At each Annual General Meeting, the Society recognises individuals and clubs who give outstanding service to the Society or Amateur Radio. This year, the awards were given as follows: The Presidents Cup was awarded to Dave Deane EI9FBB for his achievements in DXing and DXpeditioning, for his leadership role in the EI DX Group and his service as a DXCC Card Checker. The Arup Cup goes to Michael Foertig EI3GYB for his excellent work for the IARU Monitoring Service. Michael monitors our bands for intruders and reports monthly to the Region 1 IARUMS. The Collins Cup goes to Leo McHugh EI8BR who provides excellent CW training in South Dublin Radio Club. The Pat Conway Cup is awarded to Tony Condon EI2AW, recently retired Treasurer of Limerick Clare Radio Club. Tony was licensed in 1965 and was elected treasurer in 1979/80 and served in the position for 40 years. A truly remarkable record. The John Ash Chapman Shield goes to the Kerry Amateur Radio Group for their efforts at promoting the hobby at various public events throughout the year. The Sheila Piper Cup goes to Steve Wright EI5DD for his continuing work in producing the monthly IRTS publication, the online EI News The Paddy Maher EI3AV Cup goes to the Galway VHF Group for their tremendous work in providing a digital repeater service.
The IRTS Radio News will be read in Co. Galway commencing Sunday the 5th of July. At 8pm on Sunday, the news will be read on DMR through the 70cm Galway DMR Repeater Network on TG8, the Galway Digital Radio Group Cluster. Those using Hotspots, or outside of the Galway DMR Repeater Network coverage, may access the News by using TG 27255. Reports and call-ins will be taken immediately after the news has been read. At 9pm the News will be read in the Analog FM Mode on the Galway Fusion Repeater operating on 145.625 MHz with the input frequency of 145.025 and CTCSS tone of 77Hz. Reports and call-ins will be taken immediately after the news. Now the Repeater Network is up and running it will be possible to link up Radio Amateurs throughout Co. Galway and neighbouring counties. All call-ins will be welcomed.
Since the implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in all EU states on May 25th 2018, the publishing of an EI callbook has been discontinued. An essential part of our hobby is the ability to look up callsigns and everybody should consider listing their details. You need not list your address but your QSLing policy should be made known. There are several international online callbooks available and QRZ.com is probably the most popular. Other options include QRZCQ.com or hamcall.net. Simply log on and enter your details.
Morse code received a boost from the younger generation, on the 24th June 2020, when 11-year-old Ryan Morrison from Stillorgan, Co. Dublin took and passed his Morse code test. Conducting the test were IRTS Chief Morse tester Dave Moore EI4BZ and Jerry Cahill EI6BT. Ryan was delighted to pass the Morse test after practicing for five months at twenty minutes per day. Ryan is looking forward to sitting the radio theory test on 25th July in the Maldron Hotel, Tallaght and we wish him every success.
Everyone in EI2WRC would like to say a massive well done to club member and Secretary John EI3HQB on winning his recent award from the IRTS. John won the Folan Shield and Certificate, awarded for home constructed equipment built to the highest standard. John’s company, Airmast Ltd. have built many products for the amateur radio hobby and his products have been sold throughout Ireland and even further afield. His tilt over towers are a work of art and his attention to detail is second to none so it is very fitting that he has won this award. Again, well done John and we all look forward to seeing what new products you develop for the hobby The South Eastern Amateur Radio Group will be active as EI2WRC/P over the weekend of the 22nd & 23rd of August from Hook Lighthouse (ILLW No. IE003) as part of the 23rd Annual International Lighthouse/ Lightship Weekend. The club’s participation in this year’s event will of course depend on Covid-19 restrictions and Government guidelines and more details whether the club will take part or not will be published nearer to the event. Hook Lighthouse is located on the South East coast of Ireland in Co. Wexford. The present structure is about 800 years old and is the oldest intact operational lighthouse in the world. Hook Lighthouse offers guided tours of the lighthouse tower all year around and is counted as one of the top tourist sites to visit in the Wexford and Waterford areas. For more info on the Hook Lighthouse please see www.hookheritage.ie 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.com or please feel free to go along to any their meetings. You can check their website www.searg.ie and you can also join them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter.
The IARU was formed in 1925 when representatives from 26 countries met in Paris. The first success was achieving the 160m 80m, 40m 30m and 10m for use by amateurs at the Washington International Radiotelegraph Conference in 1927. Since then other achievements include getting 15m in 1947, the satellite service in 1971, the 10, 18 and 24MHz bands in 1979, 7MHz extension in 2003, 136kHz in 2007, 473kHz in 2012. IARU now represents about 160 countries and is a vital body representing all our interests on the international scene. We support the work of IARU by being members of our IARU affiliated national societies, in our case, the Irish Radio Transmitters Society, when a portion of our subscription goes to fund the operations of IARU. IRTS has always played its part in IARU and currently, Irish amateurs chair two of the five IARU Region One Permanent Committees. Dave Court EI3IO chairs the Spectrum and Regulatory Liaison Committee while Séamus McCague EI8BP chairs the Political Relations Committee.
A new addition to the IRTS Website is the EI News Archive. All copies of EI News, from the first edition to the end of 2019, may be found in the archive. The archive may be accessed at www.irts.ie/einews
For those listening to this bulletin on Sunday morning, the special VHF/UHF 2020 contest is still underway, with the 2 metres event running from 12 noon to 3pm local time today. The modes in use include CW, SSB and FM, the exchange is a serial number plus 6-character locator, see www.irts.ie/contests for more details
Items for inclusion in next week’s radio news can be submitted by email to newsteam/at/irts/dot/ie for automatic forwarding to both the radio and printed news services. The deadline is midnight on Thursday Urgent items for the radio news may be telephoned to 087-6290574.
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