Irish Radio Transmitters Society
Radio News Bulletin

Sunday September 16th 2007
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CQIR

With the CQIR Contest only two weeks away the sub
committee are working hard to promote the event
worldwide. There is excellent coverage on the various
contest reflectors but we believe this event will also
attract a lot of interest from non-contesters. It is
more difficult to get the message out to these
operators and we would ask our own DXers to actively
promote the event on the bands over the next two weeks.
You can stress the point that 75 QSO’s with any
stations in the contest will get them into the draw for
the trip to Ireland, and then simply refer them to the
IRTS website, www.irts.ie.

EI75IRTS will be very active before and during the
event and we will have more details of these activities
next week. If any members have contacts with local
press or local radio stations, who are interested in
covering the event, the Society can assist you with
Press Releases and other support documentation. If you
need assistance contact Paul EI2CA by email, “paul at
comma dot ie”, or phone 087 2523908.
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Short Range Devices (SRDs) on 10 GHz

ComReg is proposing to open the segment 10.4 to 10.42
GHz to licence-exempt Short Range Devices or SRDs.
These will be mainly for movement detection in the
context of traffic control and will have a power level
of 500 milliwatts. There is an experimenter secondary
allocation at 10.0 to 10.5 GHz. The EU notification
procedure and the standstill period for observations
means that a final position on this will not be adopted
until early October at the soonest. The relevant
document is ComReg 07/37 and is available on the ComReg
website at www.comreg.ie. Any experimenter having
concerns about this proposal can write to Jim Connolly
at ComReg.
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Logs

Logs for EI7IRTS activity on CW and SSB are required by
the QSL Manager, Denis, EI6HB immediately. There are a
lot of direct QSL cards after arriving and QSO details
must be checked before confirmation is sent out. Logs
(preferably in ADIF format) should be sent to “ei6hb at
eircom dot net”.

All who participated in the 2 metre counties contest,
even those who gave out just a few points, are
encouraged to send in their logs to the Contest
Manager. The latest date for log entry is the 25th of
September.
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DXpedition to St Brandon

A group of mainly European amateurs are currently
operating from Isle du Sud, one of about 16 small
islands known as the Saint Brandon Rocks on an extended
reef in the Indian Ocean northeast of Mauritius. The
call sign being used is 3B7C, and well-known EI
contester Paul O'Kane EI5DI is one of the operators. In
their first 5 days of operation, the group clocked up
50,000 QSO’s, of which almost 60% were on CW. Their
signals have been heard on all HF bands in EI, and to
date there are more than 100 QSO’s with EI stations in
the log. There is still plenty of time to work them, as
the plan is to continue operating until Monday the 24th
of September.
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Galway Radio Experimenters Club

The Galway Radio Experimenters club (GREC) held its AGM
in the Menlo Park Hotel on Tuesday last the 11th of
September 2007. The agenda for the night was to discuss
club issues, elect a new committee and to discuss the
upcoming Marconi field day which is of course the 100th
anniversary of the first commercial radio link between
Europe and the United States. The new committee members
elected are as follows:- Tom Frawley (EI3ER) as
chairman. Damian Commins (EI2HG) as treasurer And
Adrian Jackson (EI7DMB) Club secretary. Two ordinary
committee members were also elected and these were
Larry MCGriskin (EI9CN) and Tom McNamara (EI8DD).

It is the aim of the club to Run Classes in the New
Year and to participate in most if not all of the
upcoming field days and events. There was an excellent
turn out for the meeting and the committee would like
to thank the 24 members who took time out to attend.
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EI0MAR

EI0MAR will be QRV on Saturday and Sunday the 29th and
30th of September for the CQIR event. On Saturday the
station will be active between 1100 and 2200 UTC and
also on the following morning. On Saturday evening, the
North Dublin Radio Club's weekly meeting will take
place at the station. The vintage radio museum in
Howth, which houses EI0MAR, is located in the Martello
tower in Howth. Access is up a steep pathway opposite
the Abbey Tavern. Visitors are welcome and may operate
the station using their own or the club's call sign.
Further information on EI0MAR is available on the
club's website. This is easily found by googling the
words EI0MAR, Martello and Howth. A link to the museum
web page will allow downloading of a free 22-page
booklet about the tower and the history of wireless.
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Marconi Clifden Celebrations

On the 17th of October 1907 Guglielmo Marconi sent his
first commercial message from the then new station at
Clifden, Ireland. This October in celebration of this
historic event member of the Galway Radio
Experimenters Club will be running a special event
station from Saturday 13th to Wednesday 17th from
Clifden. The club has been issued the call sign
EI100MFT for the event, MFT been the last call sign
used on the original station.

On the Wednesday they will be making a special linkup
with the Marconi sister station in Glace Bay, Nova
Scotia. Part of this linkup will be an exchange of
greetings between President Mary McAleese and
Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia the Honourable
Mayann E. Francis. The group will also be honoured to
have Princess Electra Marconi present as she is coming
to Clifden for the festival along with an Exhibit from
the Marconi Foundation in Bologna. The Galway Radio
Experimenters Club will also be presenting a display of
vintage equipment. More details on the festival can be
found at www.clifden.ie. Visitors to the station are
more than welcome and if you would like to participate
this can also be arranged. For further information
please contact Enda Broderick (II2II) on 086-8676410 or
email: “enda dot Broderick at lightnet dot ie”.
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Winlink Experiment

John, EI7IG, is experimenting/testing a Winlink Telpac
Node in the Waterford area, if anyone is interested in
participating, please contact him directly at
086-8167310.
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Limerick Radio Club

The next meeting of the Club will be on the Thursday
11th of October at the usual venue, the Limerick
Institute of Technology, Moylish at 19:30 hrs local
time. All those interested are welcome to attend.
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Theory Classes

There is a free course for the forthcoming radio theory
exam running in the Ballyroan Community centre, Marian
Rd, hosted by South Dublin Radio Club. It is held
between eight and ten p.m. on Tuesday evenings. Also
there will be a course held in Crossakiel, Kells held
on a Wednesday 8:30 to 10:30, hosted by the newly
founded CARA club (Crossakiel Amateur Radio
Association).

Also anyone interested in radio will find a visit to
the clubs enjoyable. Call Michael (EI2GKB) on
0872481970 for details.
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Blarney Rally

The Cork Radio Clubs 16th Radio Rally will take plane
on Sunday the 23rd of September at the Blarney Park
Hotel. The rally will feature all the usual traders
including club stands and the IRTS. The bring-and-buy
will also feature and there is ample car parking.

Doors open at 11 a.m. For details, contact Con on
021-4270136 or 086-1071312.
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Other Upcoming Rallies

The Waterford Rally will take place on Sunday the 21st
of October in the Woodlands Hotel, Waterford. For more
information visit www.searg.com.

The Foyle and District Rally will take place on Sunday
the 4th of November 2007 at the White Horse Hotel,
Derry. For more information visit www.mn0aku.org.uk.

The Mayo Radio Rally will take place on Sunday the 18th
of November in the Belmount Hotel, Knock, Co. Mayo. For
more information contact Padraic Baynes, EI9JA @ QTHR.
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DX News

A team of 9 Greek amateur radio operators are going
to activate the Syrian island of Arwad (AS-186) for
the first time in the IOTA program, between the 1st
and 13th of November. The callsign for this station
will be YK9SV.

Activity is on all HF bands with at least 2 stations
operating around the clock, including 6 meters and
using CW, SSB, RTTY and PSK. QSL is via SV1JG. For
latest info visit www.raag.org/arwad.
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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.