CQWW CW Contest November 26th & 27th 2016

Call: G2F
Operator(s): EI5IX G4MKP G4MJS MØCKE MØCLW SQ6MS ZB2TT

Station: G2F

Class: M/S HP

QTH: Wisbech
Operating Time (hrs): 48
Location: Northern Europe

Band   QSOs   Zones    Countries
160:      354      13            64
80:       1031     31          112
40:       1438     37          142
20:       1728     37          136
15:         239     29          104
10:          14       5            15

Total:   4805   152          573        Total Score 6,002,275

Another fantastic weekend. Band conditions were a bit better than CQWW SSB but we knew it was going to be tough. We had the pleasure of hosting new guests Rob ZB2TT, Maciek SQ6MS and Pete G4MJS - thanks to them for making the trip to the station and making a huge contribution to our effort. The Live Contest scoreboard makes for compulsive viewing and added to the weekends craic. This was a weekend that we were located in the wrong place! Once again thanks to everyone for the QSO's and making CQWW the great event it is and Season's Greetings to you and your's.

Cheers from all @ G2F

IRTS - 80m CW Counties Contest Results

Results of the 80m Evening CW Counties Contest have now been published, the Contest Results page at www.irts.ie/results has all the details. Dave Moore EI4BZ was the top-scoring Irish station, while Andy Malbon G8MIA was the top-scoring overseas station. Congratulations to both winners.

In 2017, our Evening Counties Contests will have SSB Only and mixed mode SSB/CW sections, as it is clear that there is insufficient support for a CW-only event. Full details of this and other changes to the contest calendar and rules will be included in the next issue of the members' journal, Echo Ireland.

First EI to get the ARRL Worked All States Award on 144 MHz

Tom EI4DQ has recently worked his last state for the ARRL (WAS) Worked All States award on 144 MHz. This award involves working and confirming each of the 50 states of the United States of America. Tom tells us that the most difficult states to work were Rhode Island, Nebraska and Iowa. Tom EI4DQ has concentrated in recent years on EME (also known as Moonbounce) and achieved DXCC on 144 MHz a few years ago, the first and only EI to achieve that award. Tom is an inspiration to us all and this shows us that with commitment and dedication everything is possible. A Job well done Tom and congrats on this fantastic achievement.  

IRTS - 80m CW Counties Contest

On Tuesday 8th November, there is a one-hour 80 metres IRTS Counties Contest, running from 20:00 to 21:00 UTC. This is the CW event: the SSB version of this contest, held earlier this year, was very well supported, with stations active in 23 EI and GI counties. 

See www.irts.ie/contests for full rules, including the power limit and permitted frequency range.

Mayo Radio Experimenters Network - AGM

EI7MRE held it's annual AGM on Wednesday 5th October 2016.

A complete list of the newly elected officer is available on the club website.

The club holds their monthly meetings on the first Wednesday of every month at 9.30 p.m. at Breaffy House Hotel, Breaffy, Castlebar. 

Anybody interested in amateur radio, short-wave listening, electronics, computers etc. are more than welcome to come along, please check out our website at www.ei7mre.org for more information. The club has an active membership of people involved in the hobby of amateur radio, we hope to enter the next counties contest on new year's day, looking forward to working you all in 2017.

IRTS Contest News

Results of the SSB Field Day Contest, held over the weekend of 3rd & 4th September, have been published. The Contest Results page at www.irts.ie/results has links to these results. Five EI stations participated in the contest, with some reporting reasonable conditions on most bands, except 10 metres, which offered only brief openings towards the end of the contest.

The next IRTS contest is the 40 metres counties contest on Sunday 9th October, at 12:00 UTC, for 3 hours. This contest has fixed and portable sections, for SSB only and for SSB/CW mixed mode entries. See www.irts.ie/contests for more details.

IRTS - 2m Counties Contest Results

Results of the August 2 Metres Counties Contest have been published.

The Contest Results page at www.irts.ie/results has links to these results.

Activity levels were low, 13 station logs were submitted, showing just 23 EI/GI counties active on the day, with the best representation from counties in the northern part of the country.

A diary date for contesters: our first ever Autumn 40 metres counties contest takes place on Sunday 9th October; more details in later news bulletins.

RSGB – 144MHz Trophy Championship Contest September 2016

On September 3rd & 4th the RSGB - 144 MHz Trophy Championship Contest took place from 14:00 UTC. This was a 24 hour event and this year I was active with the Blacksheep Contest and DX Group under the callsign "G8T" from Locator square JO01KJ. 

There was a lot of preparations made for this contest so most of the group arrived on the site Thursday and started to put together our station for the weekend. Wx was reasonable for the time of year.

