Over the June bank holiday weekend -Dundalk Amateur Radio Society held a field day at Clogherhead, County Louth, just north of Drogheda. This was a highly successful event and the log books show in excess of 500 contacts on HF, VHF and UHF. The event was well attended and appreciation is extended to Thomas Caffrey, SWL EI1333. The call sign used was EI6DD.
During the Tuesday's of May, the club held a special event station using the callsign EI0DMF, Dundalk Maytime Festival. This was to celebrate the international Maytime cultural festival taking place in Dundalk. This event is highly popular with the amateur dramatics fraternity.
Dundalk Amateur Radio Society held their AGM on Tuesday June 15th at the Society premises, Marconi House, 113 Castletown Road in Dundalk. There was a busy schedule of business and many topics were discussed.
The following officers were elected. Chairman - Aidan Noone EI7ENB Secretary - Jim Daly EI970 Treasurer - Paddy Serridge EI6ID/ GI0PED. QSL Manager - Thomas Caffrey EI1333 Premises Caretaker- Charlie Sloan GI7FFL.
The topic of attracting more members to the Society is a subject common to most amateur radio clubs and societies. The assembled committee and members of Dundalk Amateur Radio Society have now embarked on a new drive to organise radio theory classes to commence on September 14th 1999. The Dundalk Society realises that without new callsigns our hobby is likely to phase itself out. However, as one of their prime objectives, DAR is now pulling out all the stops to have as many SWL's as possible licensed early in the year 2000.
Their newly elected QSL manager, Thomas Caffrey EI1333, is now busy sending out the QSL cards to all stations contacted during the recent special event stations.
In last weeks report on the refurbishment of the Limerick Repeater site we forgot to mention that the club have in fact two high sites. Their main 2 metre repeater is on Keeper Hill while the old repeater is still in good working order and is in standby mode on Tountinna in case of any misfortune befalling the main machine on Keeper. Following the fitting of a new aerial, reports on the performance of the 2 metre digi would be appreciated.
Congratulations to Mike Kingston, ex EI6AXB who is now EI2IX following his recent successful sitting of the CW test.
Worked All Ireland activity continues at a high level with activity on every day on 7.068MHz. On Saturday June the 19th, two islands were activated with Declan EI9HQ finally getting on the Saltees and Ger EI8HT was on Capel Island near Youghal Bay. John, EI/G3WGQ/M was very active from counties Galway, Clare and Mayo while Paddy EI7GK/M was out and about in Wicklow and north Wexford. Up in GI, George GI4SRQ, Alex GIOTJJ and John GI0VVJ were also operating mobile. Sean EI4IP operated portable in counties Meath and Dublin.
Islands are a very necessary part of WAI and the following are ones to watch out for: A group from Mayo will activate Clare Island, Co. Mayo on the last weekend in July for the IOTA contest. John will be on 7.068MHz signing EJ7IQ before and after the contest. He plans to activate both squares L78 and L68 for WAI. It is also hoped, weather permitting, to operate on 2 metres from the highest point on the Island, 461 metres above sea level. Also on for the IOTA Contest will be EJ7M on Bere Island, EJ4GK on the Aran Islands and EJ2HY and EJ2IB on the Blaskets.
The VHF/UHF Field Day will be held next weekend, July the 3rd and 4th. Entries received to date include the Tipperary Group who will operate from the summit of Slievenamon and the East Cork Group who will join forces with their colleagues from Wexford on their usual site on White Mountain on the Carlow/Wexford border. Do please make a special effort to get on the VHF/UHF bands over the weekend and work any field day stations that you hear. EI Stations will be active on 2 metres, 70 centimetres, 4 metres and 1296MHz.
The Islands On The Air Contest will be held on July 24th and 25th.
The Telford Rally, popular with East Coast EI's, is on August the 22nd. The Coleraine Rally will be held in the Bohill Hotel, Cloyfin Road in Coleraine on August the 29th. Contact Jonathan GI7TMQ on 01265-822502.
The Counties Contest will be held as usual on Sunday August the 29th and the SSB Field Day will take place on September the 4th and 5th.
The Cork Radio Club annual rally will be held on Sunday September the 19th in the Blarney Park Hotel in Blarney. Enquiries to Con EI7DJB QTHR or on the telephone at 021-270136
Input for the radio news should be sent to Dave EI4BZ at 021-883555 in the evenings only. You may E-mail to EI8IR@tinet.ie.
Input for the Newsletter should be sent to Kevin EI7IM at QTHR or on the phone at 01-4509514 or by E-mail to EI7IM@qsl.net Input to either the radio news or newsletter can also be sent by e-mail to news@irts.ie for automatic forwarding to both news services.
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