Archived News Script
IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday 19th August 2018
South Dublin Radio Club
SDR Club meetings are recommencing on Tuesday 21st August. In the meantime club members and others are welcome to join the SDR Net on 6 metres on 50.205 Mhz any weekday evening from 8 to 9pm local time.
International Space Station
For all ISS enthusiasts, some exciting news, as the space station is passing over Ireland on Saturday 25th of August it will be easily audible on 145.800FM. The astronaut will be speaking in German to a school. The school is Friedrich-Franz-Gymnasium Parchim, Parchim, Germany, and contact will be direct via DC1RSN. ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be DPØISS
The scheduled astronaut is Alexander Gerst KF5ONO Contact is a go for: Sat 2018-08-25 09:52:16 UTC. Signal from the ISS should be easily received on any handheld radio nationwide
IRTS Committee meetings
The date of the September IRTS Committee meeting has been changed to the 8th September, Creggan Court Hotel, Athlone at 11am.
IRTS Committee Meetings for the remainder of the year are set 20th October in Portlaoise and 8th December in Athlone.
Are you an operator of FT8?
Introducing FT8Call. This is a derivative of the WSJT-X application currently under development. It is not supported by, nor endorsed by, the WSJT-X development group however may prove to be a big future success for communication over the airwaves if it completes its development stages. The application has been restructured and redesigned for keyboard-to-keyboard message passing. Described by its developers as “the ability to have keyboard to keyboard ragchew, with the same exact performance of FT8” it will be interesting to see how this project progresses.
Tipperary Amateur Radio Group
The next meeting of the group will take place in The Park Hotel, Clonmel on Thursday 23rd August at 8.30pm. Plans will be finalized for the HF SSB Field Day taking place on the 1st September and all those taking part are requested to attend. New members or anyone interested in amateur radio are very welcome.
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.
Limerick HAREC Course
Preparations are well in hand to provide a HAREC course in Limerick beginning in September. It is expected that the course will be run in the Limerick College of Further Education. Details of dates, times and fees will issue as we get closer to the start date.
IECRO Radio Club
The IECRO Radio Club in Mullingar is glad to announce that licensing has been granted by Comreg for a new VHF FM gateway to be setup in the midlands. This gateway will be of benefit to any amateur radio operators who also have an interest in fishing or sailing along canals, rivers or lakes within the country. Further details will follow regarding the designated callsign, frequency of operation and access method, once the installation and full testing process periods have been completed.
DX News
Al F8FUA will be active from Burkina Faso using the callsign XT2BR from 21st – 29th August. He will be on HF on CW, SSB, RTTY and FT8. This is a reactivation of a callsign he used in 1983-86. QSls go to his home call and logs will also be uploaded to Logbook of The World.
Several Russian operators are scheduled to be QRV from Idlidlya Island in eastern Asiatic Russia from 18th - 26th August but the exact dates are weather dependant. The callsign to look for is RT65KI. The IOTA reference is AS-065.
The island of Agios Georgios, off the coast of Cyprus, will be on the air as C4II from 25th – 27th August. Activity will be on all bands 80 - 10m on CW, SSB and FT8. IOTA reference is AS-120.
A multi-national team of YL operators will sign TM64YL from the French island of Noirmoutier from 25th – 31st August. They will be on SSB, CW, RTTY and FT8 and QSLs go via F4GDI.
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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