Archived News Script
IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday July 8th 2007
Silent Key Seán Cooney EI5GH
The many friends of Seán Cooney EI5GH will be saddened to hear of his death on Friday after a period of illness. Seán was very well known in amateur radio circles and up to this year had the distinction of never having missed an AGM for more years than any of us would care to remember. All of those who went to Baggot Street in the early mid 1960's will have had along association with Seán. After Baggot Street Seán was a founder member of the City of Dublin Radio Club with Dermot EI9BT and John EI8DE both now also sadly deceased. He served as Treasurer of the Society for quite a number of years and up to the time of his illness he had been one of the readers of the two metre FM news bulletins in the Dublin area. His distinct voice and humour will be sadly missed on the two-metre news and on the NDR net on Monday nights.
We extend our deepest sympathy to his family. May he rest in peace.
Theory Examination
Last Thursday week forty-five candidates sat the theory examination for the experimenters licence at centres in Dublin and Carrigtwohill. The examination papers have been checked and the results were delivered to ComReg on Tuesday last. ComReg have been very efficient in sending out the results but it takes time as each candidate gets a breakdown of their results in each of the three sections of the paper. We appeal to candidates not to contact ComReg about the results, as results will not be given over the phone or by e-mail. The official letters will issue in due course. There is also no point in contacting the IRTS about results. The papers are checked by IRTS but the issue of results and the HAREC certificate to successful candidates is a matter exclusively for ComReg.
CQIR
Great interest is being expressed worldwide in the Society's 75th Anniversary Contest CQIR, which will take place on the last weekend in September. The contest is a celebration of Ireland and the Irish, throughout the world and with 40 million people in the United States alone claiming Irish forefathers; we expect that CQIR will be one of the largest 'one off' contests ever aired on the Amateur Bands. It is a 24-hour single operator contest with the emphasis on participation rather than winning and to this end every participant gains an entry ticket for a spectacular draw for every 75 QSO’s made during the Contest.
The ticket drawn out of the EI/GI drum will win an all expenses paid long weekend in New York City for two people. ARRL have confirmed that this will include a visit to their national headquarters hosted by ARRL. Kinnitty Castle in Offaly will host the international winners for a week with flights for two from anywhere in the world. The prizes have been fully sponsored at no cost to the Society and this is really an excellent opportunity to celebrate the Society and its 75 years of service to Irish experimenters. We would encourage all Irish operators to be active during the Contest. So ring fence the last weekend of September in your diary, make an effort to have that new antenna up for the event and lets ensure a good show from the local Irish operators to support the international Irish who will no doubt come on the bands in their thousands for the contest. Full rules are on the IRTS website.
Limerick Radio Club
Limerick Radio Club has been invited by the Foynes Flying-Boat Museum to operate a special Amateur Radio Station in conjunction with the commemorative Transatlantic Re-Enactment Flight 1937 from Newfoundland Canada to Foynes Ireland. A special call sign has been allocated to the station EI-70-FOY. The station will be on the air from the 6th to the 8th of July 2007. On HF the station will operate from 80 to 10 metres. It will also operate on VHF / UHF using the EI70FOY call sign.
A special QSL card, commemorating the Re-Enactment Flight, will be sent to all stations worked over the three-day event. All QSL cards should be sent to the Club’s QSL Manager Alan Cronin EI8EM at QTHR. Limerick Radio Club can be contacted at “ei4lrc at eircom dot net” or at www.qsl.net/ei4lrc
South Eastern Amateur Radio Group
The next general meeting will take place on Monday the 30th of July at 8.00 p.m. in the Roanmore Centre, Waterford. All are welcome.
Road Racing Championships
On the 1st of July last, the National road racing championships took place in Waterford city and the event was hosted by Comeragh Cycling Club. The 13.3-mile course took in some of the busiest junctions and roundabouts in the city, a huge entry saw over 120 riders entered for the senior race and 30 for the junior. The senior race took in eight laps and the juniors five, Local operators (all AREN members) who had been involved in a similar type race last year were again asked to get involved in the traffic management side of things and readily agreed. AREN were then consulted and a course of action agreed.
First and foremost a site needed to be found for the AREN repeater that would provide radio coverage over the entire course and a site was subsequently found and tests proved satisfactory. Following this a decision was taken to use signs at all junctions and roundabouts which meant that mobile operators not familiar with the course could identify their precise location and also ensured that net control could pinpoint any segment of the race at any time as this was vital for traffic management. Also a very simple radio protocol was adopted for the day, which ensured that all communications were kept short, and to the point with 14 operators involved on the day this was vital.
Race day saw all operators meet at race HQ at the W.I.T campus, firstly five mobiles were fitted with radios and antennas, mobile operators were Richie - EI9HR, John - EI7IG, EI7JS, Robbie - EI8FZB and Nicky - EI3JB. John, EI8JA then departed for the repeater site to set up the repeater aided by SWL David Gainda. John - EI2GN departed for the start/finish line to act as net controller while Conor - EI4JN was deployed as motorcycle mobile which enabled him to be deployed quickly anywhere on the course that he was needed. Mick - EI3IQ, Gareth - EI7FZB, John - EI8FRB, Aidan - EI2CTB and SWL David went to their positions at various round-abouts and junctions. The senior race started promptly at noon followed ten minutes later by the juniors. Both races were accompanied by service cars also present on the course were officials of the cycling federations, Gardai, Ambulance service and Civil Defence.
Radio communications for the duration of the race was intense as the senior race was over in just more than four hours. Richie - EI9HR would like to thank all who helped out on the day also a big thank you to Neil - EI3JE for the loan of the equipment.
Foyle and District Amateur Radio Club
Foyle and District Amateur Radio Club, Bready, Strabane, Co. Tyrone will be heading to St. Angelo Airport, Enniskillen for the 2007 Jet World Masters competition. The competition itself runs from the 5th to the 14th of July. The club station will be on the air during the weekend July the 13th and 14th using the club's callsign MN0AKU/P.
This event is the ultimate radio-controlled model aircraft competition. These model planes are capable of speeds up to 250 miles per hour. One hundred pilots from 31 countries will be taking part in this competition. More information can be found on their website www.jwm2007.com
The club wishes to express its gratitude to all the operators who contacted them during the 2 days of their Amelia Earhart special event station on May the 20th and 21st. A sepia-tone photo of the aviator has been used for a unique QSL card and these will soon be sent out via the buro. Foyle and District Amateur Radio Clubs web address is www.mn0aku.org.uk
Rallies
The Cork Radio Club Rally will take place on Sunday the 23rd of September in the Blarney Park Hotel, Blarney, Co. Cork, the Waterford Rally will take place on the 21st of October 2007 in the Woodlands Hotel, Waterford and the Mayo Radio Rally will be on Sunday the 18th of November in the Belmont Hotel, Knock, Co. Mayo.
A full listing of upcoming rallies is available on www.irts.ie
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 Friday in order to be guaranteed inclusion in the following Sunday’s bulletin.
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