Archived News Script
IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday 13th December 2015
IRTS AGM 2016 & 2017
The 2016 Annual Dinner and AGM hosted by Limerick Radio Club will be held on the weekend of 9th and 10th April at the Radisson Blu Hotel, Ennis Road, Limerick. Preliminary information is on the IRTS website at www.irts.ie/agm
A decision regarding the 2017 AGM Weekend will be made shortly. Clubs who are interested in hosting the 2017 Weekend should send a note to secretary /at/ irts.ie to be considered
Echo Ireland
The December issue of Echo Ireland will be mailed to members during the week. News updates in this issue include the recent activities of clubs in Cork, Mayo, Dundalk, Dublin, Kerry and Shannon Basin. Also included is South Eastern Amateur Radio Group's participation in the annual Railways On The Air weekend from the Waterford & Suir Valley Railway in Kilmeaden, Co. Waterford. Plus, there are reports on JOTA - Jamboree On The Air - activities in Rathcormac (hosted by the Avondhu Radio Club) and in Navan.
John EI3KA shares his experiences of the technical and practical issues involved in SOTA - Summits On The Air - activations. This year, John has operated from over a dozen hills in EI, which he enjoyed from a radio and a fitness point of view. Perhaps John's very interesting article will encourage other EIs to take to the hills in 2016?
An article by Tony EI4DIB deals with the history of the 4 metre band as well as usage and propagation characteristics of this band. Brian EI8EJB chronicles his progress over the years, originally on VHF but more recently on the HF bands, and gives his views on current operating standards. In addition, he describes the construction of a fan dipole that works on all bands from 10 to 40 metres.
December's Echo Ireland also has the usual regular features, such as excerpts from the files of Pat EI2HX, 'HF Happenings' from Anthony EI2KC and lots more.
South Eastern Amateur Radio Group
The South Eastern Amateur Radio Group’s Theory Course will start in mid-January 2016. Anyone interested should get in contact with Sean EI2HZB on 083-1379764 or email to proffice /at/ searg.ie
For up-to-date news about the South Eastern Amateur Radio Group and it’s actives you can check our website www.searg.ie and you can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
South Dublin Radio Club
This year's South Dublin Radio Club Christmas Party will take place on Tuesday 15th December.
The venue will be the same as last year, "The Morgue", Tempelogue Village from 8pm until late.
Members of other clubs and visitors are as usual very welcome to this social event. Limited free food will be available for paid-up members; visitors can choose from the bar menu until 9pm. The club will then break for Xmas and return on January 5th 2016
ITU World Radiocommunication Conference Finds Amateur Bands Unsuitable for Non-Amateur Satellites
The World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC) held in Geneva during November 2015 has recommended an agenda for the next WRC, to be held in 2019, to the Council of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). The resolution wording may be viewed on www.iaru.org
The International Amateur Radio Union welcomed the exclusion from consideration of all existing frequency allocations to the amateur and amateur-satellite services. IARU President Tim Ellam, VE6SH, observed: "This is an excellent result for the amateur services and clearly shows that non-amateur satellite constructors need to consider spectrum other than the very limited and congested segments that are available for amateur satellites at 144 MHz and 435 MHz."
Limerick 2m Repeater
The Limerick 2M repeater will be off air until further notice due to the adverse weather conditions on site. The Monday IRTS news will now be read on the club's 70cm repeater.
DX News
Magnus SM6WET will be visiting the South Cook Islands between 14th December and 8th January. He will be mainly active from Aitutaki Island (IOTA OC-083) but will also be on Rarotonga Island (IOTA OC-013). His callsign will be E51WET.
Christian F4WBN and Rene F5DUX are at present active in Mali as TZ9A. They will be there until 19th December with a preference for RTTY. QSLs go via F4WBN.
Aaron VA1AXC is back on Sable Island until the end of January signing CY0/VA1AXC. He will be on the air during his spare time and his QSL Manager is JE1LET.
For those interested in working stations located in the Antarctic there is a new operator at the Bharati Research Station. He is from India (home call VU3BPZ) and his Antarctic callsign is 8T2BH. He will be there for one year and his QSLs will be handled by I1HYW.
SDR Net
The SDR net on 40m is held for over an hour before the Sunday news. Stations are welcome to call in before 10.30 - 10.40 as this allows stations ample time to get involved in the Net. From around 10.45 onwards we start to wind down the net to make way for the IRTS News bulletin and it is not always possible to fully involve those that call-in just before the frequency is handed over. All stations are encouraged to get involved.
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 may be 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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