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IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday 4th March 2012


IRTS 80th Anniversary AGM & Rally

Tickets for the AGM dinner on Saturday April 21st are selling fast. The event this year is hosted by Dundalk Amateur Radio Society, www.ei7dar.com Dinner tickets are just €32, this is a reduction on previous years and represents great value for this very special dinner. B&B is €55 for single and a double is €65. As dinner tickets and rooms are distributed on a first come first served basis, you are encouraged and advised to act now to avoid disappointment. The annual rally, on Sunday April 22nd, will also have its favourites and many new and novel exhibitors. This is a must attend event in the 80th Anniversary year of your national society, www.irts.ie

Dinner tickets can be bought now by contacting Thos, EI2JD on 087-2953256 or email thoscaffrey /at/ hotmail.com or by contacting any IRTS committee member. The Fairways Hotel can be contacted on 042 9321500 or www.fairways.ie


Limerick Radio Club

Rally: Limerick Radio Club rally will be held on Sunday March 11th 2012 at the Radisson Blue Hotel on the Ennis Road, Limerick. Doors open at 11am and all the usual traders will attend. Bring and Buy tables can be ordered from Dermot Gleeson EI2GT.


CQIR, St. Patrick’s Day

The CQIR contest is fast approaching and we are pleased to report that radio news services and contest reflectors worldwide have been giving the event great publicity. Both QST and RadCom have carried feature pieces and we expect a really excellent turnout right around the globe. The Society is appealing to all EI and GI stations to make a special effort to come on the bands, at least for a few hours over the 24 hours of the contest and hand out much needed points and multipliers. Many of the overseas Irish who will be participating will not be contesters but will be taking part to celebrate St Patrick’s Day, so even if you are not a contester yourself, you will find many operators looking to have a bit of a ragchew as well. Paul EI5DI advises that his contest logger SD is now free and unrestricted in CQIR. Entrants should be aware that the Russian DX contest overlaps with CQIR, and Russian stations will send a 2-character district code instead of a serial. SD may be downloaded from ei5di.com, and users should experiment with test logs before the contest. Full rules for the contest are available on the IRTS website. This contest is the international showpiece event for the Society’s 80thcelebrations and while we know most of our serious contesters will be making a big effort on the bands we would again ask all stations to join in the festivities over the St. Patrick’s weekend.


Cork Radio Club

Cork Radio Club will meet at Carrigtwohill Community Centre on Tuesday next March 6th at 2030. Following on from last months look at shack logging software, Claus EI7JZ will introduce some more logging programmes.

Cork Radio Club would like to extend a sincere thank you to John Riordan EI6IJ of Buncrana in Co. Donegal for his kind donation of a FT2000D transceiver plus accessories. John, originally from Cork, did his theory course with the club.

Also on Tuesday night, there will be updates on the Titanic special event station EI100T and on the Marconi Day expedition to Brow Head. Plans for the summer field day stations will also be discussed. Cork Club stations won both the CW open section and the SSB restricted section in the IRTS Field Days last year.

New members will be very welcome and further information can be got from club chairman Jeremy EI5GM on 083-3317710


North Cork Radio Group

1.North Cork Radio Group will be activating Blackrock Castle as part of CASHOTA on the 4th March next 2 - 5pm as EI1NC/P. The Castle's reference is EI009/C. We plan to have a digi station in operation as well as possible satellite contact on the day. If you happen to be in the area, are interested in the hobby, or would like to come and visit us, we would be happy to see you. For those of you that are CASHOTA chasers, we look forward to hearing you on the air!"

2.The North Cork Radio Group are pleased to announce that they will be activating Mizen Head Visitors Centre again this year for Marconi weekend. The callsign, EI0IMD, will be on the air from 20th April - 22nd April inclusive. As you may know, Marconi Day is on 21st April this year and we will be operating over the full 24 hour period on this day in order that collectors of the Marconi Award will have the opportunity to add us to their list. Mizen Head is a beautiful location and well worth a visit.

3.The North Cork Radio Group are also pleased to announce confirmation of their annual rally, to be held on Sunday, 9th September 2012 at the Roebuck Room, Commons Inn, Blackpool, Cork. Doors open at 11am and admission is €5 per person (children are free, as per usual). Raffle tickets will also be available at the door. The usual traders will be present, and anyone wishing to reserve a table, or would be interested in setting up a stall, should contact Edwin Van Mierlo (EI2HEB) on 086 3885741 or via email at ei2heb/at/ ei1nc/ dot/com. More details will be available in the coming months.

