Archived News Script
IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday December 9th 2007
80 Metre Counties Contest
The 75th Jubilee Year will formally come to a close with the 80 metres Counties Contest on January the 1st next. The year commenced with the Counties Contest last January and the Society has certainly celebrated in style throughout the 12 months with a very high profile both nationally and internationally. We would encourage all members and indeed operators generally to come on the band on New Year's Day and fly the flag for the Society and Amateur Radio. Full details of the contest rules are available on the IRTS website.
Theory Examination
The next theory examination for the experimenter licence will be held on Wednesday the 6th of February 2008 at 2 p.m. 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. Cheques and money orders should be made payable to the Irish Radio Transmitters Society.
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.
South Dublin Radio Club
SDR members have been treated to a number of presentations in recent weeks, starting with a talk by Sean Nolan EI7CD, who spoke about the outcome of discussions with ComReg on various matters of interest to radio experimenters, including the question of allocations on the 5 MHz and 70 MHz bands.
Paul O'Kane EI5DI gave a talk on the recent 3B7C DXpedition to the Saint Brandon Rocks, which are in the Indian Ocean northeast of Mauritius. Paul, who is a well-known contester, was the only EI member of this DXpedition, and his presentation highlighted the enormous organisational and logistical effort that is required to mount a major DXpedition.
The Microlite Penguins DXpedition Team, who activated Raoul Island, in the Kermadecs group, about 1000 km north of New Zealand, take a different approach, as Declan EI6FR, who participated in this activation, explained to SDR members. The Microlite group work generally without amplifiers or beams; they operated on Raoul Island using Icom IC-7000 transceivers driving wire dipoles strung up in nearby pine trees. With this simple equipment, they achieved over 40,000 QSOs in 8 days during October 2006.
The last SDR meeting of 2007 will be the Christmas Party which, as previously announced, will be held in The Morgue in Templeogue at 8.00 p.m. on Tuesday next, 11th December.
Shannon Basin Radio Club
The Shannon Basin Radio Club would like to thank all those who took part in the EI2SBC Challenge. If anyone has Logs not yet submitted, please send them to “nfmulvihill at eircom dot net”. as soon as they can.
South Eastern Amateur Radio Group
A committee meeting will take place on Monday the 10th of December in the Roanmore Centre, Waterford. All committee members are asked to attend. Please note that there will be no general meeting for the month of December. The next general meeting will take place on Monday the 29th of January 2008.
Lough Erne Amateur Radio Club
The Lough Erne Amateur Radio Club Annual Rally will take place in The Share Centre, Lisnaskea, County Fermanagh on Sunday the 13th of April 2008. The rally will feature a Bring & Buy, Caravan Park and access from Lough Erne/Shannon Waterway. There will be food and parking is on site. Other facilities may be available by prior arrangement with The Share Centre.
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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