The annual Islands On The Air (IOTA) contest took place last weekend. This contest is always well supported in Ireland and this year was no exception.
A number of groups activated offshore islands for the contest. The "Polish Team" (Adam EI5JQ, Jurek SQ7JT, Bronek EI4JZ and Ark EI9KC) were on Great Blasket Island with the call sign EJ0PL; the Blasket Islands have a unique IOTA reference, ensuring they were in great demand during the contest. Members of the Shannon Basin Radio Club were back on Inisbofin, while an EI / GI group were on Rathlin Island - this group included Rathlin veterans Declan EI9HQ, Pete GI4VIV and Peter EI4GZB.
From the mainland we heard the Dalkey Island Contest Group (EI1DD) operating from Tipperary. Nearby, also in Tipperary, Olivier EI8GQB operated on his own for the full 24 hours; Olivier tried out a number of new antennas for this contest, including a very unusual 10 element 20m wire beam. Other mainland stations heard during the contest included Thos EI2JD, Oleg EI7KD, Colin GI0RQK, Tony EI7JN, Joe EI7GY as well as MI0M - the Northern Ireland DXers Group.
Reports on propagation for this year's contest suggest a mixed picture. 10 metres was once again disappointing, with the Sporadic-E propagation for this band living up to its name; nevertheless there were some 10 metre openings both on Saturday and Sunday, providing worthwhile multipliers. The lower bands were perhaps better than usual, with low atmospheric noise; most participants have reported good runs on 40 metres and, to a lesser extent, on 80 metres.
The results of this contest will be announced before the year end.
The Mid Ulster Amateur Radio Club has been invited by Coleraine Council to attend the NI International Airshow in Portrush, from the 3rd September till the 4th September 2011. The club and its members will be promoting amateur radio, to members of the public attending the show, with information leaflets and radio equipment on display.
The Mid Ulster Amatuer Radio Club will be holding a foundation course and exam over the weekend of Friday 9th Sept to Saturday 10th Sept 2011. Any interested persons can complete an application form at www.muarc.com/courseapplicationform.htm or contact the exam secretary Martin MI0YMF on 02838852712. Please note all forms must be completed and returned to the exam secretary before the 9th August 2011.
The annual Mayo Radio Experimenters Network club radio rally will take place on Sunday 20th November 2011. Doors open at 11.00 am.
The venue will be the Welcome Inn Hotel in Castlebar.
If you would like further details please contact: Rally Organiser - Padraic Baynes EI9JA on 087 - 695 7154 (email pbaynes1 at eircom /dot /net), or email club PRO. David Hatfield EI3ECB on ei3ecb at gmail /dot /com or text or phone the club mobile phone number 086 20 89 777.
Dundalk Amateur radio Society continues to be as busy as ever. Anthony EI2KC was applauded in his absence for reading the IRTS News the previous Monday night for his first time. DXCC: Tom EI9CJ got well deserved praise from his club members for his recent inclusion in the DXCC listings. Tom has submitted cards to the ARRL for his Mixed, Phone and 10m awards. DXing: Thos, EI2JD, gave a brief talk on the ST0R DXpedition and urged all to try work them on one band (at least). D.A.R are looking forward to hosting the IRTS AGM 2012 at the Fairways Hotel, Dundalk and plans are well on the way to ensure a great success as in previous years. Last but certainly not least. Congratulations were given to those who studied, sat and passed the Radio Exam recently. A big round of applause for Des Sharp KB3LKM and Sean McKeown, two members of the club who were successful and passed the exam.
The Amateur Radio satellite ARISSat-1 has been deployed from the ISS during EVA-29 on Wednesday, August 3. First signals have been received by JR8LWY reporting copy of the telemetry beacon as the satellite passed over Japan. Full operational capability of ARISSat-1/KEDR is still under evaluation pending performance evaluation of the UHF antenna. This amateur satellite is one of the most dynamic amateur satellites ever deployed in space and provides us with unique opportunities to conduct amateur radio experiments. Please submit your reception signal reports on amsat-bb and via the mission's e-mail boxes on www.amsat.org
Welcome our newest country, Thailand to the International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend, which is on August the 20 and 21. Simon Luttrell HS0ZIB will be operating from the Golden Jubilee Lighthouse, at Phromthep Cape, Phuket. With just days to go, the big entry improvements are from Australia, Chile, Portugal and the USA. They have already exceeded previous records and a few more countries are about equal with last year’s total. The 48-hour event is not a contest but is plenty of fun.
Carsten DF1XC is nearing the end of his stay on the Caribbean island of Barbados. He can still be heard until 15 August using the call 8P9XC. QSLs go via the home call.
A team from Spain and Italy are active from now until 15 August from Benin in West Africa. signing TY1KS. They are to be found on all bands including 6m. QSL info is via IZ8IYX and further details can be found on www.dxcoffee.com
OJ0UR will be QRV from Market Reef from 13-20 August. Operators are ON5UR, ON8AK, PA5R and PD9DX. This one counts as EU-053 for the Islands on the Air Award as well as being a separate DXCC entity. QSL Manager is M0URX.
Items for inclusion in next week’s Radio News can be submitted via e-mail to “newsteam /at/ irts / dot / ie” for automatic forwarding to both the radio and printed news services. Urgent news items for the radio news maybe telephoned to the radio news editor, Aidan, EI7JC on 085 7100511.
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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