Archived News Script
IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday April 20th 2003
SOTA Update
With the Counties Contest (Spring) coming up on the 21st of April its an ideal opportunity to combine the Counties Contest with the newly launched Summits On The Air (SOTA). EI3IX hopes to be active from Croagh Patrick (2,510ft) grid reference L906802 or Nephin Mor (2,642ft) grid reference G103079 weather depending. He hopes to give out points straight after the Counties Contest before he switch over to 4 meters. EI3IX will be using the frequency 145.350 MHz for the SOTA activity.
Terenure Rally
The Terenure rally will take place in the Terenure college concert hall on the 25th of May doors open at 12.00 O'clock. For tables please contact George EI2CPB on 4908546 or leave message on 086 2586103. There will be the normal refreshments available. Details are also available by e-mailing adjayeg@dcu.ie.
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.
Challenge F8SH
The F8SH challenge took place in 2002. This experiment is devoted to the E sporadic propagation on the 2 metre band. The collected logs are sent to Mr Jim Bacon, G3YLA, IARU research co-ordinator and serve to feed a database for the study of this type of propagation. Not less than 20 stations (F, ON, OZ, PA and I) had sent a log and it was Alessandro, IW0GPN, who won the challenge with 91 QSOs and 34 locators. The best distance was achieved by Bernard, F1CKB, who realised the best DX with 2542 kM (QSO with EA8BTV in IL18QI from IN97SL).
This year, the promoters have decided to renew the challenge and hope more participants will take part. To take part you just have to send a certified copy of your log with all the established contacts via Es between the 1st of May and the 30th of September 2003 to one of the promoters. Rules of the challenge and results of last year can be seen on the website challengef8sh.ifrance.com Also a copy of the rules can be obtained on request from the organisers, Christophe Auzzino (F8ACF), Résidence les Korrigans BAT 3 N° 9, F 56170 Quiberon (France) or Daniel Vandewalle (ON7VZ), Mazenque 25, B-7866 Ollignies (Belgium).
2003 Squares Table
Just to remind everyone, Squares table 2003 is running. The 6 metre end of things has been quite so far this year but 2 metres & 70 Centimetres has been a little busier, all inputs for the table are appreciated.
Big Turnout For "Afternoon With Declan Craig."
A large gathering assembled in Castlebar's Linenhall Arts Centre on Sunday last April the 13th,for The Mayo Radio Experimenters presentation entitled An Afternoon With Declan Craig.
The show which was compered by club Chairperson Frances Taheny, EI5J, commencedwith a multimedia presentation by John Corless, EI7IQ, introducing the hobby to the public. This was well received and was followed by the main event, the Declan Craig presentation. Declan's show revealed behind the scenes preparation and planning for the 2002 VP8THU dxpedition to Southern Thule and the VP8GEO trip to South Georgia.
This was followed by a question and answer session and a showing of the VP8THU video. Amongst the large attendance were IRTS committee members, Pat FitzPatrick, EI2HX and Thos Caffrey EI2JD part of a significant dxpedition from Dundalk, travelling especially for the event.
Declan Craig told the gathering that this was the first time that he had made this presentation in Ireland and was delighted to be a guest of the Mayo club which he described as one of the most progressive in the country. The event was a tremendous success for the Mayo club and is only part of an impressive programme of events planned for the year ahead. Club meetings are held on the first Wednesday of each month in Stenson's Lounge Ballyvary, on the N5, commencing at 21.00hrs local time. Visitors and new members are welcome.
Dalkey Island Group
Keith Martin, ex EI4FBB, now EI4JM, one of the Dalkey Island Contest Group operators, will be stationed in YA, Afghanistan, for the next year. He is working with the aid agency Concern, looking after their HF communications and computer IT systems. He hopes to be QRV on the amateur frequencies once he gets his YA licence sorted out. Despite some recent operations, YA is still on the DXCC most wanted list so we guess he will be kept busy. He also expects to be QRV from Tajikistan, EY8, just to the north of YA. Further information will be available as it becomes available.
Still with the Dalkey Island Contest Group, they plan to be QRV from the Aran Islands for this year's IOTA contest in July. Sean, EI4GK, and his group who have activated this island group for this contest for the past number of years have other plans, so the Dalkey crew have decided to step into the breech and try their luck from the west coast for a change. We guess there are just no islands off YA!!
Cork Radio Club
This year the Blarney rally will be held on Sunday the 21st of September at the Blarney Park Hotel, Co. Cork. The official website of the Blarney Rally is www.blarneyrally.com
The Cork Radio Club meets every Monday night at Wilton Park house Wilton.
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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