IRTS 81st AGM — 27/28 April 2013

The 81st AGM of the Irish Radio Transmitters Society will be hosted by Shannon Basin Radio Club, over the weekend of the 27/28 April 2013. The venue will be the Shamrock Lodge Hotel, Athlone, Co. Westmeath.
Enquiries about the weekend contact Brian EI8IU or Pat EI9HX.

Dinner
Tickets for the Dinner on Saturday night (8.00 for 8.30pm) will be available at 30 Euro each from Brian EI8IU QTHR and through IRTS Committee Members.
Dress code, as usual, is smart/casual. Download the menu from here.
The ticket price is a reduction on last year’s price
Rally
The Rally will be on Sunday 28th with doors opening at 11.00am, entrance €5. All the usual traders will be represented plus some new ones.
Bookings for Dealers’ Stands to Brian EI8IU. SBRC members will be available to help dealers load/unload equipment on Sunday.
Tables for individuals/sole traders are also available from Brain at €10. Brian’s mobile is 086 251 4822
IRTS

Clipperton Island DXpedition

The March, 2013 DXpedition to Clipperton Island has received the callsign TX5K to be used during the operation.
With the addition of Luis/XE1L, Dave/WJ20, and Giovanni/I5JHW, the team has 23 members. One space remains available for another operator, scientist, or other supporter who wishes to join the DXpedition.
We are proud to announce that the QSL Manager will be Bob, N2OO. Offsite team member Dean, N7XG, is developing new software to help automate some of the operations at the QSL manager and his team.
The expedition will use DXA, the system that enables real-time Web
display of the log data, first used on Kure Atoll K7C 2005, to provide
confirmation of valid QSOs in about 1 minute after they are made. We will also make use of ClubLog and LoTW.

Island DXpedition

Whitby Hams On The Road

WHITBY -- With a radio receiver in one pocket and work gloves in another, members of the Whitby Amateur Radio Club prepared to tidy up the busy corridor of Victoria Street West.
 Six members of the club, which counts 41 members in total, gathered at an area Tim Hortons on Oct. 20 to organize their fall cleanup of Victoria Street, which the group has adopted from Brock Street South west to Seaboard Gate.
"A lot of people just throw stuff out of their cars and think it's fine," said Don King, a member of the club.......

Whitby Hams Clean Up

100 Radio Amateurs To Attend Doha Festival

Qatar will host an international festival for radio amateurs to coincide with the National Day festivities. This is the first time that the event is being held in the Middle East.

Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah, Chairman of the Administrative Control and Transparency Authority and chairman of the Qatar Amateur Radio Society (QARS), met general chairman of the US-based Dayton Amateur Radio Association, Michael Kalter, and briefed him on QARS’s plans for hosting the event.

QARS plans to host 100 radio amateurs, representing the five continents of the world.......

Qatar Hams Celebrate

GM3VLB Scottish Island Hopping

In the hope of completing what I now call the “SCOTIA challenge”, which in my own case means activating the last five of the programme’s 200 islands which I haven’t yet activated, I am returning to the Orkney (EU-009) group, arriving there Monday, 21st May. I have a return booking on 7 June but am prepared to remain in EU-009 longer, if necessary.

Having been dogged by high winds in late summer/early autumn on previous expeditions to the Northern Isles, I am trying the earlier part of ‘activating season’ this time.

I will be based primarily on Orkney mainland, sailing from the capital Kirkwall. All islands involve sea trips by small boat, of over 10 miles, and (for Faray and Calf of Eday) much longer…I will be relying very heavily on the local knowledge of Orcadian Kenny Sinclair, skipper of the “Nicky Tam”, who runs ‘Sea Orkney’ (see Google).

My plan is to be active on each island by 0900Z, remaining for as long as Kenny can allow. I will be QRV on +/- 14.2575MHz and (in poor conditions) on or about 14.040 MHz CW. All operations will be battery-powered, 100W maximum (less if conditions allow) into the trusty “Islander” vertical, from the TS50 (back-up will be an FT817 on 5W).

The 5 remaining islands are Muckle Green Holm (OI20), Linga Holm (OI21), Eynhallow (OI24), Faray (OI28) and Calf of Eday (OI29). Some are quite difficult to approach and to land on (steep rocky shores) as well as being subject to very strong tidal current (the waters off Eday are in fact the chosen location for testing the latest tidal generators, so near-perfect weather conditions will be required. I believe most may be first-time activations.

This will be a ‘solo’ operation. If successful, I hope to continue activating islands, this season, in a more relaxed way, hopefully teaming up with regular ‘island buddy’ Alex G(M)0DHZ to re-activate some less remote islands, which even some of the high-scoring SCOTIA chasers may have missed – I will be doing an analysis of the records to determine the ‘most wanted’.

