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This Week's News

IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday December 14th, 2025
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Updates from the IRTS

The IRTS news team is taking a small break over the Christmas period.
There will be no news bulletins on either Sunday December 21st or
Sunday, December 28th. Normal bulletins will resume on Sunday, January
4th, 2026. Items for the first IRTS radio news bulletin of 2026 should
reach the news team by midnight on New Year's Day, Thursday January
1st.

The deadline for the 2026 Spring edition of Echo Ireland is February
10th, 2026. If you wish to submit articles for inclusion, you can find
further information and guidance at irts.ie/echoireland and items
should also be sent via email to newsteam /at/ irts.ie

We would like to take this opportunity to wish you and your families a
very peaceful and Happy Christmas and New Year.
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Limerick Clare Amateur Radio Club Hosting the 2026 IRTS AGM

Limerick Clare Amateur Radio Club extends its warmest wishes to all
members, fellow radio amateurs and short-wave listeners for a happy
Christmas and prosperous DX-filled New Year.

The club is looking forward eagerly to an active 2026 when they
celebrate their 80th anniversary. This is a major milestone and one
that they are exceedingly proud of. To mark the anniversary, members
will be QRV throughout the year with the special club callsign EI80LCR.
You are asked to please listen out for this. They will also be
undertaking some field operations and details of these will be
available in the New Year when venues and dates are agreed.

One of the highlights for the club in 2026 will be hosting the IRTS AGM
on the 12th of April in Treacy's Oakwood Hotel in Shannon. A full
programme of events is planned for the weekend beginning with practical
workshops on Saturday 11th from 1.00 p.m. onwards. This will be
followed by the Gala Dinner at 7.30 p.m. On Sunday the 12th, the day
will kick off with the club rally and monster raffle and will be
followed by the IRTS AGM. Full details will be published early in the
New Year.
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Santa coming to Shannon Basin Radio Club

Santa will join the Shannon Basin Radio Group on air as he takes some
time out from his preparations to have some QSOs with junior ops before
Christmas Day. On Saturday December 20th, he will be QRV calling as
Echo Icicle Two Santa Before Christmas EI2SBC via the club's repeater
from 5 p.m. onwards. As his time is limited, it is best to register
at www.sbrc.ie/christmas by Thursday December 18th. The EI2SBR
repeater located on Sliabh Bbn in Roscommon has an output frequency of
145.775 MHz and uses a 77Hz CTCSS tone. It can also be accessed via
Echolink and is linked to the Truskmore repeater EI2TKR. Shannon Basin
Radio Club wishes everyone a very Happy Christmas and New Year.
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Update from Tog Hackerspace

Tog Hackerspace in Dublin has a new addition to its HF station. They
extend a big thanks to Niall Donohue EI6HIB from their friends in South
Dublin Radio Club for the donation of a Cobweb antenna, quickly renamed
the "TogWeb" by the crew. They will be installing and tuning it over
the coming weeks to improve their HF operations and give them better
coverage into Europe and beyond under their club callsign EI0TOG.

If you are interested in radio and would like to see the station in
action, you are always welcome to drop in on one of their open evenings
at Tog Hackerspace. Tog Hackerspace and EI0TOG wish everyone a Happy
Christmas and a great New Year.
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Special Event Station celebrating 70 years of RSGB News Service

This year, the Radio Society of Great Britain is celebrating 70 years
of its news service, GB2RS. Throughout the year, newsreaders have been
using the special event callsign GB70RS as part of these celebrations.
From Monday 15th through to Sunday 21st December 2025, Sean, G7NJX,
will be activating GB70RS. He will be active on the 20, 40, and 80m
bands using SSB, CW, RTTY, PSK31, FT8, FT4, SSTV, and FeldHell which is
a facsimile-type mode.

A schedule of bands, modes, and times for the week can be found on
Sean's QRZ page, along with details of the software used for the
machine generated modes. He will also do his best to spot his activity
on the DX cluster. Sean is hoping to work many EI and GI stations on
all the modes.
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100th Anniversary of the First Polish QSL-Confirmed QSO

The Polish Amateur Radio Union report that 100 years have passed since
the first Polish QSO was confirmed by a QSL card. To commemorate this
event, the Polish Amateur Radio Union (PZK) together with the SP DX
Club has organized the special callsign SN0TPAX. This special event
station is expected to be active throughout the rest of month using SSB
and CW.
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Christmas message on 17.2kHz from Sweden

On December 1st, 1924, the 200kW Alexanderson alternator with the call
sign "SAQ" was put into commercial operation with telegram traffic from
Sweden to the United States. 101 years later, the transmitter is the
only remaining electro-mechanical transmitter from this era and is
still in running condition. On Christmas Eve morning, Wednesday
December 24th, 2025, the transmitter is scheduled to spread the
traditional Christmas message on 17.2 kHz CW. If interested in
receiving this, several online software defined receivers like KiwiSDR
are freely available for you to try.
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Rally and Events Updates

The first IRTS 80m Counties Contest of 2026 takes place on New Year's
Day, Thursday January 1st at 17:00 UTC. This runs for one hour and
details may be found at irts.ie/contests

The 2026 Phoenix Amateur Radio Club Rally known as the "Coolmine Rally"
will take place on Sunday, the 15th of February 2026. Doors open at 10
a.m. at the usual venue, which is Coolmine Community School, Dublin,
D15 FW97.
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Silent Key - EI7GV Peter Clandillon

We were saddened to learn of the death of Peter Clandillon EI7GV who
passed away on the 12th of November 2025. We extend our deepest
sympathies to his wife, children, extended family, and friends. Ar
dheis Do go raibh a anam. May he rest in peace.
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Items for Inclusion in the Next 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.
The next HF news bulletin will be transmitted on Sunday, January 4th,
2026. On behalf of the IRTS news team, thank you for all the news
contributions and reception reports from licenced operators and SWLs
over 2025. We wish you and your family a very Happy Christmas and
peaceful New Year.

[C]
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