Following a very productive IRTS committee meeting which was held at the Maldron Hotel, Portlaoise on Saturday April 15th the IRTS wish to make the following announcements. Mark Condon EI6JK has been appointed as the new IRTS contest manager with immediate effect. Mark takes over the position from Jeremy Sheehan EI5GM. Also, the role of COMREG liaison officer has been taking over by Enda Broderick EI2II. Enda takes over the role from Jim Houlihan EI4HH. The IRTS wish to thank both Jeremy and Jim for all the hard work both have done during their time in both their respective roles. With the IRTS 90th Gala Dinner taking place on the 29th of April the IRTS Awards Committee will be presenting the service awards to winners after the dinner has finished. The competition awards will be presented the following day after the AGM has concluded. A list of the competition award winners will be included in next week’s news bulletin.
Keith EI5IN sends an updated report about activities organised by Shannon Basin Radio Club during the 90th IRTS AGM Weekend on April 29th and 30th in Ballinasloe. The club has been working very hard over the past several months to make this weekend the best possible for everyone attending. With that in mind, we are delighted to announce a second raffle. This raffle will take place during the IRTS Gala Dinner on Saturday April 29th. The prizes on offer are thanks to our superb new sponsors Ballinasloe Credit Union. This will be in addition to our monster raffle on Sunday April 30th which features over €1500 worth of prizes. We kindly remind everyone that tickets are required for the IRTS Gala Dinner. The gala dinner starts at 7.30 p.m. on Saturday April 29th in the Marina Suite. Tickets cost 35 euro and will need to be purchased at least two days prior to the event. Purchasing information as well as all the latest event information may be found at www.sbrc.ie/agmweekend .
The IRTS news team are delighted to announce that both the 40m and the 80m IRTS news bulletins will be read live from the Shannon Basin Radio Club’s radio rally on Sunday the 30th April from the Shearwater Hotel in Ballinasloe. Both bulletins will be read at the usual times. The reader on the 40m bulletin will be Rafal EI6LA and Stefan EI4KU will read the 80m bulletin. Members of the news team will be on hand on the day to answer any questions that any prospective news readers may have. The IRTS wish to thank the Shannon Basin Radio Club for all the hard work they undertook in having a working station available on the day to do both news bulletins from.
As of today, NSWLC has 105 members, all of whom are current IRTS members. Foxtrot classes are continuing one week ahead of schedule. However, the course will still end on 4 May, as a live, mock exam session has been added to give the attendees some experience of what it might feel like on their important day, coming up very soon, in May. The Club has continued to meet every Sunday, except the bank holiday weekend. Attendance has been 34–42 each Sunday, via Zoom. The main themes of the most recent meetings covered Disaster Emergency Communications at the United Nations, an Exam Postmortem, First Stations and their Antennas, Radio-based Navigation Systems, a CQ WPX SSB Live Demo of Contest QSOs, and Logging on Paper, PC, Mac, and Linux, using Day-to-Day Logging Software and Contest Loggers. To get in touch with the National Shortwave Listeners Club please visit www.swl.ie .
Just over one year has passed since the new IRTS email reflector and forum was launched on the groups.io platform, on 25 Feb 2022. All messages posted on irts.groups.io have been archived and can be found by any public search engines, but only the IRTS members have the privilege to post. There are 256 IRTS members registered and the system has been reliable and is in daily use. Over 470 wide-ranging yet radio-focused topics have been started, and approximately 1700 messages posted. Importantly, the topics allowed a long-form, public discussion among IRTS members following various IRTS announcements, something that has not been previously possible online. The moderate annual cost of the reflector of 200 Euro has been settled on 25 March. The moderators would like to thank all the IRTS members for their civil online conduct, for keeping the discourse on topic, and above all, for their helpful comments and messages. This was an exert from the report written by Rafal EI6LA, the full report can be viewed on the forum website at irts.groups.io .
Declan EI9FVB announces the next monthly meeting of the Kerry Amateur Radio Group has been pulled forward by one week to Saturday 22nd April, at the Ballyseedy Cafe, Tralee at the usual time of 11 a.m. This is due to the IRTS AGM on the last Saturday of the month. Licensed amateurs, short wave listeners, or anybody with an interest in Amateur Radio are very welcome to attend.
The Annual General Meeting of the Tipperary Amateur Radio Group will be held at The Talbot Hotel, formerly known as the Clomnel Park Hotel, on Wednesday the 19th of April 2023 at 8pm. The meeting is open to all and Short Wave Listeners are in particular very welcome to attend. For more information about Tipperary Amateur Radio Group go to their group website www.ei7trg.ie Thank you to Hugh EI2HI for sending this invitation.
