The next meeting of the Wicklow Wireless Society will take place on Tuesday the 31st of October at 8.00pm in the QTH of Sean EI4GK. Future meetings will continue to be held on the last Tuesday of each month.
The Annual General Meeting of Cork Repeater Group will be held at the Wilton Park Hotel, Wilton, Cork on Saturday the 4th of November at 12.00pm. All members and intending members are requested to attend.
The Annual General Meeting of Tipperary Amateur Radio Group will take place at 8.00pm in Raheen House Hotel, Raheen Road, Clonmel on Wednesday the 1st November 2000. For enquiries, contact the Secretary, John Burke EI6FRB by e-mail at ei6frb@qsl.net or by phone at 087-2238125.
Cork Radio Club intends holding classes for the coming year. If you are interested, contact Dick Bermingham EI6HH at 021-4545154.
The past few years have seen a decline in packet operation and it was often the case of unreliability and breakdowns causing users to lose interest.
Now that the long dark evenings are upon us it could be a good time to Dust off that old TNC and give the packet system another look. This past year has seen a lot of effort put into improving the packet network in the southeast by John EI8JA, John EI7IG and John EI3DIB. Mail is regularly sent and answered in less than a day. Packet is not the same and never will be the same as the Internet but it has its place and it is part of our hobby so why not try the new improved system?
Please note that the Waterford and Tipperary systems WRC2, WITIP and EI3DIB can be found on 144.850 MHz, Node links are fully operational with full back-up paths in place, long breakdowns should be only a distant memory.
The next committee meeting of the IRTS will take place on Saturday the 11th of November 2000 at 11.00am in the Shamrock Lodge Hotel, Athlone. Clubs are reminded that they may send representatives to this meeting.
The North Wales Rally which is popular with many east cost EI operators will take place in Llandudno over the weekend of the 4th and 5th of November.
The Scout Centre at Mount Melleray was again the venue for the Scout Jamboree on the air. The centre put on a
truly amazing display of transmitters and receivers. Local people were intrigued by the appearance of a huge crane in the car park at the Centre, which held the antennas. The station was used to speak with Scouts in Kalgoorie - Western Australia, Toyko - Japan, Iceland, Cook Islands and Greenland as well as most north European countries. The stations were operated by Pat EI9EZ, Ger EI8HT and David EI7FYB using CW, SSB and Packet. Jim EI8IG also put on a demonstration of fast scan television.
The Scouts in the Centre were mainly from the Diocese of Cork and Ross. This worldwide event has been growing in popularity over the years, somewhere in the region of 2 million scouts were active on the airwaves for the weekend.
AMSAT's Phase 3D satellite should be sent into orbit on board a European Space Agency Ariane 5 Booster on Tuesday, November 14th from the ESA spaceport in French Guiana. The launch had been delayed as the result of problems with the commercial payload due to go on board Ariane 5 Flight 135. The exact launch time is not yet known. Phase 3D has passed all of its pre-launch inspections, testing and preparation. This will be the largest Amateur Radio payload ever put into space. After Phase 3D is in its intended orbit, it's expected to be a few months before it is ready for amateur use. For more information, visit the AMSAT-NA Web site at www.amsat.org/
KARS will be operating a special event station to commemerate the extinguishing of the last burning oil well in Kuwait after the Gulf War. Using the callsign 9K2LOW (Last Oil Well). The station will operate on all bands and modes during the 4th, 5th and 6th of November.
The K5K (Kingman Reef) DXpedition is currently underway and will continue into next week. A German DXpedition to Eritrea is currently underway using the callsign E30TA.
Items for inclusion in Echo Ireland should be forwarded to Dave Moore EI4BZ at 021-883555 in the evenings or by e-mail to ei4bz@eircom.net Dave is also available during office hours at 021-823172 and you can fax him at 021-823316.
Items for inclusion in the Radio News should be forwarded to Mark Wall EI7IS at QTHR or via e-mail to ei7is@qsl.net Items can also be sent to Mark over the phone at 087-6302026.
News can also be submitted via e-mail to news@irts.ie for automatic forwarding to both news services.
[N]