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This Week's News

IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday June 29th, 2025
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Hugh Mellerick RIP

We regret to report the death of Hugh Mellerick on June 21st. Hugh
served as a Radio Officer at sea before joining RTÉ in the Network
Southern Area where he served until retirement. A native of Cork, Hugh
made a very significant contribution to RTÉ's mission of delivering
sound and pictures to the people of Ireland. May he rest in peace.
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South Eastern Amateur Radio Group EI2WRC

The next in-person meeting of South Eastern Amateur Radio Group will
take place on Monday, July 28th 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 also.

For more information about EI2WRC, their activities, and for contact
details please see www.searg.ie
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PJ6Y DXpedition to Saba

In October of this year, the PJ6Y Pacific Island DX Group plan a
DXpedition on the Caribbean island of Saba which has the IOTA reference
NA-145. A diverse international team of 12 to 14 operators will take
part. The team will include nine first-time young DXpeditioners. It is
being arranged as an opportunity for young amateur radio operators to
experience DXpeditioning at the highest level for the very first time.

Additionally, 30 to 40 young hams will join remotely using the NexGen2
rig-in-a-box system made possible through a grant from the Northern
California DX Foundation. The team will set up three local and two
remote stations, operating CW, SSB, FT8, and satellite, from two
separate operating locations. The DXpedition on the island which has an
area of just 13 square kilometres is planned to run from the 17th to
the 29th of October 2025.
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VHF/Microwave News

For the coming week, some tropospheric propagation opportunities can be
expected at the start and then again near the end of the week.

AIS or Automatic Identification System is a short-range coastal
tracking system used in maritime navigation. AIS devices comprise a GPS
receiver and a data radio unit. This system enables ships all over the
world to identify each other. The power used is up to 12.5W on
frequencies in the region of 162MHz. Given the high levels of maritime
traffic around coast of Ireland and further afield, this system can be
used as very useful propagation indicator for VHF.

If you have a spare 2m white stick antenna and a simple USB-based or
other type of software defined receiver, you can consider trying to set
up your own AIS receiving station to identify propagation opportunities
on the 2m band even if you are far from the coast. AIS Friends
Volunteers Network located at aisfriends.com is one of the ways you can
use to visualise data received.

The next 145 Alive event takes place on July 20th, 2025, from 12 p.m.
to 3 p.m. local time. If any operators are interested in taking part as
a net control station, please email 145aliveuk /at/ gmail.com to
register.
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Anniversary Day at Grimeton Radio Station

The 100th anniversary of World Heritage Site Grimeton takes place next
Wednesday July 2nd, 2025. To mark this occasion, you will have a chance
to experience two launches of the historic transmitter. You will also
be able to try receiving the transmission of a telegram using the
callsign SAQ at 09:00 UTC and then again at 13:00 UTC. The frequency
used will be 17.2 kHz and the mode is CW. Several online receivers are
available for you to listen in to the activity. The event will also be
livestreamed on YouTube. Further information may be found at
alexander.n.se
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ARRL Logbook of the World Upgrade

ARRL's Logbook of The World is an extremely popular service
internationally for amateur radio operators. It is the primary means
for providing confirmations for ARRL Awards, such as DXCC and Worked
All States. Logbook of The World can be found at lotw.arrl.org

As a part of the ongoing modernization of the ARRL systems
infrastructure, it will be receiving major upgrades over the coming
days. These changes will, among other improvements, ensure it can meet
the demands of its users. As a result, Logbook of the World will be
unavailable from June 27th to July 2nd, 2025, to complete these
upgrades.
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Contests and Events

The results of the recent IRTS CW Field Day weekend over the 7th and
8th of June have been published on the IRTS website. Well done to all
that took part.

The IRTS VHF UHF field day weekend takes next weekend July 5th and 6th.
Five separate contests will run on each of the 6m, 4m, 2m, 70cm, and
23cm bands. Further details including the rules may be found at
www.irts.ie/contests

The IRTS contest manager Mark EI6JK is seeking operators to operate the
IRTS contest callsign EIØHQ for the six CW and SSB slots in the IARU HF
championship. This event takes place over the weekend of July 12th and
13th. If interested, please contact Mark EI6JK via email to
contest_manager /at/ irts.ie
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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.

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