The weekly radio news in Irish, which is read by Paddy Maher EI7GK on Sundays at 11.30 am local time is moving from 80 metres to 40 metres with effect from Sunday 9th June. The news frequency will be 7.128 MHz, which is 5kHz above the English-language 40 metre news frequency. As well as "as Gaeilge", call-ins in English are welcome to the news in Irish.
Those of you who listened carefully to the preamble to this news bulletin will have noticed that the station call sign has been changed from EI0RTS to EI0IRTS. It has been decided to use this call sign as it more accurately reflects the name of the Society and it will be used for all radio news transmissions in future.
Due to revised arrangements with ComReg it is necessary to hold a morning and afternoon session at the next Amateur Station Licence Examination which will be held on Thursday, 4 July in the ComReg offices in Dublin. All the places for the afternoon session which will be at 2.00 p.m. have already been allocated. The morning session will commence at 10.30 a.m, also at the ComReg offices, and a time of two hours will be allowed in both sessions. Needless to say the paper for each session will be different. There are still places available for the morning session but it should be noted that the closing date of 14th June for completed application forms is now less than two weeks away.
Full details, including entry procedure, examination fee and how to pay the fee on line are available at www.irts.ie/exam . There is also an exam button on the home page. The remaining places will be allocated on a first come first served basis. Please note that it is necessary to download the application form from the web page and forward the completed form and the appropriate fee to secure a place at the examination. If you pay the fee on line you must still complete and forward the application form. Again the closing date for the receipt of completed applications is Friday, 14th June.
Tipperary Amateur Radio Group will hold their next meeting on Thursday 6th June in Raheen House Hotel, Clonmel at 8 p.m. and all are welcome.
The South Eastern Amateur Radio Group were active as EI2GEO from the Copper Coast Geopark in Co. Waterford on Saturday and Sunday last the 25th and 26th of May to coincide with European Geoparks week. The guys arrived down on Saturday morning and within a few hours had two stations up and running thanks to some brilliant antenna slinging using a catapult from Dennis EI2HSB. Although band conditions were poor plenty of contacts were logged and the EI2GEO page on QRZ had well over 1,500 look ups over the weekend of the activation. The Geopark weekend was a great success and everyone had a great time. We had plenty of visitors to the station both from the general public and also from fellow radio operators. The weather was smashing all weekend and on the Saturday evening we had our customary BBQ and campfire. The BBQ was provided and cooked by our own resident chef Dennis EI2HSB. Thanks to Dennis for providing and cooking the meal.
The South Eastern Amateur Radio Group would like to thank all the visitors we had to the event and we would especially like to thank Paula McCarthy from the Copper Coast Geopark Centre in her hospitality in allowing us to use the Geopark for the event and we look forward to working with Paula for many years to come. Plans for the refresher course for those wishing to sit the next exam on July 4th are currently being finalized. It is hoped to have three classes provisionally down to take place on the 5th, 19th and 26th June. Plans for these classes will be published as soon as they are finalized. Further info regarding classes can be got from any SEARG committee member.
For up-to-date news about the South Eastern Amateur Radio Group and it’s actives you can check our website www.searg.com and you can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
Jeff K5WE and his son Erik N5WR will be QRV from the Caribbean island of St. Barthelemy from 3 – 10 June. While on the island they will use the callsigns FJ/K5WE and FJ/N5WR. They will be on all bands, mainly CW, but with possibly some SSB and RTTY. QSLs go via the home calls.
The well-known DXer Steve 9M6DXX will be active as PJ4V from Bonaire from 4 – 16 June. This will be a ‘holiday style’ operation and the QSL Manager is M0URX. Logs will be uploaded to Logbook of the World.
Christian F5UII returns to French Guinea on a business trip from 5 -14 June. He will reactivate his callsign FY/F5UII. During his stay he may get the opportunity to travel to Salut Island on 8/9 June where he will sign FY/F5UII/P. Salut Island counts as SA-020 for the Islands on the Air Award.
A group of US amateurs will be active from New Providence Island in the Bahamas from 8 -15 June. Look for the callsigns C6ATT, C6ABB, C6ALC and C6APX. They will operate all bands 80 – 10m.
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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