Irish Radio Transmitters Society
Radio News Bulletin
Sunday 25th March 2012
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Silent Key
The death has occurred of Michael Hoban, EI5DCB. Funeral took place
Wednesday March 21st.
Ar dheis De go raibh a anam dilis.
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IRTS 80th Anniversary AGM & Rally
The annual dinner of the IRTS takes place on Saturday April 21st, with
the Rally and AGM on the following day. Dinner tickets are just 32, a
reduction on previous years and represents great value for this very
special dinner. B&B is 55 for single and a double is 65. As
dinner tickets and rooms are distributed on a first come first served
basis, you are encouraged and advised to act now to avoid
disappointment. The annual rally, on Sunday April 22nd, will also have
its favourites and many new and novel exhibitors.
This is a must attend event in the 80th Anniversary year of your
national society. Full details of this event are on the IRTS web site
www.irts.ie
Dinner tickets can be bought now by contacting Thos EI2JD on
087-2953256 or email thoscaffrey /at/ hotmail.com or by contacting any
IRTS committee member. The Fairways Hotel can be contacted on 042
9321500 or
www.fairways.ie
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Revised DXCC Fee Structure
Listeners who are involved in the DXCC programme will be aware that
there have been a number of administrative difficulties with the
programme in recent months. In particular, there have been delays in
processing applications for DXCC credits at certain times, for example
after major contests and DXpeditions.
In an effort to overcome these difficulties in the future, ARRL has
announced a new fee structure for DXCC applications, one of the aims of
the new structure being to encourage frequent smaller applications for
DXCC credits. To achieve this, the premium charged for second and
subsequent applications in each year will be dropped.
Later this year, ARRL plans to have an online system for QSL card
applications in place: while the cards will still need to be checked by
a field checker, it will be possible to generate online the application
form to be submitted to the field checker; this, of course, will
greatly speed up the eventual processing of the application, as the
DXCC staff will not have to perform the data entry.
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Shannon Basin Radio Club
The Shannon Basin Radio Club is holding a meeting on Wed 28th March at
20:30 in Hannons Hotel, Roscommon.
It is planned to give practical demonstrations on computerised logging,
dx cluster and Logbook of the World.
All members are requested to attend and visitors are welcome. For more
info see
www.shannonbasinradioclub.com
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Lough Erne Rally next Sunday 1st April
The thirty first Lough Erne Amateur Radio Rally will be held next
Sunday 1st April. The location is again the SHARE Centre near
Lisnaskea, in County Fermanagh. Doors open at 11.30 The traditional
strong attendance of radio amateurs and experimenters is expected from
across Ireland. The Radio Amateur Old Timers Association is hoping to
recruit many new members at the rally. There are more details in the
April issue of Echo Ireland, and on the Club website
www.learc.eu
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North Cork Radio Group
The North Cork Radio Group will be activating Mizen Head Visitors
Centre again this year for Marconi weekend. The callsign, EI0IMD, will
be on the air from 20th April - 22nd April inclusive. As you may know,
Marconi Day is on 21st April this year and we will be operating over
the full 24 hour period on this day in order that collectors of the
Marconi Award will have the opportunity to add us to their list. Mizen
Head is a beautiful location and well worth a visit.
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Special Event Stations for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games
Some special event call-signs will be activated to celebrate the London
2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games: 2O12L (Two Oscar One Two Lima) from
London, England and 2O12W (Two Oscar One Two Wales) from Barry, Wales.
The Radio Society of Great Britain has been granted the 'Inspire mark'
for these stations by the London 2012 Inspire programme. The London
station, 2012L will be active through the duration of the Games,
located at the historic Eltham Palace, south-east London on 160m-2m,
all modes. More information is available on the website
http://www.2O12L.com or contact the Press Officer, Mr. John Warburton
G4IRN at press /at/ 2o12l.com.
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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.