A new National Shortwave Listeners Club has been established in Ireland to help those interested in going for their amateur radio licence.
The Irish Radio Transmitter Society (IRTS) is the national society representing radio amateurs in Ireland and they are currently running very successful online courses which have generated a lot of interest.
The IRTS carried this news item last Sunday the 11th of April 2021..
National Shortwave Listeners Club.
The inaugural weekly meeting of the newly formed National Shortwave Listeners Club was held on the Zoom platform last Sunday evening and attracted 60 attendees. Online classes continue on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings with over 100 students hoping to get licensed in the coming months. Club meetings are held on the Zoom platform every Sunday evening at 2000. Information about the new club is available on swl.ie.
There are currently about 2000 EI callsigns so having an additional 100 waiting to take the exam is very encouraging.
Like many other countries, the old model of holding physical exam classes is largely broken. By having classes online, most of the costs like room rental, insurance, printouts and traveling expenses disappear and the catchment area also changes from say a large city to the size of a country.
It's probably something that should have happened 20 years ago but the widespread acceptance of platforms like ZOOM now make it more feasible.
For more information on the new National Shortwave Listeners Club, go to https://swl.ie/
