Irish Radio Transmitters Society
Radio News Bulletin
Sunday 11th September 2011

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HF Band Plan

A revised IARU Region 1 HF Band Plan has been published. The changes
are minor, and affect 40 metres and 10 metres only.

On 40 metres, the CW contest-preferred segment of 7000 to 7025 kHz has
been withdrawn; this means in practice that CW contests on 40 metres
are no longer confined to the first 25 kHz segment. There have also
been changes to the FM part of 10 metres, with adjustments to the
simplex channels and the addition of four new repeater channels.

See www.irts.ie/downloads for a copy of the new Band Plan, which
includes notes detailing the changes.
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IRTS AGM 2012

Preliminary notice that IRTS AGM will be held weekend of 21st/22nd
April 2012. Dundalk Amateur Radio Society will host the event at the
Fairways Hotel,Dundalk.
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Licence Examination

The next theory examination for the Harmonised Amateur Radio
Examination Certificate (HAREC) will be held on Friday, 14th October
next at 2.00 p.m. in the ComReg offices in Dublin. Full details,
including entry procedure and examination fee, are available at
www.irts.ie/exam '
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Limerick Radio Club

Limerick Radio Club would like to thank their members who took part in
the following Summer activities. Visit to the Shannon Air Traffic
Control Centre, Annual Lighthouse weekend with over 600 QSO's, Special
event station at Atlantic Airventure Shannon with over 100 QSO's. The
club also carried the installation of a new security door at their 2M
repeater site. Club meetings will resume in October.

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CASHOTA UK

Due to the rising awareness of ROC (Royal Observation Corp) Bunkers and
facilities with amateurs, CASHOTA (castles and stately homes on the
air) have compiled a UK ROC Location List within its website. It was
thanks to the efforts of Phil G0ABY and Roger G0TRB that this came
about, and consequently they have agreed to continue their excellent
work and become CASHOTA's ROC Representatives. All contact details and
the list, if you wish to activate a site can be found at www.
CASHOTA.co.uk. If you require further information, please contact Bobby
MI0RYL on 048 3885 2712.

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Mayo Radio Experimenters Network

The annual Mayo Radio Experimenters Network club radio rally will take
place on Sunday 20th November 2011. Doors open at 11.00 am.

The venue will be the Welcome Inn Hotel in Castlebar.

If you would like further details please contact: Rally Organiser -
Padraic Baynes EI9JA on 087 - 695 7154 (email pbaynes1 at eircom /dot
/net), or email club PRO. David Hatfield EI3ECB on ei3ecb at gmail /dot
/com or text or phone the club mobile phone number 086 20 89 777.

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DX News

A multi-national team will activate Timor Leste (also known as East
Timor) from 16-26 September. The callsign will be 4W6A and they plan to
on all bands 160-10m on CW, SSB and RTTY. As well as being quite a rare
DXCC entity this expedition will count for OC-232 in the IOTA programme
as the QTH will be on the island of Atauro. QSL manager is M0URX and
logs will also be uploaded to Logbook of the World.

You may remember that a Belgian team attempted a landing on Rockall in
May 2009. This was unsuccessful due to the weather conditions at the
time. They are now planning to try again with the projected date being
around 27/28 September. Rockall is the rarest of the European IOTA
islands with only one activation a few years ago when just over 200
QSOs were made. The IOTA reference is EU-189.

Eric K9GY has been active as T6MO from Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan.
He expects to move soon to Loghar Province where his callsign will be
T6LM. QSLs go via his home call.

A group of operators from the Czech Republic will be in Greenland from
16-26 September. They will sign OX4OK and also OX/homecalls. Look for
them on 80-10m and also on 2m EME.

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Radio hams tune in to space airwaves

John Heath G7HIA has written an article about amateur radio space
communications for the October edition of the British Interplanetary
Society magazine Spaceflight. The Spaceflight description says: "Radio
amateurs have always been keen to exploit new means of communication
and John Heath [G7HIA] provides a fascinating insight into how
satellite technology has transformed the world of the radio ham soon
after the launch of Sputnik right up to the present day." The article
covers the FUNcube satellite, ARISSat, GB4FUN and the FUNcube Dongle
SDR.
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Louis Varney G5RV Cup

The Louis Varney G5RV Cup for Space Communications has been awarded to
Paul Robinson 2E1EUB by RSGB president Dave Wilson M00BW. The cup is
awarded for advances in space communication and the presentation took
place at the Telford Hamfest on Sunday, September 4.

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Items for inclusion in next week's Radio News can be submitted via
e-mail to "newsteam /at/ irts / dot / ie" for automatic forwarding to
both the radio and printed news services. Urgent news items for the
radio news maybe telephoned to the radio news editor, Aidan, EI7JC on
085 7100511.

Please note that items for the radio news should reach the editor no
later than midday on Thursday in order to be guaranteed inclusion in
the following Sunday's bulletin.