The web page of the IRTS expedition travelling to Swaziland, 3DA0, in March is now available on the IRTS website. Plans are well advanced and the team have announced that in addition to all band activity on St Patrick's day, they will be concentrating on the WARC bands and LF frequencies at other times. There is also a possibility of some 2-metre EME activity. It is intended that during the expedition there will be daily updates from the site to the web page as well as on online log check so that you can confirm that you are in their log.
This is a DXpedition to Swaziland between 16th March and 25th March 2007 to celebrate the 75th Jubilee of the Irish Radio Transmitters Society. The DXpedition will be QRV for St Patrick's Day and for CQ WPX. The expedition director is IRTS vice president Paul Martin EI2CA 3DA0PM. Other members of the expedition are; Peter EI7CC 3DA0PB, Aidan EI8CE 3DA0AM, David EI4DJ 3DA0DG, Rory EI4DJB 3DA0RH, Brendan EI3GV 3DA0GV and Pete GI4VIV 3DA0GI.
Please note that this expedition is to celebrate the IRTS 75th Anniversary. It is a fun event for those participating and we want to get home in one piece. The planned numbers of QSO’s will be commensurate with the skill and experience of the team members and the time available for radio operations given that it is also a vacation from work for some of us. Our web page is available on the IRTS web site at www.irts.ie/afri75
The following rallies are scheduled to take place during February, March and April 2007. First comes the Limerick Rally, which is in the Greenhills Hotel on Sunday the 11th of March. Later that month, on Saturday 24th of March, the Lagan Valley Amateur Radio Society holds its rally in Lisburn.
The IRTS AGM and Rally takes place on Sunday the 22nd of April in the Vienna Woods Hotel, Cork, with the AGM Dinner on the previous night. More details of these events are in the current issue of Echo Ireland and on the "Rallies and Events" page of www.irts.ie
Preparations (even at this early stage) are underway for the Cork Radio Rally, which will take place at the same venue, Blarney Park Hotel. This will be the 16th year that the Cork Radio Club have run this very successful rally. Blarney is a wonderful venue for this event and many bring their families along to experience the shopping in Blarney.
So make a note for this event in your dairy. The Blarney Rally will take place on Sunday the 23rd of September.
Con EI7DJB will demonstrate his sound and video editor at the club on Monday the 5th of February. All are welcome.
The Cork Radio meets every Monday night at the "Cork Foyer" Assumption Road Cork at 8:30 p.m. Enquiries about the club should be directed to Dick Birmingham EI6HH on 021-4545154.
The next meeting of the Tipperary Amateur Radio Group will be held on Thursday next the 8th of Feburary at Raheen House Hotel, Raheen Road, Clonmel at 8.00 pm. All are Welcome.
The Annual General Meeting of South Eastern Amateur Radio Group will take place at 8.00 p.m. on Wednesday the 28th of February in the Roanmore Centre, Cleaboy Road, Waterford.
All are welcome and members are asked to attend.
An on-site inspection of the 2 Metre Voice Repeater has established that the antenna was badly damaged in the recent stormy weather. A temporary arrangement has been put in place to restore the operation of the repeater, while a new antenna is being sourced. Members will be kept informed of progress.
The Committee apologises for the loss of service over the past week.
In the UK, the Radio Frequency and Time Signal service which was until now provided by the National Physical Labortatory will be provided by an external company from the 1st of April 2007. The service is transmitted on 60 kHz and provides time and frequency standard. VT communications will build new infrastructure to deliver the signal from it's facility in Cumbria. The new infrastructure will include time code generation equipment, remote control and monitoring system and a new Low Frequency Transmitter.
The FCC has modified the Amateur Radio Service rules, eliminating Morse code as an exam requirement. The new rules come into effect on Friday the 23rd of February 2007. The changes will grant limited HF operating privileges to Technician licensees on 80, 40, 15, and 10 meters.
Once the new rules take effect, Technicians can upgrade to General by passing a single written exam and to Amateur Extra by also passing a written exam.
Items for inclusion in next weeks Radio News should be forwarded to Mark Wall, EI7IS at QTHR or by phone to 051-853806 or 087-6302026. Items for the radio news can also be faxed to 087 5 6302026. News should be submitted via e-mail to “news at irts dot 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 Friday in order to be guaranteed inclusion in the following Sunday’s bulletin.
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