It is with great sadness that we learnt of the death of Tom Molloy EI8GO who passed on Saturday the 21st of September after a short illness. Tom was licensed in 1985 and was chairman of the South Eastern Amateur Radio Group for quite a few years.
Originally from Ballingary, Co. Tipperary, he worked in Eircom for all of his life and only retired about 18 months ago. He was largely responsible with some other SEARG members for the developments of the groups Packet radio in the 1990’s and he programmed the nodes. In his tenure as Chairman apart from the packet radio, the first 2M/70Cm repeater was licensed and installed in Waterford. To his wife, Mary and four children we express our deepest sympathies. Ar dheis De go raibh a anam dilis.
With deepest sympathies we also announce the death of Roy Ring, EI4HFB, formally of RTE Technical Operations, Donnybrook. Roy passed away unexpectedly on the 19th September 2019.
Roy was an active member of the RTE Amateur Radio Group, EI2RTE. He will be greatly missed at their monthly meetings, Roy having attended regularly for the last eight years. Our thoughts go out to his family and friends at this sad time. May he rest in peace.
The results of SSB Field Day, held over the weekend of 7th/8th September have been published. Three club stations, with a combined total of more than 20 operators, submitted logs. See www.irts.ie/results for the full results.
There are two IRTS Counties Contests in October: a one-hour 80 metres Evening Counties Contest on Tuesday 8th October, commencing at 19:00 UTC, and a two-hour 40 metres Counties Contest on Sunday 13th October, from 12:00 UTC to 14:00 UTC. See www.irts.ie/contests for more details.
The results of the RSGB Islands on the Air contest, which took place at the end of July, have been announced. Nearly 2,400 logs were submitted for this contest, a big increase on the 2018 figure. The East Cork Amateur Radio Group, EI7M, was the highest-scoring station in the contest, with more than 16 million points from almost 4,000 QSOs.
17 EI and GI stations submitted logs for the contest, down from 23 in the previous year. Our Contest Results page www.irts.ie/results has a link to the results of the EI and GI stations as well as a link to the full results on the RSGB web site.
The next meeting of the Tipperary Amateur Radio Group will take place in The Park Hotel, Clonmel on Tuesday 8th October at 8.30pm. New members or anyone interested in amateur radio are very welcome.
For anyone who wishes to find out more about the Tipperary Amateur Radio Group and its activities you can attend any of their meetings. You can also check out their website www.ei7trg.ie or contact club PRO Ronan EI4KN at QTHR for further information.
The shannon basin Radio club 2m net on 145.350 MHz has moved to 21:00 every Thursday. For more information see www.sbrc.ie or their club facebook page.
Maurizio IK2GZU will be active again as 5H3MB until 28th October. He will be on the HF bands on SSB, CW and RTTY. QSLs go via his home call.
Another operation from Tanzania is by Elena RC5A and Yuri RM0F who will sign 5H3CA and 5H3RRC until 5th October. They will be located on Mafia Island which counts as AF-054 for the Islands on the Air award. QSL via Club Log OQRS.
Members of the Italian DXpedition Team will be QRV from Liberia from 30th September – 11th October. An unusual feature of this trip is that instead of the normal EL prefix they will be using A82X for CW and SSB contacts and A82Z for digital contacts. QSL manager is I2YSB and there will be an online log.
Istvan HA5AO is nearing the end of his 3DA0AO operation from eSwatini and will move to Lesotho from 1st – 19th October where he will sign 7P8AO. He will focus on the high bands mainly on CW and FT8. QSL via the home call.
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