Peter Henshaw EI5JE became a silent key on 27th April at the age of 83, following a short illness. He was pre-deceased by his beloved wife, Peggy, and is survived by his daughter Miriam and two sons, Conor and Paul, grandchildren Rachel, Erin, Kristen, Luke and great grandson Cody.
Peter worked in Aer Lingus for over 30 years and, following retirement, amateur radio became his big passion, however he also counted travel, photography, Star Trek and jazz among his many other interests. He attended radio theory classes in South Dublin Radio Club, following which he obtained his amateur radio licence in 1999. Peter was active on the air until just before his recent illness; although he took part in some field day events, his main interest was in long QSOs with his friends locally and across the world. He was a frequent visitor to the North of England, staying there with his daughter Miriam; he timed his visits to coincide with nearby radio rallies, arranging for face-to-face QSOs at these rallies with his many on-air friends.
Peter was a very enthusiastic and, indeed, entertaining member of South Dublin Radio Club, often recounting his interesting on-air chats during the club's Tuesday night meetings.
Peter was a Dad, a Grandad and a great-Grandad, he will be greatly missed by his family and his many friends, may he rest in peace.
RSGB have announced that the annual Islands on the Air Contest, which takes place over the last full weekend of July (25th / 26th July), will go ahead this year, however, in line with 'Stay at Home' guidance to minimise the impact of Covid-19, the 2020 contest will be exclusively for Single Operators using their home stations. Also, RSGB will not be awarding trophies this year, but downloadable certificates will be available to winners. Another rules amendment for 2020 is that the sending of a signal report in every QSO is mandatory, a change from the 2019 rules which indicated that a signal report was optional.
A one-off independent 2m contest is being held on the Bank holiday Monday on May 4th to promote 2m usage during the COVID-19 lockdown. From 2pm to 3pm local time there will be an FM contest where operators should exchange signal reports, serials and 4 character Grid Squares. And from 3pm to 4pm there will be an FT8 contest using the standard FT8 messages to exchange signal reports and grid squares. The contests are open to all licensed amateur radio operators and Short Wave Listeners but due to the COVID-19 lockdown restrictions no portable or mobile operation is permitted. Further details can be found at www.vhflockdown.fun . We hope to hear you on the air during the contests!
The 80 metres Evening Counties Contest held on Tuesday last was well supported, with at least 60 EI and GI stations active. More than 30 logs from this event have already been received. Even if you had only a few QSOs, Joe EI7GY the contest manager would like to receive your log, to assist in the cross-checking process. Logs should be sent to “IRTS /dot/ Contests /at/ gmail /dot/ com”
IRTS News readers and callers-in regularly give Short Wave Listeners a welcome to the broadcast. It would be great if those SWL's would email their reception reports and location to “info /at/ irts /dot/ ie”. In an attempt to be more inclusive the IRTS would sincerely appreciate if some of our SWL's would compose an article about their history and experiences as listners. Are you using the latest technologies or do you still use some old but treasured Boat Anchors? Echo Ireland would love to hear your stories and reminisences and your listening station details. Please send your material to “newsteam /at/ irts /dot/ ie".
The special station "II2EMCA" will be active – cw only (HF / WARC) from 01.07.2020 until the end of the year - to commemorate EMILIO CAIMI (Milan 1876 – 1963), the famous key maker, who supplied the Italian Royal Air Force (Regia Aeronautica), since 1932. QSL direct via IZ2FME, and / LOTW. Info at iz2fme /at/ amsat /dot/ org"
The Shannon Basin Radio Club is now having a net on Top Band every Monday evening at 20:00 Local on 1.916. The 80 meters net has changed frequency to be on Wednesday evenings on 3.720 plus or minus qrm at 20:00 and the 2 meter net is on Thursday evenings at 20:00 local. There has been a lot of interest in the nets over the last couple of weeks and everyone is welcome to join in. See the clubs Facebook page and www.sbrc.ie for more details.
The latest edition of The 5 MHz Newsletter (No 24 – Winter/Spring 2020) is now available for free pdf download from the ‘External Links’ section of the Wikipedia 60m Band page or the RSGB 5 MHz page. This edition includes 5 MHz news from 7 countries, GB3WES Beacon Closedown, a 5 MHz Controlled Feeder Radiation Dipole, plus features the latest World of 5 MHz Map.
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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