
IRTS RADIO NEWS BULLETIN 

Sunday February 4th 1996


South Dublin Radio Club

The Annual General Meeting of South Dublin Radio Club will be held 
at 8.30 pm on Tuesday 27th February at the club's QTH in the 
Ballyroan Community Centre, Marian Road, Rathfarnham.  

All members are asked to attend.  

As always, new members and visitors are very welcome to the club, 
which meets every Tuesday at 8.00 pm.

The SDR theory classes are proceeding well and on a recent Tuesday 
evening, the class members were given an opportunity to operate 
from the club premises on both HF and VHF.  Many thanks to those 
who had QSOs with the students.  Class members found it very 
useful and a great help in understanding operating procedures.

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River Shannon Expedition

On the 12th, 13th and 14th of April next, a number of groups are 
planning to activate quite a few rare WAI squares and EI counties.

The event, to be known as The Shannon River Run will involve 
between four and six Emerald Star Line cruisers, equipped and 
crewed by EI, GI and GW operators.

It is envisaged that there would also be one land based control 
station with good antennae systems as well as a number of land 
based mobile support crews.

Operation will be on 80, 40, 20 and 2 metre bands using both phone 
and CW.

It is hoped to use callsigns in the series EI2SSR to EI9SSR i.e. 
Shannon River Run.

Full details of callsigns, frequencies etc. will be announced in 
due course.

Places are limited but clubs, groups or individuals interested in 
crewing boats or providing land based support should contact Paul 
EI2CA at QTHR or telephone him at 01-4900637 (office hours).

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Blasket Islands Expedition

As previously announced, the WestNet DX Group will operate from 
The Great Blasket Island EU-007 this summer. 

We can now confirm that the group will be QRV from Friday June 7th 
until Monday June 10th inclusive.

All bands 10-160m will be used and modes will be CW, SSB, RTTY, 
and AMTOR.

The callsign used will be EJ7NET and QSLs should go as usual to 
Declan EI6FR.

The WestNet Group are very pleased to have as their guests for 
this operation several HB9 IOTA enthusiasts,including Bernie 
HB9ASZ and his friends from the Saltee Dog Group who were QRV from 
Saltee EU-103 as EJ2GSI a couple of years ago.

_____________________________

MIR

Thomas Reiter aboard the MIR orbital complex reports that the 
power supply used for some of the amateur radio equipment on MIR 
has failed. An old power supply was installed but it only capable 
of handling the old Icom rig and one TNC. 

The Digital Voice Module has also failed, so there will be no more 
automatic voice recordings in the near future.

All four fuses in the two connected transceivers blew and only two 
spare fuses are left to run the Icom.

____________________________


Oscar 10

Continuing the Space theme, we can report that Amsat-Oscar-10s 
orientation is such that its solar panels are not receiving 
adequate illumination to maintain a charge on its storage 
batteries. As a result, the downlink recently experienced 
frequency instability and has now gone silent. 

Users should refrain from using Oscar-10 until sun angles improve 
to the point where its storage batteries can once again be 
charged.

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The Brendan Trophies

The Brendan Trophies were presented to the IRTS by Waterford 
Crystal at the AGM in Cobh last April and will be awarded to the 
two stations making the first 2 metre Trans-Atlantic QSO. 

Interest in the trophies has quite high and several stations in 
North America have been in contact with Paul Martin EI2CA looking 
for co-operation from EI stations in a trans-Atlantic attempt 
during July and August this year.

If you or your club are interested in getting involved or need a 
copy of the rules, please contact Paul EI2CA at 01-4900637 (office 
hours).

_____________________________


Phoenix Rally

The first rally of the year, promoted by the Phoenix Amateur Radio 
Club, will be held on Sunday week, February 18th at the Coolmine 
Community School in Blanchardstown, Dublin 15.

Doors will open to the public at 12 noon with trader access from 
9.30. Talk-in will on S21 and admission will be one pound.

A supervised car park will be provided and further information can 
be had from Rory EI4DJB at 01-8382234 or Tony EI7GI at 01-8252074.
                                              
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Items for inclusion in both the Radio News and Newsletter can be 
faxed to 021-632730. 
                                              
The Radio News Editor, John EI7DNB, can be contacted at 021-353988 
in the evening and the Newsletter Editor, Dave EI4BZ is at 021- 
632444 during the day and 021-883555 in the evening. 
                                              
Mail can be sent on packet to either EI7DNB or EI4BZ on cluster or 
at the EI7DKB BBS or on Internet to jbarry@curia.ucc.ie 

