Archived News Script
IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday August 28th 2005
EI Counties Contest
The Autumn leg of the Counties Contest will take place today between 1400 and 1600 hours local time. Clubs and individuals are encouraged to take part. Even if you are not participating in the contest, check logs are welcome. Lets hope that the WX is on our side and we continue to see the improvement in participation levels.
SSB Field Day
The SSB Field Day will take place next weekend and runs from 1300 UTC on Saturday for 24 hours.
For the third year running, Garbally College in Ballinasloe is being used as the venue for the central event and entries to date include the local Shannon basin Club, last years restricted winners, two teams from the Dalkey Island Contest Group, a team from the Galway Radio Experimenters Club and as usual stations being set up by both Joe EI7GY and Dave EI4BZ.
The Dalkey Island Group are sponsoring three Dublin Crystal Trophies for stations in the restricted section at Garbally College. These will be awarded for best LF DX, best HF DX and best hourly rate. Teams will nominate their best DX and the final decision will be made on site by a committee of three top EI DXers.
There is still time to get involved and put on a station. If you cannot get a group together, EI4BZ is still looking for operators for his station, all you need is your sleeping bag. The highlight of the weekend in Ballinasloe will be Saturday night barbeque, which is again sponsored by the Shannon Basin Club. Not to be missed.
Last years open section winners, EI9E/P will be defending their title from County Wexford and Cork Radio Club will be taking part from their usual site in Glanmire. Tipperary Radio Group will also be in action over the weekend.
If you intend taking part please notify the Contest Manager, EI2JC.
Upcoming Contests
Running in parallel with the SSB Field next weekend will be the All Asian SSB DX Contest. This is usually a useful event to get some nice DX from Asia. The exchange in this one is your age.
The following weekend we have another big SSB contest with lots of activity. It's the Worked all Europe Contest where you can only work station outside of Europe. It runs for forty-eighth hours.
RTTY operators are catered for in four weeks time with the CQ Worldwide RTTY Contest, the biggest event of the year for keyboarders. This runs for 48 hours from midnight UTC on Friday.
The Scandinavian Activity contest is also held during September. The CW event is in three weeks time on the 17th and 18th and the SSB event will be held over the last weekend in the month on the 24th and 25th. Both of these area twenty-four events starting at 1200 UTC on the Saturday.
ComReg Consultation Paper ComReg has recently produced a Consultation Paper entitled "Review of Fees/Rights of use for Radio Frequencies". One section of this paper deals with Experimenters' Radio Licences and associated fees. Submissions on the paper are sought from interested parties and the closing date for these submissions is the 9th of September 2005. It is strongly recommended that all IRTS members take the time to study this paper, as the proposals contained therein will, if implemented, have a significant impact on the Experimenter community in EI.
IRTS will of course be submitting a considered response to the ComReg proposals and this is currently in course of preparation. However, individual members with views on the Paper are urged to put forward their own submissions.
The Consultation Paper is available on the ComReg website (www.comreg.ie) under Publications, reference 05/58.
New Callsigns in South Dublin Radio Club
Congratulations to Allen Collinge, who attended the South Dublin Radio Club theory classes over the past few months who has now passed the theory test, and has been given the call sign EI3GHB.
Jim Armstrong has been recently issued with the call sign EI8JR and Shay Ryan, formerly EI6FMB has now been issued with the new call, EI7JR. Congratulations to all.
Tipperary Amateur Radio Group
The September meeting of the Tipperary Amateur Radio Group will take place in Raheen House Hotel Clonmel on Thursday next the 1st of September at 8 O'clock.
South Eastern Amateur Radio Group
The next general meeting of the group will take place on Wednesday the 28th of September. Please note that there is no general meeting for August and no committee meeting on the first week of September.
Nuacht as Gaeilge
The IRTS news in Irish has changed frequency due to poor bad conditions on 40 metres. From now on the news in Irish will be read on 3.680 MHz in the 80 metre band. Paddy EI7GK, who reads the news as Gaeilge hopes that all the regulars will be able to call in on 80 metres. New callers are always welcome, regardless of your level of Irish, beiodh fáilte rómhat.
N2NOV in Ireland
Charles J. Hargrove, N2NOV is the well known EmerComm lead in New York and has been involved in a number of emergencies including the WTC amateur radio response. Charles and his wife Karen, N2ZYF will be in Ireland until the 10th of September. They will travel extensively around EI during that time and hope to meet up with a number of experimenters along the way. They plan to be active on various repeaters throughout their stay in Ireland.
Rally News
The Cork Radio Rally will be held in the Blarney Park Hotel on the 25th of September. Doors open at 11 a.m. Free parking and plenty of things to do in Blarney this year as this year celebrates the Cork Capital of Culture. All enquiries about tables, trading etc. should be made to Con on 086 1071312 or 021 4270136 or email "conmac at engineer dot com".
The Waterford Rally will take place on Sunday the 16th of October 2005 in the McEniff, Ard Ri Hotel, Waterford. Traders confirmed to date are; Long Communications, South East Communications and Tetra Communications. The IRTS bookstand will be present and a strong feature will be the Bring and Buy aspect of the rally. Doors open at 11:00 a.m. and admission is 5 Euro. There is no admission charge for children (accompanied by an adult). Special room rates are available for those attending the rally. For information or to reserve exhibition space contact the rally organizer, Michael Hoban, EI5DCB on 051-873310. Information regarding room rates is available on www.searg.com
The Mayo Radio Experimenters Network Rally will be held on Sunday November the 20th at the usual venue, the Belmont Hotel, Knock. Doors open at 11:00 a.m. Bookings for accommodation should be made directly with the hotel. The rate is 50 Euro per person with a special all-in rate of 70 Euro for Bed & Breakfast and evening meal. Traders should contact Padraic Baynes EI9JA for exhibition space.
Space News
Sunspot number 798 reportedly exploded twice on August 22nd last hurling two coronal mass ejections toward Earth. Geomagnetic storms are possible when the clouds arrive at Earth (around the time this goes to air) and may have effects on HF conditions. Auroral displays are possible at higher altitudes.
The International Space Station cross-band FM voice repeater is active. The downlink frequency is 145.800 MHz FM plus or minus 3 kHz doppler shift. The uplink frequency is 437.800 MHz FM plus or minus 10 kHz doppler shift.
Items for inclusion in next weeks Radio News should be forwarded to Mark EI7IS at QTHR or by phone to 051 853806 or 087 6302026. Items for the radio news can also be faxed to 087 5 6302026. News should be submitted via e-mail to "news at irts dot ie" for automatic forwarding to both the radio and printed news services. Please note that items for the radio news should reach the editor no later than midday on Fridays.
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