Archived News Script
IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday January 7th 2001
Worked All Ireland (WAI)
We are pleased to announce that award number 70 has recently been awarded to Jim Murphy EI8HA. Jim submitted QSL cards confirming contact with 24 EI counties. Congratulations to Jim and lets hope that that this achievement encourages others to attempt to work the required number of counties for the award. The required number of counties for the award is 20.
Noel Mulvihill EI6HW is in the process of organising a WAI gathering in Athlone for the last weekend in February and would like anyone interested to contact him before the 18th January 2001. Noel can be contacted at QTHR or by e-mail to EI Activity Weekend
The EI activity weekend will take place again this year on March the 17th and 18th. Everybody can get involved in this event using any band and any mode, as the purpose of the event is to promote amateur radio in EI. This event went very well last year so lets hope that this year sees the same amount of activity on the air.
DX News
The "Magnolia DX Association" has confirmed a planned Dxpedition to the new IOTA entity Dauphin Island, Alaska (NA-213). This trip will take place in late February 2001. There will be at least two stations active with many operators and the special callsign W4D will be used. Activity will be on the usual IOTA frequencies from 80 to 10 metres and on all modes including PSK31 and RTTY. QSL via W5UE or via the W5 QSL Bureau.
Jay, K4ZLE will be active as ZB2/K4ZLE from January the 12th to the 15th. Activity will be on all HF bands, with a preference to CW and the WARC bands. He will also operate PSK31. QSL via K4ZLE Don, KN4UG, will be operating from the Turks & Caicos Islands from January the 19th to the 30th 2001. He will operate in the 160 Meters Contest and the NA QSO Contest on the weekends. During the week he will be active mostly on 28.460 MHz as KN4UG/VP5. QSL via home call.
Rally News
The Phoenix Radio Rally will take place in Coolmine Community School, Blanchardstown, Dublin 15 on Sunday, February the 4th. Doors open at 11.00 am and the entrance fee is £2. For further details contact Tom EI2AJ at 01-8211043.
The Lough Erne Amateur Radio Club will hold its 2001 Rally on the 22nd of April 2001 in the Killyhevlin Hotel, Dublin Road, Enniskillen. Further information can be had from Frank GI3ZMX at 028-6632-9507.
2 metre Counties Contest Results
The 2 metre Counties Contest took place on August the 27th 2000. First in the High Power Portable section was Paul Kirkby EI6FE with a score of 5140 and 20 counties worked. First in the Low Power Portable section was Peter Grant EI4HX with a 2820 score and 15 counties worked. The High Power Fixed section was led by Thomas Hallinan EI2IT with a score of 1792 with 16 counties worked and the Low Power Fixed section was led by Paul Norris EI3ENB scoring 744 and 8 counties worked.
The FM Only section was led by Joe Ryan EI7GY with 3857 points and 19 counties worked and the leading station outside of EI/GI was Don Kirby GW0PLP with 520 points and 10 counties worked.
Space News
The head of AMSAT North America says that there will be an in depth look at why the AO-40 amateur radio satellite malfunctioned in orbit. An inquiry will be set up to investigate why contact was lost with AMSAT Oscar 40, formerly known as Phase 3D. Any or all the AMSAT personnel who worked on AO-40 may be asked to assist with the inquiry. AMSAT wants to determine all the facts surrounding the incident to make sure that a similar situation does not happen again on AO-40 or a future amateur radio satellite.
But the good news is that the planned software reset worked and AO-40 came back on air on Christmas day.
Items for inclusion Echo Ireland should be forwarded to Dave Moore EI4BZ at 021-4883555 in the evenings or at 021-4823172 during office hours. Items can be submitted to Dave by e-mail at ei4bz@eircom.net and you can fax him at 021-4823316. The deadline for submission of items for the next edition of Echo Ireland is the 12th of January.
Items for inclusion in the Radio News should be forwarded to Mark Wall EI7IS at QTHR or via e-mail to ei7is@qsl.net Items can also be sent to Mark over the phone at 087-6302026. News can also be submitted via e-mail to news@irts.ie for automatic forwarding to both news services.
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