Archived News Script
IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday 8th July 2018
Silent Keys
It is with profound sadness that we report the loss of two members of our community this week.
We recently learnt of the death of Shane McKeever EI4IK Rahielty, Rathmoyle, Co. Kilkenny and formerly of Baltinglass, Co. Wicklow on the 11th June 2018 following a short illness. Shane’s funeral took place on Thursday June 14th at 11 o'clock in St. Canice's Church, Kilkenny with cremation afterwards. To his wife Ellie, son Henry, daughter Hanna, mother Una, brother, sisters, aunts, uncles, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, nephews, nieces, relatives and a large circle of friends we extend our deepest sympathies. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam.
With deepest sympathy we also report the passing of Harry MacMullan EI2EB of Bunclody. Harry passed away last Monday, 25th June aged 82. He had suffered a major stroke on the 13th of February and had spent the time since in hospital, followed then in a nursing home. Harry had gone off air following Hurricane Ophelia when his 40m antenna had been damaged and, only a couple of weeks before his stroke, had been climbing on the roof taking it down and arranging to put up a new one. He had been an avid radio enthusiast since he was young (his father having witnessed Marconi's early experiments in Ballycastle) and qualified as a radio officer in 1958, serving first with Marconi on a tanker, then with Aer Lingus, before joining RTE in 1965. He always enjoyed listening to the sunday IRTS news and calling in afterwards. We extend our heartfelt condolences to all of his family and friends at this time.
IARU HF Championship
This contest, which is one of the major international contests held annually, takes place next weekend for 24 hours from 12:00 UTC on Saturday 14th July. It's on the contest bands from 10 metres to 160 metres, CW and SSB. Members of Avondhu Radio Club will be operating the IRTS Headquarters Station EI0HQ during this event.
The World Radio Team Championship (WRTC) takes place in conjunction with the IARU HF Championship. This team championship event, held every four years, is being hosted in Germany on this occasion, and involves 63 teams of top contestants from around the world participating in the IARU HF Championship. All WRTC teams will operate field day style, with the same operational conditions including identical antennas. Log checking for the 63 WRTC stations begins as soon as the contest ends, with the results of the Team Championship announced on the following day. To help with log cross-checking, the organisers have asked everyone who operates in the IARU HF Championship as a competitor to upload their Cabrillo log to the WRTC web site immediately after the contest. See www.wrtc2018.de for more details of this event, including the log upload link. Note that a separate log upload, to ARRL, is needed to enter the IARU contest; this must be done within 5 days of the contest.
Kingstown Regatta 120th Anniversary
In the late 19th century the Kingstown Regatta was a big annual social event in Dublin. Wireless telegraphy was in its infancy when in July 1898 the Dublin Express newspaper invited Marconi to set up a wireless station aboard the Flying Huntress anchored at the race finish line. The results were transmitted back to the harbour master's office in Kingstown and telephoned onward to the newspaper offices. Special editions of the newspaper with results of the races were on sale in Kingstown before the yachts had returned to port.
This was the first use of wireless in reporting on a sporting event. The races took place in Dublin Bay just off Howth. To commemorate the 120th anniversary of this historic event, EI0MAR will be celebrating by being QRV from the Martello tower in Howth on Saturday 21st July and a special QSL card will be available for all QSOs and SWL reports.
A spark transmitter similar to that used at the Regatta will be on display. The station will be active from about 1000 to 1600 UTC on HF also monitoring 145.525 MHz.
Visitors are welcome to come along and celebrate with us. You can follow The Hurdy Gurdy Museum of Vintage Radio on Facebook for updates.
19th World ARDF Championships
The Korean Amateur Radio League (KARL) will be hosting the IARU WORLD ARDF Championships this year (2018) in the beautiful mountainous and seaside surroundings of Sokcho City, Gangwon Province. This city is near the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games site. The event should prove to be very exciting for those able to attend. For more information, visit Philippine Amateur Radio Association website www.para.org.ph
EIDX Group
A reminder that EJ0DXG will be QRV from IOTA EU-006, EU-007, EU-103 and EU-121 this summer.
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.
Six meter band fans should note that some of the islands being activated by the EIDX Group this summer are in rare Grid squares and good for Worked All Ireland followers. These would count towards the Island award.
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.
More information can be found on their Facebook page, just search for Irish Islands IOTA Tour 2018.
Danish Headquarters Award
A reminder that the Danish Headquarters Award will soon be making its way onto the airwaves. All you have to do is make contact with OZ1HQ on either SSB or CW (or both) between July 14th 12:00 UTC and July 15th 12:00 UTC.
Rules are simple: All contacts with OZ1HQ counts for the award. More info on https://www.qrz.com/db/OZ1HQ
For EU stations, contact via five bands leads to a Gold Award. Silver is for four bands and Bronze is issued to operators who make contact on three bands.
The email address for the award manager OZ4CG Carsten is “oz4cg /at/ live /dot/ dk”
EI8GQB – EI7T Next Activation
After many European SSB successes during the CQ WW WPX, CQ WW DX and the IARU World Champions contests in single operator low power category, Olivier ON4EI is back again to activate EI8GQB (8th-18th July) and EI7T (14th-15th July) during the IARU World Championship. He aims to be amongst the top 3 in the world. Follow his activities on www.qrz.com/db/EI8GQB QSL manager details for this activation are listed on this QRZ page.
Antennae which he intends to use include an Inverted L, inverted V, Spiderbeam and a Mosley TA33Jr. Transceivers are two Elecraft K3 powered by a 500Ah battery bank, 180W solar panel and 400W wind generator.
DX News
Manfred DL5FAB will be QRV from Kourou, French Guiana using the callsign FY/DL5FAB/P until 13th July. Look for him on CW and FT8. He hopes to be able to operate also from the Salut Islands (IOTA SA-020) off the coast of French Guiana. QSL to his home call.
Bruce XW4XR will be active from 11th-22nd July on 40-6m on CW, RTTY and FT8. His QSL manager is E21EIC and logs are also uploaded to Logbook of The World.
David N9DK will be operating as VP2V/N9DK from his boat at the British Virgin Islands from 7th-14th July. Please note that these Maritime Mobile contacts will NOT be valid for DXCC.
Eric KV1J continues his visit to the St Pierre and Miquelon Islands until 17th July where he is signing FP/KV1J. QSLs go via the home call and logs will also be uploaded to Logbook of The World.
Andre NJ0F will sign A25A from Botswana from 13th-20th July. He will be on 80-10m SSB, CW, RTTY and FT8. 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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