Irish Radio Transmitters Society
Radio News Bulletin
Sunday 19th April 2015
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Silent Key - Frank EI2GS
The death has occurred of Frank O'Brien EI2GS, Elmwood, Ballybeg
formerely Enniskerry County Wicklow, on Saturday 4th April 2015.
Funeral took place on Wednesday 8th April to Mount Jerome Cematorium. A
more complete obituary will appear in the next edition of ECHO Ireland.
May he rest in peace.
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Silent Key - Sean (John) EI5FJ
The death has occurred of Sean (John) Hallissy EI5FJ on Tuesday 7th
April 2015. Sean was from Carhan Road, Caherciveen, County Kerry.
Funeral took place on Friday 10th April to Aghadoe Cemetary Killarney.
May he rest in peace
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83rd IRTS AGM Dinner and Rally - 25th/26thApril-Kilkenny 2015
IRTS AGM dinner and rally takes place next weekend. There is still some
dinner tickets available and can be obtained by contacting the
organising committee members now via email at irtsagm /at/ searg.com
Admission to the dinner is strictly by ticket only.
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Two Metres Contest
The contest manager has asked everyone who participated to submit their
log - even if it's only for a few QSOs. Logs can be emailed to
contestmanager /at/ irts.ie or sent by post to Joe EI7GY at his home
address (see the call book). The deadline for logs is tomorrow Monday
20th April.
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Amateur Station Licence Examination
The next Amateur Station Licence Examination will be held on Thursday,
4th June in the ComReg Offices in Dublin. Full details, including entry
procedure, examination fee and how to pay the fee on line are available
at www.irts.ie/exam . Please note that it is necessary to download the
application form from the web page and forward the completed form and
the appropriate fee so as to secure a place for the examination. If you
pay the fee on line you must still complete and forward the application
form. The closing date for receipt of completed applications is
Wednesday 20th May. Three Exam Reports which were previously published
in Echo Ireland are now available on the Downloads section of the
website at www.irts.ie/downloads under Studying for the Harmonised
Amateur Radio Examination Certificate. These reports contain very
useful information for anyone studying for the Licence Examination.
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Lough Erne Radio Rally
The Lough Erne Amateur Radio Club 34th Annual Rally will be held on
Sunday 10th May at the Share Centre, Lisnaskea, County Fermanagh. Doors
open at 11.30am
It is easy to travel by express bus from Dublin to the Lough Erne Rally
in The SHARE centre on Sunday 10th May. A service at 7.30am from the
Busaras stops in Derrylin at 10am (on the way on to Enniskillen and
Donegal) The SHARE Centre minibus will meet and take rally goers the
final five miles from Derrylin to SHARE. A bacon butty and coffee
breakfast will be available at 10.30. Doors open at 11.30. Return
services from Derrylin depart at 2.45pm or at 4.45pm More on website -
www.learc.eu
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Cork Radio Club Annual General Meeting
Cork Radio Club held their resumed Annual General Meeting on Wednesday
last April 15th with a good attendance at Carrigtwohill Community
Centre.
In the election of officers, Jack O'Connell EI7HO was elected chairman,
Don Kelly EI8DJ is vice-chairman, Dave EI4BZ is Secretary, Jim Barry
EI8GS is treasurer, Tim McKnight EI2KA is QSL and Awards Manager and
Dave Deane EI9FBB and Jerry Cahill EI6BT make up the committee. The
club will now hold meetings twice monthly, on the first and third
Wednesdays each month at Carrigtwohill Community Centre with a starting
time of 8.30pm.
Their next meeting will be on May 6th when Dave Deane EI9FBB will give
a talk on "DXpedition Difficulties" following on from his very well
received talk at the GM DX Convention last weekend. He will also be
giving a talk at next weekend's IRTS AGM in Kilkenny.
The next confirmed outdoor event for the club will be a Summer Barbeque
to be held in conjunction with CW Field on the 6th and 7th of June.
Several other events are in the planning stages and will be confirmed
in due course.
Tributes were paid to Vincent EI7HN for his commitment to broadcasting
the weekly IRTS Radio News bulletin at 8pm every Monday night on the
Cork Repeater. Listeners are encouraged to stay on frequency after the
bulletin and also to support the Cork Repeater Activity night at 9pm
every Thursday.
Members are asked to pay their annual membership fee of -20.00 to
Treasurer Jim EI8GS as soon as possible.
New members are very welcome, especially anyone who intends to study
for the licence examination.
Anyone interested is invited to call to Carrigtwohill Community Centre
on the first or third Wednesday of any month and further information is
available from Dave EI4BZ on 087-6290574 or by emailing
ei4bz/at/eircom/dot/net.
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2m Nets
SEARG will continue their 2m net on Tuesday nights after the IRTS
weekly news. This is to promote the use of the band, which has seen a
decline in use. The intended frequency used is 145.400MHz and net has
had many stations calling in since its introduction. Everyone welcome
to join in.
Fingal Radio Club and Dermot EI2HD continue their 2m call-in on
Wednesday and every Wednesday at 7p.m. Please try and give your support
by getting on the air. Keep 2metres alive. The frequency is
145.7625MHz, CTCSS 88.5KHz on the Dublin repeater
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Martello Tower
The Howth Martello Radio Group EI0MAR will be participating as an Award
Station in the annual International Marconi Day event next Saturday
25th of April. The station is located in Ye Olde Hurdy Gurdy Museum of
Vintage Radio in the Martello Tower in Howth. Access is off Abbey
Street up a steep path opposite the Abbey Tavern. You can actually
drive up the to tower itself and park. Visitors will be most welcome.
The annual Prawn Festival is also taking place on the same day so a
good day can be had by all next Saturday in Howth.
The Group has also recently been operating EI90IARU from the Martello
tower mainly on CW with lots of pile-ups. It hopes to repeat this
throughout the year, subject to availability and permission, on various
Thursdays throughout the year. Watch this space for further updates.
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DX News
Dave WJ2O will be in Nicaragua from 22nd to 30th April. He will operate
as YN/WJ2O from the station of YN2N. Dave has travelled widely and has
been QRV from many countries including EI and GI in 2012.
A group of 4 Australian operators will be active from Norfolk Island as
VK9NT from 24th April to 4th May. They plan to be QRV on all bands 160
- 10m SSB and CW. QSLs can be requested by using the Club Log OQRS
facility.
Gordon G3USR will be operating holiday style from Freeport on Grand
Bahama Island from 22nd to 27th April. His callsign will be C6AGM. He
requests that QSLs are sent directly to his home call.
Two German amateurs will be active from Armenia from 23rd April to 5th
May. Look for EK/DL7UCX and EK/DK7AO on 160 - 10m on CW, SSB and RTTY.
Denis, VP8DOZ, who has been active from South Georgia Islands mostly on
17 metres SSB, has now uploaded his log to ARRL's Logbook of the World.
If you are lucky to have been among his 419 QSOs made over the past two
months, well done. He is now QRT.
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EuCW QRS Activity Week
The EuCW cordially invites all radio amateurs and SWLs to take part in
the annual EuCW QRS Activity Week. This is not a contest, on the
contrary, it is an invitation to slow down CW speeds and to enjoy
plenty of slow Morse activity for a period of five days. The dates
selected are intended to avoid weekend contest activity. The goal is
not self-exposure and competitiveness but to lower the threshold for
newcomers to give CW a try.
Amateur Radio operators are asked to call 'CQ QRS between 26th April
and 1st May 2015. Take a look at eucw.org.
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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.