RSGB VHF Championship 2015

Delighted to announce that the Blacksheep Contest and DX Group have won the 2015 RSGB VHF/UHF Championship for both SSB & CW and what an amazing year it was too, I'd like to personally thank my Team mates (Andy 2E0IBF, Matt G0XDI, Nick G4FAT, Tim G4LOH, Stephen G4SHF, Mike G8TIC, Bill M0BTZ and Rohan M6TIC) for putting in an incredible effort throughout the year into each contest, it has been great Craic... I'd also like to thank you for the QSO's and points throughout 2015 it was much appreciated and I'm looking forward to working you in future contests. 73 

RSGB 144MHz AFS Contest 2015

On the 6th of December 2015 from 10:00UTC -16:00UTC the 144MHz AFS contest took place. The Affiliated Societies contests are open to both individual entrants (who must be RSGB members), and to teams made up of a number of operators who must all be members of the same affiliated society, but not necessarily RSGB members themselves. 

The results from the 6m, 2m and 70cm Affiliated Society contests contribute to the AFS Super League. All members of a team must operate from within 80Km of the Virtual Meeting Place of the society and must be within the UK. No station may represent more than one society. No operator is allowed to use more than one callsign during the contest. 

In the case of national societies, each team must define a separate virtual meeting place, and each team member must operate within 80Km of that designated meeting place. 

So with this The Blacksheep Contest and DX Group which is an affiliated group of the RSGB had 4 stations taking part in this years event.

The 4 stations making up Team Blacksheep consisted of Roger G3MEH from his QTH at IO91QS, John G0ODQ from his QTH at IO91NQ, M0BAA/P Team (Andy 2E0IBF, Bill M0BTZ, Nick G4FAT and Mike G8TIC) from Sheppey at JO01KJ and M0XII/P (Matt G0XDI and myself Pat EI5IX / M0XII) from a portable location on a chalk escarpment called "The Chiltern Hills" at IO91MP.

Matt G0XDI and myself EI5IX / M0XII decioded to go to the Chiltern Hills and operate from locator IO91MP, the contest started at 10:00UTC and finished at 16:00UTC the weather conditions were very windy and wet but we managed to get a dry spell to put up the antenna and get a station together we got on air about 45 minutes into the contest and managed to get 141QSO's .with 22,159 Total points and our ODX was DF5HC at 705Km, we worked 11 DXCC entities and 28 WWLs. The equipment used was an FT847, 300w SSPA and a 11ele LFA antenna at 10m.

G0XDI laying out the pipe mast 

 G0XDI Roping up the pipe mast

 1st test of raising the pipe mast "all good... now put an antenna on it"

Looks a bit wonky but nearly there... 

And up she goes.... 11 ele LFA 144MHz Antenna

G8TIC's Trusty old Honda Generator

Matt G0XDI having a tune around the band

Pat M0XII testing the Antenna 

I'd like to thank my team mates for making the effort in this contest (G3MEH, G0ODQ, 2E0IBF, M0BTZ, G4FAT, G8TIC) and I'd like to thank Matt G0XDI for all his hard work out portable with me for this contest, That's the end of the VHF/UHF contests for 2015, Thanks to all for the points throughout the year, good luck in this one and I hope to hear you on in the next contest... 73.

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UPDATE 23/12/2015

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144 MHz AFS 2015

The number of entries for this event fell by 9% compared to the 2014 record entry level. This may well be as a result of Storm Desmond putting people off. Many of those who did take part had their masts at reduced height. The nineteen portable stations across the country had torrential rain and high strength winds until the storm died away during the contest. Forty seven clubs took part of which nine fielded a "B" team.

Many entrants commented that the conditions were flat at best and challenging at worst. Conditions did appear to generally improve as the event progressed. The QSB was described as "wicked" and numerous comments described the increasing problem of higher noise levels. The overlap with the French contest during the first hour was exploited well by those placed nearer the south coast.

In total there were 397 stations recorded in the logs in 62 squares (including 21 UK squares). Outside of the UK there were 12 DL, 1 EI, 55 F, 2 HB9, 1LX, 8 ON and 16 PA logged. The best DX was between M0BAA/P (JO01) and F4CWN at 872 kms. There were 84 QSOs greater than 600kms of which 23 were greater than 700kms and 8 were greater than 800 kms.

A number of entrants commented on the lack of activity later in the event. However, 12% of QSOs took place in the fifth hour and 12.7% in the final hour! The current levels of activity support a six hour event and the current timings are probably the best compromise to allow portable stations to set up and take down mainly in daylight. However, comments are welcomed to the adjudicator.

