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IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday February 8th 2004


Limerick and IRTS AGM

The Limerick Radio Club have some further information relating to the up-coming rally. Final touches are now been put in place for the Limerick Rally. The list of confirmed attendees to date are ICOM UK, Linear Amp UK, YAESU UK, Cellcom, Long Communications and Southeast Communications.

There are several others in the pipeline and the club are awaiting confirmation from them. A demonstration of Licence free Wide Area Networking operating on 2.4 GHz will take place, where the advantages of a high speed Internet connection will be shown. Included in this will be the operation of EchoLink, where licensed operators from their computer can QSO with fellow amateurs around the world regardless of propagation conditions.

The first of the raffle prizes have been confirmed. Yaesu are donating an FT8800R dual band mobile transceiver for the rally and also a VR120 scanner for the AGM dinner. Icom will confirm their prizes next week.

Bring and Buy will feature as usual, due to circumstances beyond the control of Limerick Radio Club the cost of the tables have increased to €10. This is simply due to the cost of hiring and delivery to the hotel, which has increased this year. Last year the club actually lost money in providing tables. It is with regret that LRC have had to increase the price.

The IRTS dinner will take place on Saturday night 6th and Tickets are now available from Paul EI6FE or Sean EI4GK. The AGM on the Sunday will take place after the Rally at 14.30 Hrs.

Further information can be had from members of LRC or by contacting Paul EI6FE.


Change of Address

Please note that the address for Paul Kirkby EI6FE is incorrect in the IRTS year book. Paul has changed address since its publication. His new address is: 43 Gleann an Oir, Shannon. If you have sent correspondence or cheques to Paul, please check that he received them by phoning him on 061-360122. Apologies for any inconvenience caused by this oversight.


South Eastern Amateur Radio Group

The Annual General Meeting of the Group will take place on Wednesday the 25th of February 2004 at 8.00 p.m. in the Roanmore Social & Sports Centre, Cleaboy Road, Waterford. Tea, coffee and snacks will be available. All members are asked to attend and visitors are welcome.


Mills Weekend

Is there a wind or water mill near your QTH? Would you like to run a Special Event Station? If you have and would like to join in the Windmills event please do. The Mills Weekend will take place over the weekend of the 8th and 9th of May. There is a web site with more information at www.qsl.net/g4cdd

There is an award for working or hearing 10 mills stations, so if you are unable to put on a station you can still take part in the event.


Mayo Radio Experimenters Network

The results of the MREN members competition for January, were announced at the February meeting, by Club Chairperson, Jimmy Kelly, EI2GCB. The results were as follows: 1st: John Corless, EI7IQ. 2nd: John Browne, EI7FAB. 3rd: Brendan Minish, EI6IZ. 4th: Dermot Adams, EI7IX. 5th: Jimmy Kelly, EI2GCB. 6th: Mike Hayes, EI2EO. 7th: Padraic Baynes, EI9JA. 8th: John McDonnell, EI6IR. 9th: Terry Ebdon, EI9IW.

The meeting also discussed members travel arrangements to upcoming rallies in Coolmine and Enniskillen, amongst other destinations. The club extends congratulates to Jeff Smith MI0AEX, a member of the Bangor club in Northern Ireland, on his recent election as President of the RSGB.

The Mayo REN meets on the first Wednesday of each month at Stensons in Ballyvary at 9 p.m. and new members are welcome.


New Regulations in Denmark

The Danish Information Technology and Telecom Agency has announced new regulations for the Radio Amateur Service which into force on February the 1st last.

The new Regulations are mainly implemented as a result of the WRC 03. The main feature of this is the elimination of the Morse code examination for access to the HF bands. Danish Radio Amateurs are also now allowed to use segments in the 70 MHz band without a special permit.

The band segments for the 70 MHz band are: 70.0125 to 70.0625, 70.0875 to 70.1125, 70.3125 to 70.3875 and 70.4125 to 70.4875 MHz. Beacons are allowed in the 70.0125 to 70.0500 MHz portion of the band.

Detailed Danish 70 MHz band plans can be found at vhf.edr.dk.


New Regulations in Croatia

Croatia has become the first country in Region 1 to benefit from the expansion of the 40 metre band which was agreed at the World Radio Conference in Switzerland last summer. Amateurs in Croatia have also been given privileges at 70 and 3400 MHz and now no longer have to pass a Morse code test for access to the HF bands.


South Dublin Radio Club

The Annual General Meeting of South Dublin Radio Club takes place on Tuesday the 24th of February, at 8.00 p.m. in the club's QTH at Marian Road, Rathfarnham. All members are requested to attend.


International Lighthouse/Lightship Weekend 2004

This highly popular annual August event attracts hundreds of amateur radio stations at lighthouses and lightships, there were 369 entrants in 48 countries in 2003. The event is organised by Mike, GM4SUC, and Kevin, VK2CE is the web-master. This year the period of the event is from 0001 UTC on Saturday the 21st of August until 2359 UTC on Sunday the 22nd of August 2004.

The event is NOT a contest. It is a special event weekend when each group decides how it will operate with regard to modes and bands. Participants are not committed to being on the air during the entire period. There are no restrictions on antennas or power. The purpose of the event is for operators to enjoy themselves while making contact with as many stations as possible whilst giving priority to other lighthouse/lightship stations.

As available space in many lighthouses is filled to capacity, participation in this activity does not have to take place inside the tower itself. Field day type set-up at the light or other buildings next to the light or adjacent field is acceptable. Relevant permission must be obtained by any interested parties.

The International Lighthouse/Lightship Weekend is used to obtain maximum exposure for our hobby. More information is available at www.lighthouse.fsnet.co.uk/events/intlighthouseday.html To assist other stations in the identification of lighthouse/lightship Stations it is suggested that participating stations using CW add LS after their callsign at a lightship and LT at a lighthouse. SSB and other modes should use LIGHT, LGT, LIGHTHOUSE or LIGHTSHIP after their call.

If you would like to participate, please register on-line at illw.net/index.html with details of your name, callsign to be used, lighthouse/lightship, Country, QSL route etc. Although registration is not compulsory, doing so enables the organisers to maintain a detailed list of participants at illw.net/2004.htm showing QSL address, web site and any special event calls they may be using.


TARA Skirmish

The next running of "The Skirmish" TARA's Digital Prefix Contest, will be held on April the 17th 2004. This will be a yearly event sponsored by TARA (Troy Amateur Radio Association N2TY) of Troy, New York.

The contest will take place from midnight to midnight (UTC). The frequencies in use will be 160 to 6 metres, excluding WARC bands and the categories are PSK31, PSK63, MFSK, RTTY, Hell, Throb, Packet, ASCII, SSTV and MT63. Scoring is based on the number of QSOs multiplied by WPX prefixes multiplied by the Power Multiplier.

For more information visit www.n2ty.org or contact TARA's Skirmish Manager, Chris Durbin, N8PSK at skirmishmanager@n2ty.org. Valid scores must be received by May 15th via the online score form. There is no longer a requirement to send in your logs but they must be on hand if the contest committee requests them.


Items for inclusion in next weeks Radio News should be forwarded Mark Wall EI7IS. He can be contacted on 087-6302026 or e-mail cyberis@vodafone.ie. 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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