Based on the success of our previous rallies, we wish to confirm that all our future rallies will be held each year in September for the foreseeable years. This date will usually be on the Sunday between the GAA All Ireland Hurling and Football finals. All details concerning venue, times etc will be confirmed closer to these dates.


Galway Radio Experimenters

Galway Radio Experimenters Club will be hosting two very interesting presentations at their next club meeting on Monday 12th march at 8.00 Pm in The Anno Santo Hotel, Threadneedle Road, Galway. Details may be seen on our web site www.galwayradio.com

Larry, EI9CN, will demonstrate the software defined radio, the Flex 5000A and if conditions permit will incorporate CW Skimmer and Logger 32 into his demonstration.

Tom EI3ER will give a short talk on the radio communications surrounding the sinking of the Titanic, the ship's radio station, the ships that worked the Titanic and the radio officers involved.

We heartily invite any amateurs, SWLs or other interested people to come along on the night. This would be particularly interesting for any amateur thinking of going down the Software Defined Radio route.


Cashota

CASHOTA (Castles and Stately Homes on the Air) will be holding the first Monument Month over April 2012. This annual award event involves activating Monuments which As defined by Wikipedia, a monument is a type of structure either explicitly created to commemorate a person or important event or which has become important to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, or simply as an example of historic architecture.

Everyone is welcome to participate, with all details of the event, including how to register, being available at www.cashotamonuments.webs.com/, if you require more information contact Steve EI5DD at cashota-ireland.org/home


South East Amateur Radio Group

The Annual General Meeting of South Eastern Amateur Radio Group took place on Monday 27 February last.

The new committee elected is as follows;

Chairperson: David Gainda (EI6GVB) Vice-chairperson: Francis Lenane (EI5GOB) Secretary: John Ronan (EI7IG) Treasurer: Mark Wall (EI7IS) PRO: Michael Hoban (EI5DCB)

Officers: John McCarthy (EI8JA), Michael Drennan (EI7GH) and Dennis Drennan (EI1629).

The club would like to thank everyone who attended and would like to thank the outgoing committee for their work throughout the past year. Further information is available on the membership page of the clubs web site at www.searg.com


Summits On The Air

We reported recently on SOTA activations on the Antrim hills by the "two Victors". Last weekend, Victor GI4ONL and Victor MI0JST travelled to the Sperrins, and were heard on Slieve Gallion, Carnanelly and Benbradagh. There was no shortage of callers and, by all accounts, no shortage of wind and rain also.

Phil ON4TA, who is in Connemara at present, is also battling with the elements from time to time. We have heard him on Tonatieva (which is in County Mayo, overlooking Killary Harbour), Derroura and Tully Mountain. Phil has found that from the West of Ireland he has good propagation on 20 metres to mainland Europe.


DX News

A group of Polish amateurs will be active from the Caribbean island of Sint Maarten from 5 – 18 March. The callsign will be PJ7PT and QSL manager is SP9PT.

The husband and wife team of Lot DJ7ZG and Babs DL7AFS return to Antigua starting 5 March. Look for them as V21ZG and V21FS on all bands 160 – 6m.

Gert ZS6AYU pays a short visit to Lesotho from 8 – 13 March where he will operate as 7P8GF. He is followed by Peter EI7CC who will reactivate 7P8PB from 15 March until 3 April. Peter will be operating as before from the shack of Gerry 7P8CC better known to us as EI8CC.

A large group from Germany and Poland plan to be active from the Pacific island of Tonga from 7 – 24 March.. Callsign is A35YZ and QSL manager is DL7DF.

The Republic of South Sudan has been assigned the callsign prefix block Z8A-Z8Z. The only operation from this new DXCC entity was last July/August when the call was ST0R. Future activations will use the Z8 prefix.


Items for inclusion in next week’s Radio News can be

submitted via e-mail to “newsteam /at/ irts / dot / ie” for automatic forwarding to both the radio and printed news services. Urgent news items for the radio news maybe telephoned to the radio news editor, Aidan, EI7JC on 085 7100511.

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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