liberation of Bulgaria, the Balkan Contest Club LZ1KZA will operate with the special event callsign LZ125O until the 31st of March 2003. Activity will be on CW, SSB and RTTY on all the HF bands.


Enniskillen Rally

The 22nd Enniskillen Amateur Radio Show, hosted by Lough Erne ARC, will be held in the Killyhevlin Hotel, Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh on Sunday 6th of April 2003. Information from Herbie, GI6JPO on 028-6638-7761 or h.graham@bigfoot.com.


Items for inclusion in next weeks Radio News should be forwarded Mark Wall EI7IS. He can be contacted on 087-6302026. News can also be submitted via e-mail to news@irts.ie for automatic forwarding to both the radio and printed news services.

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