Irish Radio Transmitters Society
Radio News Bulletin
Sunday 8th July 2012
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Volvo Ocean Race Festival

As part of the celebrations in Galway for the Volvo Ocean Race, Galway
Radio Experimenters Club have been QRV with a special event call sign
EI12VOR. Located in the Global Village in South Park in the Claddagh
area, they worked in conjunction with Scouting Ireland. Planned
activities included Morse training, a Fox Hunt and QSL card design.
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South Dublin Radio Club

We mentioned a few weeks ago that Daniel EI9FHB has been explaining the
technology behind Radio-Frequency Identification to members of South
Dublin Radio Club. At the club's meeting on Tuesday last, Daniel
followed up his earlier presentation with a further talk about this
technology. This included a demonstration of how transmissions from
some of the devices in use in this area can be picked up on 13.56 MHZ,
just below the 20 metre amateur band.
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Solar and Wind Power operation

Olivier EI8GQB (who is also ON4EI) plans to operate for most of July
from a caravan, using "green energy" - solar and wind power. He has a
500Ah battery bank, plus 180W solar panel and a 400W wind generator. He
plans to use the EI80IRTS call sign during the IARU HF Championship
contest next weekend and will use the contest call sign EI1A
(Echo-India-One-Alpha) during the IOTA contest at the end of the month.
Olivier's QRZ.COM page will carry a Live Information Banner with
messages and live frequencies as well as daily information with photos
and video.
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Order of Malta Amateur Radio Station

Over the past week, the Italian Relief Corps of the Order of Malta
operated an amateur radio station from the Order's headquarters in
Rome. Donations collected as a direct result of this operation are to
be used to finance a project tied to emergency communications.

The Sovereign Order of Malta is a sovereign subject of international
law, even though it is not a country. From a DXing point of view,
however, it is a separate entity and a relatively rare one at that, so
the amateur radio operation last week - call sign 1A0C
(One-Alpha-Zero-Charlie) - was one of the big attractions on the bands.

The 1A0C operation covered all bands from 6 metres to 80 metres, using
SSB, CW and RTTY. Their QSO total was over 40,000, with almost 15,000
unique call signs in the log. This includes 80 EI and GI call signs,
many of these achieving QSOs on 6 metres, which was no doubt welcome.
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Bushvalley Amateur Radio Club

Bushvalley Amateur Radio Club from Dervock, Co. Antrim, will be running
a Special Event Station on Saturday 21st July 2012 in conjunction with
the Kennedy Kane McArthur Marathon celebrations. The call sign used
will be GB0KKM. Dervcock-born Ken McArthur was the winner of the
Marathon at the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm; more details on Kennedy
Kane McArthur can be found at www.bit.ly/LRrK3T
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Amateur Station Licence Examination

Fourteen candidates sat the licence examination on Thursday 28th June.
We understand that ComReg have already issued the results to
candidates. The next examination will be held in early October 2012 -
exact date to be announced shortly.
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EI DXCC List

We note two new EI call signs in the EI DXCC List at www.irts.ie/dxcc -
the new award holders, both of whom live in Wexford, are Bernard EI4II
(a very active participant in international contests) and Jim EI9GLB.
Jim tells us that his initial DXCC award comes entirely from Logbook of
the World QSLs.
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Contest News

The Islands On The Air contest, held during the last weekend in July,
always attracts considerable interest in Ireland. Plans by Olivier
EI8GQB to participate in the IOTA contest were mentioned earlier in
this bulletin. We are also aware that the Papa Lima DX Group (EJ0PL)
will return to Little Saltee, EU-103, for the contest, while Gerard
EI5KF will be operating from Bere Island EU-121.

In other contest news, those who entered the 80 metres counties contest
in June should note that the deadline for log submissions is 17th July.
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DX News

Laurent F8BBL will be on Corsica from now until 21st July. Corsica
counts as EU-014 for the Islands on the Air Award. He will use the call
sign TK12IOTA which will also be of interest to the prefix hunters. On
14 July he will make a side-trip to Lavelli Island, IOTA EU-164,
signing TK12IOTA/P and finally on 18 July he will operate from
Sanguinaires Island, IOTA EU-104, again using TK12IOTA/P.

Eric KV1J travels to the St Pierre and Miquelon Islands off the coast
of Canada from 9 - 17 July. He will be on the air as FP/KV1J on all
bands 160 - 6m. He will also take part in the IARU HF Contest on the
weekend of 14/15 July.

John W5JON will be on the Caribbean islands of St Kitts and Nevis from
12 July until 2 August. He will use the callsign V47JA and will be
active in the IOTA Contest on 28 - 29 July.

Moroccan stations are permitted to use the prefix 5C13 instead of their
usual CN prefix until 27 July. This is to celebrate the 13th
anniversary of the crowning of King Mohammed VI.

A special event station, CK6S, will be QRV from the city of Calgary in
Canada from now until 15 July. This celebrates the 100th Anniversary of
the famous Calgary Stampede. QSL manager is VE6AO.
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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.