Irish Radio Transmitters Society Radio News Bulletin Sunday 28th June 2009 ______________________________________________ Silent Key It is sad to report the death of former IRTS Newsreader Jack Kane, EI3FG of Branchfield, Ballymote, Co. Sligo. Jack read the news on the Sligo repeater for many years and was a friendly amateur who helped and encouraged newcomers to the hobby. His passing is a great loss and we extend deepest sympathies to his family. ______________________________________________ Theory Examination Thirty-two candidates have entered for the next theory examination which will be held on Tuesday 30th June. Examinations will be held in three centres - the ComReg Offices in Dublin, the Carrigtwohill Community Centre and the Letterkenny Institute of Technology. We wish the candidates all the very best in the exam. ______________________________________________ ComReg Consultation on the 2300 to 2400 MHz Band ComReg has published a consultation paper on the release of spectrum in the 2300 to 2400 MHz band. The paper is Document 09/49 of 15 June and is available in the Publications section of the ComReg website at www.comreg.ie This band is an amateur secondary allocation. The IRTS will in due course prepare a response to this consultation paper and we would encourage interested individuals and radio clubs to do so as well. Licensees who have views which they wish to have reflected in the IRTS response should communicate by e-mail to ei7cd /at/ gofree.indigo.ie Responses to the consultation paper must be submitted before 5 p.m. on 29 July next. ______________________________________________ 80m Counties Contest There was once again a big turn out for the 80m Counties Contest, although maybe not quite the numbers active on New year's Day. It would appear around 80 stations participated from twenty-eight counties. Conditions were good with strong signals from many stations. The AREN demonstration station at the Civil Defence Headquarters in Roscrea was very successful and a DVD video of the exercise is being put together for interested parties. In that regard, if any of the stations that were portable on the day have photos or video of their operation, Seamus EI8BP would be grateful to receive a copy of same with a view to including any suitable clips. We hope the exercise sparked your interest in AREN who are always keen to involve more operators and swls in their activities. Contact them via their website www.AREN.ie where you will find more details of their activities. Our thanks to all who made the effort to come on the bands during the afternoon. ______________________________________________ IRTS VHF/UHF Field Day The IRTS VHF/UHV Field Day will be held over the weekend of the 4-5 July. The Committee in trying to improve the contest has decided to add extra bands in the restricted section. Up to now the Restricted Section was 144MHz only. Now you can use any single band of the VHF/UHF bands. Rule 5.2 will be changed to read: Restricted Section A. 50MHz B. 70MHz C. 144MHz D. 432MHz E. 1296MHz There is still only one single band permitted in this section but now you have a choice of which band you want to try in the contest. We do hope this will spur some more activity from the clubs and individuals in the VHF/UHF Field Day. ______________________________________________ Sligo 2m Repeater The 2m Sligo repeater is scheduled to undergo an engineering upgrade and maintenance, this process will take up to a month to complete. ______________________________________________ Dundalk Amateur Radio Society Last weekend DAR Celebrated its 40th anniversary with a special activity weekend, hosted at the QTH of Its Chairman Thos EI2JD, In Clogherhead Co Louth. Their ware a number of stations set up, and over the weekend the operators worked all bands and modes, including satellite qrp! The group totalled 2500+ QSO’s. Then set up and participated as a portable station in the 80m IRTS Counties Contest. This activity was also broadcast on the live webcam link for the DAR website which is www.ei7dar.com .The Monday night IRTS radio news was read by Peter EI4HX on the Dundalk repeater EI2CCR from Thos’s QTH and this was also broadcast live via webcam. Special thanks to all involved with the weekend and to the members and visitors who arrived, including Brendan EI1429 who came over from Mayo for the event, and to the Hospitably of Thos EI2JD for opening his door to his home and shack. The website has a live like to listen to the repeater, so its possible to get to hear the radio news when it is broadcast at 8pm local on Monday evenings. DAR Has its next meeting on Wednesday next the 1st July 2009 at its Clubhouse on Castletown Rd, in Dundalk at 8.30pm all are welcome to attend. ______________________________________________ AMSAT on Twitter!! The Amateur Satellite organisation AMSAT is now on Twitter. AMSAT now has a Twitter account, and can be found at http://twitter.com/AMSAT To begin with, they may be mostly about AO-51 and AO-7. All are welcome to follow us on Twitter says Drew K04MA from the AMSAT Bulletin Board. ______________________________________________ SOUTH AFRICA GIVES NEW PRIVELEGES ON 40 AND 20 South African radio amateurs now have full access to the spectrum 7.000 to 7.200 MHz. Changes to both 40 and 20 meters were made final. In addition to the modification on 40, ZR licensees now also have access from 14.225 to 14.350 MHz. ______________________________________________ DX News EA1/EI7GK. Paddy EI7GK will be QRV from his daughter's house in Mexico during July. Listen out for XE1/EI7GK on 14.268 MHz SSB + or - QRM. Past experience shows the best time for propagation between EI and XE is early morning 06.00 to 08.00. Irish time. Remember that Mexico is 6 hours behind EI. Paddy will be delighted to work EI and GI stations. VE3MOON This special callsign was approved by Industry Canada for use in celebration of the 40th anniversary of the landing of men on the moon on 20 July 1969. It will be in use from 14 July 2009 until 27 July 2009. eQSL or paper cards via VE3OIJ (Bureau or Direct). ______________________________________________ History This Week 1819 The bicycle patented by W.K. Clarkson, Jr. of New York City. 1934 US President Franklin D. Roosevelt established the Federal Communications Commission FCC 1863 First gaslights come on in Adelaide, South Australia. 1885 C Bell and C.S. Tainter applied for a patent for the gramophone. 1925 Patent for the frosted electric light bulb filed by Marvin Pipkin. ______________________________________________ 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.