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IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday 9th August 2020


EI2FG & EA8CXN set new Region 1 1296MHz Tropo record.

Congratulations to John Hearne EI2FG who set a new IARU Region 1 tropo record on 1296MHz on July 17th with an SSB contact with Cesar EA8CXN over a distance of 2,714 kilometres. EA8CXN was using 150 watts into a small parabolic dish which was 50 cms in diameter. The feed point for the dish was a 3-element horizontally polarized PCB Yagi. EI2FG was using his EME station of 150 watts into a 3-metre parabolic dish. The feed point was Right-Hand Circular Polarization on transmit and Left-Hand CP on receive. You can get more information on this achievement on the very informative page run by John EI7GL. Log on to ei7gl.blogspot.com.


World Amateur Radio Contesting Association: EI Rankings

Many EI operators take part in contests, some seriously but most dip in to work new DXCC entities, States or prefixes. The World Amateur Radio Contesting Association maintain a website where all contest results are amalgamated and make possible world and country rankings. The table is based on a rolling 4 year contest cycle and can be accessed on www.warca.org The latest update shows Mark EI6JK in number 1 position in Ireland followed by Neil EI3JE, Dan EI3JZ, Padraic EI5IX and Mark EI3KD in the top 5 positions.


Mid Ulster ARC Tuesday night lecture on IRTS Contests

This week, the Mid Ulster Amateur Radio Club will have Joe Ryan EI7GY, IRTS Contest Manager speaking on the topic of IRTS Contests This again will be via zoom on their Tuesday Night Lecture series gathering at 7pm. For further details please contact Dave 2i0SJV at dcparkinson /at/ icloud.com. Everyone is welcome


Congratulations to Ana EA7KMA on HAREC Success

Congratulations to Dublin based IRTS SWL member EI1570 Ana Canizares Bejarano who recently sat and passed the HAREC examination in her native Spain. She has been issued with the callsign EA7KMA. Ana missed the exam in Dublin as she was on her summer holidays at home with her mother in Córdoba.. Ana credits her success to Tony EI5EM and the members of the Facebook page he set up to assist students studying for the HAREC exam. The page is called Irish Amateur Radio Examination Resource Pages and Blog and is well worth a visit by learners and of course by anyone willing to help. Congratulations also to John Murphy from Rosslare who is now EI7KW and Dubliner Garrett Kennedy ZP5BVK who is now also EI4IZB.


International Lighthouse Lightship Weekend

The 23rd Annual International Lighthouse/Lightship weekend will be held on Saturday and Sunday August 22nd and 23rd. To date, 286 stations have signed up to participate. There are four Irish stations listed amongst the participants. The Carndonagh Amateur Radio Club EI0CAR will be active from Strove Lighthouse in County Donegal, the Skywave Amateur Radio Club EI0SW will operate the Old Head of Kinsale, the Avondhu Radio Club EI1E will be on from Youghal Lighthouse in east Cork and the South Eastern Amateur Radio Group EI2WRC will activate Hook Head Lighthouse in County Wexford. Further information on illw.net


Morse Testing

Following agreement with ComReg and successful trials, Morse testing is now available online on the Zoom platform. To participate in an online test, you will need an adequate internet connection, an oscillator and Morse key. Anyone interested should contact the IRTS Chief Morse Tester, Dave EI4BZ by email on davebeag /at/ gmail.com or by telephone on 087-6290574


Limerick Clare Amateur Radio Club

On Tuesday the 4th of August, LCARC attend the Atlantic Air Adventure Museum summer camp for school students. As previously, the focus was on HF communications and construction - but aspects of physics, electrical generation and meteorological measurements were also covered. Two more summer camps are planned for August. Following the IRTS FM news, on the LCARC 70cms Repeater on Monday 3rd August, club members with Yaesu Fusion C4FM capability participated in a local digital net. Including the six LCARC club members, a total of eight called in. The plan is to continue with the C4FM net each Monday after the IRTS news on FM. Club members are always available to help anyone preparing for the licence exam and are also available to run the HAREC course - anyone interested should contact the club. LCARC wishes success to all those sitting the exam next Saturday in Galway.


On the Air this week

Next weekend, RTTY operators can participate in the Scandinavian Amateur Radio Teleprinter Group contest running from 0001 to 0800 and 1600 to 2359 on Saturday the 15th and from 0800 to 1600 on Sunday the 16th. The exchange is RST and serial number and multipliers are DXCC entities and call areas in VK, VE, JA and W. See sartg.com/contest/wwrules.htm for further details. Log deadline is September 12th. Also next weekend, anyone working towards the Russian Districts Award can avail of the RDA contest to get some new ones. It runs on both SSB and CW from 0800 on Saturday to 0800 on Sunday on 160 to 10 metres excluding the WARC bands. There should be lots of CW activity from Japan from 1200 on Saturday to 1200 on Sunday for the Keyman’s Club of Japan Contest. A great opportunity to work some more Japanese Districts. There’s not much in the way of DXpeditions at the moment but there is still DX to be worked. Matteo IZ4YGS will operate as 9G5GS from Ghana from August the 8th to September 15th. Have a look on QRZ.com for instructions on how to work him on FT8. Giorgio YI/IU5HWS is with the military in Iraq and will be operating on 40, 20 and 10 metres until the end of November.


Rotary Club members who are also Radio Amateurs wanted

Rotary International has many Fellowships for its members but to date there are no Echo India members of IFROAR, the Fellowship for Radio Amateurs. Anyone interested is asked to contact Bob G3SZF via email at rrcfrost /at/ hotmail.com. Further information can be obtained on their website ifroar.org.


Items for inclusion in next week’s radio news can be submitted by email to newsteam/at/irts/dot/ie for automatic forwarding to both the radio and printed news services. The deadline is midnight on Thursday Urgent items for the radio news may be telephoned to 087-6290574.

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