Last weekend saw ten States being welcomed as new members of an enlarged European Union. Since Ireland at present holds the Presidency of the Union, the focus of this welcome was very much on this country. As a contribution to the welcoming celebrations, stations using the EI25 prefix and located in Dublin and in the ten towns and cities twinned with the new Member States operated over the weekend. These stations extended a practical welcome to our new partners in the EU through the medium of amateur radio.
Dick Roche, the Minister for European Affairs, broadcast a message on the 80 metre band from the Dublin station EI25EU, to the Irish stations at 1145 local on the Saturday to initiate the event. In his message the Minister emphasised the significance of radio amateurs participating in the welcoming event since international friendship and co-operation are the very ethos of our activities. At the conclusion of his message he described the stations as welcoming ambassadors, extending a hand of friendship, reaching out across the airwaves in an electromagnetic touch, to mark the next step on our European journey.
All of the stations were in great demand and were kept busy all of the time. As you would expect, the stations generated particular interest from amateurs in the new Member States who were delighted at the initiative to mark, what was for them, a very special day.
Some excellent pictures of the event in Limerick which was twinned with Slovenia can be seen on the Limerick Radio Club website which is at www.qsl.net/ei4lrc Included is a picture of the Slovenian Prime Minister Anton Rep speaking from EI25SL in Limerick to Ivan S51DI. Well done to all of those involved in the special event stations and many thanks for your efforts. Details of the IRTS EURADIO Award associated with this event are available on the IRTS website at www.irts.ie
On Monday the 7th of June EI2BY will be doing emergency radio coverage of the Women's Mini Marathon. This year, IRTS president Sean Donelan will be involved in the radio communications for the event. If you want to take part in this special event licensed by ComReg as EI2WMM, please contact George Adjaye EI2CPB on 4908546 or 0862586103 or e-mail adjayeg@dcu.ie with your name, callsign and contact number.
Results of the Mayo REN club competition for April were as follows:
1st John Corless EI7IQ, 2nd Brendan Minish EI6IZ, 3rd John McAndrew EI3JM, 4th John, Brown EI7FAB, 5th Jimmy Kelly EI2GCB, 6th Terry Ebdon EI9IW.
The May meeting planned activities for the summer, and discussed the Club's recent outing to the Enniskillen Rally. The evening was most enjoyable and plans were made for the trip to the Bangor Rally.
Meetings are held on the first Wednesday of each month at 9pm in Stensons Lounge Ballyvary and guests are, as always, welcome.
Limerick Radio Club - EURADIO EI25SL Last weekend, May 1st & 2nd, Limerick Radio Club participated in the EURADIO celebrations to mark the accession of the new states to the European Union. Limerick City was twinned with Slovenia and Limerick Radio Club was issued with a special call-sign EI25SL for the occasion.
A special event station was set up by the Club in premises provided by Limerick City Council, located close to all the other activities taking place to mark the occasion.
The station consisted of an IC 756 Pro 2 Transceiver provided by ICOM UK and a G5RV antenna. A laptop computer for logging was provided by John EI5FOB. The station commenced operation on Saturday morning and remained on air until late into the evening. Operations were resumed on Sunday morning and continued throughout the day.
The highlight of Sunday afternoon was the visit to the station of the Prime Minister of Slovenia Mr. Anton Rob and his accompanying party, who were greeted by members of Limerick Radio Club. The Prime Minister was invited by Paul EI6FE to take the mike and have a QSO with Ivan S51DI - a Slovenian station, contacted minutes before the Prime Minister's arrival and who remained on stand-by on the frequency. The Prime Minister had a short QSO in the Slovenian language with S51DI. As you can imagine all the cameras were clicking to record this important event.
Shortly afterwards the Prime Minister's party moved on to visit the Hunt Museum nearby and EI25SL resumed normal operations on the air for the remainder of the day.
Despite poor band conditions about 1300 QSO's were made on the various bands over the two-day operation. However, all agreed that the visit of the Prime Minister to the station was the highlight of the weekend.
