Archived News Script
IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday 26th August 2012
Licence Examination
There is now just under four weeks left to Thursday 20 September which is the closing date for the next Amateur Station Licence Examination which will be held on Thursday 4th October at 2 p.m.in the ComReg Offices in Dublin.
Full details, including entry procedure, examination fee and how to pay the fee online are available by clicking on the Licence Exam button on the IRTS homepage at www.irts.ie Places for the examination are limited and will be allocated on a first come first served basis.
Please note that it is necessary to download the application form from the web page and forward the completed form and the appropriate fee in order to secure a place for the examination. If you pay the fee on line you must still complete and forward the application form.
IRTS Shop update
Following discussion with our friends at RSGB the Society has agreed to give a 10% discount to IRTS members on purchases from the RSGB Shop. IRTS members should select the “Non members Price” before placing the order and then enter the special IRTS Discount Code during the checkout process. At this point the 10% discount will be calculated. IRTS members, who are also RSGB members, should continue to select the “RSGB Member’s Price” to get the RSGB Member’s discount and not use the IRTS Discount Code. It is not possible to obtain both discounts! The IRTS Discount Code will change from time to time and will be published for members in Echo Ireland. Just follow the ‘Book Sales’ link on the IRTS website.
Echo Ireland
The August edition of Echo Ireland will be mailed to members during the week. Anyone whose enjoyment of radio is affected by local electrical noise - and that includes most of us - will be very interested in the article by Ciaran EI7GSB, who tells of his search for sources of noise and the various solutions he has used to deal with these noise problems.
One way of getting away from RF noise is perhaps to travel to an offshore island; this month's Echo Ireland includes two reports of island activities - Ger EI5KF on Bere Island and the Shannon Basin Radio Club EJ3Z on Inisbofin - both of these activations taking place during the recent Islands On The Air contest.
In the regular HF Happenings column, Anthony EI2KC reports on recent and forthcoming DXpeditions and also includes some snippets about their DXing activities from John EI7BA, Ark EI9KC and Don EI6IL. Meanwhile, in the latest excerpt from the HX files, Pat EI2HX recounts how he brought an old 10 Gigahertz transmitter back to life.
Two reports from AREN (Amateur Radio Emergency Network) groups are included: the new group operating in the North-East reports on their training activities and their involvement in the Clogherhead 10k run. The long-established Galway VHF Group reports on the assistance they provided for the Connemara Marathon; their report also includes an explanation of why HF is generally used in the Connemara area, in preference to VHF.
Two recent events showcasing amateur radio are covered: the Galway Radio Experimenters Club ran a demonstration station as part of the Volvo Ocean Race celebrations and a full report of their activities is in Echo Ireland. Also in the latest Echo Ireland is a report on the contact between the participants of the European Space Agency's summer camp in Dublin and Joe KE5DAR, who is currently on the International Space Station - this contact was facilitated by members of IRTS.
Counties Contest
A brief reminder that the 2 Metres counties contest takes place today (Sunday 26th August) from 2.00 pm to 4.00 pm local time. FM and SSB modes can be used in the contest, and a station may be worked on both modes. After any QSO in which you are called by another station, you must QSY to another channel (FM), or by at least 3 kHz (SSB), before soliciting another QSO. There are both Fixed and Portable sections in the contest, so expect to hear some of the rarer counties on the air. See www.irts.ie/contests for the full rules.
Information Evening
The Ballyroan Community & Youth Centre - which is the QTH of South Dublin Radio Club - is holding an Information Evening on Tuesday next (28th August) from 7pm to 9pm. The Information Evening is designed to allow users of the Youth Centre to highlight their activities and recruit new members. SDR along with IRTS will have a stand at this event.
Limerick Radio Club
The Limerick Radio Club participated in the ILLW weekend from Loop Head Lighthouse. It was the first time that the lighthouse was activated by the Limerick Radio Club for the ILLW event and it proved to be very successful and enjoyable. The clubs newly acquired telescopic mast got it’s first formal outing. Two stations were operated one from the base of the lighthouse and the second from the lightkeepers lookout room. Antennae consisted of an A4S, an A3WS and two G5RVs along with the club ICOM 756PRO, Kenwood TS-940S, SCAM telescopic mast and the club tilt up mast. Contacts were logged using the Win-EQF software.
Altogether, twelve LRC members participated at various times over the weekend. Activity started at midnight on Friday with several QSOs into North and South America and continuing through Saturday into Sunday evening. The log showed 1440 unique call signs with a total of 1532 QSOs worked to 64 countries - a good weekends work. Thanks to all who participated.
The club is on the road again this weekend from the Shannon AirVenture event which will be located at the entrance to Shannon Town. Activation will be from 11:00 to 17:00 local times.
The Shannon Basin Radio Club
The Shannon Basin Radio Club will once again be hosting the ssb field day in the grounds of Garbally College in Ballinasloe, Co Galway and would like to invite clubs or individual operators to come and take part or just to visit and see a portable contest station. The contest takes place over the first weekend of September. The famous barbeque will take place on saturday evening for all participating or visiting ops. For further information contact brian ei8iu on 0862514822.
DX News
Following a successful trip to Crete in 2011 Luc ON6DSL returns there again from 27 August until 3 August. His callsign will be SV9/ON6DSL/P. He will be running low power to a dipole. QSLs go via his home call.
Moise F4EZG who also operates from Madagascar as 5R8VE will be active from Nosy Alanana off the coast of Madagascar from 1 – 3 September. This small island counts as separate from Madagascar and has the Islands on the Air reference of AF-090. He will be active mainly on 15 and 20m.
Michael DF8AN is a well-travelled amateur operator and has been QRV from over 140 countries. He travels to Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean from 2 – 10 September where he will operate as FR/DF8AN. Look for him on SSB on 40, 20, 15 and 10m.
Paul CT1FJZ will be working in Angola for the next year or so. Look out for him on 80 – 10m SSB using the callsign D2FJZ. Activity will be mainly at the weekends but he will try to get on the air when possible during weekdays.
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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