Trip Report Irish Radio Transmitters Society (IRTS) 75th Anniversary and AGM Cork, Ireland April 21-22, 2007 IRTS Secretary Dave Moore, EI4BZ invited Linda and me to attend a dinner marking the 75th anniversary of the founding of the IRTS in 1932. It was very economical for me to do so because I was able to arrange my flights to Dubrovnik for the IARU Region 1 Executive Committee meeting in Cavtat, Croatia the previous weekend through Dublin - at an overall cost about $400 less than alternative routings to Dubrovnik alone. I arrived in Dublin Tuesday night; Linda traveled from California at personal expense and arrived on Wednesday morning. We took three days of vacation on the Dingle Peninsula before arriving at the Vienna Woods Hotel, Glanmire, Cork on Saturday afternoon. Ole Garpestad, LA2RR attended with his wife Karin, LA8UW on behalf of IARU Region 1; the RSGB was represented by President Angus Annan, MM1CCR, who - despite his Scottish call sign - is from Belfast. The IRTS President is Fr. Finnbarr Buckley, EI1CS, a Catholic priest. He attended the 2005 Region 1 Conference in Davos. Needless to say, Finnbarr gave the invocation at the banquet. Later he told of receiving an invitation from the RSGB to attend their Annual General Meeting "with his wife" and said he had looked for one to bring, but "all those on offer were past their sell-by date." There were about 130 in attendance at the dinner including representatives of the administration, ComReg, including our friend John Breen, EI7BV, who headed the Irish delegation to WRC-03 and did some good work for us there. Linda happened to be seated at the head table next to a young economist Ph.D. from ComReg who spent a few years in New Haven, CT and has a lively interest in American politics. When invited to speak he said some nice words about the need for access to spectrum for amateur endeavors, which were good to hear from an economist. Eight of the nine living Past Presidents of the IRTS were present (the ninth lives nearby but was in London for his son's wedding) and were given special recognition. I was asked to give one of the toasts and presented gifts to IRTS from the ARRL (an engraved clock) and IARU (an engraved stand-alone plaque). Ole gave the reply to Finnbarr's toast on behalf of the foreign guests and presented them with a Norwegian "ice bear" which to Irish ears sounded like "ice beer" (it was actually what we would call a polar bear). Several amateurs from Northern Ireland had come all the way to Cork, which is in the southern part of the Irish Republic, for the event. Relations appear to be totally amicable between the EI and GI amateurs. Several radio clubs in Northern Ireland are affiliated with IRTS. Indeed, even outside of Amateur Radio circles I heard considerable optimism expressed that "The Troubles" in Northern Ireland are over and peace is taking hold, with great economic benefits. It was almost midnight by the time the banquet was over, but a number of us stayed on to talk about Amateur Radio over a few pints of Guinness. In the course of this I was invited to visit the nearby contest station, EI7M, on Sunday morning. It was interesting to see the rather modest station that is by far the most consistent signal from Ireland during HF contests. They have a great site and are working on antenna improvements that should make them more competitive in the future. Speaking of contests, IRTS is sponsoring a very interesting one-off event on the last weekend of September this year as a part of their 75th anniversary celebrations. "CQ IR" is a 24-hour, single-operator, HF CW/SSB contest in which everybody works everybody, with Irish counties (in both Northern Ireland and the Republic) on each band and mode as the multipliers. Anyone who operates from Ireland (either part) or who has a direct ancestral link to Ireland, or a spouse with such a link, can supply the county multiplier. For example, as far as I know my most recent Irish ancestor emigrated from County Tyrone in 1885. So instead of a serial number I would send "1885 TYR" and anyone working me could claim the County Tyrone multiplier, even though I'm operating from Connecticut. It's an interesting wrinkle that should unearth quite a few North American contesters with Irish roots. The rules are at http://irts.ie/cgi/showrules.cgi?cqir Two grand prizes will be awarded, but on the basis of lottery rather than score. For stations operating from Ireland the grand prize is a weekend for two in New York City. On behalf of the ARRL I offered to throw in a side trip to visit Newington, which Finnbarr immediately accepted. I was given a copy of a report dated October 2006 of a technical trial of two BPL systems conducted by the Electricity Supply Board, the Irish power utility. The bottom line of the study is, "Despite significant hype and R&D spending by vendors and certain utilities, Broadband Power Line Technology is nowhere near an appropriate state of development required for commercial 'mass market' rollout." The presentation is currently available at <http://www.engineersireland.ie/sectorpapers/GetSectorPaperDetails.pasp?SectorPaperId=95&MenuID=7> A rally (the equivalent of a US flea market) was held in the banquet room of the hotel on Sunday morning and early afternoon, after which the Annual General Meeting was called to order in another part of the hotel. There were almost 100 IRTS members present. IRTS is operated entirely by volunteers; they have about 1,000 members and an annual budget of about $35,000. However, licensing is showing signs of growth and membership is holding reasonably steady despite a dues increase, thanks to a strong economy and immigration from other parts of the EU (I was told Ireland is the only country in Europe in which the average age is decreasing). On the other hand, IRTS officials reported relatively low activity among existing licensees and difficulty recruiting new ones. The Amateur Radio tradition in Ireland is experimental, but current interest is in public service and emergency communications on the one hand and competitive operating on the other with little overlap (and possibly a bit of tension) between the two groups. Ole and I were asked to offer some remarks, and we agreed to a division of labor whereby I would provide an update on recent happenings in North America and he would provide the international overview. I began with Canada, reporting that Canada had experienced about a 3% growth in licensing following the dropping of the Morse requirement (this figure came from Earle Smith) and that RAC had recently lost its General Manager to cancer. Then I told them about the expansion of the US phone bands on 80 and 40 meters and said that if they were hearing US stations in parts of those bands where they hadn't been heard previously, it wasn't because people were operating out of band. I reminded them that unlike most countries, in the US the phone bands are established by regulation and not simply by voluntary band plan. I then advised them of the dropping of the Morse code requirement as of February 23, and mentioned in passing that the ARRL would have preferred to retain the requirement for the Extra Class license. (In Ireland they have retained a code test, but all you get if you pass is the opportunity to obtain a two-letter call.) I described briefly our three license classes and reported that not only had interest in upgrading to Extra and especially to General increased dramatically, but that applications for the Technician license also had increased. I told them that while total licenses were continuing to decline because of the effect of the 10-year license term - we were "losing" people who in fact had lost interest years ago but were just now falling out of the statistics - both activity and membership are beginning to trend upward. Linda and I were excused before the end of the meeting since we had to drive back to Dublin. It was a most enjoyable experience. Ireland is lovely, and the people - not just the hams - are very friendly, especially to Americans. IRTS officials and members alike appeared to be very appreciative of the IARU, to a greater extent than I typically encounter. I believe this stems in large part from what John Breen has told them of the IARU's efforts on their behalf in the ITU and CEPT. As for the ARRL, many of those present told me with obvious pride that they were longtime ARRL members.