Antennas: 2x14 + 4x10 + 6x3 + 2x9

The Band conditions this year was more or less Flat with a slight enhancement towards the South West towards Spain. No equipment issues this year for a change - everything worked except our Internet connection which failed from 2300 UTC to 10.30 UTC which prevented us making many skeds via ON4KST Chat facility. 

We finished up this contest this year in 2nd Place with 700 QSO’s 288,644 points and our ODX was OE1W at 1125 Km. Thanks to all for the QSO's I do hope to work you in the next contest. 

GL & 73

RSGB IOTA Contest - July 30th & 31st 2016

Call: G2F
Operator(s): EI5IX G4IRN G4MKP MØCHK MØCKE MØCLW MØVKY
Station: G2F

Class: M/S HP
QTH: Wisbech
Operating Time (hrs): 24
Location: Island Station EU-005

Summary of the weekend

 Antenna's for this contest at G2F

G2F - RSGB IOTA 2016 TEAM

L:R - G4IRN, EI5IX, G4MKP, M0CLW, M0CKE, M0CHK

Thanks to all for the QSO's throughout the weekend, hope to catch you in the next one and from all of the G2F Team, 73.

CQWW VHF 2016 Contest

It was my first time entering CQWW VHF Contest from 1800 UTC Saturday, July 16, 2016 until 2100 UTC Sunday, July 17, 2016, and as I was back at my home QTH in Westport at IO53GT I used the opportunity to take part in this contest, the callsign used for the weekend was EI5IX in IO53 for this contest.

Propagation for this contest was very bad, 50MHz has not been great in July this year unfortunately and maybe it's a sign of the times who knows, anyway I entered a Single Op entry on 50MHz (6m) and there was very little Sporadic E propagation around on the Saturday evening with just high levels of Tropospheric ducting available on the band into the night, nothing really worked QSO wise but I just kept hearing some distant pings of EU stations come in via Meteor Scatter propagation, then on the Sunday afternoon things began to pick up a small bit on the band with QSO's around EI & GI via Tropo conditions and then at 15:00UTC conditions opened via Troposcatter into Sporadic E towards more southern EU areas with it QSO rates peaking into the late evening around 19-20:00UTC. I would have liked if there was more sporadic E conditions around for that weekend but I think I may have been a bit too far North West for this years conditions on the band as this contest is very well supported within EU I was surprised with the lack of activity in Ireland and the UK. I did hear late into the Sunday night after the contest was over some stations in Canada and the United States on CW via Chordal propagation or multi hop E's but unfortunately didn't get to work them this time around as I was taking the station apart... typical... maybe catch them next time. 

Anyway I did the best I could in the contest but it wasn't great. Thanks to all the stations that persevered into completing QSO's in some very difficult conditions, I'm looking forward to working you in the next contest.

73,

IARU HF Championship July 2016

For this years IARU HF Championship contest on July 9th-10th, 2016, members of the newly formed EI DX Group put on big effort from a green field site with a multi multi station (Multi Radio/ Multi Op) for this contest. The objective for this contest is to contact as many other radio amateurs, especially IARU member society HQ stations, around the world as possible using the 160, 80, 40, 20, 15 and 10 meter bands. 

We had a 7 station setup for the weekend and were QRV from 10m through 160m bands both on SSB & CW.  The callsign used for the weekend was EI0HQ as the National Irish Headquarter station.

Here was some of the photographs from the weekend thanks to Thos EI2JD.

The EI DX Group operators for the contest

EI0HQ - Multi Multi Station 

 Pete EI4GZB and Declan EI9HQ on SSB 40m

Dave EI4BZ and Myself EI5IX having the craic

 Oleg EI7KD flat out on CW

 Enda EI2II enjoying 10m SSB

Jim EI8GS on 15m SSB

Mark EI6JK in a Pile up on 20m SSB

Thos EI2JD working mults on 40m SSB

Myself EI5IX trying to get serious on 15m CW

Again Myself EI5IX "trying to find a needle in a hay stack" on 20m SSB

One of the HEX Beams in the clear 

Our 80m Vertical

 Pat EI9HX working on the Electrics 

Tri-Bander No. 1 

 The lads working on Tri-Bander No.2

Tri-Bander No.2 up and running with a 40m rotatable Dipole

I really enjoyed the weekend it was a fantastic opportunity to test out some antennas also new equipment and it was a great way to meet new people within our DX group. The weather conditions throughout the weekend could have been better and was quiet variable at times, as on the Friday when setting up the station we had beautiful clear sky's and sunshine but then it rained on the Saturday and Sunday and of course then cleared up for taking everything down at the end of the contest... Typical.... Propagation for this contest was not great this year and activity seemed low at times with the effects of the solar minimum certainly being observed across the bands throughout the weekend and a minor geomagnetic storm was observed during the previous 24 hours of the contest and with a high speed solar wind stream which remained geo-effective, there was some isolated periods of storming which remained throughout the contest unfortunately. Not to worry we all enjoyed the weekend and learned a lot about our EI DX Group including each other. I'm certainly looking forward to meeting up with the guys again and doing some other contests and DXpedition's in the future. The results are still yet to come for this contest hopefully we did alright and my thanks goes to all the EI operators that turned up and made this weekend possible, I really enjoyed myself and I hope you got the opportunity to work us either on SSB or CW and on as many of the bands as you could over the weekend.

