Archived News Script
IRTS RADIO NEWS BULLETIN Sunday February 8th 1998
City of Dublin A. R. C. - Sale of the late EI7CL shack contents
Mike North's family have asked the club to sell the entire contents of the shack with all proceeds being donated to charity.
On Wednesday next, the 11th of February at 8 p.m., the entire contents will be sold at the club premises which is located at St Ann's Parish Centre Molesworth Lane Dublin 2. The contents, too numerous to list, include ham radio equipment, ATV gear, video gear, computers and test equipment etc.
Coolmine Rally
Phoenix Radio Club are holding their annual rally today at the Coolmine Community School in Blanchardstown in Dublin. The doors will open at 12 noon and talk-in will be on 145.550MHz, that is S22.
Morse testing will be held on a drop-in basis from 1300 until 1500. There is no need to book in advance, just bring identification.
The mark 100 years of amateur radio, a CW station will be operational all day. All the usual traders will be in attendance.
South Dublin Radio Club
The Annual General Meeting of South Dublin Radio Club will take place on Tuesday 24th February at 8.30 pm, in the club's QTH at the Ballyroan Community Centre, Marian Road, Rathfarnham.
All members are requested to attend.
South East Amateur Radio Group
The Annual General meting of the South East Amateur Radio Group will take place in Egan's Lounge Bar on Wednesday March the 11th at 8.30pm. All members are expected to attend this meeting. Intending members are also very welcome.
Dutch Contest
The annual Dutch PACC Contest will be held over next weekend running for twenty four hours from noon on Saturday to noon on Sunday. The aim in this contest is to work as many Dutch Stations as possible on all bands on both CW and SSB. The scoring is one point for each QSO and Dutch provinces are multipliers on each band. We send RST plus serial number and the Dutch stations send RST plus two letter province abbreviation. The famous PACC Contest Ribbon will be presented to all foreign participants. Further details from the news editor.
KD5CHF/VK5MIR Swaps places with KC5VPF aboard MIR
There were some tense times aboard Mir last week--not as a result of any more mechanical problems or computer crashes but because of what seemed to be an ill-fitting space suit. Ham astronaut Andy Thomas, KD5CHF/VK5MIR--who last week replaced Dave Wolf, KC5VPF, aboard the Russian space station--discovered he could not get into the custom-fitted space suit he'd need if he ever needed to use the Soyuz escape module in an emergency. The problem was solved on Monday with a few adjustments to the suit. The space garb-- called a Sokol suit--is only worn aboard the Soyuz and is not the same one astronauts and cosmonauts use during space walks.
Thomas spent part of the rest of the week working closely with Wolf to get oriented with the routine aboard Mir. It's not yet known how active Thomas will be on Amateur Radio. The Australian Communications Agency recently granted Thomas--an Australian-born engineer--the special event call sign VK5MIR.
The shuttle Endeavour, which carried Wolf back to Earth, undocked from Mir on January 29 and return to Earth on January 31. A new Russian crew, Talgat Musabayev, RO3FT, and Nikolai Budarin, RV3FB (ex-RV3DB/R4MIR), and French astronaut Leopold Eyharts, arrived on MIR on February 1st. Eyharts will stay for three weeks.
The first module of the International Space Station, built in Russia with US funds and originally scheduled to launch last November, now is set for launch on June 30th. The ISS will replace Mir, which has been in service for almost 12 years.
Spratly Island DXpedition
The first big Dxpedition of 1998, 9M0C from the Spratly Islands is right on schedule and operations are due to commence on February the 12th. They will continue until February the 24th.
The 13 strong team, led by Neville G3NUG, will follow many of the procedures developed by the VK0IR operation including the use of pilots whose role will be to channel communications to and from the team on the island. Typically, they will receive comments about band openings, the suitability of the announced frequencies, brickbats and bouquets from the amateur community at large and will summarise the key messages to forward to the island. Martin G3ZAY will be chief pilot and his e-mail address is "spratly@dial.pipex.com".
Up to the minute information will be available both on packet radio and on the internet. Logs will be uploaded to their web site on a daily basis to enable amateurs check if they have made the log. All QSL requests go to G3SWH.
Items for inclusion in both the Radio News and Newsletter can be faxed to 021-63230 or passed on the telephone to Dave EI4BZ at 021-632444 during the day and at 021-883555 in the evening.
Mail can also be sent on packet to EI4BZ on cluster or at the EI7DKB BBS or by E-mail to dave_moore@telecom.ie.The Radio News Editor John EI7DNB can be contacted at 021-353277 after 1800 or on cluster or on Internet at jbarry@imbolc.ucc.ie.
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