(BUTTON) Go Back

This Week's News

IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday 11th March 2018
__________________________________________________ ________________

Contest Results

The results of the 80 Metres Evening Counties Contest held on 20th
February have now been published and can be viewed on our Contest
Results page at www.irts.ie/results

26 EI and GI stations in 14 counties were in the 22 logs submitted.
Band conditions on the night were poor, local propagation was
particularly badly affected, so much of the activity by EI and GI
stations on the night was with the 30 plus overseas stations in 8 DXCC
entities who took part.
__________________________________________________ ________________

Echo Ireland

The Committee Report for 2017, summarising IRTS activities for the past
year as reported by the society's officers will be featured in the
Spring edition of Echo Ireland. The society's accounts for 2017 are
also included, along with formal notice of the 2018 Annual General
Meeting, including the committee's nominations for president,
vice-president and committee positions for the forthcoming year.

Updates as well as plans for 2018 from ten clubs are included in the
section on "News from around the Clubs". Separately, the "Wild Atlantic
Way Report" by Simon EI7ALB summarises the highlights of the WAW
project and also provides some useful statistics on activity by the WAW
stations. This project was one of the outstanding activities of 2017,
it resulted in almost 160,000 QSOs by WAW stations and undoubtedly
raised the profile internationally of the Wild Atlantic Way tourism
initiative.

Given current weather conditions, climbing the hills is probably the
last thing on everyone's mind this weekend, however looking ahead to
better weather over the coming weeks and months, some of us may be
planning Summits On The Air (SOTA) activity. To encourage such
activity, Albert EI6KO describes his experiences on recent summit
activations. Albert has also produced a leaflet about SOTA, available
on the downloads page of the IRTS web site. Sending Signals via
Satellites is the subject of an article by Keith EI5KJ. In the article,
subtitled "How to work DX with 5 watts VHF", Keith explains the
technical aspects of satellite operation as well as equipment
requirements.

VHF activities from a different era are recalled in a report on two
issues of "The Upper Spectrum" - a newsletter published in the early
1950s by the VHF Research Society of Ireland, and unearthed by Aengus
EI4ABB. Reminiscences from the 1950s appear in an article about his
"Almost Sixty-Five Years of Radio" by Tony EI5EM; Tony explains how a
shared interest with his Dad in shortwave listening led eventually to
his involvement in amateur radio.

The latest Echo Ireland also includes a report by the IRTS Licence
Examination Board, highlighting some of the areas that candidates in
recent exams had difficulties with. This examination report - and
indeed previous examination reports - contain observations and advice
that should be of assistance to anyone studying for the licence exam.
The document "Studying for the Harmonised Amateur Radio Examination
Certificate" available at www.irts.ie/downloads includes Examination
Reports published since 2007.
__________________________________________________ ________________

IRTS Annual General Meeting

A reminder that the 2018 AGM for the IRTS will be taking place on the
14th and 15th April in the Galway Bay Hotel. Lectures will be held on
Saturday afternoon from 2pm. The Annual dinner will take place in the
evening at 7:30pm. Tickets for the Dinner may be purchased from the
IRTS website - see the IRTS AGM tab. On Sunday the Rally will take
place in a spacious conference hall located underneath the Hotel. Doors
will open at 10:00 am to facilitate a longer time for the Rally. Tables
and any enquiries should be addressed to: Steve Wright, EI5DD, email
"wrights1 /at/ eircom /dot/ net" or phoned to 087 2451218.

Meals will be available on Sunday in the Carvery for all the weary
travellers prior to the AGM.

Those seeking a room at the hotel should mention the IRTS when booking
to get the special rate for the weekend. There are numerous B&Bs in the
area of Salthill which may be found on the B&B finders on the internet.
__________________________________________________ ________________

North Cork Radio Group

Reminder for your calenders. Monday 19th March 2018. Blackrock Castle
Observatory will be activated by the North Cork Radio Group. They will
be activating the castle under the World Castles Award. Open for the
public from 10AM onwards. NCRG will be operating HF mainly, but will
have showcase equipment, go boxes and other gadgets to show to the
public. The NCRG hope to see many of you there on the day, or, of
course, on the air.
__________________________________________________ ________________

