Archived News Script

printer friendly version

IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday 13th September 2020


Counties Contests

A reminder for those listening to the news transmission on Sunday morning that the 70cms Counties Contest runs from 2.00pm to 2.30pm local time today, followed immediately by the 2 metres Counties Contest, from 2.30pm to 4.00pm. Modes in use will be both FM and SSB, see www.irts.ie/contests for information about the permitted SSB frequencies, FM channels and other rules.


The EI DX Group 4th Annual DX Féile is cancelled.

The 4th annual DX Féile organised by the EI DX Group for October 2nd and 3rd. in the Aran Islands Hotel, Inis Mór has been cancelled due to the current Covid-19 crisis. The deadline for receipt of logs for the EIDX Group Summer Challenge has passed and the Group would like to thank everybody who sent in a log. There was a surprisingly high number of overseas entries and log checking is currently in progress and results will be announced shortly.


Shannon Basin Radio Club launch new 2 metre Repeater

Shannon Basin Radio Club put their new 2 metre repeater into service on Thursday last from a site in North Roscommon. The output frequency is 145.775MHz with the input on 145.175MHz. A CTCSS tone of 88.5Hz is required for access. The Shannon Basin Club run well supported nets on both 2m and 80 metres weekly. On Wednesday evenings the 80 metre net is on 3.720MHz, plus or minus QRM and starts at 2000 while the group meet again on Thursdays on 145.350MHz also at 2000. Everybody is welcome to call in. Check the Club’s Facebook page or log on to sbrc.ie for more information.


European SOTA Activity Day on September 19th

Saturday next, 19th of September is European Summits On The Air (SOTA) activity day. Many of the EI SOTA summits should be active on the day. The plan is to make as many QSO's as possible with activators in EI and with SOTA activators on summits across Europe. Stations will be on the air on summits across Europe on most bands and modes. You can post an alert in advance for your planned activation and spot yourself when QRV, using the resources on the SOTAWATCH website. This will likely result in a mini pile-up of your own. Make a minimum of 4 QSO's to claim SOTA points for your activation. There are 389 designated SOTA summits in EI ranging from 200m hills to Carrauntoohil. You can find your nearest designated summit on the mapping pages of the SOTA website. There are some simple rules but nothing complicated. Why not brush the dust off your portable gear and give it a go. All you need is a handheld to make EI/GI contacts and QRP power on HF.


Mid Ulster ARC Tuesday Night Lecture

The Mid Ulster Amateur Radio Club Tuesday night lecture series continues this coming Tuesday with Sharon Lewis 2i0SHZ who will be presenting on the group BYLARA which is the British Young Ladies Amateur Radio Association. BYLARA was founded in 1979 and membership is open to all. For further information and the zoom details please contact Dave 2i0SJV on dcparkinson /at/ icloud.com All the previous Tuesday night lectures can now be found at www.youtube.com/muarcmedia


Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS)

The installation of an FM cross-band repeater on the International Space Station has generated lots of interest and activity. The uplink is on 145.990MHz with a CTCSS of 67 Hz and the downlink is on 437.800MHz. Dates and time of passes can be found on any of the satellite tracking software packages.


Southern Ireland Repeater Group New DMR Repeater in Cork City

A new DMR Repeater is due to be installed at Farmers Cross overlooking Cork City as soon as the antenna is fitted. The callsign will be EI7FXD and the output will be on 430.250MHz with the input 9MHz higher on 439.250MHz. The colour code will be 1. The Brandmeister ID of the repeater will be 272015. Congratulations to the Southern Ireland Repeater Group for bringing digital radio to Cork.


Cork VHF Group Weekly Nets

The Cork VHF Group is an informal gathering of local radio amateurs who hold a net every Tuesday evening. On the first Tuesday of the month they meet on 145,475MHz FM at 2100 local. The second Tuesday is for UHF on 533.475MHz FM at 2100 local. On the third Tuesday, it’s 4 Metres on 70.2625MHz at 2000 and 50.150MHz at 2100. The fourth Tuesday is for digital on DMR Talk Group 2724 at 2100. The backup frequency is the DMR calling frequency of 438.6125MHz (Channel 3) If there is a fifth Tuesday, its experiments. Next Tuesday week, the 29th, is the fifth Tuesday and experiments will be carried out on ATV on 5.6GHz. John EI7GL is the net co-ordinator and full details are on ei7gl.blogspot.com.


On the Air next week

HF conditions continue to be very poor with last Thursday being the twentieth consecutive day with no sunspots. K7RA says in his solar update that an event to look forward to is the autumnal equinox, which occurs at 1330utc on Tuesday, September 22. We should see a seasonal improvement in HF propagation around that date because the northern and southern hemispheres are bathed in roughly equal solar radiation, enhancing north-south propagation. The South African All Mode DX Contest runs next weekend from 1200 on Saturday19th for 24 hours and the modes are CW, SSB and RTTY. This is a great opportunity for casual DXers to catch some of the rarer African countries on the air. You can work everyone but the multipliers are the African DXCC countries. The exchange is signal report plus serial number. Also on next weekend and again running from 1200 on Saturday 19th for 24 hours is the Scandinavian DX CW Contest. You can only work Scandinavian stations and the exchange is report and serial number. Looking another week ahead, the big one for RTTY operators is the 34th Annual CQWW RTTY DX Contest run over 24 hours on Septemebr 26th and 27th. On the DX scene, Erik LA2US will be active as JX2US from Jan Mayen this coming winter. He will operate CW, FT8 and probably some more modes. The focus will be on 160m, 80m, 40m and 30m. The season lasts from early October ’20 to the end of March ’21. TO0Z is expected to be on from St. Barthelemy this coming week from Monday 14th to Thursday 17th. The operators are Marco FS4WBS, Claude FS5GL and Franck FG4ST and they should be workable from EI at least on the lower bands.


Cork Radio Club Weekly Online Meetings

Cork Radio Club hold weekly meetings on the Zoom platform on Monday evenings at 2030 after the IRTS Radio News read by Vincent EI7HN on the Cork Repeater on 145.750MHz. Everybody is welcome to join in and the link to the meetings can be found on the Cork Radio Club Facebook page. You can also send an email requesting a link to info /at/ corkradioclub.ie.


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.

[A]

contact IRTS
irts groups.io