Archived News Script
IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday 18th March 2012
Call Book and Echo Ireland
A new printed call book has just been published by IRTS and will be distributed to members along with the April 2012 edition of Echo Ireland. The new call book contains a listing of current EI call signs and a summary of the activities of the society. Also, to celebrate the fact that IRTS is 80 years in existence this year, the call book includes some background on the radio clubs and societies that pre-dated the formation of the Irish Radio Transmitters Society in 1932.
The April Echo Ireland contains the committee's nominations for the offices of President and Vice-President as well as other committee positions. It also has updates from affiliated clubs: South Dublin Radio Club gives details of how to get up and running with the new Dublin ATV Repeater. From the North Cork Radio Group, Lisa EI9GSB writes about her involvement with some of the activities of the group over the past two years - including operation from Cork City Gaol, Blackrock Castle, Mizen Head, Blarney Castle and Mallow Castle. The North Cork Radio Group will be back on Mizen Head for International Marconi Day (April 21st) and, speaking of Marconi, the newsletter has an article about Marconi's first radio reports from the Kingstown Regatta in 1898.
The regular "HF Happenings" column from Anthony EI2KC covers recent DX activity by way of contributions from Trevor EI2GLB, John EI7BA and Paddy EI1DG. Anthony also brings us up to date on forthcoming DXpeditions that may be of interest. Another popular regular column is the HX Files from Pat EI2HX. This time, Pat explains how he experimented with mobile ATV; his tips would be of interest to anyone planning to operate mobile, even without a camera.
There is plenty more of interest in April's Echo Ireland, which will be posted to members along with the call book within the next few days.
IRTS 80th Anniversary AGM & Rally
The event this year is hosted by Dundalk Amateur Radio Society. The annual dinner takes place on Saturday April 21st, with the Rally and AGM on the following day. Dinner tickets are just €32, a reduction on previous years and represents great value for this very special dinner. B&B is €55 for single and a double is €65. As dinner tickets and rooms are distributed on a first come first served basis, you are encouraged and advised to act now to avoid disappointment. The annual rally, on Sunday April 22nd, will also have its favourites and many new and novel exhibitors.
This is a must attend event in the 80th Anniversary year of your national society. Full details of this event are on the IRTS web site www.irts.ie
Dinner tickets can be bought now by contacting Thos EI2JD on 087-2953256 or email thoscaffrey /at/ hotmail.com or by contacting any IRTS committee member. The Fairways Hotel can be contacted on 042 9321500 or www.fairways.ie
Cashota
CASHOTA (Castles and Stately Homes on the Air) will be holding the first Monument Month over April 2012. This annual award event involves activating Monuments which As defined by Wikipedia, a monument is a type of structure either explicitly created to commemorate a person or important event or which has become important to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, or simply as an example of historic architecture.
Everyone is welcome to participate, with all details of the event, including how to register, being available at www.cashotamonuments.webs.com/, if you require more information contact Steve EI5DD at cashota-ireland.org/home
San Francisco Radio Club
San Francisco Amateur Radio Club will be holding a Special Event Station - W6G - to celebrate the 75th Anniversary of the Golden Gate Bridge on May 26, 2012 at 2000z to May 27, 2012 at 2200z. Details on www.sfarc.org
South Dublin Radio Club
The SDR Annual General Meeting took place recently. Their discussion at the meeting covered club activities for the coming year as well as options for re-starting radio theory classes. A new committee was elected for 2012; the members are: Jim Holohan EI4HH Tony Doyle EI7GUB Tom McGrath EI7HT Tony Byrne EI7JN Daniel Cussen EI9FHB Martin Farnan EI9GCB Michael Fitzgerald EI9GGB
Medway Amateur Receiving & Transmitting Society
The Medway Amateur Receiving & Transmitting Society will be on air from Tuesday 27th March to Saturday 31st March activating Fort Amherst in Chatham Kent. This is part of their 90th birthday celebrations and they will be using special callsign GB5MW. More details can be found at www.cashota.co.uk or www.g5mw.org.uk/
Shannon Basin Radio Club
The Shannon Basin Radio Club is holding a meeting on Wed 28th March at 20:30 in Hannons Hotel, Roscommon.
It is planned to give practical demonstrations on computerised logging, dx cluster and Logbook of the World.
All members are requested to attend and visitors are welcome. For more info see www.shannonbasinradioclub.com
EI8GQB activity : March 18th-26th
Oliver/ON4EI will again be QRV from Ireland near Fethard (IO62EL) on top of Benneshill (170m ASL) with his Irish callsign EI8GQB. He will enter the CQ WPX SSB CONTEST on March 24th/25th.
During the week before the contest Oliver will set up 5 antennas to support SO2R operation. Reference frequency is 7.100 MHz +/- QRM.
Olivier will hold a daily blog on www.qrz.com/db/EI8GQB and post regularly video on YouTube ON4EI's channel www.youtube.com/user/ON4EI
If you want to visit him during the week, please send a mail to ON4EI/at/VANDENBALCK/dot/EU
DX News
An American/Canadian team led by Frosty K5BLU will be active from Botswana from 18 – 27 March. The individual calls will be A25CF, A25DS, A25KW and A25JR. Look out for activity also during the CQ WPX SSB Contest next weekend.
A group from Japan plan to be QRV from Burkina Faso in West Africa from 21 – 28 March. Calls will be XT2VWT, XT2IVU, XT2AEF, and XT2VVO. They will operate SSB on all bands 80 – 10m.
Hartwig DL7BC will operate from the Indian Ocean island of Mayotte from 20 March until 6 April. Look for him initially as FH/DL7BC and from 23 March as TO7BC. QSLs for both calls go via his home call.
An international team will activate the callsign E51M from the North Cook Islands from 28 March – 10 April. They will operate on all bands 160 – 6m using CW, SSB and RTTY. QSL manager is DJ8NK.
Items for inclusion in next week’s Radio News can be submitted via e-mail to “newsteam /at/ irts / dot / ie” for automatic forwarding to both the radio and printed news services. Urgent news items for the radio news maybe telephoned to the radio news editor, Aidan, EI7JC on 085 7100511.
Please note that items for the radio news should reach the editor no later than midday on Thursday in order to be guaranteed inclusion in the following Sunday’s bulletin.
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