South Dublin Radio Club

South Dublin Radio Club AGM will now take place at 8pm on Tuesday 20th
of March 2018 at Ballyroan community centre on the Marian road in
Rathfarnham. All members are asked to attend.
__________________________________________________ ________________

Cork Radio Club

The Annual General Meeting of Cork Radio Club will be held on Wednesday
next March 14th in Carrigtwohill Community Centre. All members are
requested to attend. New members are of course very welcome and
candidates for the HAREC exam in June are particularly welcome.
__________________________________________________ ________________

EI100MCV - OPERATORS REQUIRED

ComReg has issued special event callsign EI100MCV to the National
Maritime Museum Radio Club in Dunlaoghaire for the year 2018. This call
sign which includes the letters of the original call sign `MCV' of the
RMS Leinster is to commemorate the Centenary of the sinking of the RMS
Leinster in the Irish Sea on 10 October 1918 just a month before the
end of World War 1.

The call sign may be used throughout the year 2018 by all members of
the National Maritime Museum Radio Club as well as by any licensed EI
amateur radio operator who would like to commemorate this historic
centenary. The Club encourages other operators to get involved on a
similar basis to the Wild Atlantic Way initiative. The event will be
coordinated by Dave O'Connor EI6AL who has acted in this capacity for
many similar events.

Operators who wish to use the call sign should contact Dave at "dave
/dot/ ei6al /at/ gmail.com". Anyone who operates the call sign must
forward an ADIF log by email to Dave EI6AL. Dave will maintain a master
log and will do the necessary upload to Clublog.

The sinking of the Leinster by a torpedo was, and still is, the single
largest loss of life in the Irish Sea with a total of 567 lives lost.
The Maritime Museum Radio Club hopes that many operators will avail of
the opportunity to use this unique call sign and so give extensive
coverage to this important centenary year.
__________________________________________________ ________________

Limerick Radio Club

The LRC Rally is scheduled for Sunday the 25th March in the Radisson
Blu Hotel Limerick. Anyone wishing to book tables please contact
Michael Kingston EI2IX e-mail "michaelkingston /at/ eircom /dot/ net"
or to Harry O'Loughlin e-mail "oloughlin /dot/ harry /at/ gmail /dot/
com"

As for previous years the LRC website will advertise for sale items, so
please send your list to Michael's e -mail address.

Brendan EI0CZ, Harry EI2KL and Tom EI5CA continue with Morse Practice,
on the Limerick 2 metre repeater after the IRTS News at 20:00 on
Mondays, and at 20:00 on Tuesdays.
__________________________________________________ ________________

EI8GQB

Olivier ON4EI, is back again in Ireland from 18th to 28th March 2018 as
EI8GQB. During the CQ WPX SSB contest he will operate the Tipperary
Club station, call sign EI7T.

Olivier runs contests in Low Power/Single Op SSB category using mainly
green energy with his temporary 'Field Day like' antenna park setup.

You can follow this one-man expedition on qrz.com or meet him on the
air.

For these dates, please QSL EI7T only via LOTW or EI8GQB via LOTW or
QSL MANAGER: PA3249 (direct or bureau).
__________________________________________________ ________________

DX News

The DXfriends expedition group, who this time last year had a
successful trip to Niger using the callsign 5U5R, are off on another
African journey. This year their destination is the Republic of the
Congo and the callsign is TN5R. The plan is to be active from 9th -
19th March on all bands 10 - 160m. Direct QSLs go via EA5RM.

Will W0ZRJ and Bill KH6OO will be in Tahiti from 10th - 17th March.
They will sign TX5X on CW and Digital. QSL via Club Log OQRS.

The Italian DXpedition Team will be QRV from Cameroon as TJ3TT from
15th - 29th March. Look for them on 160 - 10m CW, SSB and Digital. Full
details can be found on www.i2ysb.com/idt/

The Latvian team signing 3C3W from Equatorial Guinea has been delayed
in getting flights to Annobon Island where their callsign will be 3C0W.
Listen carefully to get the correct call into your log!!!! The
expedition is scheduled to last until 27th March.

A small group led by Zorro JH1AJT will be in Bhutan from 14th - 18th
March and will reactivate their A5A callsign. They will be on SSB, CW
and RTTY. QSL via Club Log OQRS.
__________________________________________________ ________________

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 may be telephoned to the radio news editor, Mark EI6HPB on
086 355 2370.

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.

[C]
News Archives