Archived News Script
IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday 21st October 2012
Silent Key
It is with great sadness that we only recently learned that Philip Murphy (EI8HN) became a silent key last July.
Philip served as a committee member of both the North Dublin and Fingal Radio Clubs. For many years he was also the Morse Code tutor in NDR and helped many students pass the then 12 wpm test.
Philip was a gentle giant and was always there to help out on field days or with other projects. He was a deeply religious man and emigrated to England several years ago, initially to Lancashire and then Sunderland. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a hanam dílis.
IOTA Contest Results
The provisional results for this year's Islands On The Air contest have now been published. An extract of these results, covering logs submitted from stations operating from the island of Ireland and offshore islands, is in the contest results section of the IRTS web site: see www.irts.ie for a direct link to the results.
This year, 26 logs were submitted by EI/EJ and GI/MI stations, almost 20% more than in 2011. The highest Irish score was from the Polish-Irish Papa Lima DX group, who operated from Little Saltee Island with the call sign EJ0PL. Their total score was in excess of 6 million points. Other Irish stations with million-plus scores were EJ3Z (Shannon Basin Radio Club, who were on Inisboffin) and mainland stations EI7KD (Oleg), GI5K (Chris) and EI1A (Olivier).
IOTA contests continue to be very popular: a total of 2,517 logs were submitted for this contest - 200 more than in 2011. Worldwide, the highest score was achieved by the Slovak Contest Group operating from Sardinia, with the Bristol Contest Group - last year's highest scoring group - in second place.
IRTS Technical Panel
The IRTS is planning to launch a new service for our membership. In our ongoing endeavours to engage more fully with our membership we have identified an area we feel could be of significant benefit to them.
The IRTS Technical Panel is a group of volunteers who have expertise in, or experience of, different aspects of amateur radio. The e-mail address irtstech /at/ irts.ie is a single point of contact for communicating with the Panel. Our aim is to help radio amateurs with technical or operational problems.
Send your question to irtstech /at/ irts.ie. . Provide as much information as possible, including details of attempts already made to deal with the issue in question.
Your query via irtstech /at/ irts.ie will be distributed to all the members of the Technical Panel and the resolution to the query e-mailed to your private e-mail address. See the October edition of Echo Ireland for further information.
South Eastern Amateur Radio Group
The SEARG tour bus was on the road again last weekend as members of the club headed to the IVETA (Irish Vintage Engine & Tractor Association) 2012 National Show which took place in the Cavan Equestrian Centre in Cavan. The lads headed up on Saturday and enjoyed a great night in Cavan town on the Saturday night. The show on Sunday was a great event with the 3 arenas in the centre packed with vintage cars, tractors and bikes. The SEARG display yet again proved to be very popular with people attending the event. Although band conditions were poor on the day a few contacts were made. Cavan Community Radio done an interview with Mark EI7IS and we will publish the link for it as soon as it becomes available.
The “Class of 2012” proved they knew their stuff at the recent exam which was held on the 4th October. The club’s theory course which had been run for people wishing to do the exam was a great success and hopefully the club will run another course in the near future. The committee and members of SEARG would like to congratulate all the students on the great results and look forward to having a QSO with you all soon. For anyone who didn’t succeed this time don’t give up keep at your notes and the members of SEARG will be happy to help you to get ready for the next exam which should be held in early 2013.
SEARG would like to thank John Clancy of IVETA for inviting us to attend the national show in Cavan and we look forward to taking part in many events in the future. The next monthly meeting of the club will take place in Roanmore Social and Sports Centre, Cleaboy Road, Waterford at 8.30 p.m. on Monday the 29th October. The meeting will be preceded by a committee meeting at 8.00 pm. New members are always welcome. For up-to-date news about the club you can check our website www.searg.com and you can follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
Dundalk Amateur Radio Society, EI7DAR
Radio Theory Classes will commence Monday 5th November at DAR Society premises ‘Larkin House’, 113, Castletown Road, Dundalk, for preparation to sit the radio theory exam early in 2013. Tuition places are strictly limited and intending candidates are encouraged to enrol at the earliest opportunity. Tuition will involve approximately 20 weeks class attendance and an investment of €100 is required. Open nights to find out more information and to enrol on the course will be held October 31st and on November 5th, the start of the classes. All are welcome to enrol. More information from www.ei7dar.com or secretary at ei7dar dot com.
DX News
Yann F1NGP is at present in Guadeloupe using the callsign FG/F1NGP. He will be there until 26 October. Look for him on 40 – 10m on RTTY, CW and SSB.
Three Italian stations, IK5RUN, I5OYY and I5IHE, will be QRV from the Seychelles from 21 October until 4 November. They will use the calls S79UN, S79YY and S79LC. This is a holiday style operation and they hope to be on 80 – 10m CW, SSB and RTTY.
Mek SP7VC will be in North Africa signing EA9/SP7VC from Ceuta from 22 – 28 October. He will be taking part in the CQ WW DX SSB Contest next weekend (27-28 October)
Among the more exotic callsigns to be heard in the Contest next weekend include 6Y9X (Jamaica), 8P2K and 8P5A (Barbados), AH0BT (Mariana Islands), C5A (Gambia), KG6DX and NH2T (Guam), T88EB and T88KV (Palau), VQ5X (Turks and Caicos Islands) and ZD8O (Ascension Island). A comprehensive list of these stations and many others can be found on the NG3K website. Go to www.ng3k.com and click on ‘Announced DX Operations’.
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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