Archived News Script

IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday June 25th 2000


WAI Islands Weekend

Only two islands were activated over last weekend. The Mayo Group was obliged to postpone its plans for the islands on Clew Bay due to tidal conditions and East Cork Group members were forced to cancel their planned operations on Ballycotton and Capel Islands due to the high seas.

Jim EI8GS travelled to Bere Island in West Cork and operated mobile from the island.

Declan EI9HQ activated Shenick’s Island off Skerries in North County Dublin. This uninhabited island is about one mile from the mainland and was being activated for the first time. Declan spent two nights on Shenick during which time he provided many WAI enthusiasts with a new island and the Oscar 26 Dublin square.

Outside WAI, Declan’s callsign was much in demand and he returned to the mainland early on Sunday with more than 700 QSOs in his log. The only building on the island is a derelict Martello tower on top of which Declan was able to erect his three element triband beam.

To cover the low frequency bands he was able to string a windom from the top of the tower.

Congratulations to Declan for another well executed operation.

The response to the Islands weekend was disappointing but we look forward to a better response next year.

Don EI/GW0PLP/m, well known on the WAI net, was operating from the Munster area over a ten day period and activated much needed zero zero squares.

John EI/GM3CTG/m was based in West Cork and also activated quite a few squares.

Several operators have now qualified for the WAI Millennium award and a few more are very near the thousand award.


Shannon Basin Radio Club

The Midlands Radio Club has changed its name to the Shannon Basin Radio Club and have a new callsign EI2SBC.

The Club Chairman is John EI8DL, the Secretary is Fergus EI6IB and the Treasurer is Martin EI4IJ.

Meetings are held in the Royal Hotel, Roscommon on the first Tuesday each month at 8.30pm and will commence again in September.

For information about the club contact Martin EI4IJ on 0902-78245.


New callsigns

We are pleased to report upgrades to "A" call signs for three of our members - Darragh O'Heiligh, formerly EI6FFB, now has the callsign EI8IZ, and Peadar Slattery, formerly EI5FWB, is now EI2JA, which is the first call issued in the "J" series.

Hazel Leahy, formerly EI9ELB, now has the callsign EI9IZ.

Congratulations to all three and we look forward to hearing them on HF.


AREN Exercise

A number of Dublin radio experimenters provided radio cover for the Ring of Imaal walk, which took place on Saturday 17th June. The walk is organised by An Oige, the Irish Youth Hostel Association, and covers 22 miles on the peaks around the Glen of Imaal, in County Wicklow. Over 160 walkers took part. The weather conditions were poor at the start, with very limited visibility, but the skies soon cleared and the day turned out to be ideal for the walkers.

The amateur radio operation was based at the walk headquarters in Donard. The HQ station, using the call sign EI4BST, was manned by Sean EI3IP, Joe EI4FV and Paul EI3FKB.

Radio cover for the checkpoints on the hills was provided by Gerry EI0CH, Eoin EI9HZ, Brendan EI3GV, Rod EI7DF and Joe EI7GY.

The exercise went well and the early improvement in the weather resulted in a low volume of radio traffic. The main assistance provided by the radio amateurs was in tracing the few walkers who missed a checkpoint. A particular challenge for this operation is that the walk headquarters at Donard is relatively low-lying, so that communications with some of the more distant checkpoints has in previous years been difficult. This can be overcome by using relay stations on high ground, with a resulting slow-down in traffic speeds. This year, however, EI4BST tried a new antenna set-up and found that they were able to maintain contact with all checkpoints, without using a relay station.


South Eastern Amateur Radio Group

The next general meeting of the South Eastern Amateur Radio Group will take place on Wednesday next the 28th of June at 8.00pm in the Roanmore Social and Sports Centre, Cleaboy Road, Waterford.

The guest at the meeting will be IRTS President, Dave Moore, EI4BZ who will address the meeting on a number of amateur radio topics.

All are welcome.


Dates for your Diary

The VHF/UHF Field Day will be held on the 1st and 2nd of July. Please remember to notify the Contest Manager, John EI6IR, of your proposed site.

The International Lighthouse/Lightship Weekend will be held on August 19th and 20th. Information from Mike GM4SUC at gm4suc@compuserve.com The Marino Institute of Education in Dublin will host Celticon 2000 – a QRP Radio Convention on September 1st to 3rd next.

The Shannon River Run will be held in Mid September. Details from Paul EI2CA on 087-2523908 or Keith EI4FBB on 01-6412148, office hours.

The Cork Rally will be held in the Blarney Park Hotel on Sunday September the 17th.


Items for inclusion in both the Radio News and the Newsletter should be phoned to Dave Moore at 021-883555 in the evenings or to 021-823172 during office hours. You may also e-mail to ei4bz@eircom.net or to ei8ir@eircom.net Input to either the Radio News or Newsletter can be sent by e-mail to news@irts.ie for automatic forwarding to both news services.

Items for the next Newsletter should be with EI4BZ by Wednesday next.

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