IARU Monitoring System in Ireland

The Irish Radio Transmitters Society report that one of the roles of the International Amateur Radio Union is the monitoring of our bands for unauthorised users. The IARU Monitoring System in Region One was set up in 1972 and has a coordinator in many countries and we are very grateful to Michael EI3GYB who carries out this role for us in Ireland.

Michael monitors the bands and sends a monthly report to the Region One coordinator who processes all the information submitted. These reports can be viewed on www.iaru-r1.org The primary objective of the IARU Monitoring System is the search, classification, identification and initiation of steps leading to the removal from amateur bands of radio signals of non-amateur stations causing harmful interference to the amateur services, contrary to International Telecommunications Union and national radio regulations.

Typical intruders include Broadcasters, Over the Horizon Radars, illegal operators on the bands including taxicabs and fishermen on various bands, various military modes and many more types of unwanted signals.

In his report for February, as well as the usual suspects, Michael details the following about a church radio.

A church in the West of Ireland produced a lot of harmonics from 28390 to 28470 kHz and on several other frequencies due to a fault in the transmitter set up. The interference lasted from the 1st to the 8th of the month. The parish priest was made aware of the situation and advised to rectify the problems. The “Parish Radio” was silent for a couple of days and returned later without causing any more interference, broadcasting only on its own frequency. The problems seems to have been solved.