Archived News Script

printer friendly version

IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday 27th April 2014


Counties Contest

The two metre band came alive for a few hours on Easter Monday for the two metres counties contest. Band conditions were quite variable, with signals rising and falling very rapidly over short periods for the longer distance QSOs. The good weather made it easier for the portable stations, especially those on high ground: those included Shannon Basin Radio Club, who were on Cairn Hill Co. Longford, David EI7GEB who was on Djouce Mountain Co. Wicklow and Joe EI7GY in Co. Laois on the Slieve Blooms. Both David and Joe were activating SOTA summits: David reports a summit-to-summit contact with Northern Spain - though admittedly that was on 15 metres!

The counties contest is a popular event for clubs; as well as Shannon Basin Radio Club, we heard Kerry Amateur Radio Group, Tipperary Amateur Radio Group, South Eastern Amateur Radio Group and Mayo Radio Experimenters Network.


Amateur Station Licence Examination

Wednesday next 30th April is the closing date for applications for the next Amateur Station Licence Examination which will be held on Thursday, 22nd May in the ComReg Offices in Dublin. In view of the number of applicants it will be necessary to hold a morning session from 10.00 am to 12.00 noon and an afternoon session from 2.00 pm to 4.00 pm. 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. Three Exam Reports which were previously published in Echo Ireland are available on the Downloads section of the website at www.irts.ie/downloads These reports contain very useful information for anyone studying for the Licence Examination.


Tipperary Amateur Radio Group

The next meeting of the Tipperary Amateur Radio Group will be held at The Park Hotel, Clonmel on Thursday 1st May 2014 at 8pm. This meeting is open to all and short wave listeners are particularly welcome to attend. A number of radio related topics are up for discussion as well as plans for participation in up coming events. For more information about Tipperary Amateur Radio Group go to www.ei7trg.org


South Eastern Amateur Radio Group

The final CW transmission from the EI2EEN station at the Irish Museum of Modern Art was made on Saturday 5th April. The station had been transmitting a special poem in CW for the Remembering Gray exhibition by Irish artist Sarah Browne on specific Saturdays since October 2012. A lot of QSO’s were logged during the event

SEARG would like to thank the following people for making the EI2EEN station such a success. Artist Sarah Browne who’s idea it was to have the CW transmissions. Marguerite O’Molloy and Nuria Carballeira from the Irish Museum Of Modern Art for their hospitality and patience with the setting up and running of the station. Tom McGrath EI7HT, the members of the South Dublin Radio club for all their assistance throughout the project.

Thanks to Mark Wall for all his time operating the EI2EEN station and David Gainda EI6GVB for loaning his equipment. Thanks also to Mark Wall EI7IS, David Gainda EI6GVB, Dennis Drennan EI2HSB and Seany Byrne EI2HZB for all their help in putting the station together and erecting the antennas. Thanks to John Ketch EI2GN for his brilliant photographs of the station in operation.

The April meeting of the South Eastern Amateur Radio Group will take place in the Roanmore Social and Sports Centre, Cleaboy Road, Waterford on tomorrow night Monday the 28th of April at 8.00 p.m. At this meeting John Ronan EI7IG will give a talk entitled “How APRS Works” New members and anyone interested in learning more about amateur radio are very welcome to attend.

For up-to-date news about the South Eastern Amateur Radio Group and it’s actives you can check our website www.searg.com and you can follow us on facebook and on twitter.


Shannon Basin Radio Club

The Shannon Basin Radio Club will holding a meeting in Hannons Hotel Roscommon town on Friday 2nd May at 20.30.

All members are requested to attend and anybody wishing to join is always welcome. For further info please see www.shannonbasinradioclub.com or contact brian ei8iu on 0861057325 or at brianei8iu/at/eircom/dot/net.


DX News

The Pacific island of Ogasawara, which counts as a separate entity for the DXCC award, will be activated by two amateurs in the coming weeks. JD1BLY will be operated by JI5RPT on all bands 40 – 10m CW, SSB and digital. He will be there from 27th April until 5th May. The other call to look for is JD1BMH operated by JG7PSJ and he will be there from 27th April until 11th May. Ogasawara is located about 1000 km from Tokyo. There is a population of about 2400 and an average temperature of 22C.

Members of the DX Plus Hellenic Radio Amateur Team will activate Levitha Islet in the Dodecanese Islands from 3rd – 11th May. The callsign will be SX5LA and the IOTA reference number is EU-001. QSLs go via SV2FWV.

F6AML will be operating holiday style from the island of Guadeloupe in the Caribbean from 5th – 20th May. He will use the special callsign TO6A and QSLs can be requested by email. See details on QRZ.COM

Prefix hunters will be interested to work ON1418MWV which commemorates the location of a field hospital in Midden West-Vlaanderen during World War 1. The station will be on the air from 27th April – 27th May. QSL manager is ON6UB.

Stan, EI6DX, will be visiting French Polynesia in May. He will be active from Bora Bora IOTA OC-067 between May 7-18 2014 as FO/EI6DX. Equipment will include K3, ACOM 1000 and a Crankir vertical. All QSLs via RX3RC (bureau or direct). Holiday style operation CW and SSB on 80 – 10 metres. A dedicated page and a photo gallery will be launched at www.ei6dx.com soon.


Dundalk Amateur Radio Society EI7DAR

The AGM of Dundalk ARS will take place Wednesday 7th May 2000 at Larkin House, 116 Castletown Road, Dundalk. Everyone welcome.


Hurdy Gurdy Museum Howth

Some interesting photos of a new antenna installation at the Martello Tower, Howth are available to view on bit.ly/1iiqmIS


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.

[A]

contact IRTS
irts groups.io