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IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday 9th June 2019


Tipperary Amateur Radio Group

The Tipperary Amateur Radio Group Repeater EI7HXR is now back on air after some modifications. Initial reports suggest that coverage has been greatly enhanced. The Group wishes to thank John EI8JA and Neil EI3JE for their hard work.

The next meeting of the Tipperary Amateur Radio Group will take place in The Park Hotel, Clonmel on Tuesday 25th June at 8.30pm. Preparations will be finalized for participation in the VHF/UHF field day. 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 attend 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.


Alcock & Brown Centenary

Reminder that Members & friends of The Galway Radio Experimenters Club (GREC) will for the month of June be operating as EI100ABC to commemorate the 1st transatlantic non-stop crossing by the famous aviators Alcock & Brown who in June 1919 made the trip from Newfoundland, Canada to Clifden, Ireland in a Vickers Vimy plane.

A five day festival will also be held in Clifden beginning June 12th 2019 showcasing the historic event, see https://alcockandbrown100.com/ or https://www.qrz.com/db/ei100abc for more details.


Important: 13 June 2019 - 50 MHz

The ITU World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-19) starts on 28 October and will last four weeks. An important agenda item for the amateur service is for the WRC to consider the consolidation and extension of 50 MHz in Region 1 (Europe, Africa, Middle East and Asiatic Russia).

One of the national telecoms administrations, which are actively supporting the proposal, is the Czech Republic; unfortunately some other administrations are actively opposed.

In order to gather solid evidence of the high level of amateur activity on the band, and at the same time to demonstrate that amateurs can co-exist with other band users including the military, IARU is supporting a monitoring trial in the middle of June. The event is being run by the Czech national radio society, in conjunction with their regulator. It is part activity period and part contest. Government and professional users will be monitoring (and some will be transmitting as well) so it is important that we make a good showing.

Remember, by the way, that if you do hear any non-amateur stations you must make sure you do NOT cause them any interference.

Full details can be found on the iaru-r1.org website. Date and times are Thursday 13 June 2019 07:30 - 09:00 UTC and 11:00 - 12:30 UTC

There needs to be as much activity as possible on the band during these two periods, preferably sticking to the Czech power limit of 25 W ERP. It doesn't matter whether the band is open or not, just get on the air using SSB, CW, Digital, or all three.

It is not essential that you should submit an entry for the contest although that would be appreciated, but IARU would definitely like as many logs as possible (contest or non-contest) to be sent in by 15 June, to provide solid evidence that can be used in pre-WRC planning.


Cricket World Cup Awards

The ICC Cricket World Cup is currently being held in England and Wales and the RSGB are holding a Radio Marathon in association with it. There are 31 stations from the UK using the GB19 prefix currently on the bands and the activity period runs until the 14th of July 2019.

There are numerous awards available for working the special call signs for the following...a) the cricket grounds, b) the teams, c) the number of contacts and d) individual awards for SSB, DATA and CW modes. Look out for the GB19 calls on 40 and 80 metres especially around sunset. More information can be found on the RSGB website.


40 MHz Activity

In 2018, EI stations gained access to the new 8-metre VHF band and we now have news of some recent inter-EI and cross band activity.

Over the weekend of Saturday 25th and Sunday 26th of May 2019 , Phil EI9KP in County Sligo and Tim EI4GNB in Bray County Wicklow managed to hear each others manned beacons at a distance of about 208 kms. This was all the more remarkable as the power used was only 5 watts.

On Saturday the 25th of May 2019, Phil EI9KP managed to work DG1VL in Germany for the first 8-metre to 6-metre crossband contact. Several more have been made at this stage showing the potential of Sporadic E propagation on this new VHF band.


Kuwait Arrives on 60m

The Kuwaiti telecom regulator, CITRA, has released the new WRC-15 Amateur Secondary Allocation of 5351.5 – 5366.5 kHz to Kuwaiti 9K2 licensees under ITU Footnote 5.133B, which in the case of Kuwait means a maximum power of 15W EIRP.

The first Kuwaiti ham on the new band was Muhammad, 9K2NO, operating FT8, who is looking forward to working more stations.


DX News

Christian EA3NT and Col MM0NDX will be QRV from Svalbard from 12th – 16th June on CW, SSB and Digital. They will use the callsigns JW/EA3NT and JW/OJ0Y. QSL info is JW/EA3NT via M0OXO and JW/OJ0Y via M0SDV.

JA6CNL will be active as KH0N from the Mariana Islands from 13th – 17th June. He will be on the HF bands on CW and FT8. QSL via the home call.

Prefix hunters may be interested in working the special event station TM500LV. The station is on the air until 6th October and commemorates the 500th anniversary of the death of Leonardo da Vinci. QSL manager is F1IOZ.

Following on from the recent R26RRC operation from IOTA AS-204 the team’s next stop is Bogoslova Island (IOTA AS-205). There they will use the callsign R205NEW and plan to be active from around 14th – 18th June. 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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