Archived News Script

IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday September 17th 2000


Tir Chonaill AGM

The Tir Chonaill Amateur Radio Society is holding it’s Annual General Meeting in Jackson’s Hotel, Ballybofey, County Donegal on Wednesday September 27th at 8.30 pm.

All members and intending members are welcome to attend.


Luxembourg Special Event Stations

The Luxembourg Amateur Radio Society, (RL), has announced the following special event stations.

On September 28, 2000 the Luxembourgish Grand-Duke Jean will abdicate for the benefit of his son and heir Grand-Duke Henri.

To celebrate this occasion the special callsigns LX0GDJ and LX0GDH will be active from the RL Headquarter Club House in Eisenborn from the 18th of September 2000 until the 8th of October 2000.

LX0GDJ (Grand-Duke Jean) will be QRV from the 18th of September 2000 to the 28th September 2000 until the moment of power hand over.

After this LX0GDH (Grand-Duke Henri) will be QRV until the 8th of October 2000.

A special QSL-Card will be issued and sent via bureau for every QSO.


Clive Trotman, GW4YKL, silent key

Clive Trotman, GW4YKL, the 1995 RSGB President, died on Wednesday morning the 6th of September. He was well known as a strong supporter of the Novice licence scheme and of local radio clubs and attended rallies until a few weeks before his death.

The RSGB was represented at his funeral and there will be a full obituary in the October issue of RadCom.

Clive had many friends in Echo India, having travelled over here in his capacity as President of RSGB and we extend our deepest sympathy to his XYL on her sad loss.


Phase 3D satellite launch imminent

Good news on the space front comes from the Phase 3D camp. The long-awaited launch of the Phase 3D amateur satellite could be imminent. AMSAT Germany's vice-president, DB2OS, has announced that the satellite should be launched around the end of October or the beginning of November.

It was delayed earlier this year when the Ariane 5 series of booster rocket launches was postponed while several critical components were checked. That work was completed a few weeks ago.

Arianespace has now cleared the Ariane 5 for launching.

DB2OS says that Arianespace has also re-assigned its launch numbers, and Phase 3D should fly on Ariane number 507.

A pre-launch get-ready campaign was scheduled at the European Space Agency launch facility in Kourou, French Guiana to begin on the 11th of September.

If all goes well, the most sophisticated amateur radio satellite ever built should finally be in high orbit by the first week in November.


South Eastern Amateur Radio Group

The next general meeting of the South Eastern Amateur Radio Group will take place on Wednesday the 27th of September at 8.00pm in the Roanmore Social and Sports Centre, Cleaboy Road, Waterford.

This will be a general information meeting, of particular interest to the newer members, where people can find out how the club is run, learn about club assets and finances and how the repeaters, digipeaters etc. are maintained. All are welcome.

SEARG is now looking for people interested in sitting theory classes leading up to the theory exam. These classes will take place one night a week in Waterford at a nominal cost. Dates and times have not yet been finalised.

If you would like to do the course please make contact to register your interest. Contact the club at or phone Mark Wall, EI7IS on 087-6302026.


Upcoming Contests

Next weekend, September the 23rd and 24th, SSB operators are catered for with the Scandinavian Activity Contest. This runs from noon utc on Saturday for 24 hours.

RTTY enthusiasts are also catered for next weekend with a 48 hour event from midnight utc Friday.

Looking a little ahead, the Oceania DX contests in both SSB and CW will be held in the coming weeks. This is a great chance for smaller stations to work into VK and ZL. The SSB leg will be on the 7th and 8th of October and the CW leg will be on the 14th and 15th.

Two short four hour events, the European Autumn sprints will also be held soon. The SSB event will be held on Saturday October the 7th and the CW event will be on Saturday the 14th.

Both events run from 1500 to 1859 utc.


Some DX News

Prefix hunters will be interested in a special event station from Poland, 3Z0MM, which will be active until November 30th to celebrate the millennium of the historical meeting of Polish King Chrobry with German Emperor Otton III in Szprotawa. QSL via bureau.

Willi, DJ7RJ, should be active from October 1st to the 20th, as 3A/DJ7RJ. Activity will include 160 metre operations on 1832 kHz.

QSL via homecall.

Ten Japanese operators led by Yoshi, JA1UT, are planning a goodwill trip to Gaza, Palestine, from September 21st. If they are fortunate to be granted a licence, they plan to operate up to Sunday next September 24th, mainly on RTTY, 30m CW and 6m (50.115MHz beacon).

Their callsigns will be E44 plus individual callsigns.

QSLs will be handled by each operator.


Items for inclusion in next weeks Radio News and the next issue of Echo Ireland should be forwarded to Dave EI4BZ at 021-883555 in the evenings or by e-mail at ei4bz@eircom.net.

Dave is also available during office hours at 021-823172 and you can fax him at 021-823316.

[N]