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This Week's News

IRTS Radio News Bulletin Sunday March 29th, 2026
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IRTS Updates

Echo Ireland is the IRTS journal available for free to members and is
published quarterly. In a change approved in the recent IRTS committee
meeting on March 25th, the email address echoireland /at/ irts.ie is
now available for contributors for the submission of articles intended
for Echo Ireland. This is to streamline the news team process. Items
intended for the weekly radio news will continue to go to newsteam /at/
irts.ie as usual. We greatly appreciate the increasing number of
articles and news items for both services and thank everyone who
contribute to help keep our amateur radio community updated.

ComReg has let us know that they sent out 1,933 individual emails
inviting radio amateurs to respond to their survey. You may remember
that this survey is to gauge the health of the hobby. As of Monday
March 23rd, 2026, only 192 responses have been received. While starting
strongly, the number of responses has tailed off. That is almost a 10%
response rate. The deadline for responses is 5 p.m. tomorrow, Monday
the 30th of March. A link to the survey can be found on the Radio
Amateurs page on ComReg.ie ComReg staff have noted a level of positive
engagement, comments and encouragement on various social media channels
and look forward to getting many more responses.

We are excited to note that the weekly IRTS radio news network
continues to grow. Galway Radio Experimenters Club have started news
bulletin transmissions on Monday nights at 8 p.m. These are via the
EI2KMR repeater in Loughrea which is also linked with Shannon Basin
Radio Club's EI2SBR, Donegal Amateur Radio Club's EI2TKR, and
Inisbofin's EJ7IBD repeaters. If you can, please consider supporting
them by providing reception reports after the news.

We wish to thank long-time IRTS news reader and HF manager Stefan EI4KU
who is taking a break from IRTS duties due to personal reasons. We wish
him the best and look forward to his return. This means we are down to
just one 80m newsreader and seek additional volunteers for the panel.
The 80m news bulletin will be on a less frequent service for the time
being. If interested in helping with the 80m or any other news service
and availing of the excellent www.IRTS.news tool that simplifies the
task, please contact newsteam /at/ irts.ie to learn more.

We are delighted to welcome Sandip Nambiar EI7IJB who is taking over
the QSL manager role for callsigns with the numbers 4 and 5 in them. We
wish Sandip the very best and greatly appreciate his offer of help. Our
new outwards QSL manager Padraig EI8JAB, will be accepting outward QSL
cards at the Limerick Clare Amateur Radio Club rally on Sunday April
19th.

We are now entering the busier part of the year regarding radio-related
activities outdoors and in public spaces. The IRTS provides public
liability insurance cover for all paid up IRTS members and affiliated
clubs for Ireland, the UK, and European Union. This valuable benefit is
included as part of your IRTS membership fee. The IRTS insurance
officer is Pat O'Connor EI9HX. He would be delighted to help members
requiring further information. Pat can be contacted via email to
insurance /at/ irts.ie
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IRTS AGM Weekend Update from Limerick Clare Amateur Radio Club

As part of the IRTS 93rd AGM weekend, Limerick Clare Amateur Radio Club
is hosting a premier technical workshop. Participants will spend the
morning of Saturday April 18th assembling a high-performance, modern
internet radio device. The workshop is limited to twenty participants,
and the cost is twenty euro. Visit Limerick Clare Amateur Radio Club's
website to register.
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South Eastern Amateur Radio Group Meeting

The March meeting of the EI2WRC group will take place tomorrow, Monday,
March 30th at 8 p.m. sharp at the Southeast 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 very welcome to attend also.
Please see www.searg.ie for more information about EI2WRC, their
activities, and for contact details.
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South Dublin Radio Club's AGM

South Dublin Radio Club s AGM will take place at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, the
14th of April 2026 at Ballyroan Community Centre on the Marian Road in
Rathfarnham. All members are asked to attend.
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Shannon Basin Radio Club Update

Mills on the Air is a special event held on the 2nd weekend of May. The
club will be active as EI2EWM from the historic Elphin Windmill in Co.
Roscommon. Among the team will be Daniel McDowell EI8ICB who is also
running as a nominee for the IRTS committee having provided extensive
input and guidance to the community in recent months. Shannon Basin
Radio Club wishes him the very best in his endeavours. Visit
nharg.org.uk to learn about the Mills on the Air program and sbrc.ie
for further information about the club and how to contact them.
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VHF/Microwave News

For CW enthusiasts and especially those new to the mode or curious to
learn, activity events on VHF and above are opportunities for you to
try. The UKQRP group hold a 2m CW activity on Tuesday evenings. The
FISTS club also organise activity evenings during the week with 2m CW
on Tuesdays and 70cm CW on Friday evenings. They are not contests but
are friendly events to help encourage interest and increased use of CW.
We encourage operators from Ireland to also take part and try their
hand at CW contacts on VHF and above as well as hopefully conduct some
QSOs across the Irish Sea.
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Truskmore VHF Repeater Update

Donegal Amateur Radio Club are happy to report that the Truskmore VHF
Repeater, EI2TKR, is back in service as of 3 p.m. on the 27th of March,
after an unexpected outage for a few days. Thankfully a simple reboot
of the repeater itself brought it back. As they continue to monitor its
performance post-restoration, any signal reports would be greatly
appreciated. They thank you for your patience while time was arranged
to access the site and resolve the issue.
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Retirement of Long Communications

Following 36 years in business, Long Communications announced their
retirement as of March 27th this year. Raymond Long and team have been
a constant and highly regarded trader in almost all radio rallies in
Ireland over the past four decades from their base in Dunkineely, Co.
Donegal. We wish Raymond the very best in retirement and thank him for
all the years of dedicated service to the amateur radio community.
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Contest Calendar

Well done to everyone who took part in the recent IRTS 80m Counties
contest. Please note that the closing date for log entries is this
coming Wednesday April the 1st. Visit irts.ie/contests for submission
details. The IRTS 2m and 70cm Counties Contest takes place on Easter
Monday, April 6th. It starts at 2 p.m. with the 70cm contest running
for 30 minutes. It is immediately followed by the 2m contest taking
place for 90 minutes until 4 p.m.
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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 the radio news editor Keith
EI5IN via email to newsteam /at/ irts.ie with the details. The deadline
each week is midnight on Thursdays. Items intended for inclusion in
Echo Ireland, which is the IRTS quarterly journal, should be sent to
echoireland /at/ irts.ie

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