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This Week's News

IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday March 14th 2021
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Michael Forde EI6AJB Silent Key

Sadly, we announce the death on Tuesday last March the 9th of Michael
Forde EI6AJB of Raheny, Dublin and formerly of Drumkeeran, County
Leitrim. Michael was an active member of the North Dublin Radio Club in
the 1980s and 1990s. He was a lecturer in Bolton Street College of
Technology and had a great technical and practical knowledge of radio
and was always willing to help others and pass on his vast knowledge.
He had not been active in recent years but will be fondly remembered by
those who knew him. A real gentleman in the true meaning of the word.
May he rest in peace. We extend our deepest sympathy to his wife
Dorothy, his son Ter and daughters Eileen and Annette and extended
family and friends.
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HAREC Training Courses

Applications are still being accepted for the next HAREC on-line course
starting on March 30th. The course will run on Tuesdays and Wednesdays
for 8 weeks. The course is free for IRTS members and intending members
and the closing date for applications is Saturday next March 20th. Send
expressions of interest to harectraining /at/ gmail.com.
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IRTS Annual General Meeting

Due to the continuing and forecast Covid-9 pandemic restrictions, the
2021 IRTS Annual General Meeting will be held online on the Zoom
platform on Saturday April 24th at 1100. The annual committee report,
financial report, committee nominations and formal notice of the AGM
are included in the current spring edition of Echo Ireland which should
be with all members shortly. Also included will be details on how to
arrange your attendance at the Annual General Meeting on Zoom.
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IRTS Contest News

The next IRTS contest is the 80 metres Evening Counties Contest on
Tuesday 23rd March at 2000 until 2100 UTC. There are separate SSB only
and SSB/CW mixed mode sections in this contest.

On Easter Monday, 5th April, we were due to have the usual 70 cms and 2
metres Counties Contests. However, the current "stay at home" public
health restrictions are expected to be in place at least until early
April, so the usual hilltop stations that are key to providing county
multipliers and QSOs for this contest will not be possible. Therefore,
instead of a Counties Contest, we will run a one-hour 2 metres
distance-scoring contest for fixed EI and GI stations. Scoring will be
1 point per kilometre but otherwise the rules incorporate many of the
features of the VHF Counties Contests, including the QSY Rule for FM
channels and a choice of mixed mode SSB/FM sections or FM Only
sections. There is also an SWL section.

VHF/UHF Field Day takes place over the first weekend of July, and we
are of course hoping that the easing of travel and other restrictions
will be sufficient by then to permit this event to proceed. With a view
to encouraging more participation, a number of proposed changes to the
rules for this contest were published in the February issue of the IRTS
monthly newsletter EiNews, while details were also sent directly to
contesters. Following this consultation process, the rules for VHF/UHF
Field Day have now been updated and are on the IRTS web site. See
www.irts.ie/rules for full details of the forthcoming 80 metres Evening
Counties Contest, the 2 metres Easter Monday contest and the revised
VHF/UHF Field Day rules.
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IARU Receives Gift of hamradio.org Domain

Andrew J. Wolfram, KI7RYC, has donated the hamradio.org domain to the
International Amateur Radio Union for non-profit educational use to
promote the amateur and amateur-satellite services. In accepting the
gift, IARU President Tim Ellam VE6SH said: "The hamradio.org domain
offers a unique opportunity for which we are deeply grateful to Andrew.
It is our intention to develop a website that can serve as a focal
point for anyone, anywhere, who may be seeking information on amateur
radio, which is better known as `ham radio' by the general public."
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New Multi-mode Digital Gateway, EI2PMD, Portmarnock, North Dublin

Ger, EI4HOB is pleased to report that the new Multi-Mode Digital
Gateway, EI2PMD, located in Portmarnock, North Dublin, is now fully
operational. The Gateway operates DMR, C4FM and D-Star on 144.825 MHz
with a wide coverage of Dublin from the Northside down to the Tallaght
and Dún Laoghaire areas. The DMR operates on Time Slot 2 and Colour
Code 2. DMR Defaults to TG 2724, C4FM to IE-YSF-Ireland and D-Star to
DCS 049 I. The Gateway operates 25 watts of power into a vertical
colinear antenna. This gateway will provide a much needed digital
service for the Dublin area. Good coverage reports have been received
to date as borne out by the coverage maps.
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UKEICC Monthly 80m Contests

The March UKEICC 80m SSB hour long contest was held as usual on the
first Tuesday of the month. 84 logs were entered and showed an increase
in EI participation to 16 stations this month. The overall winner was
G4PIQ with runner spot going to Mike 6 Oscar. In third place Enda EI2II
was again challenging for honours while Aiden EI8CE was another top ten
finisher in sixth place. Congratulations to the winners and all who
participated in a great contest. Let's hope for even more EI stations
next month on April 7th. The monthly CW contest will be held on
Wednesday week, March 31st at 2000 Zulu. Have a look at www.ukeicc.com
for all the rules and full results.
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On the Air next week

The BARTG HF RTTY Contest will be held next weekend organised by the
British Amateur Radio Teledata Group and it runs from 0200 on the 20th
to 0159 on the 22nd. The exchange is report, serial number and time in
four digits. The multipliers are DXCC countries, JA, W, VE and VK areas
once per band and continents once, regardless of band. Congratulations
to Neil EI3JE who was the winner of the 6 hour single operator all band
section in last years contest. The Russian DX Contest runs for 24 hours
from 1200 on Saturday the 20th on both CW and SSB. Russian station will
send report and 2 letter Oblast number while all other will send report
and serial number.

Now some DX news: 10 members of the Northern Corridor Radio Group are
going to pay a visit to Cocos Keeling Island, Oceania-003, from March
16th to the 23rd and operate holiday-style as VK9CE on 80 to 10m on
FT8, CW and SSB. Hiro, JF1OCQ, is now active as 5W7X (remotely from
Japan) from Samoa (Oceania-097). The length of his activity is not
known. Activity will be on all HF bands. QSL via JF1OCQ.
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St. Patrick's Day Activity

Next Wednesday is St. Patrick's Day and traditionally stations in EI
and overseas stations with a connection to EI make a special effort to
get on the air for the occasion. Please be aware of your Worked All
Ireland Square and do give your county during QSOs to help Shortwave
Listeners working towards the WEIC and WAI Awards. Have a listen on
14.156MHz around 1700 for the daily Irish hour with our friends in
North America.
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Kerry Group Mark 102nd Anniversary of First East/West Telephony
Trans-Atlantic Transmission

Members of Kerry Amateur Radio Group will be QRV on Friday next March
19th as EI6YXQ to commemorate the 102nd Anniversary of the first East
to West Trans-Atlantic telephony transmission, from Ballybunion in
North Kerry to Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. Due to Covid restrictions,
club members will be QRV from their home QTH this year and will be
active on CW, SSB and digital modes. QSL is via EI9FVB, direct or buro.
Further details are available on QRZ.com
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That is the news for this week. Items for inclusion in next week's
radio news can be submitted by email to newsteam/at/irts/dot/ie for
automatic forwarding to both the radio and printed news services. The
deadline is midnight on Thursday. Urgent items for the news may be
telephoned to News Editor Dave EI4BZ on 087-6290574

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