In responding to questions from the floor following his address at the IRTS Dinner on Saturday the 2nd of March, Mr. Dave Thom of the Office of the Director of Telecommunications Regulation made it very clear that foundation licenses issued in the UK which use the prefix M3, MI3 etc are not CEPT licenses and are not valid for use outside the UK.
He went on to emphasize that anyone using such a license here and signing, for example, EI/MI3XXX would be reported by the ODTR to the Radiocommunications Agency in the UK and would be liable to have their licenses withdrawn. He also emphasised that EI stations working any such stations would be operating outside the terms and conditions of their licenses and would be liable to have their licenses withdrawn by the ODTR.
Mr. Thom went on to instance examples of recent successful prosecutions for illegal operation one of which involved fines totaling £2,500. He impressed on those present the resolve of the ODTR to pursue those involved in the illegal use of the frequency spectrum.
It is worth mentioning that the ODTR has made substantial investment in equipment and is engaged in carrying out regular monitoring of the radio frequency spectrum, including the frequencies allocated to experimenters.
Holders of foundation licenses are of course free to operate from their locations in the UK and to communicate with licensed radio experimenters and amateurs elsewhere in accordance with their license conditions through repeaters or otherwise.
EI7TRG/P will be transmitting from a number of portable locations in Counties Tipperary and Kilkenny this Sunday as part of the IRTS activity day and hope to be able to offer a number of sought after squares for those interested in WAI. EI7TRG/P and members using their own calls will be active on HF, VHF & UHF over this weekend.
Tipperary Amateur Radio Group is to provide an emergency communication service for the Aherlow Failte Group in their annual hill walking festival on April 13th &14th. This local event in Tipperary has been increasing in popularity over the last number of years with in excess of 200 people participating over a 2 day walking festival on the Galtee Mountains. TARG has supported this event for the last 3 years and the event has proved to be both enjoyable and rewarding for the Group. This year Tipperary Amateur Radio Group will have approx. 10 members operating portable on the Galtee Mountains over the 2 days and EI7TRG/P will be operated from the base of the Galtees providing direct link to the emergency services.
John Desmond (EI7GL) has just received 6 Metre DXCC Award Number 441 from the ARRL. This is the very first 6 Metre and VHF DXCC Award that has been issued to an EI station. John has been on 50 MHz (6 Metres) for over 10 years now and it has taken this long to get the 100+ countries required for this award. He has been very active on the band during these years and spent a lot of time just listening for new countries.
The next general meeting of South Eastern Amateur Radio Group will take place at 8.00 p.m. on Wednesday the 27th of March 2002 in the Roanmore Social and Sports Centre, Cleaboy Road, Waterford. Visitors and new members are welcome.
The Limerick Rally will take place on the 7th of April at the new venue of Jury's Inn, Limerick. Last year's rally was lost due to the Foot and Mouth issue and the club had planned to host the IRTS AGM at the time. This year's rally promises to be a good one.
The IRTS 2 metre counties will be held on Monday the 1st of April and it is hoped that many clubs and individuals around the country get involved in the event. Rules are available in the IRTS yearbook and on the IRTS web site.
RW1AI/ANT is currently active from Vostok Base in Antarctica, IOTA AN-016. QSL is via home call, RW1AI.
Items for inclusion in Echo Ireland should be forwarded to Dave Moore EI4BZ at 021-4883555. Items can also be submitted to Dave by e-mail at ei4bz@eircom.net.
Items for inclusion in the Radio News should be forwarded to Mark Wall EI7IS at QTHR or by phone at 087-6302026. E-mail details are available on the news page of the IRTS website as are URL's and e-mail addresses mentioned in this bulletin. The address of the IRTS web site is www.irts.ie
News can also be submitted via e-mail to news@irts.ie for automatic forwarding to both news services.
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