It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Andy Earley EI4ERB last Tuesday September 29th. Andy had been ill for a long time but was still active on two metres up to a few weeks ago, regularly calling in to the IRTS news and the North Dublin Radio Club's weekly Saturday night net. Andy was a long-time member of the North Dublin Radio Club and was also a well-known visitor to the other Dublin clubs. Andy's funeral took place last Thursday, October 1st. Predeceased by his son Peter. Sadly missed by his family, wife Cora, sons Liam and Andrew, daughter Linda, son-in-law Ciaran, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, relatives, neighbours and friends. May Andy rest in peace.
The results of the IRTS 70cms and 2 metres Counties Contests, held during September, have now been published. In all, 42 logs were submitted for these two contests, with activity in 20 EI and GI counties. Excluding uniques, the logs show 25 EI and GI stations in the 70cms contest, and 47 stations in the 2 metres event. Band conditions were good on the day, allowing some good "local DX" to be worked, especially by the portable stations. See the Contest Results page at www.irts.ie/results for full details.
The Mid Ulster ARC Tuesday Night Lecture Series have now been running weekly for over 20 weeks. As we enter into October, the club realises that people can be very busy as work intensifies, children go back to school and pressure may be on to get a free hour and join the lecture. With that being said, they will be moving the lecture series to every 2nd and 4th Tuesday of each month. Their next Tuesday Lecture will be on Tuesday 13th of October at the regular time of 7pm with Peter LB0K on the topic of an interesting transmitting location for a Norway club. Tuesday 27th is their last one of October with Bob Henderson 5B4AGN on the topic of Band Pass Filters As always, everyone is welcome and for any further questions or information, email Dave 2i0SJV at dcparkinson /at/ icloud.com
Jamboree On The Air/Jamboree On The Internet, the world’s largest digital and radio Scout event promoting friendship and global citizenship takes place over the weekend of 16th to 18th of October 2020. Marty EI2IAB will be active with scouts in Longwood, Co. Meath using call sign EI3JOTA. They will be on HF, VHF and UHF and are also hoping to catch a QSO with the International Space Station repeater on Saturday and Sunday Niall EI6IHB (youth officer IRTS) is also planning to be in attendance. Sean EI3IP will be active with the scouts in Rathdowney, Co. Laois using the callsign EI2JOTA on HF and VHF and Conor EI4JN will be active on HF and VHF with the 31st Cork Scout Troop in Lissarda, Co. Cork using his own callsign. There are a few difficulties this year due to the pandemic, however the event is going ahead, please listen out for the JOTA stations and do give them a call. Other JOTA stations, please notify newsteam /at/ irts.ie. More details will be posted on IRTS Facebook in due course.
Despite the absence of major DXpeditions in recent months, EI stations have continued to work new DX and accumulate DXCC credits. The most recent monthly update of EI call signs in ARRL’s DXCC Listings at www.irts.ie/dxcc shows numerous additional DXCC credits awarded to EI stations during September. The September awards includes a new call sign, Garret EI9HOB, bringing to 96 the number of EI stations currently participating in ARRL's DXCC programme.
The Irish Radio Transmitters committee is delighted to welcome Niall Donoghue EI6HIB as its new youth officer and committee member. Niall was appointed at last Saturday’s committee meeting to replace outgoing youth officer Aaron O’Reilly EI6HTB who had to resign for personal reasons. If you have any thoughts or ideas on how to involve youth in our hobby, Niall would be pleased to hear from you. Contact details on the IRTS website at irts.ie.
The Online AMSAT-UK Convention takes place on October 11, from 11am BST (10:00 GMT) to approximately 5pm, with a break for lunch, and several short breaks during the day. You don’t have to be a member of AMSAT-UK to participate, and the event is free of charge but please register as soon as possible Those who are registered will be entered for a number of free raffles which will take place during the event. Among the many talks and demonstrations provisionally planned during the day are the International Space Station, decoding MARS spacecraft, the Tevel FM transponder satellite constellation, a QO-100 demonstration and a LEO satellite demonstration plus much more. Log on to amsat-uk.org/colloquium for all the details and registration.
On Tuesday next the 6th we have the IRTS 80 metres Evening Counties Contest from 19:00 to 20:00 UTC On Wednesday evening October 7th, the third of the UKEI Contest Club series of one hour 80 metres contests will be held starting at 2000z. The mode is SSB and an important change this year is that the exchange is your 6 character grid locator square and a signal report is not required. Submit your log within an hour of the contest finish and have the results within another hour. Have a look at ukeicc.com for all the details. The ARRL EME Contest runs for 48 hours from midnight on Friday the 9th until midnight on Sunday the 11th and is a great opportunity to test your VHF/UHF station on any band from 50MHz to 1296MHz. Have a listen and see if you can hear anything. The Oceania CW DX Contest runs for 24 hours from 0600 on Saturday the 10th and the Scandinavian SSB Activity Contest, SSB is also on for 24 hours starting at 1200 on Saturday the 10th If you are chasing the US Worked All States or the US counties award then the South Dakota QSO Party provides a good opportunity to get some rare ones. It runs from1800 on Saturday the 10th for 24 hours. On Sunday next the 11th, we have the IRTS 40m Counties Contest from 12:00 UTC to 13:00 UTC.
While DX news is very scarce of late, the following may be of interest. JW6VM, JW7XK and JW9DL will be on from Svalbard (EU-026), between October 7-12th SV5/DL3DRN will be on island of Rhodes, (EU-001) until the14th of October, CW, SSB & RTTY. Taka, JA1AGS and Hiro, JH7JCX will operate the club station 8J1RL on East Ongul Island (AN-015), Antarctica on 40, 30, 20, 17 and 15 metres mainly on FT8. They will be there until January 2021.
Some local activity. The South Dublin Radio Club meet daily on 144.330 SSB from 2000 to 2100 and on Sunday on 7.123MHz from 0830 until IRTS News time at 1100. The Shannon Basin Radio Club Top Band net will be starting on Monday 12th October at 20:00 on 1.916MHz and they meet on 3.720MHz on Wednesdays at 20:00. Their 2 metre net has now moved onto EI2CAR the club’s repeater on Thursdays also at 20:00. Cork Radio Club meet on Zoom every Monday at 2030. See their Facebook page or email info /at/ corkradioclub.ie for the link.
That’s the news for this week. 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.
[N]