The EI DX Group Summer Challenge ran from June 1st until August 30th and participants earned points for each DXCC country, CQ Zone, Irish County and EI DX Group member worked. The results were announced in a live Facebook broadcast from Inis Mór, one of the Aran Islands by Dave EI9FBB last weekend. Congratulations to the Gold Plaque EI winner, Pat O’Connor EI9HX; Silver Plaque winner, Seamus Campbell EI3KE and Bronze Plaque winner, Declan Horan EI9FVB. The overseas plaque winners were as follows: Europe - Roland DL1EAL, Asia - Alik RX9WN. North America - William AL7KC and Africa - Simon ZS1XG. The EI DX group would like to thank everyone who supported this very enjoyable event. The EI DX Group was formed in January 2016 to encourage and facilitate Irish radio amateurs who wished to explore the possibility of participating in a major DX-pedition. Anyone interested in DXing is invited to join the group. Log on to EIDXG.com for all the details.
Band conditions for the 40 metres IRTS Counties Contest on Sunday last were disappointing, with very little short skip. Logs received to date show that stations in 20 EI and GI counties were active, however most QSOs were between EI/GI and overseas stations. The deadline for logs is Sunday next, 25th October. The contest manager is also hoping to get a few more logs for the 80 metres Evening Counties Contest held earlier this month: the deadline for these logs is Tuesday next, 20th October. Logs should be sent to irts/dot/contests/at/gmail/dot/com
South Dublin Radio Club continues its weekly club meetings on Tuesday nights from 2000 to 2200 via Zoom. Next Tuesday at 2000 the club welcomes Mr. Ola Hernvall from SAQ Grimeton Radio Station in Sweden. Grimeton Radio Station is a UNESCO world heritage site and the last surviving example of an Alexanderson alternator. Grimeton is now the only station left in a transatlantic network of nine longwave stations. The station is still active and using its 50-ton transmitter set, transmits test messages on 17.2kHz using its callsign SAQ. These transmissions can be received all over Europe & further afield. Mr. Hernvall will give attendees a virtual tour of the Grimeton Station and its enormous transmitter array. This will be followed by a PowerPoint presentation on the site, its history, and the Alexander Association. Mr. Hernvall is a member of the association and it is this group of volunteers who maintain and preserve Grimeton for future generations. All are welcome to join. Please direct message the club via their website, Twitter or Facebook accounts for log-in details. They are currently lining up presentations and talks for further Tuesday nights over the next few weeks. Please stay tuned to their social media channels and IRTS News for details.
The unification of Southern Jutland with Denmark in June 1920 is being marked by the Experimental Danish Radio amateur’s association (EDR for short) who will activate a special radio station with the call sign OZ100MILL. It is active from 15th of October 00:00UTC until 15th of December 23:59UTC, on most amateur radio bands with CW, SSB, RTTY and several digital modes. All two-way contacts and SWL reports will be valid for the special OZ100MILL award. They are offering three classes of award, Gold for 14 points, Silver for 10 and Bronze for 6 points. Every contact with OZ100MILL on a different band or with different modes (CW, Phone or DIGI) counts one point. Send your request to award manager OZ4CG /at/ live.dk
The six day IARU Region 1 Virtual General Conference closed on Friday afternoon. During the week, discussions on papers submitted by Member Societies, the Executive Committee and other parts of IARU resulted in some 50 Recommendations to the Final Plenary Meeting in areas of HF, VHF, EMC, youth and on issues concerning the governance of IARU Region 1. The Final Plenary was opened by Region 1 President Don Beattie, G3BJ, and some 120 delegates were present. Heads of national delegations considered and voted on the recommendations, which will result in actions and policy changes in IARU Region 1. Full details in the next Echo Ireland.
The reverse beacon network or RBN is a service that is invaluable to CW operators. It is made up of dozens of dedicated receiving stations who report on all signals heard, both signal strength and CW speed. It is especially useful as a propagation tool. Just call CQ and see where and how well you are being heard. Use it to compare antenna performance or to see how you are doing compared to other stations. Probably the most useful feature is a database of past spots so you can look back over time to see what was happening on the bands. The RBN is hosted by DXwatch.com and to use the system, you just log into reversebeacon.net.
We start with contest news and despite the current poor propagation conditions, the bands will be hopping next weekend as the CQ Worldwide SSB DX Contest runs for forty-eight hours from midnight on Friday. Newer operators especially, will have an opportunity to work some of the rarer DXCC countries despite many trips being cancelled due to the current pandemic. DX activity is scarce at the moment but here are a few to watch out for. Don, K6ZO, is currently active as 7Q6M until mid-December and he will be active in the contest. Thomas, DL2RMC, is now active as 9G5FI from Accra, in Ghana. Philippe, F1DUZ, will once again be active as FG4KH from Guadeloupe (NA-102) until November 5th. A German team are currently active as Z66DX from the capital city of Prystina in Kosovo and they will be there until October 28th. Mac, 8P5AB, will be active as J88/8P5AB from St. Vincent until December 3rd and Jerry, F4HJO will be active as F4HJO/p from Brehat Island, EU-074 until October 24th. He will operate mainly SSB on 80, 40, 20 and 17m bands. The 61st Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition's overwintering team at the Syowa Station on East Ongul Island (AN-015), Antarctica will in their spare time operate the 8J1RL club station, with activity on 40, 30, 20,17 and 15 metres, mainly FT8. They will be there until January 2021.
The Shannon Basin Radio Club run three nets weekly. On Monday nights their top band net meets at 2000 on 1.916MHz. They meet on 80 metres on Wednesday evenings also at 2000 on 3.720 plus or minus QRM and on Thursday evenings they meet on their new 2 metre repeater at 2000. The frequency is 145.775MHz, the shift is minus 600kHz and the CTCSS tone is 88.5Hz. Everybody is welcome. South Dublin Radio Club host a daily 2m net on 144.330MHz SSB from 2000 to 2100 local time and a weekly net on Sunday 40m on 7.123MHz SSB from 0830 local time, until the IRTS weekly news at 1100 read by Joe EI6EG. On the international front, have a listen to the Irish Hour net which is held daily but is especially popular on Sundays. It is held at 1700utc on 14.156MHz.
That is 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.
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