The next Amateur Station Licence Examination will be held on Thursday 9th May 2019 in the ComReg offices in Dublin and at other centres if warranted by the numbers.
The closing date for applications to sit this exam is Thursday 25th April 2019. 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.
There are several vacancies on the IRTS Committee for 2019/2020. This is an opportunity to support amateur radio and to get involved in the work of the national society. Please contact Jim EI4HH for more information, contact details are on www.irts.ie The closing date for expressions of interest is Monday 18th Feb 2019.
The Dublin IRTS 2M news team is looking for a new volunteer newsreader for the Sunday morning FM news. Any IRTS members interested in joining this dedicated team should, in the first instance, contact Tony (EI5EM) by email at “ei5em /at/ eircom /dot/ net”
Due to bad weather the shannon basin radio club had to cancel their AGM last week, however it has now been rescheduled for this Monday 4th February at 20:00 in the Roscommon sub aqua club house, Racecourse road, Roscommon.
Date of March meeting set for 2nd March Athlone. Date of May meeting set for 25th May Portlaoise.
Just a short reminder that assessment of CW will be carried out at the following rallies over the coming months.
The first will be Coolmine on February 17th, then there will be Limerick on March 10th and also at the IRTS AGM in Athlone on April 14th.
Booking for these tests is essential and intending candidates should contact Dave EI4BZ on 087-6290573 or by email “davebeag /at/ gmail /dot/ com”. Full details of the Morse test are available on the IRTS web site under licensing at www.irts.ie
The next meeting of the Limerick Radio Club will be the Club AGM and will be held, as usual, in the Limerick Institute of Technology starting at 7:30 PM on the 14th February. A good attendance is requested as there are some significant items up for discussion.
Please note that the weekly IRTS News continues to be read on the LRC 70cms repeater at 8:00 PM on Monday evenings.
KARG will be QRV during calendar year 2019, using the special event call EI-100-YXQ. This call will commemorate the centenary of the first voice transmission across the Atlantic, in an East-West direction, from Ballybunion County Kerry to Louisbourg, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. The original call used from the former Marconi radio station in Ballybunion was YXQ.
On the anniversary date of 19th March 2019, KARG will be QRV from the site of the former Marconi radio station in Ballybunion, where an open day is planned to include a number of lectures and demonstrations.
KARG invites expressions of interest from any EI ops to air the call throughout 2019. Please contact Declan EI9FVB for further information.
Three members of Stockport Radio Society, Pete M1PTR, Tom M0DCG and Kieron M5KJM/EI6KP are activating Inis Meáin (Inishmaan) EU-006 on Wednesday and Thursday 12th and 13th of June. Activity will mainly be 40 and 20m running 100W SSB. It is planned to use a 20m VDA and 40m dipole from the beach near the East coast harbour. Any amateurs in the vicinity are welcome to join them during the activation.
Nils SM3UQK is employed as a helicopter pilot with Air Greenland. He will be based in western Greenland from 9th – 21st February when he hopes to be active as OX/SE3A. His Grid Locator for this trip is GP49kf. He plans to be on 20 and 40m. QSL to his home call.
Armin DK9PY will be QRV as FY/DK9PY from French Guiana from 8th – 17th February. He will follow this by travelling to Martinique where he will sign FM/DK9PY until 5th March. In both locations he will be on HF CW. QSLs go to his home call.
A multi-national team will be active from Macau using the callsign XX9D from 11th – 26th February. The 15-man team will be on the air 24 hours a day with 4 stations. QSL via Club Log OQRS.
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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