Scottish Islands On The Air

Radio Club 65yrs Young

BALLYMENA Amateur Radio Club has been transmitting since 1947 and last week they were officially recognised by Ballymena Borough Council for their 65 years of service to the community.

Last Wednesday night members of the club were invited to the Mayor’s parlour to be presented with a plague for their achievement. Chairman Aubrey Kincaid gave a short speech to Mayor Hubert Nicholl explaining the club’s history.

The club was officially first started back in 1947, by local enthusiasts and ex-servicemen. However it’s thought a club was broadcasting from as far back as 1929.

Ballymena ARC

Teenagers in Hebburn

TEENAGERS are making waves at a new Hebburn-based radio club.
The North East Amateur Radio Club meets at Wardles Bar in Albert Street, Hebburn, between 7pm and 9pm each Monday.
Now its two youngest members have successfully passed their Foundation Radio licence examination.
Ashleigh Cockburn, 17, from Hebburn, who is a petty officer in the Merchant Navy Volunteer Cadets, and 13-year-old Ben Sewell, from South Shields, who attends Harton Technology College, were recently presented with their pass certificates from Hebburn South councillors Nancy Maxwell and Eddie McAtominey.
Young Radio Hams Up North

Irish Radio Transmitters Society

The Irish Radio Transmitters Society was founded in 1932 and the organization are proud to celebrate their 80th anniversary in 2012. As part of the celebrations the Society will be using the special callsign EI80IRTS.
A special certificate, available to all amateurs and SWLs, is being offered to celebrate this wonderful occasion during the period of January 1st 2012 to December 31st 2012.
This award is been sponsored by Dundalk Amateur Radio Society, full details of the award can be viewed at
http://www.ei7dar.com/ei80irts.html

EI80IRTS on The Air

Radio Waves A Boost For RNLI Life-Savers

The John O'Groat Journal and Caithness Courier reports on the activities of the Caithness Amateur Radio Society (CARS) during SOS Radio Week.

CARS operated from the control room of the Wick harbour station on a rota basis, 10 radio hams took part between January 17 and 21.

Contact was made with 17 different countries to promote Wick, Caithness and the RNLI lifeboat station.....
RNLI on The Air

Special Calls for UK Hams in 2012

The Radio Society of Great Britain and Ofcom have reached agreement on the optional use of special callsigns for two significant events during 2012.

For the Queens Diamond Jubilee, all UK amateur stations will have the option of applying for a variation to their licence if they wish, to use a special prefix for a five week period. This will add or substitute the letter Q in the place of the Regional identifier in the callsign.

For the period of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games, a similar facility will exist for a seven week period, using the letter O.

Both the above facilities will also be available to Amateur Club licences.

Diamond Jubilee and Olympics on the air

Ham Radio In Antarctica

Oleg, UA1PBA/ZS1ANF, will be operating as RI1ANF from Bellinghausen Base (WAP RUS-01) from February-March 2012 until the end of 2012 or the beginning of 2013.

On the way on to Antarctica (end of February) he will try to operate from the Icebreacker "Ak. Fedorov" as callsign/MM.

Alex, UA1PAW, is already at Novo Runway (WAP MNB-06) waiting the license RI1ANR. He will be there until February/March 2012.

Slava (ex-UA1PAI) is on board the "Akademik Fedorov".....

Amateur Radio on Ice

Wife Keeps In Touch With Seafaring Hubby

An antique radio is the only link Donna Sweeney has to her seafaring husband as he sails across the Pacific. David Vincent left Nanaimo more than a year ago to island-hop across the South Pacific. He is living his dream - and Sweeney is keeping track of every detail through her home radio. She searches frequencies each morning for news he's OK. Sailing the open sea can be dangerous when you're travelling it alone.

"This is V47DSW," she says Tuesday morning, listing her call name to an operator at the Nanaimo Amateur Radio Association. "Did you hear from David last night? Go ahead."

A voice crackles over the radio: "All is well. He couldn't talk for long, but he's making his way through the islands and will reach his destination within a couple hours. Go ahead."

Ham Radio on The High Seas

Rockall On The Air

EU-189. Once again a Belgian expedition team will be sailing to Rockall Island at the end of September. Operators mentioned as of press time are: Patrick/ON4HIL, Theo/ON4ATW, Henk/ON4AHF, Karel/ON5TN and Rudi/ON7YT.

Three of these operators have been at, not on, Rockall Island in May 2009. The team will set sail aboard the "Commandant Fourcault" on September 23rd, for a 4 day voyage to Rockall. If all goes as planned, they will be on the air as MM0RAI around September 27th or 28th. Please keep in mind that heavy seas or bad weather can delay the operation! QSL via ON4ATW (LoTW, by the Bureau or direct.

Please visit their Web site for details and updates at: http://www.rockall.be

Belgian Hams on Rockall