Irish Radio Transmitters Society
Radio News Bulletin

Sunday July 22nd 2007
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Field Days

The winners of the CW Field Day in a very closly fought
contest were South Dublin Radio, EI2SDR.
Commisserations to EI3Z, and thanks to Paul for the
GI6YM checklog.

The UHF/VHF field day took place 2 weekends ago. The
stations heard were EI2II, EI3Z, EI7T, and EI9E. Thanks
go to all the stations for taking part as conditions
were not altogether favourable. As yet no logs have
been recieved so please send them to “contests at irts
dot ie” or to Ei8IU at QTHR.

September will be a busy month with the SSB field day
over the first weekend. Again the grounds of Garbally
College, Ballinasloe, Co. Galway will be available,
thanks to Niall EI4CF and once again the Shannon Basin
Club will be hosting their now famous Barbeque. Of
course, the big event will be CQIR over the last
weekend, so plenty to look forward to.
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WRC-07 CEPT Preparatory Group Meeting

As you will all be aware by now a World Radio
Conference, WRC-07 will be held in November of this
year. These conferences are extremely important for
the amateur service as it is at them that decisions
are taken which affect the frequencies available to
the amateur service on into the future. A preparatory
meeting for the Conference of the CEPT countries was
held the week before last in Gothenburg. As we told
you in last week’s news the IRTS, prior to that
meeting, had submitted to ComReg documentation on the
issues of importance to the amateur service in the
context of WRC-07.

Through ComReg we have received some good news on the
outcome of the Gothenburg meeting. CEPT has agreed on a
European Common Proposal to support a secondary
allocation to the amateur service at 5 MHz by way of a
footnote to the ITU Radio Regulations. The footnote
proposed will be to the effect that Administrations may
allow stations in the amateur service to operate in the
band 5260 to 5410 kHz on a secondary basis. This
proposal if adopted at WRC-07 would give provision for
a new allocation of 150 kHz with a radiated power not
exceeding 24gBW or 250 watts. There was general
agreement that this band comes within the scope of
Agenda item 1.13 of the WRC-07 Agenda. The Irish
delegation at the meeting is party to the European
Common Proposal and will of course be supporting it at
WRC-07. With a bit of luck WRC-07 will see us with a
new secondary allocation in the 5 MHz region.

For LF enthusiasts CEPT is proposing amendments to
Article 5 of the Radio Regulations that will in
effect, if adopted at WRC-07, provide a worldwide
secondary allocation for the amateur service of 135.7
to 137.8 kHz. Ireland will be supporting this proposal
at WRC-07.

Ireland also supported a proposal, which had sufficient
support to be carried at the meeting to include on the
Agenda for WRC-11 consideration of a secondary
allocation to the amateur service in parts of the
frequency band 415 to 526.5 kHz. A proposal which
Ireland supported at the meeting for inclusion on the
WRC-11 Agenda consideration of an allocation to the
amateur service in the range 50 to 54 MHz throughout
Region 1 received insufficient support to be carried.
The IARU Region 1 will have to consider other
strategies to seek to achieve this objective.

We would like to express our appreciation to the
officials of ComReg and the Department of
Communications, Energy and Natural Resources who
attended the meeting and for yet again giving their
support to the internationally agreed IARU position on
issues of concern to the amateur service in the context
of WRC-07.
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Church Broadcasts

Last week we carried an item telling you that we had
been notified by the national coordinator for the IARU
Intruder Watch for the German National Society DARC
that transmission of church services which seem to be
coming from Ireland have been taking place in the 28
MHz amateur band. WAV files have been provided of such
transmissions on 28.105 MHz FM. It has now been
established that a Church broadcast is being
transmitted on 28.105 MHz FM in the Dublin area. Some
further work is required to identify the Church
concerned. Mass is transmitted at 0900, 1000 and 1100
local on Sundays and at 1000 on weekdays. We would ask
stations in the greater Dublin area to listen on this
frequency at these times to see if the location can be
positively identified. The local Church notices can be
of assistance here. If you cannot identify the station
and you have a beam antenna you could take a bearing on
the peak signal, which in conjunction with similar
bearings taken by other stations could help identify
the general area from which the transmission
originates.

