The DXCC award, issued by the ARRL, is one of the most sought-after awards for amateur radio activity. The award is available to radio amateurs who can confirm contacts with at least 100 entities. Endorsements are available for individual bands and modes.
There is plenty of interest in this award in EI, with 50 EI amateurs currently participating in the DXCC programme. Have a look at www.irts.ie/dxcc to see the current standing of the EI call signs in the DXCC listings.
Note in particular some remarkable jumps in the rankings over the past month!
ComReg has issued a new set of callsigns for use by the Amateur Radio Emergency Network. The callsigns are available for use during training and emergency nets as directed by the National Coordinator. The three callsigns are EI0AC, EI0EC, and EI0NC and supersede any callsigns issued in the past.
Limerick Radio Club's 70cm repeater has been taken off site for updating & maintenance and it is hoped to have it back on air soon
The Society is continuing to pursue with ComReg the question of securing increased power for the duration of contests on a list of international HF and VHF contests still to be finalised. In order to take this matter further, ComReg wish to have submitted a list of licensed amateurs who would be interested in getting permission to operate with increased power for the contests concerned. Anyone who wishes to have their name included on this list should e mail the contest manager Thos Caffrey EI2JD at contestmanager /at/ irts.ie or to thoscaffrey /at/ hotmail.com
On Friday 16th July 2010 callsign GN4KPT/P will be active from Stormont Castle and Parliament Buildings the home of the NI Assembly in Belfast.
Bobby MI0RYL will be activating this for Cashota-NI and hopes to use as many of the hf bands as propagation allows. A special QSL card will be sent to all contacts made on the day.
The station should be up on air by 10am till evening, with the castle activation number GI022 and WAB No J37 Information can be found at www.Cashota-NI.org or by emailing lamph121 /at/ o2.co.uk.
Peter EI4GZB Declan EI9HQ will be out activating Squares on the 18th July
Planned squares to be worked are Oscar 33 34 35 36 County Dublin. All squares will be activated /MM from the boat it is planned that the above squares will be activated both times during the day, on the outward and return journeys.
Bands to be used will be 20m 40m & 80m 14.268 7.068 & 3.680/760KHz SSB only + - QRM.
Members of the Dalkey Island Contest Group are again travelling to Clare Island this year for the IOTA Contest which is scheduled for the weekend of 24-25 July. The callsign will be EJ1DD and the operators are Paul EI2CA, Peter EI7CC, Sean EI7CD, Seamus EI8BP, Ger EI8CC and Aiden EI8CE.
QSL Manager is EI7CC. For the IOTA Award the reference Number is EU-121 and for the Lighthouse enthusiasts the WLOTA reference is 1935.
There may be some activity by individual team members either side of the contest using their own calls with the EJ prefix. All contacts will be very welcome Whether you are a contester or not.
Members of South Eastern Amateur Radio Group will visit the Radio Museum at Howth Martello Tower on Saturday the 17th of July. If anyone would like to join us, please drop a line to Francis EI5GOB at "ei5gob at gmail dot com". Francis can also be contacted on his mobile at 087-7709388
Please note, this is open to non-members. For further information, visit www.searg.com
Bush valley Amateur Radio Club will be on the air on July 24th from its home village of Dervock in County Antrim, Northern Ireland.
They will be running a Special Event Station from the Village Fun Day, commemorating the birth of Kennedy Kane McArthur, a son of the village, who immigrated to South Africa, competed in the Olympics of 1912 at Stockholm, and won the marathon.
The club will be using the special event callsign GB0KKM for the day. A special QSL card will be available.
OSCAR News is the official journal of the Amateur Radio satellite organization AMSAT-UK, all 47 issues published from 2000-2009 are now available on CD.
Containing more than 2000 pages of information about amateur satellites ranging from homebrew electronics projects to scientific papers, this archive offers an intriguing insight into the development of amateur radio satellites during a fast moving decade.
More details can be found on the Amsat UK website, including a link for purchasing the CD
AMSAT-UK www.uk.amsat.org/
The AMSAT-UK FUNcube CubeSat project is intended for launch into a Low Earth Orbit (LEO). In addition to the satellite, the project includes the development of simple receivers and display software for use in schools.
FUNcube is designed to carry a 70cm to 2m linear transponder for SSB/CW communications along with a beacon carrying telemetry and data for educational demonstrations from space. It is expected to be completed by Autumn 2010. A submission for frequencies was made to the IARU Amateur Satellite Frequency Coordination panel who has announced these coordinated frequencies for FUNcube.
Inverting linear transponder: Uplink 435.080 – 435.060 MHz Downlink 145.960 – 145.980 MHz Beacon: 145.955 MHz CW and BPSK
Further information on this exciting UK Amateur satellite project can be found on the FUNcube website.
FUNcube www.funcube.org.uk/
As is common through the year we have occasional lulls in news. If your group or club are involved in anything that you would like to share with our Listeners or readers please pass on the information to our editor.
For further details on Rallies please see www.irts.ie/rallies
1910 The first airplane to fly a mile piloted by W.R. Brookins of Atlantic City, NJ.
1920 Radio compass used for the first time on a U.S. Navy airplane.
Items for inclusion in next weeks Radio News should be forwarded to Charlie EI8JB, preferably via e-mail to “charlie dot carolan at gmail dot com” Or by phone to 087-6265418 News can also be submitted via e-mail to “newsteam 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 Thursday in order to be guaranteed inclusion in the following Sunday’s bulletin.
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