Archived News Script

IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday October 10th 2004


47th Jamboree on the Air next weekend

Each year over 500,000 Scouts and Guides from all over the world participate in this event where Scouting experiences are shared as thousands of scouts world-wide speak with each other across the airwaves. The event lasts from midnight local time Friday night (15th October) to midnight Sunday night (17th October). Stations participating can choose their own operating hours within this time frame.

Headquarters station for Ireland will be at the Helix in the campus of Dublin City University, as it will also be the venue for the inaugural National Council of Scouting Ireland, which was formed at the beginning of the year following the coming together of the Catholic Scouts of Ireland and the Scout Association of Ireland, and at which over 700 members of the new association are expected to attend. Operation of this station will be assisted by North Dublin Radio Club.

EI5MRC will be operational from its QRA in Mount Melleray Scout Campsite and EI4BST will be operational from the Community Centre in Bayside, Dublin, the meeting place of the 132nd Dublin Scout Group.

Other JOTA stations will be operational from the National Scout Campsite in Larch Hill where the 7th Wicklow Scout Group will be assisted by South Dublin Radio Club, the Scout Den in Tramore where the 8th Waterford Scout Group will be assisted by the South Eastern Amateur Radio Group and Tralee where the 2nd Kerry sea Scouts will be supervised by their Skipper, Brian EI4GL.

Further information regarding JOTA is available from Sean O'Suilleabhain, EI3IP, National JOTA Organiser (NJO) of Scouting Ireland at jota@scouts.ie or at 087 232 6994 or at QTHR or from the Radio Scouting web page of Scouting Ireland at www.scouts.ie/jota Downloads of Radio Scouting handbooks for Scouts as well as Leaders and Station managers for both jurisdictions on the island of Ireland are available on the web page or by email on request.


International Space Station

The International Space Station went back into repeater mode last Thursday the 7th. The downlink frequency is 145.800 MHz and the uplink is on 437.800 MHz. No CTCSS is required to access the station.

You can download the PCSAT prediction program at www.uiview.com


Cork Annual Dinner

The Vienna Woods Hotel in Glanmire, Co. Cork will be the venue for a dinner and social evening on Friday November the 5th next. All experimenters and their friends are invited to take the opportunity to get together and enjoy a good meal in pleasant surroundings.

Tickets cost 25 Euro each and can be booked by contacting Jeremy Sheehan EI5GM on 021-4774955 after 1900 or Dave Moore EI4BZ on 021-4883555.

Dundalk Amateur Radio Society.

The Dundalk Amateur Radio Society held it's Annual General Meeting on Wednesday night last the 6th of October with a full attendance of members. The new committee elected for the coming year are:

Chairman is Thos Caffrey EI2JD. Secretary is Oscar Reynolds EI7IW and Treasurer is Jim Daly MI3SBI. The QSL Manager is Pat Fitzpatrick EI2HX.

Some of the activities DARS and it's members were involved with last year included EI Counties Contests, VHF Field Day, Islands On The Air (IOTA), Summits On The Air (SOTA), Jamboree On The Air (JOTA), EU Enlargement as EI25YL and ATV. There has also been recent improvements made on the 2 metre Repeater on 145.675 MHz (R3) with the replacement of the Antenna. Please do check it out as DARS would like to receive some reports from around the country.

A number of items were discussed for the coming year including HF, VHF, UHF and Microwave activities.

The next meeting of DARS will be held at 8.00 p.m. on Wednesday the 3rd of November at 113 Castletown Road, Dundalk. All are welcome to attend.

Shannon Basin Radio Club Challenge.

The Shannon Basin Radio club is again running its annual one day Open, Fixed, Challenge for EI residents. This challenge is open to all licensed operators and short wave listeners, and will be held on the 7th of November 2004 from 0800 to 2000 hrs. The purpose of the challenge is to encourage radio operators and short wave listeners to be active on the H.F bands. The challenge will have three modes of operation, and the winner in each mode will be awarded with the following;

The Lough Allen Shield will be awarded to the highest score in SSB. The Lough Ree Shield will be awarded to the highest score in CW (A1A mode). The Lough Derg Shield will be awarded to the highest score for SWL. The above winners will also receive a personal trophy.

