(BUTTON) Go Back
This Week's News
IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday March 23rd, 2025
__________________________________________________________________
IRTS Award Nominations
With the 2025 IRTS AGM weekend taking place over the weekend of April
12th and 13th, the IRTS Awards committee is seeking nominations for
"Awards for Services to the Society or to Amateur Radio" and "Awards to
IRTS members for Other Achievements". Details of these awards are
available at www.irts.ie under the awards section. The deadline for
receipt of nominations is today Sunday, March 23rd. Nominations should
be sent to the IRTS awards committee by email to awards /at/ irts.ie.
__________________________________________________________________
IRTS Exam Board Announces the next HAREC exam
The IRTS Exam Board is pleased to advise that the next HAREC exam will
take place on the 17th of May 2025. The location of the exam is the
Clayton Hotel Dublin Airport, Stockhole Lane, Clonshagh, Co Dublin, K67
X3H5.
Due to expected high numbers, there will be a morning exam and an
afternoon exam. The morning exam will commence at 11 a.m. till 1p.m.
and the afternoon exam will commence from 2 p.m. till 4p.m. Candidates
are advised to state which time suits when making their application.
Please see the licensing section of the IRTS website or contact Mick
EI6IKB at IRTS_exams /at/ irts.ie if you need any further information.
__________________________________________________________________
South Eastern Amateur Radio Group EI2WRC
The March meeting of the EI2WRC group will take place on Monday, March
31st at 8 p.m. sharp at the South East Technological University.
Netlabs Research and Innovation Building, SETU West Campus,
Carriganore, Waterford. The Eircode is X91 WR86. New members or anyone
that has an interest in amateur radio or communications in general are
very welcome to come along. SWLs are in particular very welcome to
attend.
With regards to the IRTS Gala Dinner on April 12th, EI2WRC would like
to inform people that unless you have a dinner ticket you will be
unable to attend. All dinner tickets must be booked and paid for before
4 p.m. on April 8th, 2025. In previous years people could turn up on
the day or let the club know the day before they wanted a dinner ticket
but due to a change in hotel protocol this is no longer the case.
Whatever number is given to the hotel at close of business on April 8th
is the number of people the club is then required to pay for whether or
not that amount of people may be in seated for dinner. Likewise, anyone
that might have purchased a dinner ticket and needs to get a refund a
full refund will be given if you request it before 4 p.m. on April 8th.
Unfortunately, requests for refunds cannot be catered for after that
deadline.
For more information about EI2WRC, their activities, and for contact
details please see www.searg.ie
__________________________________________________________________
South Dublin Radio Club AGM
South Dublin Radio Club's AGM will take place at 8 p.m. on Tuesday 29th
of April 2025 at Ballyroan community centre on the Marian Road in
Rathfarnham. All members are asked to attend.
__________________________________________________________________
VHF/Microwave News
The next 145 Alive event is taking place on Saturday, the 12th of April
2025. The coordinators for EI are the IRTS VHF/microwave managers,
Keith EI5IN and Denis EI4KH. It is noted that this is the same weekend
as the IRTS AGM Weekend. Any further operators interested and available
to act as net control stations for the three-hour event on that
Saturday are most welcome. You can contact the 145 Alive coordinators
for EI via email to vhf_manager /at/ irts.ie.
According to the DX Info Centre, moderate to high tropospheric
propagation is expected over Tuesday and Wednesday next and possibly
later into the week for EI operators. It is forecast that ducts will
extend from Ireland over to continental Europe for several hours. This
may provide very interesting DX opportunities for VHF and above
operators. For SHF operators, this should hopefully provide favourable
conditions for a UK Activity Contest using the 2.3 GHz to 10 GHz bands
on Tuesday evening. The event will be held from 19:30 to 22:30 UTC.
Several VHF nets are active each week in EI. Details of these are
available on the VHF/UHF/SHF page on irts.ie which is being updated
regularly as new information comes in. If you have any input or ideas
for the IRTS VHF/microwave management team, you are very welcome to
contact them via email to vhf_manager /at/ irts.ie.
__________________________________________________________________
February Edition of the IARU Region 1 Monitoring System Newsletter
The February edition of the IARU Region 1 Monitoring System newsletter
of 2025 starts with addressing new signals detected in the amateur
radio HF bands during the month. These include over the horizon radar
signals that according to the report, represent the greatest threat to
our allocated spectrum. The free monthly newsletters contain links to
recordings of the intruder signals. This is a great resource especially
for anyone new to radio and curious about the wide array of signals
involved. The newsletters can be downloaded from the monitoring system
section at iaru-r1.org.
__________________________________________________________________
World Amateur Radio Day 2025
World Amateur Radio Day will occur on April 18th, 2025. It was on this
day in 1925 that the International Amateur Radio Union was formed in
Paris. This year is therefore a special 100th anniversary of the
International Amateur Radio Union. Since 1925, the IARU has grown to
include 160 member-societies in three regions across the world. Amateur
radio operators across the world will take to the airwaves in
celebration of the 100th anniversary.
__________________________________________________________________
Contest Updates
The next event in the current series of UKIECC 80m contests takes place
on Wednesday next, the 26th of March 2025 at 20:00 UTC using CW.
The EI5G bonus station will be operated by Tom EI3ER and
the G5GEI bonus station will be operated by Mike G4IZZ.
In partnership with the IRTS, RSGB, and the GMDX group, the 2025 UK/EI
DX CW contest will take place over the 26th and 27th April 2025. This
contest will run for twenty-four hours from 12:00 UTC on the 26th until
12:00 UTC on the 27th. The mode used will be CW on the 80 to 10 metre
bands. Further information about both events may be found at
www.ukeicc.com The 2025 CQ World-Wide WPX Contest commences next Saturday, March 29th
from 00:00 UTC and ends at 23:59 UTC on Sunday the 30th. The mode used
is SSB on the 160m, 80m, 40m, 20m, 15m, and 10m bands only.
__________________________________________________________________
Items for Inclusion in Next Week's Radio News
That is the news for this week. Thanks to everyone for sending items
into the weekly IRTS radio news. They are very much appreciated and are
a great way to update the rest of the community about activities. If
you have any club events, activities, meetings, or other items of
interest, you are very welcome to email newsteam /at/ irts.ie with the
details. These will be automatically forwarded to the IRTS radio and
printed news services. The deadline each week is midnight on Thursdays.
[C]
News Archives
IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday March 23rd, 2025