Archived News Script
IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday February 11th 2007
AFRI 75
The web page of the IRTS expedition travelling to Swaziland, 3DA0, in March is now available on the IRTS website. Plans are well advanced and the team has announced that in addition to all band activity on St. Patrick's day, they will be concentrating on the WARC bands and LF frequencies at other times. There is also a possibility of some 2-metre EME activity. It is intended that during the expedition there will be daily updates from the site to the web page as well as on online log check so that you can confirm that you are in their log.
This is a DXpedition to Swaziland between the 16th of March and the 25th of March 2007 to celebrate the 75th Jubilee of the Irish Radio Transmitters Society. The expedition director is IRTS vice president Paul Martin EI2CA 3DA0PM. Other members of the expedition are; Peter EI7CC 3DA0PB, Aidan EI8CE 3DA0AM, David EI4DJ 3DA0DG, Rory EI4DJB 3DA0RH, Brendan EI3GV 3DA0GV and Pete GI4VIV 3DA0GI.
Please note that this expedition is to celebrate the IRTS 75th Anniversary. It is a fun event for those participating and we want to get home in one piece. The planned numbers of QSO’s will be commensurate with the skill and experience of the team members and the time available for radio operations given that it is also a vacation from work for some of the team. The web page is available on the IRTS web site at www.irts.ie/afri75
Theory Examination
The results of the most recent Theory Examination for the Experimenter's Licence were issued by ComReg towards the end of last week. Of the thirteen candidates who sat the examination, nine were successful which is a pass rate of 69%. Since the IRTS took over responsibility for the setting, organising and correcting the licence examination in May 2005, four examinations have been held. A total of 66 candidates sat these examinations and 44 of these were successful. This represents an average pass mark of 67%.
We offer our congratulations to those who passed the most recent examination and we hope to welcome them to the bands really soon.
South Dublin Radio Club
The Experimenter's Classes are on going in SDR, and have just started from the beginning again. The classes run on Tuesday nights between 20:00-22:00 for the forthcoming exam in late June. All are welcome.
The South Dublin Radio Club annual general meeting will take place on Tuesday the 13th of March at the club's premises on the Marian Road in Rathfarnam.
South Eastern Amateur Radio Group
The Annual General Meeting of South Eastern Amateur Radio Group will take place at 8.00 p.m. on Wednesday the 28th of February in the Roanmore Centre, Cleaboy Road, Waterford.
All are welcome and members are asked to attend.
Rallies
The following rallies are scheduled to take place during February, March and April 2007. First comes the Limerick Rally, which is in the Greenhills Hotel on Sunday the 11th of March. Later that month, on Saturday 24th of March, the Lagan Valley Amateur Radio Society holds its rally in Lisburn. The date Lough Erne Amateur Radio Show has been changed to Sunday the 22nd of April at the Share Centre Lisnaskea Co. Fermanagh.
The IRTS AGM and Rally takes place on Sunday the 22nd of April in the Vienna Woods Hotel, Cork, with the AGM Dinner on the previous night. More details of these events are in the current issue of Echo Ireland and on the "Rallies and Events" page of www.irts.ie
Cork Radio Club
Preparations (even at this early stage) are underway for the Cork Radio Rally, which will take place at the same venue, Blarney Park Hotel. This will be the 16th year that the Cork Radio Club have run this very successful rally. Blarney is a wonderful venue for this event and many bring their families along to experience the shopping in Blarney.
So make a note for this event in your dairy. The Blarney Rally will take place on Sunday the 23rd of September.
The Cork Radio meets every Monday night at the "Cork Foyer" Assumption Road Cork at 8:30 p.m. Enquiries about the club should be directed to Dick Birmingham EI6HH on 021-4545154.
VHF News
Ian Hogan G6TGO, based in Manchester has been receiving the EI2WRB Beacon on 144.402 MHz with a Kenwood TS2000 and a 9 element Vargarda Yagi at 21 feet above ground with no pre-amplifier. This prompted him to contact John McCarthy EI8JA who is the beacon keeper to obtain more details and break the good news. John informed him that the beacon is using a 5 element Yagi and 50 watts at 700 feet above sea level bearing 95 degrees. Ian’s antenna is at 21 foot above ground and 108 foot above sea level, the propagation path is through the Snowdonia Mountain Range in Wales so it is being received on the side lobe of the beacon. Tropo was strong as well during this period. An audio recording of the received signal is available on www.radioeye.co.uk on the Beacon files and there is a link to this on the SEARG web site.
The radioeye.co.uk site was set up to promote more activity on the VHF/UHF bands. They have provided an online calendar and sound clips from recent QSO's including Beacons plus much more with the purpose of generating more activity between the two countries. They are in the process of providing a service to Blind people as well. They would welcome anybody from Ireland dropping a line via email if they are likely to be on 6 metres through to 23 centimetres for skeds by using the calendar.
Items for inclusion in next weeks Radio News should be forwarded to Mark Wall, EI7IS at QTHR or by phone to 051-853806 or 087-6302026. Items for the radio news can also be faxed to 087 5 6302026. News should be submitted via e-mail to “news 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 Friday in order to be guaranteed inclusion in the following Sunday’s bulletin.
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