The next Amateur Station Licence Exam will be held on Thursday 7th May 2020 in the ComReg Offices in Dublin and at other centres if warranted by the numbers. See www.irts.ie/exam for full details on how to enter for this exam. This page also includes links to the exam syllabus, the Course Guide and other study material.
Please note that it is necessary to download the application form from the web page, forward the completed form and pay the appropriate fee to secure a place for the exam. The closing date for receipt of completed applications is Thursday, 23rd April 2020.
This year's South Dublin Radio Club Christmas Party will take place on Tuesday the 10th of December 2019
The venue will be the same as last year, "The Morgue", Tempelogue Village
Members of other clubs and visitors are as usual very welcome to this social event. Limited free food will be available for paid-up members; visitors can choose from the bar menu until 9.00 pm. The club will then break for Xmas and return on January 7th 2020
A date for your calender. The Phoenix Rally in Coolmine is planned to take place on Sunday 16th Feb 2020. As usual the event will be a great opportunity early in the new year for hams from all over the country to meet up with each other again. Further details and booking of tables can be obtained through Tony 087 2439997
KARG will hold its annual club dinner at Muckross Cafe, Killarney on Saturday 14th December at 12 noon. This is always a very enjoyable end of year get together to sign off on a successful year. Their Special Event Call EI100YXQ, to commemorate the centenary of the first voice transmission across the Atlantic in an East to West direction, between Ballybunion and Louisbourg, Nova Scotia, will run until the end of the year. Use of the call is open to clubs or individuals, by prior approval from Declan EI9FVB.
Reminder that the next meeting of the Tipperary Amateur Radio Group will take place in The Park Hotel, Clonmel on Tuesday 10th December 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 next meeting of LCARC will be held, as usual, in Limerick Institute of Technology on Thursday 12th December starting at 7:30 P.M. All are welcome.
The South Eastern Amateur Radio Group would like to take this opportunity to wish all radio friends and their families in Ireland and around the world a very happy and peaceful Christmas 2019. The group hopes all listeners have a wonderful time and that Santa is good to each of you. They would also like to extend every good wish to you all for the new year ahead and hope 2020 brings good health, good wealth and plenty of new DXCC’s.
There will be no December meeting of the South Eastern Amateur Radio Group. Their next meeting will be on Monday the 27th January 2020 in the Roanmore Social and Sports Centre, Cleaboy Road, Waterford at 8.00 p.m. sharp. IRTS President Jim Holohan EI4HH and Vice-President Pat O’Connor EI9HX will be in attendance. All members are please asked to attend. As always new members are very welcome to attend also.
The South Eastern Amateur Radio Group remind everyone that are intending to book their hotel rooms for the IRTS AGM 2020 weekend in April 2020 to book them as soon as possible please. Gala Dinner tickets are now available from John EI7IG and on the IRTS webpage. Details about the weekend including room prices and dinner tickets can be found at https://agm2020cw.blogspot.com
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 come along to 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 throughout the month of December EI0YOTA will once again be on the air with the aim of getting youngsters involved in our hobby. The call will be available for use by clubs or individual operators. Anyone wishing to use the call should contact brian EI8IU 0861057325.
The shannon basin radio club 2meter net takes place every Thursday night at 20:00 on 145.350
This week the Shannon Basin Radio Club will be holding its AGM in Hannons Hotel Roscommon. This will take place on Wednesday the 11th December at 20:00. All members are requested to attend and anyone wishing to join the club is more than welcome. Refreshments provided on the night. Please see www.sbrc.ie or club Facebook page for more details.
Fabian DF3XY will be QRV from the Maldives in the Indian Ocean from 10th – 23rd December. While there he will use the callsign 8Q7XY. He will operate mainly FT8 and SSB. QSLs go via his home call.
The well-travelled DXer Gerard F2JD returns to Honduras for another visit from 12th December – 4th April. He will reactivate his HR5/F2JD callsign on 160 – 6m on CW, SSB and Digital. QSL manager is F6AJA.
IOTA chasers may be interested in working the club station 6V1A from Goree Island off the coast of Senegal. They will be active on 13th – 15th December on CW and SSB and QSOs count as AF-045 for the award. The QSL manager is 6W1QL.
Many special event stations will be on the air in the next few weeks to celebrate the Christmas season. One of the first to be heard this year was C4XMAS on the air from Cyprus.
3D2AG/P will be the callsign of an expedition to Rotuma Island starting in mid-December and lasting one month. The operator, Antoine, will be active on all bands but will focus on 160, 80 and 60m. Full details can be found on qrz.com
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. If you currently receive a copy of the IRTS Radio News Bulletin by email as a news reader and wish to modify your address, please inform the editor in order to have it changed on the news readers mailing list.
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