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IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday 9th February 2014


Amateur Station Licence Examination

The next Amateur Station Licence Examination will be held on Thursday 22nd May in the ComReg Offices in Dublin. Places for the examination are limited and will be allocated on a first come first served basis so you are advised to apply early. Some applications for this exam have already been received. If warranted by the number of candidates, a morning session will be held in addition to the usual afternoon session.

Full details, including entry procedure, examination fee and how to pay the fee on line are available at www.irts.ie/exam . Please note that it is necessary to download the application form from the web page and forward the completed form and the appropriate fee so as to secure a place for the examination. If you pay the fee on line you must still complete and forward the application form. The closing date for receipt of completed applications is Wednesday 30th April.


Radio Rallies

This year’s Rally season gets underway on Sunday next (16th February) with the Phoenix Amateur Radio Club Rally in the Coolmine Community School Blanchardstown, doors open at 11:00 a.m.

There are three rallies in the month of March, starting with the Lagan Valley Amateur Radio Rally on Saturday 1st March. Next is the Limerick Radio Club Radio Rally on Sunday 9th March and last, but not least, the IRTS AGM weekend, including Annual Dinner, Rally and AGM, hosted by Galway VHF Group, which takes place on Saturday and Sunday 22nd and 23rd March.

The AGM weekend venue is the Galway Bay Hotel, Salthill. Tickets for the AGM dinner are available from Steve EI5DD on 087 245 1218 or QTHR. You may also get your tickets from John EI1EM at QTHR.

Finally, we should mention that the date for the Lough Erne Amateur Radio Club Annual Rally has been announced: it will take place on Sunday 11th May at the usual venue of the Share Centre, Lisnaskea.

Look at www.irts.ie/rallies for more details of all these rallies and of the IRTS AGM weekend.


Summits On The Air

Victor GI4ONL and Victor MI0JST - who are not surprisingly known as “the Victors” - have been active on GI (and EI) summits over the past two years. They have now activated all 65 GI summits. Their plans for 2014 include some first time activations of EI summits. In other SOTA news, we hear that Filip ON4TA, who has activated many EI and GI summits over the past few years, is planning another visit this year.


IRTS Awards

We have mentioned the IRTS Awards in a number of recent bulletins. This week we would like to refer in particular to two awards for VHF activity, both donated to IRTS by John EI7IQ. These are the 4 Metre and 6 Metre Shields, awarded to the leading EI/EJ IRTS member for operation on the respective bands for activity in the previous calendar year. Scoring in each case is one point per unique QSO multiplied by the number of unique Maidenhead Locator Squares worked (these are the Big Squares, such as “India Oscar 53”) and this score is then multiplied by the total number of DXCC countries worked.

Entries for this award, and indeed entries and nominations for all awards for Service to the Society or to Amateur Radio and the awards for Other Achievements should be submitted by post or e-mail, and can be forwarded to Jim Holohan, EI4HH, Chairman Awards Committee, QTHR, or email awards /at/ irts.ie. Closing date for entries and nominations is 28th February 2014. Awards for Service to the Society or to Amateur Radio may be made to members or non-members. See www.irts.ie/awards for more information on all IRTS awards.

Finally, on the subject of awards, Peter EI4HX, the Awards Curator, reminds us that recipients of awards and cups given out at last year’s IRTS AGM in Athlone are requested to return their Trophies and Cups in good time to allow for engraving for the forthcoming IRTS AGM 2014. Trophies and Cups maybe returned to the IRTS stand at the Coolmine Rally on 16th February or to any IRTS Committee member before 28th February.


EI DXCC List

The latest update of the EI DXCC List at www.irts.ie/dxcc shows a number of EIs making steady progress up the award ladder: Patrick EI4IR, Claus EI7JZ, Brian EI8IU and Jim EI9GLB have all moved up the DXCC standings.

Staying with DXCC standings, one of the rarer DXCC entities – Amsterdam Island, in the Southern Indian Ocean – is currently on the air. This is a major DXpedition, with European, North and South American operators. At the time of writing, they have logged over 100,000 QSOs, with more than 70 EI and GI call signs in the log.


DX News

OE4AAC will be operating holiday style from Rodrigues Island in the Indian Ocean from 10 – 18 February. Eric is a CW enthusiast and will be using the callsign 3B9/OE4AAC.

The ‘Buddies in the Caribbean’ crew are off on another DXpedition to the Caribbean. This time their destination is St Vincent Island. They will run 100w to the usual Buddipole antennas and the eight operators will prefix their stateside calls with J8/ .

Ewald who holds the callsigns OE8IDK and DK3ID will be in Lesotho from 11 – 16 February. Look out for his 7P8ID call on SSB on all bands 40 – 6m.

Toshi JA8BMK who was in Laos for the second-half of January as XW8BM will soon be active from Vietnam. He is expected to use the callsign XV2BM for a few weeks from mid-February.


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 may be 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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