Archived News Script
IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday 28th February 2016
Silent Key – Manus EI7EQ
The death has occurred of Manus McClafferty EI7EQ, Falcarragh, County Donegal. His funeral mass was on 22nd February and afterwards he was laid to rest in St. Finian’s Church Cemetery.
Manus was well-known for contacting and befriending Colonel Alexei Constantin, a cosmonaut isolated for a while aboard the Mir space station during the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. Manus kept him updated with what was really going on back home. A video is available on vimeo.com/36862377
May he rest in peace.
IRTS AGM 2016
Limerick Radio Club will host the 84th Annual General Meeting of the Irish Radio Transmitters Society over the weekend of 9th & 10th April 2016. The venue will be the Radisson Blu Hotel & Spa, Ennis Road, Limerick.
There are 4 Workshop Talks arranged for Saturday 9th April. The talks are free and start at 2pm sharp. Everyone is welcome.
Tickets for the Dinner on Saturday night 9th April, (7.30 for 8.00pm) cost €35 each (same as last year!) and are available from Tony EI2AW QTHR Golf Links Road, Castletroy, Limerick.
Payment can be made by cheque, money order or via paypal. Contact Tony EI2AW at telephone 061-334076 or Email condona /at/ eircom.net. A Proforma invoice will be forwarded to any person wishing to pay through Paypal.
The Limerick Radio Club Rally will be held on Sunday 10th. Doors open at 11am. Entrance fee is €5. More information is available from Simon EI7ALB on 0872858884 or kenmare32 /at/ eircom.net
For further information see www.irts.ie and also www.limerickradioclub.ie/
Echo Ireland: March 2016
The latest edition of Echo Ireland, the IRTS journal, includes the formal notice of the society's Annual General Meeting along with the committee's nominations for the offices of President, Vice-President and other committee positions for the coming year.
We sometimes hear that "clubs are no longer as active as in the past", however reading the news from around the clubs in the current issue, there is clearly plenty going on in the clubs. There are updates from Shannon Basin, Tipperary, Dundalk, Avondhu, Kerry, Cork, Limerick and Mayo radio clubs. Between special event activations, contest entries, repairs to repeaters, equipment demonstrations and plenty more, the clubs have indeed been busy!
The "HF Happenings" column by Anthony EI2KC contains plenty of news of recent and forthcoming DX. In a separate article, Anthony touches on the controversial topic of Clublog Leaderboards. Staying with DX matters, a report by Dave EI9FBB on his recent participation in the Coetivy Island activation makes interesting reading; Dave's group were the first to put the island, which is part of the Seychelles, on the air.
The latest Echo Ireland includes some informative articles on licensing matters, including a summary of the IRTS Response to ComReg's recent Draft Radio Spectrum Management Strategy Consultation, news about the 5MHz band, a report on the implications for radio amateurs of the decisions taken at the 2015 ITU World Radiocommunication Conference and a history of amateur radio licensing in Ireland.
The March Echo Ireland is currently being printed and will be mailed to members during the week.
Contest Results
Results of the society's first 80 Metres Evening Counties Contest have been published and can be seen at the Contest Results page on www.irts.ie/results
Congratulations to Paul EI2CA, winner of the EI/GI section, who was closely followed by Sean EI7CD and Ark EI9KC. Congratulations also to David 2E0KVJ, who came first among the 9 overseas entrants. In all, 37 logs were submitted, showing activity in 23 EI/GI counties.
Our next contest is the 2 Metres Counties Contest, on Easter Monday 28th March.
Cork Radio Club Monthly Meeting
Following on from his recent well received talk at Cork Radio Club, Sean EI3GS will continue his look back at marine radio in times past, next Wednesday Wednesday March 4th at Carrigtwohill Community Centre, starting at 2000. In this presentation, he will talk about his experiences on the famous tug ‘Turmoil’ and the truth about the Flying Enterprise.
Cork Radio Club meets on the first Wednesday each month and visitors and new members are always very welcome.
Enquiries to ei4bz /at/ eircom.net or 087-6290574
The Hurdy Gurdy Museum
The March edition of QST, the journal of the ARRL, features the Hurdy Gurdy Museum of Vintage Radio in Howth. The author is David Dary, W5ZAX from Oklahoma. Dave visited the museum in May of last year.
The two-page article includes several colour photographs of the museum. Dave is a professor of journalism at the University of Oklahoma and previously worked for NBC and CBS news. He was first licensed in 1952.
The museum is open at weekends from 11 until 4 until the end of April and from May until the end of October it opens seven days a week. For further details you can Google us on the internet or email us ei0mar /at/ eircom.net .
Dundalk Amateur Radio Society - 2m Handheld Raffle.
The Dundalk Amateur Radio Society will hold a draw for a brand new MYT-Q1V - VHF, 136MHz to 174MHz 2m FM Handheld radio.
To be included in the draw you must make a minimum amount donation to Dundalk Amateur Radio Society. The minimum donation amount is available on the Club website.
You can make a donation on a club night or online via the donate button on the EI7DAR web page www.ei7dar.com
Please remember to give your contact details when donating online.
The draw will run until midnight on Sunday 3rd April. The draw will take place at the IRTS AGM in Limerick on Sunday 10th April. This draw is open to anyone in Ireland, north or south.
South Eastern Amateur Radio Group
The 2016 AGM of the South Eastern Amateur Radio Group will take place tomorrow night Monday 29th February 2016 at 8pm sharp in the Roanmore Social & Sports Club, Cleaboy Road, Waterford. All members are asked to attend and new members are very welcome
The IRLP node 5883 which is connected to the Southern Ireland Repeater Network is now back on the air. It was disabled a few months back as it needed some maintenance work done on it. It was moved from its old location to a new site in EI3RCW’s radio shack in the Waterford Institute Of Technology. It has been upgraded from an old pc to a Raspberry Pi.
For up-to-date news about the South Eastern Amateur Radio Group and it’s actives you can check our website www.searg.ie and you can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
Olivier ON4EI/EI8GQB
Olivier ON4EI is back to Ireland from 27th February to 30th March 2016 to operate EI8GQB (EI1A during the ARRL International DX SSB, Russian DX and CQ WW WPX contest). Olivier operates contests in Low Power/Single Op SSB category using mainly green energy with his temporary 'Field Day like' antenna park setup.
You can follow this one-man expedition on www.qrz.com/db/EI8GQB or meet him on the air. (See live operating frequency on his qrz.com banner). QSL only via LOTW or via QSL MANAGER: PA3249 (direct or bureau).
DX News
Two African countries will be visited by Arkadiy UA4CC and Arunas LY2IJ over the coming weeks. Firstly they will go to Mozambique from 28th February until 8th March where they will sign C92CC and C91IJ. This will be followed by activity from Swaziland from 9th to 15th March where the callsigns will be 3DA0CC and 3DA0IJ. On each occasion they will operate the HF bands with a focus on the low bands. QSLs will be via ClubLog OQRS and Logbook of the World.
Michel F6GWV and Gildas F6HMQ will be in Guadeloupe until 14th March. They will use FG/homecall and in addition will use the special callsign TO66R.
Alan G3XAQ will be back in Uganda from 4th to 16th March and will be found on CW using 5X1XA. QSL manager is G3SWH.
Mike UA1QV will be QRV as RI1PA from Kolguev Island from 5th to 19th March. Kolguev is located in the Arctic at 69 degrees North and has a population of 300. The IOTA reference is EU-085 and QSLs go via the home call.
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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