Archived News Script
IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday 17th January 2021
IRTS 80 Metre Contest Results
There was strong support from local and overseas stations for the New Year's Day IRTS 80 metres Counties Contest, helped by favourable band conditions on the day. More than 50 logs were submitted, showing activity in 29 EI and GI counties along with 14 overseas entities. In EI/GI, all but Donegal, Down and Longford were represented, while overseas support came mainly from England, Wales and Guernsey. See the Contest Results page www.irts.ie/results for full details.
IRTS Publications Library
The IRTS Publications Library holds more than 200 issues of the society's newsletters from 1948 onwards. We have recently been able to add additional newsletters from 1966, unearthed by Peter EI7CC. The 1966 publications make interesting reading: band conditions were good at the time, and EIs were reporting considerable activity on the HF and VHF bands, much of it using homemade gear. The 1966 issues also include many humorous contributions from the late Bernie O'Sullivan EI6AX, who continued to write about amateur radio up to his death in 2016. The August 1966 issue includes a fascinating article entitled "50 Years Communicating", written by George Reynolds EI2F in 1965 and published posthumously. The publications library is at www.irts.ie/library and Joe EI7GY would like to hear from anyone who has copies of newsletters that would help to fill the gaps in the library.
Dayton Hamvention 2021 Cancelled
The world’s largest gathering of amateur radio operators has been cancelled for the second successive year. The Dayton Hamvention organizers have decided to cancel this year's show which had been planned for May 21st to the 23rd in Xenia, Ohio. In a statement they say… “Unfortunately, several setbacks in the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic make necessary the difficult decision to cancel Hamvention 2021. Hundreds of volunteers have been working to do everything necessary to bring this Hamvention to the many amateur radio enthusiasts and vendors who support the Dayton Hamvention. Vaccine distribution both in the United States and around the world is lagging behind what was planned. In addition, the emergence of a more communicable form of the COVID-19 virus increases the potential for further public health problems in the next few months. We make this difficult decision for the safety of our guests and vendors.” Hamvention 2022 is tentatively planned for May 20th to the 22nd 2022 and will be in Greene County until at least 2024, per a five-year deal signed with the Greene County Agricultural Society in 2019.
The CW Operators Club
The CW Operators' Club, commonly known as CWops, is an international organization, in membership and management, for amateur radio operators who enjoy communicating using Morse Code. Its mission is to foster the use of CW, whether for contesting, DXing, traffic handling, or engaging in conversations. Each week they sponsor three one-hour QSO party-type tests on Wednesday at 1300z, Wednesday at 1900z and on Thursday at 0300z. For CWops members, the exchange is the member’s name and membership number. For non-members, the exchange is name and state/province or DX prefix. Report scores at 3830scores.com; no log submission is required.
The CWops Award for Advancing the Art of CW is presented annually and the purpose of the award is to recognize individuals, groups, or organizations that have made the greatest contribution towards advancing the art or practice of radio communications by Morse code. Nominations are now being accepted for this prestigious award for the year 2021. You can get all the details on membership and the award on cwops.org.
Shannon Basin Radio Club
The Shannon Basin Radio Club will hold a club meeting on the Webex platform on Friday next January 22nd at 2000 when Tom Nevin EI4HCB will give a short talk on coaxial cables. The club holds three nets every week starting with the Top Band net on Mondays at 2000 on 1.847MHz. The 2 Metre net is held on Wednesdays at 2000 on the club’s repeater EI2CAR on 145.775MHz and their 80 Metre net is on Thursdays at 20:00 on 3.720 MHz. Everybody is welcome to call in to these nets.
On the Air next week
The big contest for EI CW operators, the UKEICC DX contest, will be held next weekend over 24 hours starting at noon on Saturday. The exchange is an optional signal report, serial number starting at one and your EI county code. Please note that in this contest the county code is a two letter one. Multipliers are DXCC countries plus EI counties and G districts. Look at ukeicc.com for all the details. This is the only DX contest where EI and G counties are multipliers. Please try and put your county on the air, even if only for an hour or two.
The British Amateur Radio Teledata Group (BARTG) hold their January Sprint RTTY Contest over 24 hours, starting at noon on Saturday next. The exchange is serial number only, starting at 001 and the multipliers ate DXCC Countries, JA, W, VE and VK areas. The UKEICC CW 80 metre contest will be held on Wednesday week, January 27th for one hour starting at 2000.
Now some DX news: Mireille/F4FRL and Patrice/F5RBB will be active as 3A/home call from Monaco between February 24th and March 2nd. Activity will be on 40 to 20 meters using SSB and the Digital modes. QSL via eQSL or LoTW. The Rebel DX Group reported on Facebook that some members of the Group have arrived in Cape Town, South Africa and that the Bouvet trip is back on track. They area currently checking all their equipment which was stored in South Africa following their previous failed trip to Bouvet. Erling, LB2PG, will once again be active as JW/LB2PG from Bear Island (Europe-027) in Svalbard between now and June 1st. Activity will be on 80-20 meters using SSB with a FT-990 and 1KW amp into a multi-band dipole antenna. QSL via LB2PG by the Bureau. Nils, SM3UQK, is once again active from Greenland, but in the southern part as OX/SE3A (WW Loc. GP71GD) until January 28th. He will be using an IC-7300 into a 20 and 40 metre inverted V only around 5 metres over ground and a 20 meter simple wire vertical with one radial around one metre over ground. QSL via SM3UQK, direct or by the Bureau. Garry, 2M1DHG, is now active as ZC4GR from the UK Sovereign Base Areas on Cyprus. Operations are mainly on SSB and the Digital modes using an FT-450 into a Buddipole for 40 to 10 Metres. He also uses SSTV, PSK31 and WSPR and suggests looking for him between 1700-1900z a few nights during the week. QSL via EB7DX.
2021 QSO Today Virtual Ham Expo
As all the major ham radio events were cancelled last year and it looks like the same for the coming year, you might be interested in attending the QSO Today Virtual Ham Expo on March the 13th and 14th. The inaugural event attracted over 16,000 participants and this year’s event promises to be even bigger with over sixty speakers on a wide variety of radio related subjects and a large number of traders with virtual stands plus many other activities. As well as the forty-eight hour event, all activities will be available to attendees for thirty days after the Expo. Flexradio are the platinum sponsors and the Gold sponsors are Elecraft, RFfinder and Connect Systems. Early bird ticket offers and full information is now available on the website www.qsotodayhamexpo.com
That is the news for this week. 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 news may be telephoned to the News Editor Dave EI4BZ on 087-6290574
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