Stations located outside Dublin should listen on the
lower end of the 28 MHz band generally to see if any
unauthorised activity is taking place in the band in
their areas. If you hear anything worth reporting you
should send a report to Thos Caffrey EI2JD the IRTS
Intruder Watch coordinator at QTHR or to “thoscaffrey
at hotmail dot com” with a copy to Sean Nolan EI7CD at
QTHR or to ei7cd at “gofree dot indigo dot ie”. The
report should include date, time, frequency, possible
location of station if identified, beam heading in
degrees from true north and other relevant information.
If the station is identified from an announcement of
local events, details should be given. Should you hear
anything, no action should be taken other than
forwarding a report as requested.

It is in our own interests to identify any unauthorised
activity so as to preserve the exclusive nature of the
28 MHz allocation. The matter has already been reported
to ComReg who will act on the matter if we can provide
appropriate information.
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CQIR

Great interest is being expressed worldwide in the
Society's 75th Anniversary Contest CQIR, which will
take place on the last weekend in September. The
contest is a celebration of Ireland and the Irish,
throughout the world and with 40 million people in the
United States alone claiming Irish forefathers; we
expect that CQIR will be one of the largest 'one off'
contests ever aired on the Amateur Bands. It is a
24-hour single operator contest with the emphasis on
participation rather than winning and to this end every
participant gains an entry ticket for a spectacular
draw for every 75 QSO’s made during the Contest.

The ticket drawn out of the EI/GI drum will win an all
expenses paid long weekend in New York City for two
people. ARRL have confirmed that this will include a
visit to their national headquarters hosted by ARRL.
Kinnitty Castle in Offaly will host the international
winners for a week with flights for two from anywhere
in the world. The prizes have been fully sponsored at
no cost to the Society and this is really an excellent
opportunity to celebrate the Society and its 75 years
of service to Irish experimenters. We would encourage
all Irish operators to be active during the Contest. So
ring fence the last weekend of September in your diary,
make an effort to have that new antenna up for the
event and lets ensure a good show from the local Irish
operators to support the international Irish who will
no doubt come on the bands in their thousands for the
contest. Full rules are on the IRTS website.
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South Eastern Amateur Radio Group

The next general meeting will take place on Monday the
30th of July at 8.00 p.m. in the Roanmore Centre,
Waterford. All are welcome.
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Cork Radio Club

On Manday night last Aedan EI3EG gave a demonstration
of his loop antenna at the club. Although the bands
were not very active, beacons were located on both 15
and 10 meters. It showed how efficient these small
antennae are in confined spaces. The Cork Radio club
are gearing up for their annual rally, which will take
place in the Blarney Park hotel on Sunday the 24th of
September plenty of parking, food all day.
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Theory Examination

The examination papers from the recent Theory Exam have
been checked and the results delivered to ComReg.
ComReg have been very efficient in sending out the
results but it takes time as each candidate gets a
breakdown of their results in each of the three
sections of the paper. We appeal to candidates not to
contact ComReg about the results, as results will not
be given over the phone or by e-mail. The official
letters will issue in due course.
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Huntsville Hamfest

Live video and audio of the 2007 Huntsville hamfest
will be broadcast again this year via the internet. The
live broadcast begins on Friday morning August the 17th
at 0800 CST. Watch as the helmet cam takes you on a
virtual tour of all the tables and booths there. Also
watch many activities such as the ARRL activities and
the Young Ham of The Year. For more information visit
wa5kub.com.
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Items for inclusion in next weeks Radio News should be
forwarded to Mark Wall, EI7IS at QTHR or by phone to
051-853806 or 087-6302026. Items for the radio news can
also be faxed to 087 5 6302026. News should be
submitted via e-mail to “news at irts dot ie” for
automatic forwarding to both the radio and printed news
services. Please note that items for the radio news
should reach the editor no later than midday on Friday
in order to be guaranteed inclusion in the following
Sunday’s bulletin.