Limerick Radio Club would like to thank Limerick City Council for providing a suitable location for the special event station and ICOM UK for the use of the IC 756 Pro 2 transceiver over the week-end. The club would also like to thank John EI5FOB for the use of his laptop computer for logging all QSO's.
The LRC committee would also like to take this opportunity to thank the members of Limerick Radio Club - too many to mention individually, who took part in setting-up and operating the special event station and making this a very memorable occasion for the Club.
Mike EI2CL, is very pleased to report that he and his daughter Siobhan made their second visit on May 2nd to the QTH of Andy, UA3AB, located about 50km west of Moscow. In view of the three-hour time difference and the relatively early start, and not having heard any stations from G, GI, or GM, the prospect of hearing anyone from EI did not look promising. Nevertheless, with the benefit of the local DX cluster, he worked EI25LY on 18 metres CW, and later EI25CY on 14 metres SSB.
The purpose of the visit was not to play radio all day, so from about 1330Z, after an interesting sightseeing trip to the town of Istra, and a lovely meal prepared by Lena, Andy's XYL, Mike did some more listening for EI mainly on 14 metres SSB. Despite the contest QRM, EI25EU, EI25OK, EI25YL, EI25ML, EI25SL and EI25ES were heard with very good signals and replied after the first call. The radio used was an ICOM 7800.
Please mail your cards directly to the Outgoing Bureau Manager, Anthony Baldwin EI8JK, Rathlin, Kilcrohane, Co. Cork.
As part of the Day of Welcomes celebrations on 1st May in Bray Co. Wicklow, members of South Dublin Radio Club operated the Special Event Station EI25CY. The QTH was in a portacabin on the promenade, right in the middle of the celebrations organised by Bray Town Council to mark the accession of 10 new countries to the EU. The emphasis of the celebrations was on Cyprus, which was Bray's "twin" for the day. The seaside location proved to be excellent from a propagation point of view, ensuring plenty of pile-ups for the day. The antenna used was a G5RV. Visitors to the QTH included Jan OK1FWC (from the Czech Republic) and Janusz SP9JZT/ EI9JN (from Poland), both of whom helped to pull in stations from their native countries. For the second day of the weekend, the call sign was activated from the QTH of Nikki EI9JF in County Kildare. Right up to midnight, there was great demand for the call, helping to give a final total of more than 1,600 QSOs in the log.
Congratulations to Robert Fitzsimons, a member of the SDR Committee and who recently passed the Theory Examination: Robert has now been issued with the call sign EI2GQB At an Extraordinary General Meeting held on 4th May, club members adopted a new Constitution. The main reason for the change in the Constitution was to make it easier for special activities such as contests and special event stations to be run by club members.
The club took part in the EURadio event over the 1st and 2nd of May last. Using the callsign EI25ML, members of the group operated from the Dome on the Millennium Plaza on the Quays in Waterford City centre, which also served as a support structure for the full-size G5RV antenna. During the operation, the station was visited by an RTE camera unit and succeeded in appearing in the news coverage of the event in the evening news.
Operation resumed on Sunday from Donnell's Hill, Portlaw, just outside of the city and operators enjoyed a few hours of solid pile-up on 20 metres. The event was very much enjoyed by all who were involved and the club would like to thank Waterford Spraoi for providing the location and the high profile publicity of the event.
South Eastern Amateur Radio Group will hold a Bring and Buy in the Roanmore Social and Sports centre at 8.00 p.m. on Thursday the 17th of June next. It is also planned to hold an ATV demonstration as well as a Wireless WAN demonstration. The club is also hoping to attract local traders.
The June bank hodiday weekend is not too far away and anyone contemplating getting involved in the CW field day should make contact with the contest manager, Noel EI2JC as soon as possible.
It is hoped that we can again hold a centrally located field day but the feeling is that a minimum of five stations is required to justify everybody travelling.
Items for inclusion in next weeks Radio News should be forwarded Mark Wall EI7IS. He can be contacted by phone or text on 087-6302026 or news can also be submitted via e-mail to news@irts.ie for automatic forwarding to both the radio and printed news services.
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