Irish Radio Transmitters Society Radio News Bulletin Sunday 7th June 2009 ______________________________________________ Theory Examination There is only one week left to the closing date of 15 June for applications to sit the theory examination to be held on Tuesday 30 June. This time there will be three exam centres, the ComReg Offices in Dublin, the Community Centre in Carrigtwohill and the Institute of Technology in Letterkenny. Anyone applying after the closing date cannot be guaranteed a place at the examination. Anyone who intends to sit his examination and who has not yet applied and sent the appropriate fee would want to do so in the next few days. 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. 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" ______________________________________________ Amateur Station Licence Regulations and the Theory Examination Candidates sitting the examination on 30th June should note that the question paper for this examination will be based on the regulations in force prior to 1st June 2009. This has been agreed with ComReg in the interest of fairness to the candidates concerned. ______________________________________________ Beacon Call Signs We are glad to report that ComReg has accepted the representations of the Society and has decided that the existing beacon stations will retain their present call signs. Any new beacon stations will be allocated call signs in accordance with the format set out in ComReg Document 09/45c of 28 May 2009. ______________________________________________ Useful Exam Text We would like to bring to the attention of those studying for the theory examination a new revision text published by the RSGB. The book is titled 'Amateur Radio Exam Secrets' and is written by Alan Betts G0HIQ who is also the author of two other exam-oriented publications - 'Foundation Licence Now' and 'Advance - The Full Licence Manual'. The most recent publication is a revision text for examinations rather than a basic textbook but it would be very useful for pre exam exercises. The book has 13 Chapters, 10 of which deal with specific aspects of the exam syllabus. Each of the Chapters has a brief introduction to the subject matter covered at each of the three levels of the UK examinations and a range of sample questions at the three levels on the subject of the Chapter. There is also a sample paper at each of the three levels Foundation, Intermediate and Advanced at the end of the book. The cost of the publication is £12.99 ______________________________________________ 500 kHz Permissions. Good news. On Thursday last a Test Licence was issued by ComReg to IRTS under the Wireless Telegraphy (Research and Development Licence) Regulations, 2005 in connection with operation on 500 kHz. The licence was issued on the basis of an application submitted by IRTS and expressions of interest received from a small number of licensees a little while back. Under the licence the eight participating stations who submitted expressions of interest have been authorised to operate in the band 501 to 504 kHz with a power of 10 dBW ERP (10 watts ERP) using CW or PSK31.We are very pleased that EI has joined the small but growing number of countries that have given some limited access to frequencies in the region of 500 kHz. These permissions are helping to strengthen the case for a small worldwide allocation in the 500 kHz region which is an objective of the IARU and which is an agenda item for consideration at WRC-11.We wish to thank Comer for its cooperative approach to his matter and for the quick turn around on the issue of the necessary licence. ______________________________________________ 80m Counties Contest The Summer 80m Counties Contest takes place on Sunday 21st June from 1400 to1700utc (note 1500 to 1800 local time). As part of a demonstration exercise AREN will locate a station at the new Civil Defence Headquarters in Roscrea for the duration of the contest. The station will demonstrate to various government Departments and Agencies our ability to establish a nationwide HF radio network. Operators are encouraged to participate in the contest in the normal fashion, if not for all then at least for part of the afternoon. Stations working the Roscrea station will score contest points in the normal way, though we would ask that you give your nearest town as well as your county. The call sign of the Roscrea station will be EI0RTS. It would assist with the evaluation of the exercise if some stations could call Roscrea at the end of the contest and give their claimed QSO numbers and number of counties. Note that the Roscrea station will not submit an entry to the contest but will provide a check log to the contest manager. ______________________________________________ AREN NET There will be an AREN Training net this evening (Sunday) at 19.30.This will be a HF net with relays from VHF. The Frequencies will be 3.660 -+ QRM and 144.525 ______________________________________________ IRTS VHF Field day Trevor Dunne EI2GLB our VHF Manager would like any comments and/or suggestions to increase the number of stations participating in the Annual VHF Field day. This year the Field day takes place over the weekend of the 4th and 5th of July. Trevor can be contacted via e mail at ei2glb /at/ hotmail.com with your suggestions. ______________________________________________ Mayo Radio Experimenters Members of the Mayo Radio experimenters are anxious to make radio contact with as many stations in Connaught as possible, during the month of June, as part of their monthly, members-only contest. Operators will be on HF on Sundays after the IRTS 80mt news, on or around 3.680MHz SSB. The club operates a net on Sunday evenings after the 8pm news service form the county. Frequencies are 145.6 - the Mayo repeater, 50.450MHz, 70.375MHz, and 433.450MHz - all FM. The May Competition was won by Brendan Minish, EI6IZ, runner-up was John Corless, EI7IQ, with John McAndrew, EI3JM in third. ______________________________________________ Dundalk Amateur Radio Society As part of their 40th anniversary, Dundalk Amateur Radio Society, will be running a contest station for the IRTS CW field day on 6/7th June. The club contest call EI0W will be used. Also the DARS will be activating their Club call EI7DAR on the weekend June 21/22nd. They will also be taking part in the IRTS 80M Counties Contest (summer) 2009, as EI7DAR/P (on Sunday afternoon) including, as an exercise, the testing of emergency comms country wide, in co-operation with AREN on 80 M. ATV video of the events will be relayed to the web site www.ei7dar.com. If things go well, the group hope to have 'live streaming' of the activity, as much as possible. This will be a test of comms for ATV enthusiasts, on both weekends. For more info see www.ei7dar.com ______________________________________________ South Dublin Radio Club On 9th June John EI7BV will give a talk titled "A Historic overview of ITU world radio conferences and their impact on amateur radio, How Amateurs got their bands, Part 1" Presentations from previous talks at the club can be found in the talks section of the southdublinradioclub website ______________________________________________ Looking for CW operators for an expedition to Norfolk – VK9AAA Hellenic Amateur Radio Association Of Australia is organizing a trip to Nolfolk Island from July 22 until July 28th. They are looking for CW operators to support them. If you are interested, contact the Association via info /at/ haraoa.com or visit their web site at http://au.groups.yahoo.com/group/HARAOA/. ______________________________________________ Rallies Bangor and District ARS - Radio and Computer Rally The 2009 rally is to be held on Sunday 14th June 2009,At 12 Noon in "The Country Club", Crawfordsburn. ADMISSION £2 INCLUDING 2 RAFFLE TICKETS ! The all new RSGB GB4FUN ! Trade Stands ,Bring and Buy ,BDARS Slide Show A good selection of radio and computer traders will be in attendance Special interest groups will have their own stands .The ever popular FREE bring and buy will be running as normal Contact Bill GI4AAM for further details: Tel: 028 9181 6707 Email: bill.langtry /at/ btinternet.com Website www.bdars.com ______________________________________________ History This Week 1869 Thomas Edison of Boston, MA, patents the electric voting machine 1896 Marconi files British patent for his radio apparatus. 1896 Henry Ford trials his Ford automobile around streets of Detroit, MI. 1898 First paid wireless telegram sent from Needles, Isle of Wight, UK. ______________________________________________ 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.