Irish Radio Transmitters Society
Radio News Bulletin

Sunday August 5th 2007
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IOTA Contest

The Islands On The Air contest was held last weekend.
In this year's contest, two offshore Irish islands were
heard, Inis Oírr and Rathlin. South Dublin Radio Club
and friends were on Inis Oírr Island, County Galway,
using the call sign EJ0GI, while the Kilmarnock and
Loudon Amateur Radio Club, call sign GI3YS, were on
Rathlin Island, off the coast of County Antrim.
Numerous mainland stations were also active. Among the
mainland stations, club call signs EI0W (Dundalk
Amateur Radio Society), EI7M (East Cork Amateur Radio
Group) and EI9E (Network Southern Area Radio
Experimenters Club) were active. At least 20 other EI,
GI and MI call signs were heard during the contest,
making the Islands on the Air contest one of the more
popular international contests in this country.

For Irish stations, 20 metres and the low bands were
the key bands this year, although there was some
15-metre activity on both Saturday and Sunday. 10
metres appeared to be open to Ireland only for a brief
period on Saturday. While the higher bands may have
been disappointing, there was some very good DX on the
lower bands, with many VK, ZL and JA stations logged on
40 metres. The results of this contest, which can be
expected before the end of the year, are no doubt
eagerly awaited.
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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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EI75IRTS

As part of the Society’s Jubilee Celebrations, we have
been allocated the call sign EI75IRTS for the year
2007. Please note that Individuals and club members of
IRTS may apply to use the call sign EI75IRTS during the
rest of 2007. Contact Finbarr Buckley EI1CS about this.
The use of the call sign EI75IRTS is subject to a
number of conditions and full information is available
on the IRTS web site at www.irts.ie.
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South Dublin Radio Club

South Dublin Radio Club is on holidays following a
successful activation of Inish Oirr in the Aran Islands
under the callsign EJ0GI during the Islands on the air
contest. Weekly meetings will resume as usual at 8pm on
Tuesday the 14th of August in the Ballyroan community
Centre on the Marian road in Rathfarnam. Thirteen
people took part in the Island activation, which was
enjoyed by all.

The next SDR event is a lighthouse activation during
Lighthouse on the Air on Saturday 18th and Sunday the
19th of August. They will be activating Saint Johns
Point Lighthouse County Down. This is not a contest but
a fun event.
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Marconi’s Wireless Telegraph in Ireland,
“Alpha/Omega Tour”

In 1907, Guglielmo Marconi’s dream of fixed
point-to-point wireless telegraph stations linking
North America and Europe became a reality. Derrygimla
near Clifden, County Galway served as the site of his
wireless station. Over the next 15 years, spark-induced
blue flashes generated by the station’s massive 20 kV
generators sent tens of thousands of wireless messages
across the Atlantic, linking to its North American
counterpart at Glace Bay, Nova Scotia.

2007 marks the centennial of those first sparks
generated from Marconi’s historic Clifden station. To
commemorate this significant event, as well as radio’s
first-ever commercial venture at Ballycastle-Rathlin,
Hal W8HC announces a special amateur radio operation
from both locations central to Marconi’s fame and
success as a pioneer in wireless technology.
Ballycastle-Rathlin was his first wireless telegraph
station and the Clifden station would be his last,
ceasing operation in 1922.

On Saturday and Sunday, August the 4th and 5th. Hal
will operate from Ballycastle as GI/W8HC/p. He will be
also taking part in the annual Marconi Festival at
Ballycastle with the Marconi Radio Group’s MNØMRG
special event station on Sunday the 5th of August. On
Monday the 6th of August, he will ferry over to Rathlin
Island (EU-122) and operate from East Lighthouse (ARLS
designator NTI 011).

He will arrive in Clifden on Wednesday the 8th of
August where he will operate as EI/W8HC/p at the
Derrygimla site on Thursday and Friday the 9th and 10th
of August. It is hoped that some operating time can
also occur from nearby Letterfrack, site of an
ancillary receive station built in 1912 to allow for
full duplex operation of the transatlantic signals.

All QSOs will be confirmed via LOTW and special QSLs
from each of these historic Marconi locations will be
printed and sent via GlobalQSL www.globalqsl.com. In
addition, a specially designed certificate will be
issued to those stations making contact with both GI
and EI operations from either Ballycastle or Rathlin
and Derrygimla or Letterfrack. In keeping with the
historic connection, all QSOs from these locations will
be CW only. Limited mobile phone operation will take
place during transit in both GI and EI.
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Field Days and Contests

The 2 metres counties contest will take place on the
26th of August. The SSB field day will take place over
the first weekend (1st and 2nd) of September. 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.

Please note that the deadline for submission of logs
for the VHF/UHF Field Day is the 7th of August.
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Foyle and District ARC Rally

The Foyle and District Rally will take place on Sunday
the 4th of November 2007 at the White Horse Hotel,
Derry, 3 miles from Derry on the main Limavady Road.
Doors open at midday. The club's web address for more
information is www.mn0aku.org.uk.
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Church Broadcasts

Recently we carried an item telling you that 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. Initial
bearings would indicate that the transmissions are
originating somewhere on the north side of Dublin.

It would help greatly if bearings on the station from
areas such as Blanchardstown, Malahide and the north
side generally could be provided, as these would help
to further pin down the general area from which the
transmission originates. The local Church notices can
be of assistance in positively identifying the Church
concerned. If you cannot identify the station and you
have a beam antenna you could take a bearing on the
peak signal from anywhere in the greater Dublin area
which in conjunction with similar bearings taken by
other stations could help in locating the source of the
transmission. Stations located outside Dublin should
listen on FM 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, signal strength,
possible location of station if identified, beam
heading in degrees from true north and any 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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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.