Archived News Script

IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday December 2nd 2007


80 Metre Counties Contest

The 75th Jubilee Year will formally come to a close with the 80 metres Counties Contest on January the 1st next. The year commenced with the Counties Contest last January and the Society has certainly celebrated in style throughout the 12 months with a very high profile both nationally and internationally. We would encourage all members and indeed operators generally to come on the band on New Year's Day and fly the flag for the Society and Amateur Radio. Full details of the contest rules are available on the IRTS website.


Deadline Passed for Repeater Call Signs

The matter of reorganising the allocation of repeater callsigns was aired on the Repeater Reflector and a logical system for call signs proposed by John McCarthy EI8JA was accepted by those who contributed to the discussion. This system was accepted by ComReg at a meeting on the 10th of July last.

The call sign suffix will have three letters. The first two will be user determined giving perhaps geographical information such as ML for Mount Leinster. The final letter in the suffix will be R to indicate a repeater station.

Unfortunately some repeater groups and clubs have not made contact with ComReg on this matter. The indications to us at present are that ComReg is considering withdrawing the repeater facility from those groups or clubs who have not submitted proposals for call signs, which comply with the new format.

We would urge any such groups to make proposals to ComReg immediately for call signs in the new format so as to avoid the withdrawal of any existing repeater facilities. Such proposals should be sent to Derek O'Reilly, Commission for Communications Regulation, Abbey Court, Irish Life Centre, Lower Abbey Street, Dublin 1 or to “derek dot oreilly at comreg dot ie”.


Theory Examination

The next theory examination for the experimenter licence will be held on Wednesday the 6th of February 2008 at 2 p.m. at the ComReg Offices in Dublin. A second centre outside Dublin could be utilised if warranted by the numbers wishing to sit the examination. The fee for the exam is 50 Euro or 25 Euro for repeat candidates, full time registered students, those who are retired, unemployed or have a disability. Anyone wishing to sit the examination should send the appropriate fee to Sean Nolan EI7CD, 12 Little Meadow, Pottery Road, Dunlaoghaire, Co Dublin. Cheques and money orders should be made payable to the Irish Radio Transmitters Society.

A contact phone number and an e-mail address if available should be included. Sean's address is available in the Call Book section of the IRTS website at www.irts.ie and his e-mail address is “ei7cd at gofree dot indigo dot ie”. Also available in the Where do I Start? section of the website are Examination Notes with a sample examination paper as well as a link to the ComReg Experimenter Pages which contain some very useful information. The examination consists of a multiple choice question paper of 60 questions divided into three main sections A, B and C and the time allowed is two hours. The pass mark is 60% and a pass is required in each of the three main sections of the paper.


New Allocation in Spain

Effective since the 24th of November 2007, Spanish radio amateurs are allowed to use 7100 to 7200 kHz on a secondary basis using a total radiated power not exceeding 24 dBW.

Spanish radio amateurs have also gained access to the 51 to 52 MHz band, and can now use 50 to 52 MHz with a maximum power of 100 Watts. In central Spain however, there is a power restriction on this band of 10 Watts.


South Dublin Radio Club

The talk on Marconi by Michael Sexton of National University Ireland, Cork that was recently cancelled has been recheduled for Monday the 28th of January at Engineers Ireland, 22 Clyde Road, Dublin 4. Admission is free and all are welcome.

This year’s South Dublin Radio Club Christmas Party will take place on Tuesday the 11th of December. After last year’s success, the venue will remain the same; "The Morgue", Tempelogue from 8.00 p.m. until late. Members of other clubs and visitors are very welcome to this social event. It’s always a great turnout. Limited free food will be available for paid up members while visitors can choose from the bar menu up to 9.00 p.m.

The club will then go on Christmas holidays until the return on the 8th of January.


South Eastern Amateur Radio Group

At the October meeting of South Eastern Amateur Radio Group, John Ronan EI7IG gave a talk and demonstration on the subject of APRS (Automatic Position Reporting System). This proved to be a very interesting presentation to all present at the meeting.

The November meeting saw Cormac EI4HQ give a demonstration of AIS (Automatic Identification System) which is a system used by ships for location and identification. Again, this turned out to be a very informative presentation to all present at another well-attended meeting.

SEARG plans to host some more demonstrations at its general meetings in the New Year. As always, these meetings take place on the last Monday of each month and all are welcome.


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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