Archived News Script
IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday 23rd February 2014
IRTS 82nd AGM Dinner & Rally March 22nd, 23rd 2014
You now have just under 4 weeks to purchase your tickets for the IRTS AGM dinner in Galway. The Galway VHF Group need your name in good time to book your place at the dinner table. Please ensure you are not left out and book your place now by contacting Steve, EI5DD on 087-2451218 or QTHR and you may also contact John EI1EM on 086-8154979. Dinner tickets are just 35Euro.
The radio rally takes place on Sunday March 23rd and all of the major traders including Maplin Electronics, who will have their catalogue available. WESCOM will also be a trader, this is a very welcome return. A bring and buy stand which will be manned for those wishing to sell second hand gear. A room will be available for the CW (Morse) test.
Accommodation is available from The Galway Bay Hotel at a special rate when you mention the IRTS AGM. You may contact the hotel on 091-520520. The Rockbarton Park Hotel also offers special rates, 49Euro for a single room and 35Euro per person sharing. The Rockbarton Hotel maybe contacted on 091-522286. Please mention IRTS when booking your room to avail of the special room price. For complete details please refer to www.irts.ie/cgi/agm.cgi
IRTS Awards
Entries and nominations for all awards for Service to the Society or to Amateur Radio and the awards for Other Achievements should be submitted by post or e-mail, and can be forwarded to Jim Holohan, EI4HH, Chairman Awards Committee, QTHR, or email awards /at/ irts.ie. Closing date for entries and nominations is 28th February 2014. Awards for Service to the Society or to Amateur Radio may be made to members or non-members. See www.irts.ie/awards for more information on all IRTS awards.
Peter EI4HX, the Awards Curator, reminds us that recipients of awards and cups given out at last year’s IRTS AGM in Athlone are requested to return their Trophies and Cups in good time to allow for engraving for the forthcoming IRTS AGM 2014. Trophies and Cups maybe returned to any IRTS Committee member before 28th February.
Limerick Radio Club Rally 2014
The Limerick Radio Club Rally takes place on Sunday 9th March at the Radisson Hotel, Limerick. Doors open at 11.00 and entry is €5. All the major traders in EI will be in attendance and bring & buy tables are included in the €5 entry fee. For further details please contact Simon Kenny EI7ALB on 087-2858884.
Echo Ireland
Not surprisingly, storm damage is one of the topics covered in the February issue of Echo Ireland, the IRTS members' journal, which will be posted to members during the coming week; the cover shows in vivid detail what Nature can do to our beloved antennas. In the "HF Happenings" column, Anthony EI2KC describes some of the damage. Anthony also covers recent and upcoming DX activity. Another regular contributor to Echo Ireland is Pat EI2HX; in his latest "Excerpts from the HX Files", Pat explains how he converted an old security monitor into a portable ATV transceiver.
The journal also has plenty of updates on club activities, reports and photographs from recent rallies and contest results. The formal notice of the society's Annual General Meeting, along with the committee's nominations for the offices of President, Vice-President and committee positions is also included; incidentally, the committee's nominations can be seen on the IRTS web site - see the link on the Home Page www.irts.ie .
Candidates for the Amateur Station Licence Examination - and their tutors - will be interested to read the report by the Examinations Board on the five exams held in 2012 and 2013; this report includes some observations and advice that should be of assistance to prospective candidates. The next exam is on Thursday 22nd May; full details of the entry procedure are on the IRTS web site.
Cork Radio Club
The Cork Radio Club Spring Season of lectures kicked off in January with an interesting and informative presentation by John Hearne EI2FG on the National Digital Television Saorview Installation. The February Lecture will be given by Jim Ryan EI3DP on the topic “The Early Days of Wireless” and will be held on Tuesday next February 25th starting at 8.00pm in Carrigtwohill Community Centre. These lectures are open to the public and visitors are very welcome. Also on the agenda on Tuesday night are the regular outdoor club activities over the summer months including the three IRTS Field Days, the two Lighthouse weekends, Marconi Day, IRTS 80m and 2m counties contests and an IOTA Contest entry from an Island. Further information from Club Chairman Cormac Gebreurs on 086-3886353 or ei4hq dot mail at gmail dot com.
Tesla Memorial HF Contest
The Tesla Memorial Contest will be held March 08/09 2014, starting 18:00UTC and ending 8:00UTC. The competition is open to operators all over the Globe. Participants must use the 80m band on CW only. Points are given for distance between stations. For full details on rules, terms and conditions please look at www.radiosport.org.rs/HFTeslaMemorial/
Lagan Valley Amateur Radio Rally
The Lagan Valley Amateur Radio Society GI4GTY, will hold their radio rally on Saturday March 1st 2014. The venue is The Village Centre, 7 Ballynahinch Road, Hillsborough, BT26 6AR. Doors open at 11:30am. For more information look at www.radioclubs.net/lvarsgi4gty
St. Patricks Day on Air
Bobby MI0RYL, writes to inform us that a group of Northern Ireland Amateurs will be on air on March 17th. The day runs from over the full 24 hour period of the 17th March (0000 UTC - 0000 UTC). If you wish to participate as an award station or for more information on how you can gain the award please look at stpatrickaward.webs.com
World Community Grid
For computer buffs among our listeners and readers you might be interested in World Community Grid. WCG uses open-source software called BOINC (Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing). Members of WCG download BOINC, which runs either in the background or when your computer is idle, depending on the user settings. BOINC requests data from World Community Grid's server and then performs computations on this data. Once completed, it sends the results back and requests more data. It requires no effort on your part and is completely secure. With more than a billion PCs around the world, the potential of World Community Grid is enormous. For more information just go to www.worldcommunitygrid.org
South Eastern Amateur Radio Group
The 2014 AGM of the South Eastern Amateur Radio Group will take place in the Roanmore Social and Sports Centre, Cleaboy Road, Waterford on tomorrow night Monday 24th February at 20:00. All members are asked to attend and new members or anyone wishing to learn more about our group and amateur radio are very welcome to come along. For up-to-date news about SEARG and it’s activities you are welcome to check our website www.searg.com and you can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
DX News
Alan G3XAQ returns to Uganda from 25 February until 16 March. He will reactivate his 5X1XA callsign. QSLs go via G3SWH.
John KF0RQ will be in Cambodia and will sign XU7ACQ from 25 February until 20 March. QSL to his home call.
The husband and wife team of Lot DJ7ZG and Babs DL7AFS will be active for the fourth time from Antigua. As before they will use the callsign V21ZG. This year they plan to activate the higher bands in the modes PSK, RTTY and SSB. QSL via DL7AFS.
The Italian DXpedition Team will start their next operation on 28 February in Zambia using the callsign 9J2T. They will be there until 17 March on all bands/modes. QSLs go via I2YSB.
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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