The death has occurred of Frank O’Brien EI2GS, Elmwood, Ballybeg formerely Enniskerry County Wicklow, on Saturday 4th April 2015. Funeral took place on Wednesday 8th April to Mount Jerome Cematorium. A more complete obituary will appear in the next edition of ECHO Ireland.
May he rest in peace.
The death has occurred of Sean (John) Hallissy EI5FJ on Tuesday 7th April 2015. Sean was from Carhan Road, Caherciveen, County Kerry. Funeral took place on Friday 10th April to Aghadoe Cemetary Killarney.
May he rest in peace
Kilkenny 2015
IRTS AGM dinner and rally takes place next weekend. There is still some dinner tickets available and can be obtained by contacting the organising committee members now via email at irtsagm /at/ searg.com Admission to the dinner is strictly by ticket only.
The contest manager has asked everyone who participated to submit their log - even if it's only for a few QSOs. Logs can be emailed to contestmanager /at/ irts.ie or sent by post to Joe EI7GY at his home address (see the call book). The deadline for logs is tomorrow Monday 20th April.
The next Amateur Station Licence Examination will be held on Thursday, 4th June in the ComReg Offices in Dublin. Full details, including entry procedure, examination fee and how to pay the fee on line are available at www.irts.ie/exam . Please note that it is necessary to download the application form from the web page and forward the completed form and the appropriate fee so as to secure a place for the examination. If you pay the fee on line you must still complete and forward the application form. The closing date for receipt of completed applications is Wednesday 20th May. Three Exam Reports which were previously published in Echo Ireland are now available on the Downloads section of the website at www.irts.ie/downloads under Studying for the Harmonised Amateur Radio Examination Certificate. These reports contain very useful information for anyone studying for the Licence Examination.
The Lough Erne Amateur Radio Club 34th Annual Rally will be held on Sunday 10th May at the Share Centre, Lisnaskea, County Fermanagh. Doors open at 11.30am
It is easy to travel by express bus from Dublin to the Lough Erne Rally in The SHARE centre on Sunday 10th May. A service at 7.30am from the Busaras stops in Derrylin at 10am (on the way on to Enniskillen and Donegal) The SHARE Centre minibus will meet and take rally goers the final five miles from Derrylin to SHARE. A bacon butty and coffee breakfast will be available at 10.30. Doors open at 11.30. Return services from Derrylin depart at 2.45pm or at 4.45pm More on website – www.learc.eu
Cork Radio Club held their resumed Annual General Meeting on Wednesday last April 15th with a good attendance at Carrigtwohill Community Centre.
In the election of officers, Jack O’Connell EI7HO was elected chairman, Don Kelly EI8DJ is vice-chairman, Dave EI4BZ is Secretary, Jim Barry EI8GS is treasurer, Tim McKnight EI2KA is QSL and Awards Manager and Dave Deane EI9FBB and Jerry Cahill EI6BT make up the committee. The club will now hold meetings twice monthly, on the first and third Wednesdays each month at Carrigtwohill Community Centre with a starting time of 8.30pm.
Their next meeting will be on May 6th when Dave Deane EI9FBB will give a talk on “DXpedition Difficulties” following on from his very well received talk at the GM DX Convention last weekend. He will also be giving a talk at next weekend’s IRTS AGM in Kilkenny.
The next confirmed outdoor event for the club will be a Summer Barbeque to be held in conjunction with CW Field on the 6th and 7th of June.
Several other events are in the planning stages and will be confirmed in due course.
Tributes were paid to Vincent EI7HN for his commitment to broadcasting the weekly IRTS Radio News bulletin at 8pm every Monday night on the Cork Repeater. Listeners are encouraged to stay on frequency after the bulletin and also to support the Cork Repeater Activity night at 9pm every Thursday.
Members are asked to pay their annual membership fee of €20.00 to Treasurer Jim EI8GS as soon as possible.
New members are very welcome, especially anyone who intends to study for the licence examination.
Anyone interested is invited to call to Carrigtwohill Community Centre on the first or third Wednesday of any month and further information is available from Dave EI4BZ on 087-6290574 or by emailing ei4bz/at/eircom/dot/net.
SEARG will continue their 2m net on Tuesday nights after the IRTS weekly news. This is to promote the use of the band, which has seen a decline in use. The intended frequency used is 145.400MHz and net has had many stations calling in since its introduction. Everyone welcome to join in.
Fingal Radio Club and Dermot EI2HD continue their 2m call-in on Wednesday and every Wednesday at 7p.m. Please try and give your support by getting on the air. Keep 2metres alive. The frequency is 145.7625MHz, CTCSS 88.5KHz on the Dublin repeater
The Howth Martello Radio Group EI0MAR will be participating as an Award Station in the annual International Marconi Day event next Saturday 25th of April. The station is located in Ye Olde Hurdy Gurdy Museum of Vintage Radio in the Martello Tower in Howth. Access is off Abbey Street up a steep path opposite the Abbey Tavern. You can actually drive up the to tower itself and park. Visitors will be most welcome. The annual Prawn Festival is also taking place on the same day so a good day can be had by all next Saturday in Howth.
The Group has also recently been operating EI90IARU from the Martello tower mainly on CW with lots of pile-ups. It hopes to repeat this throughout the year, subject to availability and permission, on various Thursdays throughout the year. Watch this space for further updates.
Dave WJ2O will be in Nicaragua from 22nd to 30th April. He will operate as YN/WJ2O from the station of YN2N. Dave has travelled widely and has been QRV from many countries including EI and GI in 2012.
A group of 4 Australian operators will be active from Norfolk Island as VK9NT from 24th April to 4th May. They plan to be QRV on all bands 160 – 10m SSB and CW. QSLs can be requested by using the Club Log OQRS facility.
Gordon G3USR will be operating holiday style from Freeport on Grand Bahama Island from 22nd to 27th April. His callsign will be C6AGM. He requests that QSLs are sent directly to his home call.
Two German amateurs will be active from Armenia from 23rd April to 5th May. Look for EK/DL7UCX and EK/DK7AO on 160 – 10m on CW, SSB and RTTY.
Denis, VP8DOZ, who has been active from South Georgia Islands mostly on 17 metres SSB, has now uploaded his log to ARRL's Logbook of the World. If you are lucky to have been among his 419 QSOs made over the past two months, well done. He is now QRT.
The EuCW cordially invites all radio amateurs and SWLs to take part in the annual EuCW QRS Activity Week. This is not a contest, on the contrary, it is an invitation to slow down CW speeds and to enjoy plenty of slow Morse activity for a period of five days. The dates selected are intended to avoid weekend contest activity. The goal is not self-exposure and competitiveness but to lower the threshold for newcomers to give CW a try.
Amateur Radio operators are asked to call ‘CQ QRS between 26th April and 1st May 2015. Take a look at eucw.org.
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 may be 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.
[N]