Archived News Script
IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday March 14th 2004
Limerick Rally
The 72nd Annual General Meeting of the Irish Radio Transmitters Society was hosted last weekend by Limerick Radio Club at the Greenhills Hotel, Limerick. The weekend activities kicked off with the annual dinner on the Saturday night and a fine crowd representing most parts of the country enjoyed fine food in a very sociable atmosphere. The newly elected President of the Radio Society of Great Britain, Jeff Smith MI0AEX accompanied by his wife Jane were guests of the IRTS at the dinner. In his address to the gathering Jeff outlined the major changes in the UK licensing structure over the past few years and the background to it all.
On the good news front, he announced that RSGB had expectations that the additional 100 kHz due to be granted to the amateur radio community in 2009 would be made available in the UK within the next twelve months. If that should happen, then Irish experimenters should also benefit from the doubling in size of the 40 metre band as discussed with ComReg at our recent meeting. It is expected that Norway amongst others will announce the new allocation before Easter.
A free raffle on the dinner tickets resulted in Joe Fadden EI3IX going home with a VR 120 Scanner sponsored by Yaesu UK. A Mobilite headset sponsored by Linear Amp UK was won by Dolores Lynch and a presentation pack sponsored by Icom UK was won by Emer Kirkby.
The Limerick Rally is now firmly established as the leading such event in Echo India and last weeks event again lived up to its high reputation. Yeasu, ICOM and Linear Amp UK made the trip from the UK and Irish dealers present included Southeast Communications, The Waterford Communications Centre, Long Communications, Cellcom, Sean Martin, Back to the Future and a new company RE Electronics from Cork. Stephen Hall and friends put on an impressive display of Wireless LAN and the Limerick Club put on a display of EchoLink.
The Tipperary Radio Group and the Shannon Basin Club also had stands. Yaesu sponsored the first prize in the raffle of an FT8800R dual band transceiver was won by John Barry EI8IR. The second prize, sponsored by Icom UK, was a ICR 5 scanner and this was won by an unidentified gentleman from Roscommon. Limerick Radio Club would like to thank all the traders and all who supported the rally in any way.
EI Activity Day
Listeners are reminded that EI Activity Day is on as usual on St. Patrick's Day. Please make a special effort to get on the bands and activate your county and WAI square.
6 Metres
Following a meeting between IRTS and ComReg representatives held on Wednesday February the 25th, the society is pleased to announce that it has secured the lifting of restrictions on the 6-metre band. All experimenters are now licensed to use this band with a power limit of 20dBW. We stress that there is no need to apply for specific permission to use the band.
Unfortunately, there is no change in the 4-metre band licensing requirements.
IRTS AGM
Sixty six members attended that Annual General Meeting of the Irish Radio Transmitters Society on Sunday afternoon last. The President Sean Donelan EI4GK in his address paid tribute to all the members who were involved in a voluntary capacity in keeping the Society running on a day-to-day basis and asked that more members take an active interest in the work being carried out. He referred to the fairly recent trend of experimenters expressing criticism on message boards, guest books and indeed on the air. He asked that anyone with a problem should contact the society and address the issue directly. He briefed members on the latest development of broadband distribution in the Liberties area in Dublin. This involves broadband being brought to the schools by fibre optic cable and microwaves and being distributed internally on the mains wiring.
Discussions are ongoing with Comreg on the issue and it is hoped to carry out site tests shortly. In relation to the proposed Power Line Transmission experiments in the Tuam area, contact has been established with the ESB at national level and indications are that the society will be officially involved at the testing stage. We will carry further news in next weeks bulletin.
The committee and treasurers reports showed the society to be in a very healthy state with a membership of 1005 at the year-end. The new committee will meet in the Montague Hotel in Portlaoise on Saturday April the 3rd and the main item on the agenda will be the distribution of jobs for the coming year. Once again clubs are reminded that they may send representatives to all committee meetings.
The Society expresses its thanks in particular to Limerick Radio Club for their very successful hosting of the weekend's activities and also all who supported the events. Any club wishing to host next years AGM should contact the committee as soon as possible.
South Dublin Radio Club
SDR members traveled to Carrickfergus County Antrim recently for the annual Quiz run by GEARS - The Glengormley Electronics and Amateur Radio Society. Last year, they won the quiz, but their luck ran out this time, and they had to settle for 4th place. In any case, it was a very enjoyable night; with plenty of eyeball QSO's between the SDR and GEARS members.
The annual general meeting of South Dublin Radio Club took place on Tuesday the 24th of February. There were 20 members at the meeting, with 4 visitors also in attendance.
It's been a busy year for the club, with plenty of activity, including contests, antenna experiments and other outdoor activities. The three existing executive officers - Chairman Tom McGrath EI7HT, Secretary Mark Boothman EI9IB and Treasurer Mark Condon EI6JK - stepped down from their positions, in accordance with the club's constitution, and elections were held for a new committee.
The new committee elected for 2004 was as follows: Chairman is Jim Holohan EI4HH, Secretary is Daniel Cussen EI9FHB and Treasurer is Tony Ryan EI9FIB. Other committee members are; Rob Fitzsimons SWL, Kyle O'Connell EI2JO, Tom McGrath EI7HT and Nicki Mullally EI9JF.
A number of activities are already planned for 2004 - including an inter-club contest based around the next SSB EU Sprint Contest. Ideas for further activities were floated at the AGM and are to be considered by the new committee.
St. Patrick's Day
The special event station GB4SPD commemorating St. Patrick's day will operate from Co. Antrim from Sunday until Wednesday the 17th. Operation will be on most HF bands on SSB. Although the station will issue special event QSL cards for the operation, stations are not obliged to return QSL's. The station operators are hoping for good conditions on the day and hope to work as many EI's as possible.
Enniskillen Rally
Lough Erne Amateur Radio Club hosts the 23rd Enniskillen Amateur Radio Show in the Killyhevlin Hotel, Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh on Sunday the 25th of April 2004. Doors open at 12.00 noon.
Car parking facilities and food will be available. Admission is £3.00, which includes free ticket for Raffle with valuable prizes. Bring & Buy with no fee. Amateur Radio, Electronics, Computers, traders big and small, equipment, accessories, components, new surplus and second-hand. Traditional large attendance expected from all over Ireland, north and south.
Mayo Radio Experimenters Network
Dermot Adams EI7IX, was the winner of the Mayo Radio Experimenters member's competition for February. Dermot is well known as the IRTS QSL Manager for the 7 series calls. A total of nine members returned scores in the competition and the complete results are as follows: In 1st place was Dermot Adams EI7IX, in 2nd place was John Corless EI7IQ, 3rd place was taken by Brendan Minish EI6IZ, 4th place went to John McAndrew EI3JM, in 5th was John Browne, EI7FAB, 6th was Mike Hayes EI2EO and Joint 7th place went to John McDonnell EI6IR, Jarlath Cunnane EI9FYB and Jimmy Kelly EI2GCB.
Radio News
There have recently been some issues with e-mailed news items not reaching their intended destination. This matter is now resolved. The problem was due to valid e-mails containing news items being trapped by filters intended to remove the large amount of spam received. The filters have now been removed and will be re-implemented on an 'as required' basis. Apologies to any club or individual who has been affected by this.
Items for inclusion in next weeks Radio News should be forwarded Mark Wall EI7IS. He can be contacted by phone or text on 087-6302026 or 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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