Archived News Script
IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday May 2nd 2021
IRTS Annual General Meeting
One of the features of the Irish Radio Transmitters Society Annual General Meeting is the presentation of awards for service to the society or the hobby. At last Sunday’s AGM, Eddie Kavanagh EI3FBB was awarded the Pat Conway EI3Z Cup for his longstanding service in reading the weekly radio news bulletin on 80 metres. The Arup Cup went to 11 year old Ryan Morrison EI8KW, Ireland’s youngest amateur for his great achievement in getting licensed at such a young age and for being so active on the air.. The Michael Collins Cup went to Dave EI4BZ. The Presidents Cup was awarded to Sean Byrne EI2HZB and the Sheila Piper Cup went to Steve Wright EI5DD. The John Ashman Shield was awarded to the East Leinster Radio Club while the Paddy Maher EI3AV Cup was awarded to the Shannon Basin Radio Club.
IRTS/IARU Survey
As the member society for Ireland of the International Amateur Radio Union, the Irish Radio Transmitters Society, along with all the other member societies in Region 1 are conducting a review of the current position of amateur radio in their country. This will feed into a Region 1 conference being held in October to address the future of our hobby. The first step is to understand what are the current strengths and weaknesses of amateur radio and IRTS is asking you to express your opinion by filling out a brief survey, available on the IRTS website You do not need to be a member to participate. The survey is anonymous and only takes a few minutes. The responses will help shape the future of our hobby in Ireland and abroad and your input is greatly appreciated.
EIØHQ in the 2021 IARU HF Championship
The IARU HF Championship is a 24-hour worldwide contest under the auspices of the International Amateur Radio Union, held on the second full weekend of July every year. The ARRL manages this contest on behalf of IARU. Multipliers include ITU Zones and IARU member society HQ stations, so the HQ stations are very much in demand. The 2021 contest will be on 10/11 July, from 1200 UTC Saturday to 1159 UTC Sunday. It is a CW & Phone contest, on the six contest bands from 160m to 10m. The IRTS HQ station call sign is EIØHQ and has generally been allocated by agreement to an IRTS affiliated club or contest/DX group. With the likelihood of social distancing restrictions still being in place in July, we are inviting individual IRTS members to operate one or more bands from an in place station (i.e. not a remote station) for the full 24 hours, using the call sign EIØHQ. Operators in this contest must be in a position to forward a Cabrillo-formatted log to the contest manager immediately after the contest, as logs from all HQ Station ops will need to be merged prior to uploading to ARRL within the 5-day load upload deadline. IRTS licensed members based in EI are invited to apply to operate one or more band/modes of the IRTS HQ station for the 2021 contest. Please specify the band and mode you wish to operate. Send your expressions of interest to Contest Manager Joe Ryan EI7GY at IRTS.contests /at/ gmail.com
South Eastern Amateur Radio Group
Members of the South Eastern Amateur Radio Group EI2WRC were QRV as EI2IMD on Saturday April 24th for International Marconi Day 2021. The station was to be active solely from Tramore, Co. Waterford, but due to the current travel situation, the organisers the Cornish Radio Amateur Club had allowed the EI2WRC members to run the special call from their own homes. Even though band conditions were poor and QSO’s were hard to complete, a large amount were logged mainly on 20, 40 and 80m. John EI3HQB manged to work a few stations on CW also. EI2WRC members who worked various slots throughout the day were Sue EI1826, John EI3HQB, Wayne EI7HKB, Sam EI3IUB, Alan EI3HDB and Seany EI2HZB. EI2WRC would like to thank the Cornish Radio Amateur Club for organising the International Marconi Day every year. The club is already looking forward to taking part in the 2022 event! For anyone that wishes to find out more about the South Eastern Amateur Radio Group and their activities you can drop them an email to southeasternarg /at/ gmail.com or please feel free to go along to any their meetings. You can check their website www.searg.ie and you can also join them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter.
Incoming QSL Bureau
With the easing of the travel restrictions due to Covid-19, a visit to PO Box 462 by Dave EI6AL resulted in a pick up of 36kg of incoming cards. This were sorted by Incoming Manager Pat EI2HX and have been distributed to the sub-managers for distribution to members. Members are reminded to keep their callsign details up to date with their sub-manager and members who change their callsigns are reminded that they may be dealing with two sub-managers for quite a while due to the normal delays in the worldwide bureau system. Special event call holders are especially asked to notify Pat EI2HX of the QSL route for their incoming cards. See the latest Echo Ireland or the IRTS web site for details of your QSL sub-manager.
WRTC 2022 Postponed to 2023
The World Radio Team Championships are normally held every four years and are run in conjunction with the IARU HF Championships on the second weekend in July. WTRC 2022 was due to be held in Italy but at the WRTC 2022 Association Assembly held on April 23rd, a decision was made to postpone the event for one year until 2023 due to the situation with the Covid-19 pandemic. The event will be held in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy where 50 two-man teams representing most areas of the world compete from identical stations in the 24-hour IARU contest. Competitors are selected based on specified contest results over two years. Congratulations to Mark EI6JK who finished in 6th place in our region EU 02 while other high paced finishers were Neil EI3JE, Mark EI3KD, Dan EI3JZ and John EI7IG.
UKEICC 80m CW Contest on Wednesday last April 28th - Results
The final UKEICC monthly 80 metres CW contest was held on Wednesday last the April 28th. From a total entry of 114 stations the overall winner was Algirdas LY4ZZ in the Low Power section. Leading High Power entrant was Arvydas LY2F and Sergei YL3FW was overall winner of the QRP section operating unassisted. Leading the HP unassisted section was Chris GM2V, with Goran SF6W the leading unassisted low power entrant. The bonus calls worth the maximum of 10 points were EI5G operated by Paul EI5DI and GW4J operated by Stewart GW0ETF. There were nine EI station active on the night, a 50% improvement on the March contest. The monthly 80 metre contests will resume in September.
On the Air next week
On Sunday next, 9th May, there is a one-hour IRTS 40 metres Counties Contest, starting at 1200z, see www.irts.ie/contests for full details. The 55th annual Italian VOLTA WW RTTY Contest runs next weekend from 1200z on Saturday to 1200z on Sunday. The exchange is signal report, serial number and CQ Zone. The 63rd annual Russian CQ-M International DX Contest also runs from 1200z on Saturday for 24 hours on CW and SSB and the exchange is report and serial number. The Worked All Britain 7 MHz SSB and CW contest will run from 1000z to 1400z on Sunday next May the 9th.
DX News Lee, HL1IWD and Kim KH6IYL will be active on 40 and 20 metres as HL1IWD/4 from Kogunsan Island, Asia-148, between May 1st and the 3rd. They will use CW and FT8. QSL via EA5GL. Lee will make a one day visit to activate Anmyon Island Asia-080 on May 3rd. Harry, JG7PSJ will once again be active as JD1BMH from Chichijima Island, Asia-031 between April 30th and May 7th. Activity will be on 40-10 metres using CW, SSB and RTTY. QSL via the Bureau to JD1BMH or direct to JG7PSJ. Tom, LA6VDA will be QRV as JW6VDA from Spitsbergen Island, IOTA Europe-026, until to May 9. Activity is on the HF bands using SSB. QSL via LoTW.
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 News Editor Dave EI4BZ on 087-6290574.
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