Archived News Script
IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday January 24th 1999
IRTS on the Net
IRTS has maintained a presence on the Net for quite some time now thanks to Leslie Long EI4DU who set up and acts as Webmaster. The IRTS homepage, the busiest, receives about 150 hits a week with other popular pages including this weeks news, the links page, the ODTR page and the Email list page also attracting a lot of visitors. Most visitors are from Ireland, the UK and the US and Monday, Wednesday and Thursday are the most popular days. Most visitors to the Web site arrive via the Alta Vista and Yahoo search engines as well as a selection of member and non-members homepages and the IARU web site. Internet Explorer and Netscape versions 4 are currently the most popular browsers and Windows 95 is by far the most popular operating system amongst the users accessing the Web site.
Space News
The 14th Annual AMSAT-UK Colloquium, also known as SpaceComm '99 will be held at the University of Surrey in Guildford on Friday, Saturday and Sunday July 23rd to the 25th. Papers on amateur radio space activities and associated activities are now being sought and should be sent to Richard G3RWL. It is hoped to include a session especially for newcomers to amateur satellite operating in this years programme.
Plans for amateur radio on the International Space Station are very well advanced and the Phase-1 gear should have been delivered to the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida during the past week. This gear consists of Ericsson 2 metre and 70 centimetre handhelds and associated power supplies, cables etc. and it has been sponsored by Ericsson The aerials are being provided by the Italian amateur radio ISS team. US astronaut William Shepherd will command the first ISS crew and he is currently studying for his amateur radio licence. Accompanying him will be two Russian cosmonauts including Sergei U5MIR.
News services have reported that Russia will use private funding to keep the MIR Space Station going for three more years, instead of to mid 1999 as planned. Please note a change of address for QSL requests for contacts with MIR. It now is N6CO, PO Box 311, Pine Grove, California 95665, USA.
South Africa was due to launch it's first satellite recently and it carries an amateur radio package. Telemetry beacons are on 436.250 and 436.300MHz and a parrot repeater is on 145.825MHz.
Limerick Lecture
The January meeting of Limerick Radio Club was held on Thursday the 14th and featured a visit from representatives of the RTE Reception Investigation Department. The club would like to thank all those who supported the lecture, especially the people who travelled from the Midlands and from County Tipperary. With all the changes in the television world being brought about by the coming of the digital era, the role of the RTE Reception Investigation Department is bound to change and it looks likely that any changes will not be of benefit to the amateur community. A great relationship has existed with the investigation department over the years and their representatives have been more than helpful to the amateurs who have been unlucky enough to been visited by them. One of the subtle changes of late is that if a person complaining of interference to their television or radio reception names the person allegedly causing the problems, then the reception investigation department cannot get involved and it looks like the problem has to be resolved by the amateur concerned and the television dealer. The EMC committee of the IRTS will be looking at this issue and we will keep you informed of developments.
The February meeting will be brought forward two weeks and will be held on Thursday next, January the 28th in The University of Limerick when Dave Tocher EI2AMB will give a practical demonstration on the Internet. All club members are urged attend and should gather at the main reception area of the University at 7.30 sharp.
Campbell Island DXpedition
The ZL9CI expedition to Campbell Island is being hailed amongst DXers as the best ever and despite having made over 50,000 QSOs up to Friday January the 15th, the pile-ups continued to be huge. The group are averaging 6,500 QSOs a day so everybody should be accommodated. It seems that all active EI operators who tried managed to make contact with ZL9CI, some on several bands and modes. The operation is scheduled to finish tomorrow, the 25th and we can all be proud of the part played by Declan EI6FR as a CW operator on the team.
Contest News
Next weekend is a very busy one in the contest scene with the CQWW 160m CW contest, the French REF CW contest and the UBA SSB contest all taking place over the weekend of the 29th to the 31st.
Items for inclusion in the Radio News can be faxed to 021-632730 or passed on the telephone to Dave EI4BZ on 021-632444 during the day or at 021-883555 in the evening.
Input for the Newsletter should be sent to Kevin EI7IM at QTHR or on the phone at 01-4509514 or by E-mail to EI7IM@tinet.ie All input to either the radio news or newsletter can also be sent by e-mail to news@irts.ie
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