Archived News Script
IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday September 7th, 2025
Silent Key - Mike KD2DYY – Irish Hour net controller
We were saddened to learn of the death of Mike McHugh KD2DYY who passed away on August 28th, 2025. Mike was based in Syracuse, New York and was the net controller of the popular Irish Hour daily net on the HF bands. This year, Mike was awarded the Pat Conway Perpetual Memorial Trophy by the IRTS for exceptional service to the society or to amateur radio. Mike was very proud of his Irish roots. We wish to extend our deepest sympathies to his wife Nancy, his son Eric, extended family, and wide circle of friends. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam. May he rest in peace.
DX Féile 2025
The EIDX group is hosting this year's DX Féile on Saturday October 12th. It will be held in the Temple Gate Hotel, Ennis. This year's convention will see presentations from some of the biggest DXpeditions throughout 2025 and include VU4AX, VK9C, VK9X, V73WW, and of course not forgetting EIDXG's own 6Y7EI activity from Jamaica earlier this year.
Bookings are now being taken although it is advised to book your accommodation packages early as these sell out quickly. Day tickets are readily available however, need to be pre-booked in advance. For further information please contact David, ei9fbb /at/ gmail.com or by telephone at 087 7444777 to make your reservation. Early booking is advised as this promises to be another sell-out event.
SOTA News-Two new Mountain Goats in one day!
Congratulations to John Holland EI3ISB and Alex Labunskij EI4JY who both achieved Mountain Goat status on the same day last weekend after several years of summit activations. John achieved this operating as EJ3ISB on EI/IN-092 Arranmore Island, Co. Donegal. Alex achieved this on the Little Sugar Loaf, Co. Wicklow. His 1,000 points were all on VHF/UHF which is a remarkable result. You wait for ages for a Mountain Goat then two arrive at the same time!
VHF/Microwave News
The next 145 Alive event will run on the September 27th, 2025. If interested in taking part as a net control station, please email 145aliveuk /at/ gmail.com
The RSGB’s LoRa balloon challenge is coming up soon. On Saturday, the 20th of September, a balloon equipped with a LoRa digipeater will be launched at 11 a.m. local time heading for high altitude. The launch site will be Welshpool in the UK which should enable operators near the east coast of EI to try their luck with the event also. The balloon is expected to be airborne for approximately two hours reaching an altitude of 90,000 feet. The uplink frequency of the cross-frequency digipeater on board the high-altitude balloon will be 439.850MHz and the downlink frequency will be 433.850MHz. The RSGB has published a very helpful instruction guide for those interested in getting involved in the fun. Further information including this guide may be found at rsgb.org
The IRTS VHF/microwave team is seeking interest from operators regarding a series of potential EI-led multimode activation events for the 2m, 70cm, and 23cm bands. These will likely take place during evening times and rotate through the three bands based on feedback received so far. If you are interested in getting involved, please get in touch via email to vhf_manager /at/ irts.ie
Ideas and input regarding any aspect of VHF and above in EI are welcome at any stage via email to the same address.
Contests and Events
The IRTS 2m and 70cm counties contest takes place next weekend. The 70cm contest kicks off at 2 p.m. on Sunday September 14th running for 30 minutes. Immediately afterwards, the 2m contest starts and will run for 90 minutes ending at 4 p.m. All times are local. Please check the IRTS web site for contest rules or contact the IRTS contest manager who is Mark EI6JK. Mark can be contacted via email to contestmanager /at/ irts.ie
The RSGB 3.5MHz Autumn Series Contests have commenced for 2025. On Wednesday night next, September 10th, you can try their CW contest from 1900 to 2030 UTC. They include a 15 words per minute maximum speed section which may be of interest to anyone that may be new to CW contesting. Further information may be found at www.rsgbcc.org
The UKEICC 2025-26 series of 80m contests has started as well. The next contest in this 80m series is on CW, on Wednesday the 24th of September 2025. You can learn more about this at www.ukeicc.com
The Worked All Europe DX SSB Contest takes place next Saturday, September 13th from 00:00 UTC. It ends at 23:59 UTC on Sunday the 14th. This contest will use SSB on the 80 to 10m bands where permitted.
Items for Inclusion in Next Week’s Radio News
That is the news for this week. Thanks to everyone for sending items into the weekly IRTS radio news. They are very much appreciated and are a great way to update the rest of the community about activities. If you have any club events, activities, meetings, or other items of interest, you are very welcome to email newsteam /at/ irts.ie with the details. These will be automatically forwarded to the IRTS radio and printed news services. The deadline each week is midnight on Thursdays.
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