Archived News Script
IRTS RADIO NEWS BULLETIN Sunday May 31st 1998
IRTS Committee Meeting
The next meeting of the IRTS Committee will be held on Saturday next, June 6th at 2.30pm in the Prince of Wales Hotel in Athlone.
Affiliated clubs are reminded that they may send a delegate to this meeting.
National Packet Meeting
A meeting of all those interested in the packet network in EI will be held on Saturday next at 12 noon in the Prince of Wales Hotel in Athlone. The Packet Co-ordinator Peter Maile MI0BME would appreciate an attendance representative of all packet groups in the country. You can contact Peter on packet or by Email at the following address- petermaile@compuserve.com
The Packet system in West Cork has recently been upgraded with the addition of a new 70 centimetre node running back to back with the existing 2 metre node located near Schull. The 2 metre node which is now on 144.625 MHz will be for user access and the link into the national network via the Cork digi will be on 70cms.
Congratulations to Albert EI7II and Andy EI7AYB for their work on getting the new node up and running.
Field Days
This years CW field day will be held over next weekend, Saturday and Sunday June the 6th and 7th. It looks like participation from EI stations will be minimal again this year with only two entries confirmed. If you cannot make it out portable we urge that you come at some stage over the weekend and give the portable stations a call.
The VHF/UHF Field will be held over the first weekend in July and we hope to see a few competitive stations taking part. The East Cork Group will be travelling into Leinster again this year to defend their title in the open section.
Practical Wireless 144MHz QRP Contest
The annual Practical Wireless 144MHz QRP Contest will he held on Sunday June the 21st and will run from 0900 until 1600UTC. A special trophy, the PW EI/GI Trophy Clock will be awarded to the leading in EI or GI. The contest exchange is signal report, serial number and locator square and the scoring is one point per QSO multiplied by the total number of locator squares worked. This is a QRP contest and the output power shall not exceed 3 watts. There is no restriction on aerials. If you need a full copy of the rules which appear on pages 28 to 30 in the June Practical Wireless, contact the news team.
MIR Space Station
Andy Thomas KD5CHF/VK5MIR is the Australian born amateur on board the Russian Space Station MIR and is reported reasonably active on both voice and packet. Problems with interference from the commercial VHF transmitter have now been solved with the fitting of a custom designed antenna cavity filter with a combination of pass band and notch filter. Packet activity is on 145.985MHz and they have also been heard on here on voice. The UHF repeater uplink is 435.750MHz and this needs a sub-audible tone of 141.3Kz. The down link is on 437.950MHz.
For QSO mode the uplink is 435.725MHz with sub-audible tone of 151.4 Hz and the down link is on 437.925MHz. Listeners are reminded that the PMS is only to be used for mail for the crew and you are asked not to digipeat though MIR while somebody is connected to the PMS. Please do not call MIR on oice unless you hear them calling CQ.
The following are some pass times for MIR for the next few days. Monday June 1st at 0006, 0142, 1819, 1953, 2129 and 2305. Tuesday June 2nd at 0040, 0218, 1720, 1852, 2027, 2203 and 2339. Wednesday June 3rd at 0115, 1926, 2101 and 2237. Thursday June 4th at 0013, 11651, 1824, 2000, 2135 and 2311. Friday June 5th at 0048, 1553 and 1723.
QSL Bureau
Following the recent IRTS Committee meeting, there have been some personnel changes in the QSL bureau. The new incoming QSL manager is Dermot Madsen EI4ESB and the Zeros, ones, sevens and SWLs will be handled by Kevin O'Herlihy EI7IM. Sean McMorrow EI6IN covers the twos, Brendan de hOra EI3GV does the threes, Jim Ryan EI3DP handles the fours, Brian Tansey EI5HV has the fives, Rory Hinchy EI4DJB looks after the sixes, Jim Barry EI8GS has the eights and Declan Lennon EI9HQ is doing the nines.
Members are reminded that it is essential to notify the appropriate sub-managers of any special event callsigns being used and callsign upgrades should be notified to the membership records manager Joe Ryan EI7GY who provides the labels to the QSL managers. It would be a great help if cards for EI stations could be send to the appropriate sub-manager directly.
Bill Mitchell EI5GQ continues in his job as QSL Manager outwards.
Items for inclusion in the Radio News can be faxed to 021-632730 or passed on the telephone to Dave EI4BZ at 021- 632444 during the day and at 021-883555 in the evening.
Input for the Newsletter should be sent to Kevin EI7IM at QTHR or on 01-4509514 or on E-mail to EI7IM@tinet.ie We apologise to Kevin for giving his number incorrectly in the past two bulletins.
All input to either the Radio News or the Newsletter can also be sent by e-mail to news@irts.ie
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