The next IRTS committee meeting will take place on 10th December at 11.00 in Portlaoise. Affiliated clubs are encouraged to send a representative. Most welcome.
Radio Amateurs in Turkey remain active in the response to the earthquake in Van province on 23rd October.
Assistance has been given by TRAC in setting up VHF/UHF networks to relief agencies and some traffic is also being carried on the 144MHz band. Red Crescent, the Ministry of Health, local law enforcement agencies and the local command centre have been served so far.
The need for HF operations is reducing, however there is still a government station which may operate on 7.092MHz USB. Amateurs are still requested to be careful when operating between 7.092 and 7.095MHz to avoid interference to the ongoing relief operations.
The Foyle and District Amateur Radio Club Rally takes place November 6th 2011 at the White Horse Hotel, 68 Clooney Road, Derry, BT47 3PA. Doors open at 12 noon. The usual traders will be present and IRTS will have a stand also on display. Further details from www.mn0aku.co.uk
Mayo Chairperson calls for radio enthusiasts to join their local club.
Jimmy Kelly, EI2GCB, was re-elected Chairperson of the Mayo Radio Experimenters, at their recent AGM. This is Jimmy’s third consecutive year, and, under the club rues, he will have to step aside at next year’s AGM, because of the three year rule. Adrian Healy, EI2HAB, was returned as Treasurer and selected for the first time as IRTS Club Rep. The other officers elected were: Newsletter Editor – John Corless, EI7IQ, PRO – David Hatfield, EI3ECB, Rally Director – Padraic Baynes, EI9JA, and QSL Manager – Brendan Minish, EI6IZ. Addressing the meeting, the Chairperson Jimmy Kelly, EI2GCB, said the club continues to have a strong and vibrant membership with well attended monthly meetings and is financially solid. He congratulated Adrian Healy on his success in the July theory examination. He said that everyone interested in the hobby should join their local club; the availability of theory classes being one of the many benefits of membership. The club performs well in contests, he said, including winning the portable section of the IRTS 80mts. Counties Contest. He noted that MREN took part in the Lighthouses on the Air event for the first time this year, which proved a very enjoyable event. He added that the club was delighted to support the scouting event, JOTA, again this year. He thanked members who called in to the club callsign, EIMRE/P, which is used in these events. The club organised a number of publicity and promotion events over the summer on an experimental basis. These were public events and he reported limited success, adding that while they were very worthwhile endeavours, the events themselves would need tweaking for next year. The chairperson reminded the meeting that the Rally would be held on November 20th this year at it now established venue of The Welcome Inn Hotel in Castlebar. He thanked the management and staff of the hotel for their continued support of the club. Jimmy also congratulated John Browne, EI7FAB, winner of the MREN annual activity, with half a point margin over Dominic Curtin, EI9JS, in the closest-run club event ever. The annual activity is decided by a cumulative tally of scores recorded in the twelve monthly competitions held by the club for its members.
He concluded his report by thanking his fellow officers and all the members for their attendance at club meetings and events and their support over the year past.
The Connor Shield (for outstanding service to hobby,) was won jointly by Jimmy Kelly, EI2GCB and Dominic Curtin, EI9JS and the Wishing Well Shield (for outstanding service to the club) was won by Padraic Baynes, EI9JA.
MM0DHQ will be transmitting from Kilwinning Abbey, in Scotland as part of CASHOTA (Castles and Stately Homes on the Air) on Tuesday 1st November 2011. All details can be found at www.cashota.co.uk
The Tipperary Amateur Radio Group will hold their Annual General Meeting on Wednesday next the 2nd November in the Raheen House Hotel, Raheen Road, Clonmel at 8.30pm All are Welcome.
Dundalk Amateur Radio Society, EI7DAR, extends its heartiest congratulation to Jim Daly, 2I0SBI, Treasurer to DAR on passing the recent Amateur Radio examination in Dublin. Throughout the years, Jims’ commitment and dedication to DAR has been exemplary and we know he will wear the accolade of an Amateur Radio call sign with great pride.
At last Tuesday's meeting of South Dublin Radio Club, Daniel EI9FHB gave a talk on the plans for an ATV repeater to be located at a site in the Dublin Mountains. Daniel described the components to be used in the forthcoming repeater and also suggested a number of sources of equipment suitable for reception of ATV signals. The new ATV repeater will be on the 13 cms band (around 2.4 GHz). It is hoped that the repeater will provide coverage for much of Dublin city and surrounding areas.
Three separate expeditions will be active during November from the Maldive Islands. From now until 4 November look for 8Q7SO which will be operated by JK1KSB while on holiday there. The others are by G3VDB who will sign 8Q7EJ between 31 October and 13 November and I0WDX who will activate 8Q7CC from 2 – 12 November.
A CW only trip with emphasis on 160m and 80m is being undertaken by two Scottish amateurs GM3YTS and GM0GAV. They will be QRV from Malawi from 31 October to 13 November using the callsign 7Q7GM. QSLs go via GM4FDM and logs will also be uploaded to Logbook of the World.
Easter Island will be available on the HF bands from 3 – 11 November when LA5UF operates as CE0Y/LA5UF. This one counts as SA-001 for the IOTA Award.
LA9DL and LA6VM will be active as A52DL and A52VM respectively from the semi-rare DXCC entity of Bhutan from 3 – 13 November. QSLs go via the home calls.
The T32C DXpedition to East Kiribati has now gone QRT. Operating for just over 4 weeks, the group had well over 200,000 QSOs, covering all bands from 6 metres to 160 metres. This was achieved despite the fact that the equipment they originally planned to use never arrived on the island and they had to make do with smaller rigs, amplifiers and antennas. No doubt Paul EI5DI and Dave EI9FBB, who were part of the team, will have plenty of stories to tell from their weeks on the island.
The DXpedition to South Sudan, call sign ST0R, which took place in July and August of this year, was eagerly awaited by the DX community, as it offered the first opportunity to work this new country. QSL cards for this operation have now started arriving. To prevent the DXCC checking system from being completely swamped by requests for credits, the ST0R group have uploaded some of the QSOs to Logbook of the World; also, ARRL have announced a "special offer" to encourage DXCC holders to apply for credit for South Sudan only.
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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