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This Week's News

IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday March 28th 2021
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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 spring edition of Echo Ireland which should now be
with all members. Also included are details on how to arrange your
attendance at the meeting on Zoom. Clubs are invited to give short
promotional presentations on their activities in the hour leading up to
the Annual General Meeting. Contact Declan EI9FVB for details.
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IRTS Contests

The IRTS 80 metres Evening Counties Contest on Tuesday last was well
supported, with most operators reporting good band conditions. 40 logs
have already been submitted. To help cross-checking, the contest
manager would like to receive more logs, they should be sent to
irts.contests/at/gmail/dot/com

As previously announced, the 2 metres contest on Easter Monday, April
5th will be a fixed 'Home QTH' contest with distance-scoring. It will
run from 3.00pm to 4.00pm local time. 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. See www.IRTS.ie/contests for further information.
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RTÉ to cease radio transmission on DAB network

RTÉ is to cease transmission of its radio services on the Digital Audio
Broadcast (DAB) network on March 31st. However, all its digital radio
services will remain available on other platforms. In a statement, the
broadcaster said the move to cease DAB transmission was driven by three
main factors - the fact that DAB was the least utilised platform in
Ireland; that RTÉ is the only Irish broadcaster on the DAB system, and
cost avoidance. A public information campaign will be held to show
customers how they can continue to access the digital stations.
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New Radio News Broadcast on the 4 Metre Band

The East Leinster Radio Club will broadcast the weekly IRTS News
Bulletin on a trial basis on the first Sunday each month starting next
Sunday April 4th at 1030 for three months. The frequency is 70.350MHz
and the mode is FM. The newsreaders will be Dom EI5IAB, Tom EI5IEB and
Frank EI8HIB. Your support for this new broadcast would be appreciated.
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UKEICC 80 Metres CW Contest

The UK and Ireland Contest Club was formed in 2014 to promote the
development of HF contesting in the UK and Ireland and to encourage
newcomers into HF contesting. The UKEICC is run by a small but
enthusiastic group of keen British and Irish contesters. The club
promotes two 24 hour DX contests annually, the CW one in January and
the SSB one in October. The club also run one hour 80 metre contests
both on SSB and CW every month from September to April. The contests
run from 2000 to 2100 and logs must be submitted by 2200. The logs are
then adjudicated, and final scores are published by 2300. The March
UKEICC monthly 80 metres CW contest will be held on Wednesday next the
31st from 2000 to 2100. The exchange is your 6-character Grid Locator
and no signal report should be sent. Operation is confined to the band
segment 3.510 to 3.560MHz. GM7V and the UKEICC callsign EI5G will be
bonus stations in this contest. EI5G will operated from the Avondhu
Club station in North Cork by Gerard EI5KF Please join in and support
the effort. See ukeicc.com for further information. Eight Echo India
stations participated in the February leg and we look forward to a few
more this time.
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On the Air next week

The Polish SP DX Contest will be held next weekend running for 24 hours
from 1500 on Saturday the 3rd on both CW and SSB. Sierra Papa stations
will give report and province while all others give report and serial
number. The EA RTTY contest starts at 1600 on Saturday the 3rd and runs
for 24 hours. The exchange for EA stations is RSQ plus province and all
other give RSQ and serial number. Check the rules on the URE website.

Now some DX news: Peter, LA7QIA, will be active as JW7QIA from the
Svalbard Amateur Radio Club station on Spitsbergen Island Europe-026,
until about April 8th. Activity will be limited to his spare time using
CW, SSB and the Digital modes. QSL via his home callsign. Paul, VK2PAD
is currently stationed at Casey Station in Antarctica and is active as
VK0PD on 40 and 20 metres. Mats, RM2D will be QRV as 8Q7MS from Ukulhas
Island, IOTA Asia-013, from March 28th to April 10th on 40 to 15 meters
using CW and some SSB. QSL via EA5GL. Lee, HL1IWD will be QRV as
HL1IWD/5 from Koje Island, IOTA Asia-081, from April 2nd to the 4th.
Activity will be on 40 to 20 metres using CW and some FT8. QSL direct
to EA5GL. Janusz, SP9FIH, is on Saint Martin Island (North America-105)
and will be active as TO1K until April 5th. Operation will be on the
40, 30, 20 and 15 meter bands on SSB, RTTY and FT8. Matthew, M0ZMS has
been issued with the callsign VP8ZMS and he will be active from the
Falkland Islands until he departs at the end of August.
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Finland 100 year Award

The Amateur Radio League of Finland (SRAL) is celebrating its 100th
Anniversary. To mark the occasion, they are promoting a special
SRAL-100 award. To qualify you must contact one hundred different OH
stations during 2021. All bands and modes allowed for radio amateurs
may be used. Short wave listeners can also apply for the award.
Contacts must be verified by QSL cards or via the Logbook of the World
(LOTW). The application shall include an extract from the log showing
the call sign, date, band and mode for each contact and must be
certified by two other radio amateurs. SRAL has over 3,500 members so
there should be plenty OH stations on the air. A special anniversary
callsign OH100SRALwill be operational throughout this year. Full
details available at sral.fi/English.
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IARU and Wireless Power Transfer for Electric Vehicles

At the request of the European Commission, the International Amateur
Radio Union met on March 25th with representatives of the automotive
industry, standards bodies and the Commission to review the current
position on the development of an emission standard for Wireless Power
Transfer for Electric Vehicles. There was a frank exchange of views,
during which IARU made clear the technical basis for its concerns about
unwanted emissions from WPT-EV. WPT-EV developers presented their case,
based on the tests they had undertaken. After exploring the issues, the
Commission determined that further joint tests should be arranged and
asked the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) and the European
committee for electrotechnical standardisation (CENELEC) to facilitate
these. IARU confirmed it was content to participate and welcomed the
initiative, stressing that the tests needed to be conducted in an
electrically quiet environment. A further meeting will take place once
the relevant tests have been completed, with a view to making progress
towards an emission standard. In attending the meeting, IARU made clear
that it viewed the discussions as being without prejudice to the
ongoing work in CEPT, CISPR and ITU on the same topic. This is just
another example of the work carried out by IARU on behalf of the
amateur community worldwide. This is funded by a contribution from each
member's annual subscription to their national society. Are you playing
your part in protecting all our interests? You can join IRTS at
www.irts.ie/join
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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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