If not I hope to catch you in the next contest.

73,

RSGB - VHF/UHF National Field Day 2016

The weekend of 2nd & 3rd of July 2016, I ventured out with the Blacksheep DX & Contest group for the RSGB VHF/UHF National Field Day. This year we were operational on 50MHz (6m), 70MHz (4m), 144MHz (2m) 432MHz (70cm) & 1296MHz (23cm) from Locator Square "JO01KJ" under the call-sign "M0BAA/P".

We arrived on site on the Friday at 15:00BST and began to build our portable stations, weather conditions were patchy on the Friday with the sun beaming down on us one minute then a few showers of rain the next, this hampered us a bit as we were still building the stations right up to the start of the contest on Saturday 14:00UTC. This year we had a few testing challenges with generators and we could have done with some extra manpower but we just put the head down pushed on through then suddenly it was 14:00UTC...CQ Contest!!!

50MHz Yagi 

70MHz Yagi

50MHz / 70MHz Station

I was operating on 50 MHz and 70MHz throughout the weekend. Conditions on 50MHz was very tough at times with very little SpEs around this year and what seemed like low activity on 50MHz, I was also dealing with static rain at times which didn't help things and my apologies to those stations I had to ask for the many repeats. It's a pity as I was looking forward to some nice Chordal hop opening to North America on CW but that didn't happen. I finished with 106 QSO's and 19,172 Points and my ODX was GM4ZUK/P at 655km.

Once 50MHz had finished at 22:00UTC we had to dismantle the station and built the 70MHz setup for the next morning at 08:00UTC, Operators were getting tired so we said we would finish the setup on Sunday morning only to find a few issues which delayed my start on the 70MHz band by 15 minutes or so. The joys of Field Day :-) Conditions on 70MHz was pretty bad, slow at times with deep QSB on some distant stations, having CW really helped confirm QSO's but there were No SpEs on the band that I could find during the contest unfortunately. I finished with 75 QSO's and 16,233 points and again my ODX was GM4ZUK/P at 655km.

144MHz Station 

144MHz - 6 x 3ele Yagi's 

144MHz - 4 x 10ele Yagi's 

432MHz - 4 x 17 ele Yagi's

1296MHz - 4 x 44ele Yagi's

1296MHz - 4 x 44ele Yagi's & Station

Blacksheep DX & Contest Team for NFD 2016

L>R Matt G0XDI, Stephen G4SHF, Nick G4FAT, Dave G4FRE, Bill M0BTZ, Bert PE1RKI, Andy M0MUX, Pat EI5IX / M0XII & Mike G8TIC.

Once 14:00UTC on Sunday appeared on the clock some very weary and tired contester's began to disassemble the stations and get ready for the next stage "packing up", we cleared as much as we could before I had to leave to make the journey back to London as I had work the next day but some of the Team decided to stay overnight Sunday go for some beers along with food and then pack up what was left of the stations on Monday morning clear the site in the afternoon.

I have got to thank the Blacksheep DX & Contest group (Mike G8TIC, Stephen G4SHF, Nick G4FAT, Matt G0XDI, Bill M0BTZ, Andy M0MUX Dave G4FRE and Bert PE1RKI) for all the hard work they put in throughout the weekend and especially for making VHF/UHF NFD contest a success for us even though propagation was not great this year the Team stayed positive and pushed on through, I really enjoyed the weekend with the group, it was great craic and a many a good laugh was had and I'm looking forward to the next one.


73's
Pat

IRTS CW National Field Day

Results of CW Field Day, held over the weekend of 4th/5th June, have now been published and can be seen at www.irts.ie/results

Four contest logs were submitted - two stations from Cork, Gerard EI5KF/P and Cork Radio Club EI1C/P, and two stations situated in the Midlands, Jim EI4HH/P and Joe EI7GY/P.

Most stations reported reasonably good band conditions over the weekend, although there was only a brief opening on 10 metres on Sunday morning.

