Irish Radio Transmitters Society
Radio News Bulletin
Sunday 2nd August 2009

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ComReg Consultation on the 2300 to 2400 MHz Band

On 15 June ComReg published a consultation paper on the
release of spectrum in the 2300 to 2400 MHz band. The
Society has submitted a detailed response to this paper
highlighting the extent to which the band is used by
the amateur service both here and in the UK and the
need to afford protection to the amateur service so
that effective use may continue to be made of the band.
As well as preserving the secondary status of the
amateur service throughout the band.

The response seeks a small amateur primary allocation
in the segment 2300 to 2330 MHz. The UK Microwave Group
with which the Society had been in touch has also made
a submission supportive of the more detailed response
from the IRTS.
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Theory Examination

Thirty candidates sat the examination held on 30 June
at centres in Letterkenny, Carrigtwohill and Dublin and
sixteen were successful. The results were with
candidates on Friday the 17th of July and we understand
that some of them have since received their licences.
The new exam agreement (unlike the previous one)
requires ComReg to issue the results within 20 working
days of receiving them from IRTS. This brings to 185
the total number who have sat the 9 examinations held
since IRTS took over responsibility for the examination
just over four years ago in May 2005. Of these, 112
(61%) obtained the HAREC qualification.

Next Theory Examination

The next Theory Examination for the Amateur Station
Licence will be held on Tuesday the 6th of October at
2p.m. in the ComReg Offices in Dublin. Places for the
examination are limited and will, as usual, be
allocated on a first come first served basis and will
only be reserved on receipt of the examination fee.
Intending candidates should forward the appropriate fee
to Sean Nolan EI7CD, 12 Little Meadow, Pottery Road,
Dunlaoghaire, Co. Dublin in order to reserve a place
for the exam.

The fee is 50 Euro or 25 Euro for full-time registered
students, repeat candidates and those who are retired,
unemployed or have a disability. Cheques and Money
Orders should be made payable to the IRTS. When
forwarding the exam fee intending candidates should
enclose their postal address as well as phone and
e-mail contact details.

The closing date for applications to sit the
examination, which will be strictly enforced, is Monday
the 21st of September. Intending candidates should note
that anyone who fails to produce a photo identity on
the day of the examination will not be allowed to sit
the examination. The photo ID can be a driving licence,
a passport, an employment photo identity card or a
student card containing a photograph. A national Garda
photo ID would also be acceptable.

Sean EI7CDs address can also be found in the IRTS call
book or in the call book section of the IRTS website at
www.irts.ie Sean's e-mail address for any further
enquiries is “ei7cd at gofree dot indigo dot ie” Also
available on the ‘Downloads’ section of the IRTS
website are Examination Notes with a sample examination
paper. Also, in the Radio Theory Links section on the
website is some very useful information for those
studying for the examination.

The examination consists of a question paper of 60
multiple-choice questions divided into three main
sections A, B and C and the time allowed is two hours.
The pass mark is 60% and a pass is required in each of
the three main sections of the paper. Intending
candidates should note in particular, that in Section B
of the paper – National and International Rules and
Operating Procedures’- questions on the National Rules
will be based on the new Wireless Telegraphy (Amateur
Station Licence) Regulations 2009 which came into force
on I June 2009.

These Regulations and other matters in relation to the
operation of amateur stations can be found in the
‘Amateur Station Licence Guidelines’ published by
ComReg in Document 09/45 which is available on the
‘Publications’ section of the ComReg website at
www.comreg.ie
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DXpedition to Clare Island

Members of the Dalkey Island Contest Group activated
Clare Island, EU121 for the IOTA Islands on the Air
contest last weekend. The team arrived on the island on
Thursday evening and on Friday morning, in glorious
sunshine, set about erecting the antennas which was all
completed by early Friday evening.

Antennas consisted of inverted V dipoles for 40 and 80
and an elevated vertical with the top at 60 feet also
for 40. The 40 metre antennas doubled up on 15 quite
satisfactorily. A delta loop for 20 and a full wave
loop for 10 completed the mini aerial farm.

All the antennas were resonant and coax fed with
matching stubs on the loops. During the contest over
1600 stations were worked in the 24 hours which with
the multipliers gave a score of over 2.6 million
points. This was a very good performance for 100 watts
to single element wire antennas.

