Archived News Script
IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday 30th August 2020
HAREC Exam and New Licensees
Following the postponement of the licence exam scheduled for early May due to travel and other restrictions, exams were arranged for July and August in Dublin, Cork and Galway. 50 candidates sat the exams and 28 passed, giving a pass rate of 56%, a bit lower than normal. Three candidates also passed the CW test and went on to get A callsigns, EI7KW John Murphy in Rosslare, EI8KW Ryan Morrison in Dublin and EI9KW Annemarie Nugent in Tipperary. We look forward to hearing the other 25 successful candidates on the air soon. Results were issued to candidates within a week of their exams and the very efficient online ComReg system had callsigns issued to applicants within hours. No date has been set for the next exam as this depends on a number of factors, not least of which will be the prevailing public health situation and associated Government health guidelines over the next few months.
Ireland’s Youngest Radio Amateur EI8KW
Congratulations to Ryan Morrison, from Stillorgan in Dublin on receiving the callsign EI8KW last week following his successful sitting of the HAREC examination in Galway. Ryan is eleven years of age and having narrowly missed passing the examination in Dublin, he availed of a cancellation for the examination in Galway two weeks later and was successful this time. Ryan is the son of Peter EI9ES. Ryan passed the Morse Code test in late June while studying for the HAREC examination. We look forward to hearing EI8KW on the bands.
International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend
Last weekend’s 23rd International Lighthouse and Lightship weekend generated a lot of traffic on the HF bands with over 350 entrants in 43 countries on the air. Conditions were good and all stations reported working good DX. The South Eastern Amateur Radio Group operated from the club caravan at Hook Head lighthouse in County Wexford and had a busy two days with lots of club members and visitors visiting the station. The Avondhu Radio Club operated from Youghal lighthouse in East Cork using the callsign EI1E. Six operators worked staggered shifts with disinfection of equipment in between and best DX reported was Japan and Indonesia. The Skywave Amateur Radio Club activated the Old Head of Kinsale Lighthouse on Sunday in windy and overcast weather conditions and looked very well in their new club branded jackets and caps.
East Leinster Amateur Radio Club
A new club has recently been formed in the Dublin – Kildare area. The East Leinster Amateur Radio Club, EI0EL, was set up by a group of friends all interested in gaining amateur radio licences and getting out and about operating portable and taking part in the Summits On The Air Programme. The clubs first Chairman is Frank EI8HIB. The club’s website is at www.ei0el.com
Limerick Clare Amateur Radio Club
LCARC set up two working stations in the Shannon Aviation Museum, on Saturday and Sunday, for the International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend. Eleven club members attended at various times to help with the set up and to operate - including newly licensed Annemarie EI9KW and SWL Mollie. Both Mollie and Annemarie made their first QSOs while using the club call sign EI4LCR. The club also welcomes new member Angus EI5IIB. Plans are in place to set up a regular net, on Wires-X, with LCARCs sister club in the USA - the South Jersey Radio Association (SJRA)
Teamspeak Available for Radio Clubs
There is a facility for Radio clubs to obtain a Teamspeak Room as a Private Club chat area. This would be accessible via “Internet Radio”, a Windows Program or via an Android Phone or Tablet. This would be the ideal system to allow ALL club members - shortwave listeners and licensed operators to communicate with each other. It would be ideal for holding an informal net each week and allowing those who are studying for their Amateur Radio License exam to communicate with those who may be able to offer assistance. For more information contact John Anderson, MI0AAZ on mi0aaz /at/ yahoo.co.uk
East Cork Group EI7M
As the East Cork Group EI7M is generally a multi operator team in the major contests, activity has been curtailed since the Covid-19 outbreak. The station has been operated as a single operator entry in a couple of recent contests but the group are looking forward to the end of lock-down and a resumption of full team activity for the winter contest season. Recent results show that EI7M is at the leading edge in European contesting having finished first in Europe in both the CQWW SSB and the ARRL CW contests. However, the biggest achievement was being first in the world in the multi-2 section of the 2019 WPX SSB contest. Congratulations to all involved and the group would like to hear from anyone wishing to get involved in the serious end of contest operations. The station suffered some serious damage in the recent storms with both the three element and two element forty meter beams having broken elements. A calm day and the services of a large crane will be required to get active on the forty metre band again before the winter contest season.
On the Air next week
On Wednesday evening next September 2nd, the first of the UKEI Contest Club series of one hour 80 metres contests will be held starting at 2000z. The mode is SSB and an important change this year is that the exchange is your 6 character grid locator square and a signal report is not required. SSB contests will be held on the first Wednesday and CW on the last Wednesday each month until April 2021. Have a look at ukeicc.com for all the details. On Sunday next RTTY operators will be able to take part in the Russian RTTY contest run over 24 hours from midnight to midnight. The exchange for non-Russian stations is your CQ Zone. Next weekend, starting midnight on Friday, the 60th All Asian SSB contest runs until midnight on Sunday. The exchange in this one is signal report and your age, e.g. 5921. Anybody looking for Colorado for their Worked All States Award or US counties award has a chance with the Colorado QSO Party running from 1300utc on Saturday the 5th to 0400utc Sunday the 6th. Then exchange is your name plus Country DXCC prefix. A few rarer islands will be activated over the coming days. Kenji JA4GXS will be on from Otsu Island Asia- 117 next Saturday and Sunday on 40, 30 and 20m on SSB, CW and FT8. Tom 9A2AA and Neno 9A5N will be on Lastovo Island Europe-016 for 10 days starting on Monday 31st. Dauphin Island, North America-213, will be activated by KV4T and KS4YT from September 4th to the 7th on digital modes only FT4 and FT8.
G-QRP Club Convention
The G-QRP Club is being held as an on-line event next Saturday and Sunday September 5th and 6th. There will be a wide range of presentations and various chat rooms for discussions on different topics. More information and the full event schedule is on www.gqrp.com/convention.htm
Items for inclusion in next weeks radio news can be submitted by email to newsteam/at/irts/dot/ie for automatic forwarding to both the radio and printed news services. The deadline is midnight on Thursday Urgent items for the radio news may be telephoned to 087-6290574.
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