IRTS News for 17th April 1994 AIRLINERS RECEIVE LIVE TV ------------------------- Soon there will be no escape from Coronation Street or the multitude of Australian soaps even at 40,000 ft. The world's airlines are linking up with IDB, a Los Angeles telecommunications company to feed 50 channels of live television into aircraft cabins. Within two years executives predict that live soaps, news and films will replace the video tapes currently used to entertain and inform passengers. Until now, stamdard aircraft antennae could pick up live radio, but TV reception was too poor to be worth relaying. News, normally pre-recorded on to video from BBC or CNN with a noticeable loss of picture quality, could be out of date by the time the aircraft took off. The breakthrough came last month when a Swissair McDonnell Douglas MD11 flew between Tokyo and Zurich offering passengers digital quality live broadcasts from CNN in Atlanta, Georgia. The Atlanta broadcasts were beamed in analogue form to a signal-processing station near Moscow, the only one available for the experiment. Ther signal was then beamed up in bursts to the Ekran geo-stationary satellite over Siberia, which broadcast the CNN programmes to the Swissair flight. The signal was picked up on the aircraft by two 60 cm by 30 cm antenna "patches" inside the first-class cabin - one on the left hand side for the flight to Tokyo and one on the right hand side for the return. The technology, base on Israeli military devices adopted for civilian use by IDB, is ready to be fitted into other airlines - British Airways and Virgin Atlantic are thought to be showing an interest. Over the next two years IDB plans to put into place four geostationary satellites which will broadcast to airliners all over the world. MARCONI DAY ----------- This year the International Marconi Day falls on the Sunday, 24 April, again clashing with the IRTS AGM. The event runs for 24 hours. Last year, operators from Galway Radio Experimenters' Club ran their operation from the Currywongaun site near Letterfrack, which was the receive site for the Marconi station located near Clifden. This year GREC hope to run their operation from the same site with personnel who are not travelling to the northern reaches. In the meantime there will probably be a station operated by the lads from the S.E.A.R.G., who traditionally set up a station for the event in the Waterford area. EI-JA, A FIRST ON 2M -------------------- Congratulations to Tom Cocking EI4DQ on achieving a first EI to JA contact on 2m via moonbounce. The historic QSO was made on 20 March with JL1ZCG, who was running 1 kW to 4 yagis. The Qso was made random (without a sked), which makes it an even bigger achievement. It took 17 minutes to complete, with very good signals at times. During March, Tom made 23 QSOs, of which 15 were new stations ranging from Europe, Russia to Japan and America. CORK PACKET RADIO GROUP ----------------------- A general meeting was held in the Imperial Hotel, Cork, with a large number in attendance. Progress to date was outlined by Ken EI7DKB, and a financial report was presented by Eugene EI5HG. The group are currently in the red following the imple- mentation of many new projects, so please forward your annual subscription to Eugene as soon as possible. Satisfaction was expressed by all users in the Cork service area, and things will improve further when forwarding to Limerick is moved from 144.600 on to their new 70cm link. It was agreed to hold workshops in the coming months to help new users obtain a better understanding of the mode. IRTS DINNER AND AGM ------------------- The IRTS AGM and annual dinner will be held in Jackson's Hotel, Ballybofey, on 23/24 April. The special rate for B and B in the hotel will be 22 pounds per person sharing. This includes a full breakfast and access to the hotel's leisure facilities, such as a 22 metre pool, steam room, sauna, jacuzzi and gymnasium. For further information contact Ken McDermott at Curraghmore, Ballybofey, or ring 074 31109. That concludes the bulletin for this week. Items for inclusion in the radio news should be sent to Steve Wright EI5DD, c/o Dept. of Pathology, Regional Hospital, Galway. Fax messages may be sent to EI5DD at 091 24216. All such items will be forwarded to Dave Moore for inclusion in the printed news. Items for the printed news only should be sent to Dave Moore EI4BZ, QTHr, or phoned to 021 632444 (daytime), or 021 883555 (evenings). Items may be sent by packet radio to EI4BZ at EI7DKB-5. Fax messages may be sent to 021 632730.