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IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday 11th February 2018


Evening Counties Contest

A one-hour IRTS 80 metres Counties Contest takes place at 20:00 on Tuesday week, 20th February. There are SSB-Only and mixed-mode SSB/CW sections, with double points for CW QSOs in the mixed-mode section. See www.irts.ie/contests for permitted frequencies, the power limit and other rules. For EI and GI stations, multipliers are the Irish counties plus overseas DXCC entities worked, while for overseas stations multipliers are the EI and GI counties.


Phoenix Amateur Radio Club Rally

A special hello to everyone attending the rally in Coolmines today, hope you are having a wonderful Sunday this morning. We would also like to wish good luck to those sitting the morse code assessment after the rally.


IRTS Awards

The IRTS Awards Committee is seeking nominations for “Awards for Services to the Society or to Amateur Radio” and “Awards to IRTS members for Other Achievements”. Details of these Awards are available at www.irts.ie under the Awards section. Nominations should reach the Awards Manager Jim Holohan EI4HH, email “holohaj2 /at/ hotmail /dot/ com”, as soon as possible.


IRTS Annual General Meeting

The IRTS AGM will be taking place in the Galway Bay Hotel overlooking the sea front and popular holiday resort.

There will be lectures held on Saturday afternoon from 2pm. These will include An Introduction to Digital Radio (by Steve Wright, EI5DD, and John Ronan, EI7IG), Having Fun in Space by Graham Shirville G3VZV, the 7Q7EI Dxpedition (by Pat O’Connor, EI9HX and Enda Broderick EI2II) and Weak Signal mode - FT8 (by Keith Wallace, EI5KO). The Annual dinner will take place in the evening at 7:30pm.

On Sunday the Rally will take place in a spacious conference hall located underneath the Hotel.

The Galway VHF Group are offering all Traders tables. The will be no charge for the table but there will be a charge of €5.00 per person entry fee to the Rally. Radio Clubs are encouraged to set up an information stand to publicise their activities and repeaters etc. There will be many traders in attendance which will include Mike Higgins, EI0CL, Long Communications, Oak Electronics, The RSGB Book Stand, MREN Bring and Buy, Brandmeister Ireland – Digital Radio, The IRTS, many Radio Club information tables and more to come! Club Tables so far, Mayo VHF Group, Galway Radio Experimenters Club, M.R.E.N. and the Galway VHF Group.

Doors will open at 10:00 am to facilitate a longer time for the Rally. Tables and any enquiries should be addressed to: Steve Wright, EI5DD, email “wrights1 /at/ eircom /dot/ net” or phoned to 087 2451218.

Meals will be available on Sunday in the Carvery for all the weary travellers prior to the AGM.

Those seeking a room at the hotel should mention the IRTS when booking to get the special rate for the weekend. There are numerous B&Bs in the area of Salthill which may be found on the B&B finders on the internet.

Repeaters in Galway include: Tonnabrucky Fusion/analog: RX 145.625, TX 145.025 CTCSS 77Hz; Abbeyknockmoy Analog Repeater: RX 430.825, TX 438.425 CTCSS 77Hz and Multimode Digital Gateway on 144.850 MHz.

A reminder that tickets for the Dinner may be purchased from the IRTS website - see the IRTS AGM tab.


Limerick Radio Club

The Limerick Radio Club AGM was held on the Thursday 9th February. The incoming committee is as follows: Chairman: Harry O'Loughlin EI2KL Hon Secretary Michael Kirwin EI3KO Hon Treasurer Tony Condon EI2AW Committee members: Michael Kingston EI2IX, Liam Mangan EI4GB, Liam Rainford EI7DSB, Albert Price EI5HXB.

The LRC Rally is scheduled for Sunday the 25th March in the Radisson Blu Hotel Limerick. Anyone wishing to book tables please contact Michael Kingston EI2IX e-mail “michaelkingston /at/ eircom /dot/ net” or to Harry O'Loughlin e-mail “oloughlin /dot/ harry /at/ gmail /dot/ com” As for previous years the LRC website will advertise for sale items, so please send your list to Michael's e -mail address.

Brendan EI0CZ, Harry EI2KL and Tom EI5CA continue with Morse Practice, on the Limerick 2 metre repeater (145.725/145.125 MHz), after the IRTS News at 20:00 on Mondays and at 20:00 on Tuesdays. South Dublin Radio Club The South Dublin Radio Club AGM will take place at 8pm on Tuesday 20th of February 2018 at Ballyroan community centre on the Marian road in Rathfarnham. All members are asked to attend.


Tipperary Amateur Radio Group

The February meeting of the Tipperary Amateur Radio Group is to take place in The Park Hotel, Clonmel on Thursday 22th February at 8.30pm. New members or anyone interested in amateur radio are very welcome to attend.

For anyone who wishes to find out more about the Tipperary Amateur Radio Group and its activities you can come along to any of their meetings. You can also check their website www.ei7trg.ie or contact club PRO Ronan EI4KN at QTHR for further information.


Kerry Amateur Radio

The Kerry Amateur Radio held their AGM on Saturday 27th January in Castleisland, Co. Kerry.

A lively meeting was held with a great attendance. Events from the past year were profiled leading to a very good and productive discussion for events in 2018 and 2019. A calendar of these events has been sent to all members.

Officers were elected for 2018 as follows: -

Chairman / QSL manager: Declan Horan EI9FVB Treasurer: Billa O’Conor EI7CQB Secretary / PRO: John Costello EI9ESB

It was decided to invite expressions of interest for classes or tutorials for the Amateur Radio Licence examination and to that end a short piece was posted on the Kerry Amateur Radio Group YouTube channel that was then linked to social media. Anyone in the region interested in registering their interest is encouraged to email the club via “ei1karg /at/ gmail /dot/ com”.

The next Kerry Amateur Radio Group monthly meeting is on 24th February at 11am in the Sports Hall in Killarney. All are welcome to attend, new members are encouraged.


South Eastern Amateur Radio Group

The 2018 AGM of the group will take place on Monday the 26th of February 2018 in the Roanmore Social and Sports Centre, Cleaboy Road, Waterford at 8.00 p.m. sharp. As this is the most important meeting of the year for the group all members are please asked to attend. New members or anyone interested in the hobby are very welcome to come along also.

For anyone that wishes to find out more about the South Eastern Amateur Radio Group and their activities you can come along to any of their meetings. You can check out their website www.searg.ie and you can also join them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter.


DX News

There was disappointment in the DX world last week when the much anticipated DXpedition to Bouvet Island 3Y0Z had to be aborted. The team had spent several days off the coast of Bouvet but the weather prevented a safe transfer of crew and gear to the island. Added to this a problem with one of the ship’s engines left the Captain with no alternative but to abandon the project and to head for Cape Town.

Members of the Sandringham School Amateur Radio Club, led by Headmaster Alan G4DJX, will revisit Gambia this month and reactivate their C5DX callsign. They will be active until 18th February. QSLs go to G4DJX and logs will be uploaded to Logbook of The World.

Scott NE9U will be QRV as PJ4/NE9U from the island of Bonaire until 24th February. QSLs go to his home call.

George K5KG will operate as VP2MKG from Montserrat from 14th – 27th February. QSL via his home call.

Henning OZ1BII will be active from the Cape Verde Islands as D44EE from 15th - 20th February. He will be on CW only and the IOTA reference is AF-005. QSL via Club Log OQRS.


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, Mark EI6HPB on 086 355 2370.

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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