Given the difficult conditions, logging standards were slightly better than average with 4.4% of QSOs being disallowed during adjudication. A number of leading stations lost less than 2% of their claimed scores which is a target for entrants to aim at. As logging errors were equally spread across callsigns, locators, signal reports and serial numbers it is worth remembering that all elements of the QSO are checked.

In the club competition we have a new winner - the Blacksheep CG who win the G3MEH Trophy relegating Bristol CG "A" into the runners up spot.

In the individual sections congratulations go to:

M0BAA/P (operated by 2E0IBF, G4FAT, G8TIC and M0BTZ) for winning the Open Section;

G8NEY/P (operated by 2E0NEY and M0GHZ) for second place in the Open Section;

Dave, G7RAU for winning the SF section for the second year running;

Richard GD8EXI for second place in the SF section;

Arthur 2E0RTY/P as the leading intermediate entrant in the Open section;

Steven 2W0JYN as the leading intermediate entrant in the SF section;

Andrew G4HVC as the leading fixed station running 25 watts or less into a single antenna;

Jacques F1BHL/P as the leading non-UK station in the Open section;

Frank, PE1EWR as the leading non-UK station in the SF section.

Sadly there were no Foundation level entrants.

Roger - G4BVY

RSGB VHF CW Championship 2015

This is the fourth year that this CW Championship has been running and it includes the 50MHz CW, the 70MHz CW and the 144 MHz CW contests.

The entry level for the VHF CW Championship has remained strong with 65 stations entering this year (70 in 2012, 65 in 2013, 57 in 2014). The results continue to demonstrate that CW on VHF benefits DX and local contacts under marginal conditions and with simple stations. A good crossover with many HF CW operators is also apparent.

Congratulations and certificates go to:

Open section: The Blacksheep CG in first place followed by Northampton,

Single Fixed : G3MEH operated by G3XZG in first place ,G7RAU in second place ,

Low power: G4XPE in first place, followed by G4RYV

Personally I am absolutely delighted to have won the CW Championship for 2015, There was three very tough contests this year but my sincere Thanks goes to my Team mates: Bill M0BTZ, Mike G8TIC, Nick G4FAT, Andy 2E0IBF it has been a fantastic year for the Blacksheep CG and long may it continue.

CQWW CW Contest - November 28th / 29th 2015

Call: G2F
Operator(s): EI5IX G4MKP MØCKE MØVKY

Class: M/S HP

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

Summary: 

Band      QSOs     Zones    Countries

160:          190       18               66

80:          1125       28             107

40:          1296       40             138

20:          1646       39             131

15:          1049       38             141

10:            113       28               89

Total:      5419     191             672 

Total Score: 9,496,452

After Storm Barney caused considerable damage to one of the towers and the LF verticals only 12 days before the CW contest, we weren't sure if we would be able to recover, but we did, although one tower was not fully raised due to the forecast high winds for the weekend we managed to get on the air for the CW contest. 

 Damage from Storm Barney

More damage from Storm Barney

Antennas Back up for the Contest 

Verticals and SteppIR back up and Running

The 10m band never opened for us over the weekend with most of the QSO's on 10m being made on Saturday, There was some positives from the weekend the new 40m and 80m antennas performed as well as to be expected from our 70m x 70m plot which has all our antennas crammed in, we still have some issues to resolve which we know will improve our score and more improvements on LF RX antennas are required but in all we had a great time. 

This year we were short on operators due to not really being able to commit to having a station ready in time for the contest, also one op couldn't make it until Sunday so the first 32 hours was ran by 3 operators (M0CKE, M0VKY & EI5IX ). We are pleased to report that there was no more storm damage over the weekend even though we had some really strong winds and gusts during Sunday between 2pm and 8pm. 

Nice to see the usual UK activity in this contest and Thanks again to everyone for the QSO's We hope to see you all in 2016. 

From all @ G2F

RSGB AFS 1.8MHz SSB Contest November 2015

On the 14th of November the RSGB AFS 1.8MHz SSB Contest took place from 20:00 - 23:00UTC, I was out with the affiliated Blacksheep Contest & DX Group at our VHF/UHF contest site on the Isle of Sheppey. 

For this contest our Team was Blacksheep members: Nick G4FAT, Bill M0BTZ and myself using the club callsign MX0BAA as the Club HQ during the contest. Roger G3MEH and John G0ODQ were also on the band from their own QTH's as Club Members of the Blacksheep Contest & DX Group. 

Weather conditions were very wet and windy on the Saturday but it didn't stop Nick and Bill getting the antennas up just before darkness set in at 17:30UTC. The Antennas selected for this contest was a 270ft Doublet antenna in an Inverted V configuration, we also tried a Sloper antenna on a fiberglass pole off the top of the Tower approx 90ft from ground, the Transceiver used this time around was a Yaesu FTDX5000MP at 30w with a M0BTZ Homemade ATU.

