Archived News Script

printer friendly version

IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday 17th June 2018


Museums on the air

The IRTS news team would like to wish the best of luck to everyone taking part in Museums on the air over the weekend. We hope each of you enjoy a lot of QSO’s and manage to work all the other stations you wanted to.


IRTS Meeting

The next committee meeting will take place on Saturday 23rd June at 11am in the Creggan Court Hotel, Athlone. IRTS officers and club representatives (who are also members of the IRTS) are entitled to attend the committee meetings. For additional information regarding the role of club representative, please make contact with the IRTS Secretary.


Echo Ireland - Summer 2018

A reminder. The Summer edition of the members' journal has now gone to press. It includes lots of updates from clubs around the country, with details of their recent and forthcoming activities.

The Galway VHF Group hosted the 2018 annual general meeting weekend and this issue of Echo Ireland contains plenty of photos of the weekend's activities. The journal also contains a detailed report on the Galway VHF Group's communications support for the Connemara Ultra Marathon. This is a major event covering an extensive area of mountainous terrain, requiring a number of different communications systems to provide the required coverage.

The first report from our new "HF Happenings" contributor, Don EI6IL will be featured in this summer issue. While the HF bands may appear to be "in the doldrums" at present, Don's report shows that a little foresight and perseverance can yield good DX even at times when HF propagation is poor. The impact of the new digital modes, such as FT8, which permit machine-only QSOs, and which have rapidly become popular among some DXers, is examined in a thought-provoking article by Kirk NT0Z; this is well worth reading and will no doubt lead to some lively debates!

Other items covered in the the latest Echo Ireland include the popular "Excerpts from the HX files", details of the EIDX group's plans for island activations during the next few months, finishing with another DX Féile weekend on Inis Mór in the Autumn, an updated EI DXCC Listing and draft band plans for consultation for the new 40 MHz and 60 MHz bands now available to EI radio amateur stations.


Tipperary Amateur Radio Group

The next meeting of the Tipperary Amateur Radio Group will take place in The Park Hotel, Clonmel on Thursday 28th June at 8.30pm. Preparation will be made for participation in events taking place over the summer months. 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 out their website www.ei7trg.ie or contact club PRO Ronan EI4KN at QTHR for further information.


EIDX Group

A reminder that the EIDX Group has already begun to activate all Irish IOTA Groups. Using the 'Echo Juliet' prefix, EJ0DXG will be QRV from IOTA EU-006, EU-007, EU-103 and EU-121 this summer.

The group started off with 'Little Saltee Island' using CW, SSB and Digital modes.

Supported by dxwanted.net a beautiful plaque will be available for whoever works them on 4 different IOTA Groups. So, as a 'Bonus' or 'Wildcard' station, EI0DXG will also be QRV from Mainland Ireland (EU-115) throughout and until September 30th 2018.

Teams are already confirmed with all necessary permissions in hand. 6m fans should note that some of these islands are also in rare Grid squares and for Worked All Ireland followers. These will count towards the Island award.

July will see activity from the Great Blasket Island EU-007. August will see EU-121 grace the bands from Bere Island. Their last Island activity ends September 16th as part of their DX Féile weekend from Inishmore, Aran Islands EU-006.

More information can be found on their Facebook page, just search for Irish Islands IOTA Tour 2018.


DX News

Lawrence K8HTC will be QRV from the Cayman Islands as ZF2LT from 18th – 24th June. QSL via his home call.

Haru JA1XGI will be active as H44XG from Honiara in the Solomon Islands from 21st – 27th June. He will be on 40 – 10m mainly on CW, with perhaps some FT8.

Bodo DF8DX will be making a return visit to Taiwan from 24th – 30th June. He will reactivate his BW/DF8DX call sign on the HF bands. QSLs go via his home call and logs will also be uploaded to Logbook of The World.

A group of French amateurs will visit three islands off the French coast during 22nd – 23rd June. They will use the call sign TM65EU. The islands are Trielen, Bannec and Molene and all count as EU-065 for the IOTA programme. QSL manager is F4ELK.


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.

[A]

contact IRTS
irts groups.io