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IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday November 18th 2007


Theory Examination

The next theory examination for the experimenter licence will be held on Wednesday 6 February 2008 at 2pm at the ComReg Offices in Dublin. A second centre outside Dublin could be utilised if warranted by the numbers wishing to sit the examination. The fee for the exam is 50 Euro or 25 Euro for repeat candidates, full time registered students, those who are retired, unemployed or have a disability. Anyone wishing to sit the examination should send the appropriate fee to Sean Nolan EI7CD, 12 Little Meadow, Pottery Road, Dunlaoghaire, Co Dublin.

A contact phone number and an e-mail address if available should be included. Sean's address is available in the Call Book section of the IRTS website at www.irts.ie and his e-mail address is “ei7cd at gofree dot indigo dot ie”. Also available in the Where do I Start? section of the website are Examination Notes with a sample examination paper as well as a link to the ComReg Experimenter Pages which contain some very useful information. The examination consists of a multiple choice question paper of 60 questions divided into three main sections A, B and C and the time allowed is two hours. The pass mark is 60% and a pass is required in each of the three main sections of the paper.


ComReg/IRTS Meeting Outcome

Recently we carried the full text of the agreed report of a very productive meeting with ComReg. The full report is in the current edition of Echo Ireland and the news script is available in the News Archives section of the IRTS website at www.irts.ie


WRC-07

The World Radio Conference in Geneva is drawing to a close at the time of writing. The main focus of the amateur radio movement at the conference was on the efforts to secure a new band of 150 kHz in the 5 MHz region. This issue was for consideration under agenda item 1.13 which was a review of all HF band allocations between 4 and 10 MHz excluding the amateur 7.0 to 7.2 MHz that was decided at WRC-03. We told you last week that this whole agenda item was stalled over additional spectrum for HF broadcasting and we added that because of this we would probably need to be lucky to secure our objective of a new band around 5 MHz.

Unfortunately lady luck did not smile on the amateur radio lobby at this conference. Despite a great deal of work by IARU Societies throughout the world with their administrations in the years leading up to the conference and by the IARU delegation at it hopes began to fade because of the impasse on the relevant agenda item and it finally became clear last weekend that our expectations for the new band would not be realised at this conference. However all the groundwork already done by the IARU and its Member Societies will remain and hopefully the support of the CEPT countries for the proposal will remain also to bring about a successful outcome in the future. In the meantime hopefully other countries can be persuaded by their National Amateur Radio Societies to release channels in the 5 MHz region such as we have agreed recently with ComReg.


Dundalk A.R.S

The Dundalk Amateur Radio Society held its Annual General Meeting on the 7th of November last with a good attendance of members.

Officers elected for the coming year were: Chairman is Thos Caffrey EI2JD. Secretary is Oscar Reynolds EI7IW. Treasurer is Jim Daly MI3SBI and Club Representative to the IRTS is Thos EI2JD.

To keep with new guidelines it have been agreed to apply to change the 2m Repeater call sign from EI7DAR to EI2DAR. Please note as of the 1st of December 2007 a valid CTCSS Tone of 110.9 Hz will be required to access the repeater.


AREN News

On Sunday the 11th of November last, four AREN stations participated in the IARU Region 1 Mecum Party on the air. This was the third simulated emergency test of its kind but for the first time, stations of Emergency communication form other regions were invited to participate.

AREN members, Conor EI4JN, Tim EI5GPB, John EI7IG and Declan EI9FVB operated using call-signs EI0RENE, EI1RENE, EI2RENE and EI3RENE respectively. Conor operated from a hilltop site at a coastal location in South West Kerry, Tim from his home station in Baltimore, John from his home in Tramore and Declan from his home in Cork. Messages were relayed throughout the Region and beyond using all the Centre of activity frequencies, except for 15 metres, which was not open on the day. After two or more relays messages were finally passed to the Region 1 HQ station in Finland. A more detailed report will be published in Echo Ireland and on the AREN website.

The AREN winter NETS will reconvene on the first and third Wednesday of each month for training purposes on 3.690 MHz, with an alternative frequency of 7.099 MHz at 2130 Hrs local time beginning next Wednesday the 21st of November.


NVIS

Some good news for NVIS users was released recently. Sometimes the Critical Frequency is below 7 MHz and there is too much absorption on 5 MHz or either band to allow NVIS operation. The 5 MHz very often will work in this situation. The other advantage is that because these are defined channels outside the regular Amateur allocations and require a specific extension of the experimenters licence, they are largely QRM free.


South Eastern Amateur Radio Group

On Monday the 26th of November next, Cormac EI4HQ will give a talk to SEARG about AIS (Automatic Identification System), a recently introduced radio based ship transponder technology. AIS is quickly becoming an indispensable information & safety tool at sea. Cormac will describe why AIS is interesting from a radio point of view, and he will suggest a few ways it can be of use in amateur radio applications.


South Dublin Radio Club

This year’s South Dublin Radio Club Christmas Party will take place on Tuesday the 11th of December. After last year’s success, the venue will remain the same; "The Morgue", Tempelogue from 8.00 p.m. until late. Members of other clubs and visitors are very welcome to this social event. It’s always a great turnout. Limited free food will be available for paid up members while visitors can choose from the bar menu up to 9.00 p.m.

The club will then go on Christmas holidays until the return on the 8th of January.


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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