This Week’s News
IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday October 12th, 2025
Updates from the IRTS
Our IRTS ComReg Liaison Officer is Jeffrey Roe EI7IRB. His role is to maintain communications between IRTS and the ComReg team. This means he regularly engages with ComReg to raise members’ concerns and to help clarify any regulatory or licensing queries. Maintaining a strong and constructive working relationship with the ComReg team helps ensure that discussions are productive and issues are addressed efficiently and effectively. If any member would like him to raise a matter with ComReg on their behalf, you are asked to please contact him via email to comreg_liaison /at/ irts.ie
The next Irish Harmonised Amateur Radio Examination Certificate (HAREC) examination takes place on the 15th of November 2025. The location for the exam is the Clayton Hotel Dublin Airport, Stockhole Lane, Clonshagh, Co Dublin, K67 X3H5. The closing date for applications is Monday the 3rd of November.
There will be a morning and afternoon exam. Registration for the morning exam will start at 10.30 a.m., and the exam will commence at 11 a.m. with a duration of two hours. Registration for the afternoon exam will start at 2 p.m., and the exam will commence at 2.30 p.m., also with a duration of two hours. Information and links to the application form can be found on the IRTS website or you can contact Mick EI6IKB by email to irts_exams /at/ irts.ie
Next Amateur Radio Licensing Course Starts 30 October 2025
The next HAREC course begins on Thursday, 30th of October 2025. It will be the ninth course offered by the National Shortwave Listeners Club. It will be called Class India. As before, the course is free to attend, but participants must be members of the NSWLC. Membership is free for current IRTS members. Class India will be held online via Zoom, every Thursday evening at 20:00 hours, with 26 sessions in total. The course will run until the 7th of May 2026. Zoom links will be sent directly to current NSWLC members once they follow the joining instructions. Students are also invited to take part in the optional NSWLC Sunday Socials, where they can meet tutors and experienced radio amateurs also via Zoom. For more information, or to join the NSWLC, visit swl.ie
Tipperary Amateur Radio Group
The next meeting of the Tipperary Amateur Radio Group will be held at The Princess Bar, Irishtown Upper, Clonmel, County Tipperary on Wednesday the 15th of October 2025 at 8 p.m. The Eircode for this venue is E91 PW90. The meeting is open to all and Short Wave Listeners are in particular, very welcome to attend. For more information about Tipperary Amateur Radio Group, visit their group website at www.ei7trg.ie
Shannon Basin Radio Club SSB Nets
Shannon Basin Radio Club’s next weekly HF SSB DX net takes place on the 80m band next Thursday night, October 16th. The net frequency will be in the region of 3.775MHz starting from 9 p.m. local time. Everyone is welcome to call in and SWL reports are also most welcome via email to admin /at/ sbrc.ie
Jamboree on the Air
Jamboree on the Air and Jamboree on the Internet takes place next weekend. Over that weekend but especially on Saturday the 18th, you are asked to run a support station at your club, at your home QTH, or as a field day activity on your own or with some other operators. You can monitor the cluster for scout stations on HF, 2m, and QO-100.
The nature of such events is that there may be 5 to 30 scouts who have never been on the radio with a licensed operator supervising, all wanting to make contact. Radio scouting Ireland will provide a JOTA-JOTI patch to all IE operators with 10 or more logged calls with scout stations in Ireland or around the world. Email ADIF or CSV logs to radioscoutingireland /at/ gmail.com
EI Stations Needed for UKEICC DX SSB Contest on November 1st and 2nd
The UKEICC DX SSB contest takes place on the first weekend of November, three weeks from now. This 24-hour contest has become very popular with DX stations, but there is a need for more multiplier stations, especially EI stations. DX stations score double points for working EI and UK stations, and each EI county and UK district counts as a multiplier. This guarantees that EI and UK stations are very popular, so even a modest station can enjoy large pileups. A record number of EI stations were heard in the UKEICC 80m contest on the 1st of October, so please come join the fun in the DX contest on the 1st and 2nd of November.
VHF/Microwave News
The next planned ARISS SSTV event is planned to coincide with Jamboree on the Air. The event will take place over three days starting on Friday next, with four images being transmitted over that time.
On Saturday next, October the 18th, an IRTS all-mode activity event is planned for the 2m band. It is not limited to EI and stations from other countries are encouraged to take part. It is a fun event intended to allow enough time to try out different modes like SSTV and digital, as well as CW, SSB, and FM. Activities will start at 12 p.m. running for at least three hours. This will also coincide with JOTA also to help encourage 2m activity for new or trainee operators on the air.
Strong tropospheric ducting is forecast to last until midweek or later according to the DX Info Centre. It is one of the best opportunities in recent months to take advantage of lift conditions and try some long-distance repeater and simplex contacts on VHF and above.
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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