The 70cms and 2 metres Counties Contests last weekend were well supported, with at least 50 EI and GI stations from 24 counties active on the day, including a number of hilltop stations. So far, 20 logs have been received by the Contest Manager, who reminds us that next Sunday, 23rd September, is the deadline for receipt of logs for this contest.
The UKEICC SSB DX Contest takes place next weekend, for 24 hours starting at 12:00 UTC on Saturday, 22nd September. It covers the contest bands from 10 to 80 metres, and includes a 12-hour category.
Multipliers are the 32 EI and GI counties, district codes for Britain and Crown Dependencies, plus overseas DXCC entities. See www.ukeicc.com for full details of this event, which has been well supported by EI stations in recent years.
A reminder, that the closing date for applications to sit the November exam are to be received no later than Thursday 1st November 2018. The examination itself will be held on Thursday 15th November 2018 in the ComReg offices in Dublin and at other centres if warranted by the numbers.
Places for exams at the ComReg Offices are limited, they are allocated on a first come first served basis and are only reserved on receipt of an application form and the examination fee.
To reserve a place, candidates should forward a completed application form to Joe Ryan EI7GY. See www.irts.ie/exam for Joe's contact details and other information about the exam.
Congratulations to Tony Baldwin EI8JK who managed to work Japan on 432 MHz by bouncing signals off the moon. From his remote location in West Cork, Tony worked JA6AHB on 70cms EME on Monday the 10th of September using the JT65 mode. This QSO which took several attempts over several weeks was the very first contact between EI and Japan on this UHF band. For the contact, Tony was using four 21 element yagi antennas while the Japanese station was using a 7 metre dish and 500 watts. Tony hopes to make more improvements to his system over the coming months and to make more contacts worldwide on 432 MHz via moonbounce.
The Cork Radio Club will resume meetings after the summer break on Wednesday next September 19th at the usual venue in Carrigtwohill Community Centre at 8pm. Members are reminded that annual subscriptions are now overdue and Treasurer Jim EI8GS will be delighted to accept payments on Wednesday night.
Classes for the HAREC examination will be organised if there is sufficient interest.
New members and visitors are always very welcome at Cork Radio Club meetings. For further information please email “info /at/ corkradioclub /dot/ ie”
On the 1st & 2nd of September Tipperary Amateur Radio Group were QRV at Mooncoin, Co. Kilkenny for the 24 hour HF SSB Field Day. The station was manned by Paul EI3ENB, Tommy EI2IT, Hugh EI2HI, Ronan EI4KN, Francis EI5GOB, John EI7IG, Andy EI5JF, Brian Kelly SWL & Jim O'Brien SWL. An enjoyable weekend was had by all and thanks to Martin EI2HIB and Michael EI9GGB for taking their time to visit the station. Also several club members took part part in last weekend's 2m & 70cms contests.
The September meeting of the South Eastern Amateur Radio Group will take place Monday the 24th of September 2018 in the Roanmore Social and Sports Centre, Cleaboy Road, Waterford at 8.00 p.m. sharp. Details of the group’s Christmas party which is due to be held on the 15th December in the Springhill Court Hotel Kilkenny will be discussed on the night. Sean EI2HZB will also be taking deposits on the night for anyone intending to attend the Christmas party. New members or anyone interested in learning more about amateur radio or the group are as always very welcome to attend.
For anyone that wishes to find out more about the South Eastern Amateur Radio Group and their activities you can drop them an email to “info /at/ searg /dot/ ie” or please feel free to come along to any of the groups meetings. You can check out their website www.searg.ie and you can also join them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter.
Are you currently an SWL and living in the midlands? Have you been considering for a while becoming amateur radio licensed? If so IECRO in Mullingar is currently running some rapid revision sessions for anyone who wants to top up their knowledge in preparation for the next license examination. All are welcome to attend. For more information visit www.iecro.com/training/
Limerick College of Further Education has cancelled the ‘taster’ course HL050 on Introduction to Amateur Radio Technology/Transmitters.
Despite members of LRC manning a stand at the information evening and providing equipment, insufficient numbers showed interesting in attending the course.
LRC members will continue to support individuals or groups who wish to attain a licence through the HAREC course, details of which are on the IRTS web site. Should sufficient numbers be interested, a more formal course can be arranged by LRC, with a start date of mid-January 2019. Please contact LRC Secretary Michael EI3KO at “michaelkirwan /at/ eircom /dot/ net” or on 0851541095
The logs for LRC’s IL&LW at Loop Head have been combined and the statistics produced by Liam EI7DSB. They are impressive when compared to the past three years and given that the two antennae used were a full size G5RV and a multiband dipole.
The grand total was 804 QSO with the CW QSO total at 428 across 17, 20, 30, 40 and 80 metre bands. While the total of SSB contacts was 376 on the 20 and 40 metre bands.
The country total was 50, ranging from Japan to the USA, with Germany well ahead on CW followed by European Russian, then Poland, France and Spain with fairly equal QSOs
SSB contacts were mainly to England followed by Germany, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Christian OE3DEC will operate as 8Q7EC from the Maldive Islands until 23rd September. This is a holiday style operation mainly on 20m SSB. QSL via Club Log OQRS.
Istvan HA5AO will be QRV from the Kingdom of eSwatini (formerly known as Swaziland) until 30th September using the callsign 3DA0AO. Look for him on 80m through to 10m on CW, RTTY and FT8. Logs will be uploaded to Logbook of The World.
SP5APW will be in Vietnam from 15th to 27th September signing 3W9JK on 20m through to 6m on SSB. He hopes to activate Cham Island (IOTA AS-162) as 3W9JK/P from 15th - 22nd September. QSL via Club Log OQRS.
Alessandro IW5ELA will operate holiday style from Malawi as 7Q7ELA from 17th to 26th September. He will be using 100w to a vertical. His plan is to operate from three different lodges and is dependent on power availability.
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, Mark EI6HPB on 086 355 2370.
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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