Archived News Script
IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday April 30th 2006
EI8FE Silent Key
It is with regret that we announce the recent passing of Ex IRTS Secretary Gerry Fitzgerald EI8FE from Skerries.
May he rest in peace.
IRTS AGM
The Irish Radio Transmitters Society's 74th Annual General Meeting was held last weekend at the Vienna Woods Hotel in Cork and was hosted by Cork Radio Club.
The weekends activities kicked off with the annual dinner on Saturday night and in the company of the Lord Mayor of Cork Councillor Deirdre Clune and her husband, John Breen from the Department of Communications and Derek O’Reilly and his wife Veronique representing the Communications Regulator ComReg, sixty guests enjoyed a fabulous meal and a very sociable night.
John Breen in his address dealt with the threat to bands currently allocated to experimenters and amateurs worldwide and pointed out that lack of activity on any band could lead to a reallocation to commercial users who are continuously seeking additional frequency allocations. This particularly applies to allocations above 1 GigaHertz.
Sunday’s Annual General Meeting was well attended and the highlight was the handing over of the presidential chain of office to our new president Fr. Finbarr Buckley EI1CS.
Tributes were paid to the outgoing President Sean Donelan who has completed his three years in office. Sean also served as Treasurer for many years. He will still be with the committee as an ex-officio officer for the coming year.
The meeting also marked the departure of the outgoing Secretary and Treasurer. Both Noel Walsh EI2JC and Brendan de hOra EI3GV are leaving the committee after years of dedicated service and deserve our sincere thanks for their contribution to the success of the Society in recent years.
The new committee was elected as follows: President Fr. Finbarr Buckley EI1CS, Vice President Paul Martin EI2CA and committee members Thos EI2JD, Joe EI3IX, Dave EI4BZ, Peter EI4HX, Paul EI5DI, Fergus EI6IB, Sean EI7CD, John EI7IG, Seamus EI8BP, Brian EI8IU and John EI8JA.
The new committee will meet at the Montague Hotel in Portlaoise on Saturday May 13th at 11 a.m. when the main item on the agenda will be the allocation of jobs for the coming year. Clubs are invited to send representatives to this meeting.
The Vienna Woods proved an excellent venue for the weekend activities and we would like to thank the traders and patrons who turned up to make it such a success.
At this years AGM the Pete Daly Cup was awarded to EI7M. The Paddy Smith Cup went to EI3Z and the IRTS HF Shield went to EI1DD. The Thomond Shield was awarded to EI9E, the IRTS VHF Shield went to EI7T and the EI7IQ 6 Metre National Shield went to EI5FK. The EI7IQ 4 metre National Shield was awarded to EI3IO and the Slievenamon Trophy went to EI2HI. The IOTA Off-Shore Trophy went to EJ2MT, the IRTS DX Trophy went to EI2II and the Hal Hodgins Key to EI9ES. More awards will be announced in next weeks radio news.
Course Guide Launched
The new CD ROM course guide was launched at the AGM of the Society last weekend in Cork. As you know, a small group in the Society had been working on this project for some time past. A power point presentation on the course guide, the CQIR contest and the Southern Africa DXpedition was running during the rally and generated great interest. Many of those present acquired copies of the course guide. A demonstration of the course guide was held prior to the AGM and was attended by about 25 including representatives from 7 clubs. Free copies of the disk were provided to the club representatives.
The course guide is in web page format and covers all of the items on the HAREC syllabus on which the new multiple-choice examination is based. There are 400 slides with almost 200 illustrations and diagrams included in the guide. The guide is intended to assist those organising classes, those studying on their own or in small groups for the examination or as a useful refresher for those already licensed.
Information on the guide may be obtained by e-mailing “course at irts dot ie”. The Guide is free but there is a €5 charge for registration, post and packaging and e-mail support. The availability of examinations on a regular basis under the arrangement negotiated with ComReg under which the IRTS is responsible for organising, setting and correcting the examination seems to have generated renewed interest in experimental radio. The course guide will be of great benefit to anyone working to obtain an Experimenter's Licence.
IRTS 80 Metre Counties Contest 2006
The first IRTS 80 Metre Counties Contest took place last January. This was a very successful and popular event, the results of which were announced at last weeks AGM.
