The death has occurred of esteemed Limerick Radio Club member Brian Toner EI9AL on 13th April. Brian was a long-time member of the club and held the office of Club Secretary for many years. He also acted as the reader of the weekly IRTS News Bulletins on 2 meters on behalf of Limerick Radio Club. He will be sadly missed by all his colleagues in the Club. We extend our deepest sympathies to his wife Nuala, his brothers and sister and his extended family.
Ar dheis De go raibh a anam dilis.
Tomorrow, Easter Monday, there are two short IRTS counties contests, a one-hour 70cms contest at 1pm local time, followed by a two-hour 2 metres contest at 2pm. Both contests have mixed mode SSB/FM and FM-only sections.
Full details are at www.irts.ie/contests note in particular the permitted SSB frequencies and FM channels, also the QSY Rule that applies to FM channels only.
A brief reminder that the closing date for applications to sit the forthcoming licence exam is next Thursday, 25th April. See www.irts.ie/exam for details of how to apply.
The South Eastern Amateur Radio Group picked up the award of the John Ash Chapman Shield at the IRTS AGM in Athlone on Sunday the 14th of April. This is the 2nd time the club has been honoured with this award after first winning the award back in 2015. The Shield is awarded to an individual, group or club that undertakes significant promotion of Amateur Radio to the public. All the members of the club would like to thank those who nominated the club for this award.
The April meeting of the South Eastern Amateur Radio Group will take place on Monday the 29th of April 2019 in the Roanmore Social and Sports Centre, Cleaboy Road, Waterford at 8.00 p.m. sharp. Plans for upcoming events including the 2019 Geopark will be discussed so all members are please asked to attend. 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 “southeasternarg /at/ gmail /dot/ com” or please feel free to attend any of their meetings. You can check out their website www.searg.ie and you can also join them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter.
A reminder that EI0MAR will be QRV as of 0700 Zulu on 27th of April, as an award station once again this year from the Hurdy Gurdy Museum of Vintage Radio in Howth.
International Marconi Day is a twenty four hour event where amateur radio stations operate from various locations around the world with historical connections to Marconi. You can find out more information about EI0MAR and International Marconi Day on Facebook. Just search under EI0MAR and International Marconi Day or by emailing “ei0mar /at/ eircom /dot/ net”.
Reminder that the Museum Ships Weekend this year will be held again during the weekend of June 1 and 2. Transmissions will be sent from all sorts of historic and special ships worldwide, so as to enable unique QSO’s. All information about participating vessels and an optional certificate, can be found on the website https://www.qsl.net/w/wa2tvs/museum
Rich KE1B will be active from Bora Bora Island in French Polynesia as FO/KE1B from 21st April – 3rd May. Look for him on 20m using FT8. QSL via Club Log OQRS.
A group of G operators will be on the Isles of Scilly from 20th – 27th April. Their callsign will be GB5SM and they will be on CW, SSB and digital. The IOTA reference is EU-011 and QSL manager is LZ1JZ.
Prefix hunters will probably have seen Swiss stations using the prefixes HB90 and HB30 instead of the normal HB9 and HB3 calls. This is to celebrate the 90th anniversary of USKA, the member society of the International Amateur Radio Union.
Jun JL8AQH will be QRV as XV9XX from Hue in Vietnam from 27th April – 4th May. He hopes to be on 40, 30, 20 and 17m and QSL requests go 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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