CQWW WPX Contest CW, May 28th & 29th 2016

Call: EI5IX
Operator: EI5IX
Station: EI5IX

Class: SO(A)AB(TS) LP
QTH: Westport, Co. Mayo
Operating Time (hrs): 32hr

Summary:
Band  QSOs
------------
160:    0
80:     102
40:     322
20:     440
15:     171
10:     25
------------

Total: 1060 Prefixes = 606
Total Score = 1,373,196

EI5IX Shack 

Cushcraft X7 Tri Bander

40m Vertical

20m/15m/10m Vertical

40m Dipole

80m Dipole

Comments:

I arrived in Ireland just 2 days before the contest where I had to build the station from scratch, a massive thank's goes out to my Dad EI9JA for helping me build the station for the weekend, I must say this was a difficult contest with only 100w as band conditions were hard at the best of times and unfortunately there was bad propagation on high bands too with low activity from North America. Thanks to all for the QSO's over the weekend and I hope to see you in the next contest. 

Vy 73! 

Pat EI5IX / M0XII

IRTS 40 metres Counties contest Results

The results of the 40 metres counties contest held on 8th May have been published, and can be seen on the society's Contest Results page at www.irts.ie/results An enhanced D-layer, caused by a fairly strong geomagnetic storm, which hit the Earth shortly before the contest, resulted in very poor propagation. Just 15 EI/GI counties were active during the contest, however there was good participation from overseas stations, which accounted for 7 of the 19 logs received.

Fortunately the adverse band conditions experienced on 8th May are fairly rare, and let's hope that propagation is better for the society's next contest - which is CW Field Day, on Saturday & Sunday next, 4th & 5th June. This contest runs for 24 hours from 15:00 UTC, but for those unwilling to operate for the full period, we have a restricted 6-hour section. See www.irts.ie/contests for the full rules.

GK4LOH received over 3467 km on 144 MHz

Delighted to announce that a reflection from the structure of the International Space Station enabled a 144.175 MHz signal from Tim GK4LOH in Cornwall to cross the Atlantic

At 02:40 UTC May 24th 2016 ISS Flypast. Signal heard 2 minutes 45 into the recording and continued for over a minute. The transmitted message was "GK4LOH GK4LOH T T T T T T T T T T"

I'm delighted for Tim as I know how much work he has put into building his station in Cornwall, Tim is a fellow contester with us at the Blacksheep Contest Group and this is a fantastic achievement by Tim also highlighting that maybe the infamous IRTS Brendan Trophy Award is within touching distance after all :-)

A video can be seen here of the moment Tim's signal was capatured:

GK4LOH IO70jc reception at VO1FN GN37jr 3467km 144.175MHz ISS flypast

GK4LOH at VO1FN Via ISS 24/5/2016 01:49 UTC 144.175MHz

You can find more about Tim GK4LOH activities here: 

http://www.g4loh.com/

In July 2014 the RSGB VHF Manager John Regnault G4SWX received a Canadian station VC1T on 144 MHz which on investigation was also found to be by ISS reflection, The ARRL report a group of Amateur Radio operators from Atlantic Canada are operating from Pouch Cove, Newfoundland, until July 12 in a bid to complete a 2 meter transatlantic contact and claim the Brendan trophy.

The "Brendan Quest" team was on the air as VC1T from grid GN37os on 144.155 MHz. The group activated on July 4th, and a couple of days later, on July 6th at 13:41 UTC, G4SWX John was able to completely decode an FSK441 transmission from VC1T.

“They attempted to complete the QSO for 4 hours, but were not successful,” the team reported. “However, this reception could qualify for the Brendan Plate.” The team said a station in Ireland was able to copy parts of three transmissions. Because of the initial success, the group now will use FSK441 exclusively in its Brendan bid. 

Read the full ARRL story at:

http://www.arrl.org/news/view/brendan-quest-team-s-2-meter-signal-copied-in-the-uk

RSGB – 432MHz Trophy Championship Contest May 2016

On May 7th the RSGB - 432 MHz Trophy Championship Contest took place from 14:00UTC – 22:00UTC. This was an 8 hour event and the contest ran concurrently with the first few hours of an IARU / RSGB 24 hour UHF contest. This year I was out active with The BlackSheep Contest and DX Group under the callsign "G8T" from Locator square JO01KJ. 

There was a lot of preparations made for this contest so we arrived on the site Friday with half the group and started put together our station for the Saturday. Weather conditions was fantastic throughout the weekend on the Isle of Sheppey with temperatures up into the twenties, Matt G0XDI, Bill M0BTZ, Andy M0MUX and Nick G4FAT worked all day Friday and finally got all antenna systems built and Tested by Saturday afternoon just in time for the start of the contest at 14:00UTC.

The Band conditions this year was variable with lot's of QSB and a high noise floor that certainly didn’t help things but all in all it was a good weekend.

We finished up the contest with a claimed score of 109 QSO’s 34,137 points and our ODX was DL7AFB at 824Km.

 G8T Station (4x17ele @ 20m + 2x21ele @ 20m )

Matt G0XDI operating and myself looking on...

Bill M0BTZ & myself in the heat of Battle

Thanks to all for the QSO's hope to work you in the next contest, GL & 73