The weather was reasonably kind with good days on
Friday and Saturday strong winds and rain on Saturday
night and intermittent showers on Sunday. The first
class accommodation and the excellent food in O’Gradys
Guesthouse which we had taken over for the event more
than made up for any shortcomings in the weather.

Operators were EI2CA, EI5DI, EI6EW, EI7CC, EI7CD, EI8BP
and EI8CE. The ladies who came along on the trip
enjoyed the excellent walking facilities on the island
and the few days away were enjoyed by all.
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IOTA Contest

A number of offshore Irish islands were on the air for
the IOTA Contest, which took place last weekend.
Members of South Dublin Radio Club and the City of
Belfast Radio Amateur Society were once again on Inis
Oirr, while the Dalkey Island Contest Group were on
Clare Island.

Rathlin Island, off the Antrim coast, hosted two
DXpeditions: The Kilmarnock & Loudoun Amateur Radio
Club, using the call sign GI0ADX, were there for the
eleventh consecutive year, while a group from County
Dublin and County Down (call sign GI0MPG) were on
Rathlin's East Lighthouse for the second year running.
The IOTA contest was also, of course, well supported by
mainland EI and GI stations.

Most participants reported that band conditions were
better than last year, with longer openings on the
higher frequency bands than in recent years.
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Will this be the year?

The 2m WA1ZMS trans-Atlantic beacon

The WA1ZMS beacon on 144.285000 MHz is now running a
500 watt transmitter giving 7 kW ERP

The beacon is GPS locked and the antenna comprises two
5-element stacked yagis beaming at 60 degrees from IARU
locator FM07fm.
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EI2MOG On Air

Dundalk Amateur Radio Society are now operating a
Echolink internet gateway link on 145.2125Mhz simplex.
The link has been issued the callsign EI2MOG by Comreg
and node number 57007 by Echolink. EI2MOG will operate
24/7 from it's location at Mount Oriel, Co.Louth,
coverage reports are now welcome via email to
info /at/ ei7dar.com. Further details can be found at
www.ei7dar.com.

The next meeting of the Society is on Wednesday 5th
August at 20.00pm, all are welcome to attend.
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Shannon Basin Radio Club

The next meeting of the Shannon Basin Radio Club will
take place in Hannond Hotel on Wednesday night next the
5th Aug at 20:30.

All members are asked to attend and all newcomers
welcome.
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South Eastern Amateur Radio Group

At the general meeting of South Eastern Amateur Radio
Group on Monday last, John Ronan (EI7IG) gave a talk
about AREN / Emergency radio operating procedure and
spoke about AREN plans in general with some discussion
around AREN training. The meeting was a very productive
and well attended one and the club would like to thank
John for doing this talk.

The next general meeting will take place at 8.30 p.m.
on Monday the 31st of August.

Please Note: Both Committee and General meetings take
place on the last Monday of each month. Committee
meetings take place at 8.00 p.m. and the general
meeting follows at 8.30 p.m. General meetings are open
to all members and visitors are very welcome.
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AREN Net

Net’s are held on the 7th and 21st of each Month. It is
envisaged that the net on the 21st of each month will
be a digital mode training net.
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Rallies

C.R.C. Rally 2009

The Cork Radio Club is holding their Rally in the
Montenotte Hotel in Cork on the 13th of September.
Special rates for those who wish to stay overnight just
mention Cork radio Club.

Food all day, plenty of parking & doors open at 11am.
All the usual traders will be there.

Mayo Rally

The 2009 Mayo Rally will be held on Sunday November
22nd in Castlebar. The venue is The Welcome Inn Hotel,
Where the 2008 rally was held at short notice, and
doors open at 11.00am.

Rally Director, Padraic Baynes, EI9JA, is now taking
bookings for stands at the Rally. He can be contacted
on 087 6957154. The hotel will be offering a Rally
special deal for accommodation. Full details will be
available soon.
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This week in History

1866 After a dozen years, Cyrus Field successfully
completed the trans-Atlantic Cable.

1872 Dr M Loomis granted patent for wireless
experiments.
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Items for inclusion in next weeks Radio News should be
forwarded to Charlie EI8JB, preferably via e-mail to
“charlie dot Carolan at gmail dot com” Or by phone to
087-6265418 News can also be submitted via e-mail to
“newsteam 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 Thursday in
order to be guaranteed inclusion in the following
Sunday’s bulletin.