Archived News Script
IRTS RADIO NEWS BULLETIN Sunday April 5th 1998
2 Metre Counties Contest on Easter Monday
The Spring 2 Metres Counties Contest will be held on Easter Monday, April the 13th, running from 3.00 to 5.00pm local time.
There are some changes to the last published rules in the handbook, the important ones being that a club entry must be in a portable category and a club entry cannot take part in the FM only section.
FM only stations must be single operator but may be fixed or portable.
In all there are five sections, i.e. high power fixed and portable, low power fixed and portable, with a maximum power of 10 watts and the FM only section.
Contacts on repeaters or on S20, S21, S22 or S23 are not allowed.The exchange is signal report, serial number starting at 001 and the county.
The scoring is 1 point for your own county, 2 points for an adjoining county and 6 points for any other EI or GI county. Contacts outside EI or GI count for only 1 point.
The final score is the total number of points multiplied by the total number of counties worked.
Logs should be submitted within 30 days to the Contest Manager at P.O. Box 462 Dublin 9 and should be include a summary sheet showing station location, section entered, final claimed score, the equipment used and the names and callsigns of the operators.
IRTS AGM
The IRTS AGM will be held over the weekend of April the 18th and 19th in Jury's Hotel in Cork.
Tickets for the Dinner costing 19.00 are now available and all information on both tickets and accommodation availability can be got from Dick EI6HH on 021-545154.
On the Sunday, the rally and the AGM itself will also be held in Jury's. Anyone wishing to book a table at the rally should contact Con EI7DJB at 021-270136 as soon as possible.
Monaghan Radio Rally
The Monaghan Radio Club will hold their annual hobby Radio and Computer Exhibition on Sunday October the 18th in the Four Seasons Hotel in Monaghan Town with an 1130 start.
All the usual retailers will be in attendance including large displays of computer equipment and of course a large bring and buy.
The exhibition will be held in the hotels function room and will finish at 4.30pm. Refreshments will be available in the hotel.
Further information from Stephen Hand at 013657-51479 or Ken O'Reilly on 013657-38981.
Midland Radio Experimenters Club
Members of the Midland Radio Experimenters Radio Club will hold their regular monthly meeting on Tuesday next at 8.30pm in the Royal Hotel in Roscommon.
Visitors and new members are very welcome to attend.
Global Positioning System marks 20th anniversary
Twenty years ago, on Feb. 22, 1978, the first Navstar Global Positioning System satellite was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. It was the first of four GPS satellites to be launched that year. The GPS is operated by the U.S. Air Force Space Command's 2nd Space Operations Squadron at Falcon Air Force Base, Colorado.
Today, the system has a minimum constellation of 24 operational satellites that blanket the Earth around the clock with precise, all-weather, navigational information.
Reaching far beyond military application, the GPS satellites today provide navigational information to commercial aircraft, ships at sea, hikers, rental car customers and anyone with a GPS receiver.
With its real-time accuracy of positioning users to within a few feet, the GPS is credited with revolutionizing areas as broad as land surveying to search and rescue.
GPS use in the civilian world goes way beyond vehicle navigation. By using stationary receivers, geologists are able to determine minute movements of the Earth's crust in earthquake zones and archeologists are identifying hard-to-find sites in jungle foliage. GPS receivers on bulldozers are helping farmers grade their land to within a few inches of where they want it. Giant ocean vessels are now steering their cargo through previously unnavigable routes.
Today, GPS satellites travel in 12-hour, circular orbits 11,000 nautical miles above Earth. They occupy six orbital planes, inclined 55 degrees, with four operational satellites in each plane.
The spacecraft are positioned so that an average of six are observable nearly 100 percent of the time from any point on Earth, and each is equipped with an atomic clock, accurate to within 10-billionth of a second of the standard set by the U.S. Naval Observatory.
GPS is now used by the amateur radio community and models displaying both national grids and Maidenhead locator squares are available from nearly all radio dealers.
Fingal Exhibition in Jurys
Fingal Radio Club will host their Spring Radio and Electronics Exhibition in Jurys Hotel in Ballsbridge onSunday May the 10th. Doors will open at 11.00am and the show will finish at 4.00pm.
Items for inclusion in both the Radio News and
Newsletter can be faxed to 021-632730 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 and EI7DNB on cluster or at the EI7DKB BBS. The Radio News Editor John EI7DNB can be contacted at 021-353277 after 1830.
All input to either the Radio News or the Newsletter can be sent by e-mail to news@irts.ie
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