In the SSB Fixed Section, which was by far the most popular with 25 entries, the winner was Declan Lennon EI9HQ with 90 QSOs and 27 multipliers giving a total of 8748 points. In a close second place was Thos Caffrey EI2JD with 81 QSOs, 26 multipliers giving 8034 points and in third place was Charles Coughlan EI5FK with 81 QSOs, 24 multipliers and 7728 points. Fourth place went to Sean Nolan EI7CD with 7436 points and in fifth place was Pat O’Connor EI9HX with 6850 points.
In the SSB Portable category, first place went to Mayo, Roscommon, Galway Experimenters EI2MRG with 73 QSOs and 24 multipliers giving 6720 points. Second place in this section went to Mark Condon EI6JK with 67 QSOs and 24 multipliers giving 5856 points and third place went to Nicky Madigan EI3JB with 65 QSOs, 22 multipliers and 5324 points.
The SSB/CW Fixed category saw Dave Moore EI4BZ take first place with 103 QSOs and 28 multipliers giving 9856 points. Second place went to Paul Martin EI2CA with 87 QSOs, 24 multipliers and 8346 points. In third place was Fr. Niall Foley EI4CF with 85 QSOs, 26 multipliers giving 8138 points. Joe Ryan EI7GY totalled 76 QSOs and 23 multipliers giving 6440 points in the SSB/CW Portable category.
There is a link to the full 80 metres counties contest results on the contests page of the IRTS web site. Thanks to all who participated making this a successful contest. Thanks also to those who submitted check logs and Paul EI5DI for assistance checking the Cabrillo logs.
Mayo Radio Experimenters Network
The Mayo Radio Experimenters Network have commenced theory classes in Stensons of Ballyvary on the N5 on Saturday mornings. It's still not too late to join in and anyone wishing to do so should contact Terry Ebdon, EI5IW on 087 130 8560 as soon as possible.
Mini Marathon
The Terenure Radio Club will again be providing emergency radio cover for the Women’s Mini Marathon event on Monday the 5th of June. All that is required is that you have a 2 metre mobile rig and a valid callsign. If you would like to take part in helping, please contact George EI2CPB on 086-2586103 or e-mail “adjayeg at dcu dot ie”.
4 Meter activity evenings
Calling all 4-metre operators. The 4-metre band activity night is held on the first Tuesday of every month. May the 2nd will be the next activity night. It’s held between 20:00 hrs and 22:00 hrs. Call in frequency is 70.2625 MHz. So if you have any AM/FM/SSB gear, vertically or horizontally polarised, give a call in! Don’t forget to have a listen for the 4-metre simplexer on 70.350 MHz.
For operators in the East & South East keep an ear open for Ian (G6TGO), he will be active on 4 metres on May 2nd from 21:00 hrs, he will be /Portable on high ground in Winterhill, Lancashire monitoring 70.2625 MHz. Ian will be operating an Icom E90 handheld, antenna will be a HB9CV or a quarter-wave whip on the mobile. Even if you do not have access to 4 metre equipment, SWL reports would be most welcome, e-mail EI3IX at “joe_fadden at yahoo dot com”.
Other VHF News
The Mayo, Galway, Roscommon Radio Experimenters Radio Group hopes to run a 2 metre / 70 cm SSB contest during the month of September this year. The date and contest rules will be announced soon.
Anyone with VHF/UHF squares worked can send in their totals for inclusion in the 2006 squares table.
Southern Ireland Repeater Network
It has recently become necessary to change the Southern Ireland Repeater Network IRLP access code as the result of a number of stations misusing it. If you would like to have access to the node, please contact “repeaters at searg dot com” to get the new code. Please Note: It is essential that when using the IRLP system to first "speak your callsigns" then dial the relevant node using DTMF tones.
Upcoming Meetings
The next Shannon Basin Radio Club meeting will be held in the Royal Hotel, Roscommon on Wednesday the 3rd of May at 8.30 p.m. A committee meeting of South Eastern Amateur Radio Group will take place this coming Wednesday at 8.00 p.m. in the Roanmore Social and Sports Centre, Cleaboy Road, Waterford. Committee members are asked to attend.
The next meeting of Limerick Radio Club will take place on Thursday the 11th of May at 7.30 p.m. in the Limerick Institute of Technology.
Items for inclusion in next weeks Radio News should be forwarded to Mark Wall, 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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