To receive a copy of the rules for the above challenge, please send a stamped address envelope to the contest manager EI6HW, Noel Mulvihill, Hillquarter, Coosan, Athlone, Co. Westmeath or e-mail nfmulvihill@eircom.net.

Please Note that persons intending to compete must send notification prior to the contest date.


New RB5 70cm Repeater in Limerick

Finally the Limerick 70 centimetre repeater is running on test. Receive on 433.125 MHz and Transmit on 434.725 MHz, the "standard" + 1.6 MHz shift applies. Access is by carrier, but will change to 1750 Hz tone-burst soon.

As an experiment, within the next week or so, users will be able to "cross link" this repeater to any 2 metre repeater or simplex channel by DTMF tone command. It is likely to be able to link to Galway, Cork or Limerick 2 metre voice repeaters.

Please e-mail reception reports to ei9feb@eircom.net or contact anyone in L.R.C. via 2 metre or 70 centimetre Limerick repeaters. After extensive tests and final use of the secondary radio port is decided the repeater will be sited on Keeper's Hill.


AREN

The IRTS Voluntary Emergency Radio Communications agency will be present at the Waterford Rally on October the 17th next and can be contacted on 144.625 MHz or on 086 2593-005. As usual all enquiries should be direct to any member of the IRTS Committee or to the EmerComms Coordinator, John Ketch, EI2GN at QTHR.


7 MHz Band

Those of you who do not already know will be interested to hear that the Office of Communications in the UK, Ofcom, on the 23rd of September issued a notice of a proposed change in the Schedule to amateur licences. The notice is addressed to all holders of amateur licences and indicates that it is proposed to extend the current 7 MHz band from 100 kHz to 200 kHz that is from 7.0 to 7.2 MHz. The portion between 7.1 and 7.2 MHz will be on a secondary basis and no interference may be caused to other services using this segment. The notice allows all amateurs to make representations about the proposed change up to the 23rd of October.

This is a welcome move as it anticipates the exclusive allocation to amateurs in Regions 1 and 3 of the ITU of 200 kHz from 7.0 MHz with effect from April 2009 as decided at WRC03. The IRTS raised this issue with COMREG at its meeting in February last and has had further recent contact on the matter. It is hoped that a similar arrangement will be introduced here in the not too distant future.


South Eastern Amateur Radio Group

The next general meeting of South Eastern Amateur Radio Group will take place at 8.00 p.m. on Wednesday the 27th of October in the usual venue of The Roanmore Centre, Cleaboy Road, Waterford. Guest speaker at the meeting will be IRTS President, Sean Donelan EI4GK. All are welcome.

The SEARG rally will take place in the McEniff Ard Rí Hotel, Waterford on Sunday next. Doors open at 11.00 a.m. and admission is 3 euro. Entry is free for children accompanied by an adult. Bar and food facilities will be available and there is ample car parking. Details about the rally including a directions map are available on the clubs web site at www.searg.com

For enquiries about the rally, contact Mick EI5DCB on 051-873310.


Mayo Radio Experimenter Network

The third Mayo Rally will take place on Sunday November the 21st in the usual venue - The Belmont Hotel, Knock. The rally will follow the proven successful format of previous Mayo shows, with a large Bring and Buy section, a number of demonstrations and presentations as well as the large number of traders. Doors open at 11.30 a.m.

The club will host a dinner on the night before the rally, and a prominent guest speaker has been lined up for the occasion. A special rate for accommodation has been negotiated with the Hotel, for the Saturday night. All booking enquiries should be made with the Rally Director, Padraic Baynes, EI9JA on 087 6957154.


Items for inclusion in next weeks Radio News should be forwarded to Mark EI7IS. News should be submitted via e-mail to news@irts.ie for automatic forwarding to both the radio and printed news services. Please note that items for the radio news should reach the editor no later than midday on Fridays.

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