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This Week's News

IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday March 16th, 2025
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Silent Keys - Bill Igoe EI7IK and Willie Brown EI7CGB

This week, we begin with the sad news regarding two Silent Keys.

Bill Igoe EI7IK passed away on Saturday 1st March 2025 while visiting
Edinburgh with his family. Bill was originally from County Roscommon
and lived in Naas for the last 50 years where he operated his station,
EI7IK. Bill was a warm, kind gentleman and a cherished member of his
community in Naas where he was actively involved in local sports and
community groups for many years. We extend our sincere condolences to
his daughter, Trish, sons Dermot and Ken, eight grandchildren, and
friends.

We also regret to announce the death of Willie Brown EI7CGB of
Gurranabraher in Cork City. Willie passed away unexpectedly at home on
Monday March 10th. Requiem mass was held on Thursday last followed by
cremation in the Island Crematorium in Ringaskiddy. Licenced in 1986,
he was a very well-known operator particularly on the VHF bands from
his high site on the North side of Cork City. We extend our deepest
sympathies to his children Vicky and Liam and his extended family.

Ar dheis DΘ go raibh a n-anamacha. May they both rest in peace.
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News from the IRTS

The Spring 2025 edition of Echo Ireland is currently being distributed
to members. It is also available to be downloaded for those who choose
to receive it electronically. This jampacked 32-page edition contains
all the usual articles as well as club reports from SEARG, Galway Radio
Club, and Shannon Basin Radio Club amongst others.

Prior the 2025 AGM of the society, the 2025 Spring edition of Echo
Ireland contains the auditors report for the year ending December 31st,
2024, the nominations for IRTS Committee for IRTS AGM 2025 on April
13th, as well as a 16-page pull out section which contains reports from
over 15 IRTS committee and society officers outlining some of their
work done during 2024.

The pull-out section is also available to members as a separate PDF
download from the usual Echo Ireland download location. A special
mention of thanks must go to Echo Ireland editor Veronica Holohan for
the magnificent job she did on the publication.

The EIDX Group is once again active on the air, this time as 6Y7EI from
Jamaica IOTA NA-097. The team has been active from Thursday last, March
13th and will be active until March 24th on all HF and 6m bands using
CW, SSB, and FT8.

From Monday, March 17th, 6Y7EI will be running a dedicated 6m station
and they are hoping the green path will be open back to Ireland so keep
an eye out! The 12-man team this year include Heye DJ9RR, Enda EI2II,
Thos EI2JD, David EI3IXB, Pete EI4GZB, Jim EI4HH, Jeremy EI5GM, Dermot
EI6FM, Charlie EI8JB, Dave EI9FBB, Declan EI9HQ, and Kenneth OZ1IKY.

You can follow the group by searching Facebook for 6Y7EI or donate on
the webpage www.eidxg.com to support the group. They would like to
express thanks to those who have already been so generous. The QSL
manager is Charles, M0OXO through his online OQRS system.

The group hopes to see even more EI callsigns in the log and improve on
last year's successful operation. On behalf of the society, we wish
them well and hope you all get them in your logs.

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. Nominations should
reach the IRTS Awards Committee by email to awards /at/ irts.ie before
Sunday, March 23rd please.
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South Eastern Amateur Radio Group EI2WRC

Tables for individual traders or people who may have surplus radio gear
or second-hand equipment to sell at the SEARG Radio Rally are now
available to be prebooked. As the club must hire extra tables for the
event, this will mean that any person who requires tables will be
charged 10 euro per table which includes admission for one person into
the rally. Additional tables will cost 10 euro per table and additional
personnel will be 5 euro per person.

Table enquiries can be made to Seany EI2HZB on 083 4713001. Tables are
limited and will be allocated on a first come-first served basis so
contact Seany before March 30th, 2025, please. SEARG members will be
on-hand on the day to help traders transport equipment in and out of
the rally area.

With regards to the dinner tickets, EI2WRC would like to inform people
that unless you have a dinner ticket, you will be unable to attend the
IRTS Gala Dinner. 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 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
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Dundalk Amateur Radio Society Update

Dundalk Amateur Radio Society operates a 2 metre VHF internet gateway
using the Echolink protocol. The gateway is currently off air due to
necessary upgrading works. Further information will be available via
their Facebook page regarding completion of the works.
__________________________________________________________________

Limerick Clare Amateur Radio Club

Limerick Clare Amateur Radio Club reports that it has had a couple of
very busy and successful weekends recently.

On the 1st of March, the club hosted a visit by ten members of the
Patriot Radio Club from North Cork to the Shannon Aviation Museum,
callsign EI4SAM. The visitors were given demonstrations by club members
of the full range of club equipment and a lively discussion ensued.

Twenty members of the National Short Wave Listeners Club visited the
station on the 8th of March and were hosted by Dermot EII2GT, Simon
EI7ALB, and Gerry EI8CC. They demonstrated the extensive range of
equipment at the station, including their most recent acquisition which
is a full QO-100 satellite station. They also discussed the use of
Peanut and Zello software in addition to online SDRs.

The annual club rally took place on March 9th at the Oakwood Hotel in
Shannon and was a very successful event. LCARC wish to thank all of
those who attended and all traders who had tables in particular Long
Communications. A wide range of new and used equipment was on sale and
many shacks are now sporting the items purchased. There was great
interest in the raffle and the club wishes to thank Jane McGill of the
Shannon Aviation Museum for donating a prize of a Boeing 737 Simulator
session valued at 150 euro as well as Long Communications for donating
a power supply at cost price.

LCARC will be celebrating its 80th anniversary in 2026 and as part of
the celebrations will host the IRTS AGM in the Oakwood Hotel in
Shannon. Planning for the anniversary is already underway, and a series
of activities will be announced shortly.
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PoLo Portable Logger Now Supports Worked All Ireland Squares

Paraic EI2LH reports an exciting update for portable operators. PoLo is
a popular free portable logging app developed by Sebastißn Delmont
KI2D. He has released a March 2025 update which now includes Worked All
Ireland (WAI) square tracking.

PoLo has gained rapid popularity among SOTA, POTA, WWFF, and Bunkers on
the Air operators worldwide, including Irish Bunkers on the Air. Its
intuitive design and excellent logging features make it a must-have
tool for portable and mobile activators, supporting a wide range of
award schemes.

Following a recent National Shortwave Listeners Club social, which
featured a presentation on the WAI awards scheme by Dave EI4BZ, Paraic
contacted the PoLo developer to explore adding WAI support. Sebastißn
kindly agreed, and the latest PoLo release now enables users to log WAI
squares effortlessly. Paraic extends his sincere thanks to Sebastißn
KI2D for implementing this feature and encourages all portable
operators to check out PoLo at polo.ham2k.com.
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Items for Inclusion in Next Week's Radio News

That is the news for this week and 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]
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