South Dublin Radio Club AGM will take place at 8pm on Tuesday 2nd of May 2023 at Ballyroan community centre on the Marian Road in Rathfarnham. All members are asked to attend.
The April meeting of the South Eastern Amateur Radio Group EI2WRC will take place on Monday the 24th of April 2023 at 8 p.m. sharp at the New Community Men's Shed, Ozanam Centre, Coffee House Lane, Waterford. New members, or anyone interested in learning more about amateur radio or the group are as always very welcome to attend. The South Eastern Amateur Radio Group EI2WRC will be in attendance at the Shannon Basin Radio Club rally in Ballinasloe. 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 of their meetings. You can check their website www.searg.ie and you can find EI2WRC on Facebook and Twitter /at/ seargnews .
This weekend, the 10th Kilternan scout group are having their annual group camp. They are back at their home QTH - Powerscourt, Co. Dublin. As part of their scouting activities, they will have a station on the air at various times over the weekend. They also have a radio based treasure hunt and capture the flag. Please listen out for EI10JOTA and support them in anyway you can. Marty EI2IAB thanks John EI3ISB, Neil EI9IWB and Albert EI6KO for making this happen.
It's twenty years since the late Pat Herbert founded Ye Olde Hurdy Gurdy Museum of Vintage Radio in Howth. EI0MAR was established there that same year. In conjunction with International Marconi Day, which takes next Saturday, Pat's son Simon plans a day of celebration at the museum. The Mayor of Fingal will also be in attendance. EI0MAR has always taken part in IMD so why not come along and celebrate with us this special year? Guest operators are especially welcome. The Martello tower, in which the museum is located, is where Lee deForrest, inventor of the triode valve, demonstrated his wireless telegraphy system to engineers of the British Post Office in 1903. Two years later The Marconi Company set up an experimental wireless receiving station in the tower to monitor transmissions from a vessel sailing to different locations in the Irish Sea. Engineers from the BPO also observed these tests. This is a wonderful opportunity to operate from this historic location. We hope to see you there.
Collective Communication will be active as EI3IMD on the 22nd April from the old coastguard centre, Tramore Co Waterford. Operating primarily on the HF bands the clubs' newly rebuilt communications trailer will be used to make as many contacts as possible with other amateurs around the world from this location where Guglielmo Marconi used to holiday. The old coastguard station has great views of Tramore Bay and today houses a Cultural Centre with a cafe and amenities. Please drop by for a chat, have a go at making radio contacts, enjoy the views, and look around the Centre. If you are a newbie to ham radio this would be a good chance to see an amateur radio station in action, or better still, have a go on air yourself, under supervision of course. Whatever your situation a trip to the sunny south east of Ireland and to the town of Tramore would make a delightful break. So put the date in your diary. Saturday 22nd of April. We'll see you there! That was an invitation posted by Keith EI5KJ .
EI2WRC will be active on Saturday when members of the group will be QRV as EI2IMD for International Marconi Day 2023. The station will be active from the Burrows Car Park, Tramore, Co. Waterford with thanks to Waterford City and County Council. For more info please see the EI2IMD QRZ page.
Sean G7NJX sends the following: "With the kind permission on the National Trust, Weston super Mare Radio society will be operating GB0IMD from the Old Fort, Brean Down as part of the International Marconi Day celebrations next Saturday" We look forward to once again working lots of EI and GI stations!
Our VHF Microwave Manager Roger Greengrass EI8KN alerts us that the next meteor shower is the ‘Lyrids’ which should be active between approximately the 16th to the 25th April with a peak expected on the 22 and 23rd of April. The source is from the constellation Hercules and should be visibly and usable for meteor scatter during the hours of darkness. And with a large high pressure system building over the British Isles VHF and UHF operators can also expect good tropo openings towards next weekend. The Australia New Zealand and Africa DX Net ANZA runs on 14.183 daily, with check-ins from 0500 UTC, the net then starts at 0515 UTC. Propagation conditions presently often allow this net to be worked from EI and GI until breakfast time. The average daytime F2-layer MUF is slowly decreasing as the days are getting longer, most dx activity will move towards 20 to 40m. The Planetary K index barely reached three on Saturday evening. For next week NOAA predicts the Solar Flux Index to increase somewhat, perhaps peaking at 160. Unsettled geomagnetic conditions are forecast for Tuesday, the Kp index may rise to to four. The forecast for International Marconi Day next weekend is for a Solar Flux of 155 and a DX friendly Kp index of three.
That is the news for this week. Items for inclusion in next week's radio news bulletin should be emailed to newsteam /at/ irts.ie no later than Saturday afternoon.
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