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IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday 18th October 2009


Bereavement

It is with great sadness to extend our deepest Sympathy to Owen Furniss EI4DI and family on the death of their Son, Irish Air Corps Captain Derek Furniss whose funeral was on Saturday 17th October, May he rest in peace.


IRTS Presidents visit to Crossakiel

Last Wednesday, IRTS President Paul Martin EI2CA, attended the meeting of the Crossakiel Amateur Radio Association.

The meeting was well attended by CARA members, Paul EI2CA presented the IRTS Mebership Certificate for CARA to the Associations President Gary Renihan EI3GIB.

CARA meet every Wednesday in the Welcome Wagon in Crossakiel, all are welcome to attend.


Train the Trainers

The Society is considering running a "Train the Trainers" session for theory tutors intending to run classes and who wish to use the Society's CD Exam Course Guide. This may also be of interest to those unable to attend classes and who wish to use the Guide as a study aid for the Theory Examination.

The two-hour session would most probably take place on a weekend afternoon and would demonstrate how best to use the CD Guide and also practical matters relating to preparing students to sit the Exam. If you are interested in participating in such a Training Session please drop an email to Paul EI2CA or Seamus EI8BP or indeed any of the Committee Members. Their contact details are on the IRTS website and in the latest issue of Echo Ireland.


Affiliated Clubs

Affiliated Clubs are reminded that they are entitled to send a representative to IRTS Committee meetings. The next Committee meeting will take place on Saturday 31st October in the Port Laoise Maldon Hotel at 11am. The meetings usually finish by 1pm and it is an opportunity for Clubs to participate in the Committee process.


IOTA 2009 Provisional Results

The provisional results for the 2009 Islands On The Air Contest have now been published. These results show that over 2,000 logs were submitted - a record figure for this contest. 20 EI and GI stations submitted logs.

The highest EI/GI score was achieved by EJ0GI - South Dublin Radio Club and the City of Belfast Radio Amateur Society - who operated from Inis Oirr. Their score was just under 5 million points, giving them 8th place in the DXpedition, Multi-Operator, Mixed Mode, 24 Hour, High Power category.

GI0MPG, operating from Rathlin Island, were placed 9th in the same category, with 3.1 million points. Meanwhile, the Dalkey Island Contest Group (EJ1DD) - operating from Clare Island and in the Low Power category - were placed 8th in this category, with over 2.2 million points.

Other Irish stations achieving in excess of one million points were Thos EI2JD, who placed 1st in the assisted category and 2nd in the major Single Op category with 2.9 million points and also Pat EI9HX, with 1.2 million points.

The highest overall score was achieved by the Slovak Contest Group operating in Sardinia, followed closely by the Bristol Contest Group operating from Jersey.


Dxpedition and IOTA Talk by Declan Craig EI6FR

The Mayo Club has organised Declan Craig EI6FR to give a talk the evening before the Mayo Radio Rally, Saturday 21st November. He will have an interesting account about past Expeditions and IOTAS’s he has taken part in, how to plan future events and what is involved.

Declan will be talking from experience as he has soldiered on a few and his experience is invaluable!


Dayton 2010, Get with the Program

"Amateur Radio Clubs Worldwide, The Lifeline" will be the theme of the 2010 Dayton Hamvention scheduled for next May 14th to the 16th at the O’Hara Arena in Dayton, Ohio.

In order to help celebrate the world of radio clubs, Hamvention planners are asking for pictures from radio clubs around the world that it can use on the front and back cover of the Hamvention 2010 program magazine.

They are also looking for stories of interest from interesting radio clubs.

More details are available at the Dayton site

www.hamvention.org


G5RV's 1932 Logbook sells

On October 1st, the 1932 logbook of Louis Varney, G5RV, was put up for auction on eBay. Within a couple of days the price reached £77 where it stayed until last Sunday. After some intense bidding the logbook finally sold for £227.

The logbook shows that G5RV's final QSO's were on January 11 2000.Ironically, the final entries appeared on page 73 of the logbook. Varney was, of course using a G5RV antenna that he designed for those final contacts.


JOTA 2009

Jamboree On The Air (JOTA) is taking place this weekend

On a weekend each October more than 500,000 people from over 100 countries participate in the largest annual world-wide Scouting event - a Jamboree on the Air, or JOTA.

Amateur radio stations are used to allow the young people to exchange greetings over the air. In addition many groups will include construction activities, electronics tuition, radio 'fox-hunting' and orienteering, or perhaps combine these with a special camping weekend.

Also AMSAT the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation has made changes to the operational schedule of Echo, the AO-51 Satellite to accommodate JOTA activites. JOTA stations are encouraged to operate through the Sat on its passes over the weekend.

Priority has been given to JOTA Stations who would like to work AO-51 and Amateurs are encouraged to work JOTA stations.


Radio Sweden to stop issuing QSL cards

With the start of the new transmission period for shortwave and mediumwave, as well as satellite, on October 25, Radio Sweden will only be publishing its broadcast schedule on the Web.

At the same time Radio Sweden is discontinuing mailing QSL cards to listeners in response to reception reports.


Glorioso Island team hit QSL target

The FT5GA team is now QRT and is happy that the goal of 50 Thousand QSOs was reached by a crew of 5 operators with two and sometimes three stations.

The FT5GA went QRT on October 7th (a day earlier than expected due to the military flight schedule).

Didier, F5OGL, states, "The logs of the FT5GA operation will be very soon on LoTW."


CQ WW CC announce New Rules

Any participants in the upcoming contest are reminded to check the rules as there have been some changes made. It is understood that the changes will not affect every participant however it is recommended that anyone participating should review the rules.

More information can be found at www.cqww.com


DXCluster for mobile phones

The GB7MBC DXCluster is now available for those of you with mobile smartphones. Web pages have been created to make it simple to use the cluster when mobile.

Although designed for an iPhone, they have been tested on Blackberry, Android and the Nokia N95. It should work with most smartphones.

The pages feature filtering and the capability to click on a DX callsign to get the QRZ information for it.

The cluster is available at

www.gb7mbc.net/webcluster/iPhone.php


Rallies

Sunday 1st November 2009 Foyle and District ARC Rally Venue: White Horse Hotel, 68 Clooney Road, Derry, BT47 3PA (same hotel as last year)

Sunday 22nd November 2009 Mayo Radio Rally Venue: Welcome Inn, Castlebar, Co. Mayo

The rally organiser and main contact is Padraic Baynes EI9JA mobile 087 - 695 7154 or email pbaynes1 at eircom dot net Special Accommodation Rates are also available please check the full details on the www.ei7mre.org website

For more information on Rallies please check the IRTS website.


This week in History

1844 Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) established as a world Time Standard.

1910 First air-sea rescue using radio saves the crew of the airship America. 1922 BBC is formed in Britain.


Items mentioned in the IRTS Radio news are of a general, educational or informative nature, there is no guarantee that stations mentioned can be heard or worked

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.

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