Looking up the tower at 160m Antennas the next morning.

270ft Doublet & 160m Sloper in the wind

 Testing the DX conditions on the Bands, 40m sounded great!

MX0BAA in the AFS Contest on 160m

M0BTZ & EI5IX/M0XII under MX0BAA in the AFS Contest on 160m

 M0BTZ in the AFS Contest on 160m under MX0BAA

We finished this contest at 23:00UTC on the 14th with a claimed score of 123 QSO and 1559 points, We contacted 7 DXCC entities and found that there was excellent activity on the band and we all really enjoyed it, just before the contest started and under my own callsign M0XII/P on 160m I had a FB QSO with Khvicha 4L1HD and he had a great signal with us on Sheppey with some QSB at times but his RST was 55 / 57 it was a nice surprise and a ATNO on that band for me. Thanks again to everyone who gave us points during the contest it was an enjoyable event, looking forward to the next one.

73  

IARU / RSGB Marconi 144MHz CW Contest - November 2015

On November 7th & 8th the 24hr IARU & RSGB - 144 MHz International Marconi CW Contest took place. I was out again with the BlackSheep Contest and DX Group under the callsign "G8T" from Locator square: JO01KJ

We arrived on site later than planned due to work commitments that delayed setting out by several hours, traffic on the M25, etc. so we didn't do a huge amount of work on Friday afternoon as we only had about 2 hours of light.

We put up two identical antenna systems - each was 2 x 10-el DK7ZB yagis vertically stacked about 15ft apart on top of a 60ft Versatower. This was all we fancied doing in the 30-50Mph gusting winds, scrawly showers and rain that we had to contend with... at our site just walking around in the field for five minutes you grew in height 2-3 inches due to the mud on your boots!

The station comprised 2 x Elecraft K3/10 + homebrew transverter, SSPA and pre-amps. The IF output from No.1 antenna system (facing EU) was split and also fed to an Anan/Angelia SDR board with CuSDR and PowerSDR/CW-Skimmer. For this contest we used Wintest with rig control for the radios which gave us cluster integration and band-map.

G8T Station in Full Swing 

Tower 1 with 2 x 10ele DK7ZB Antennas 

The Group (2E0IBF, G4FAT, M0BTZ) working on Tower 2  

Tower 2 up with 2 x 10ele DK7ZB Antennas

Our claimed score is here:

http://www.rsgbcc.org/cgi-bin/claim.pl?Contest=144MHz%20CW%20Marconi&year=2015

Summary: 

342 QSOs, 193,176 points, 565 points/QSO. 

Best DX OM3RBS in JN98KJ QRB 1329Km.

G8T QSO coverage map

Conditions were flat on the Saturday towards EU and activity was very low from the UK. Initial QSO distances were in line with those expected of our site with many German stations in JN48/JN49/JO50. As Sunday arrived were experienced minor/moderate tropo inline with Hepburn & F5LEN Tropo predictions and distances increased to work JO73, JO90 ranges.

Through the night conditions improved slightly and/or QRM dropped and we worked over 50+ QSO's to OL, OK, OM, OE and SP stations with many distances over 800Km.

 Activity throughout the contest for G8T

It became very clear that the centre of activity for this event was Czech Republic / Austria / Slovakia / Hungry from where all the lines could be seen crossing on DXmaps.com. We also found that we (and other larger UK stations) were on the "western edge" of what was reachable to many of the stations in EU and hence it was quite common for pile-ups of DL/DK stations with the odd OK/OE/OM somewhere in the mix.


To give you an idea of what the contest looked like here is a screen grab from the SDR mid-morning today (Sunday) on the 2 x 10el facing EU you can turn your head sideways and read most of the traffic! 

Band View of Marconi 144MHz CW Contest 2015 

We did spend a considerable amount of time with the antennas facing in-land panning them around between GM, GI, EI, GW on Sunday and worked most of the "usual suspects" - we think that the only one that got away was Clive, GM4VVX which was a combination of QSB and bad timing. Unfortunately not many EI's on in this contest this year hopefully get to work a few of you next year in other contests.

On this occasion the BlackSheep group consisted of Bill M0BTZ, Nick G4FAT, Andy 2E0IBF, Mike G8TIC and Pat EI5IX / M0XII.

Thanks again to everyone that called us and we hope you enjoyed this contest as much as we did! Looking forward to the next one :-)

73

========================================================================

UPDATE 05 / 12 / 2015

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144MHz Marconi CW 2015

A record number of entries was received this year 42, beating the previous record of 28.

The contest was again beset with bad weather but had good VHF conditions to the east on the Sunday, but not so good on Saturday. Those who chose Saturday in the 6 hours section certainly lost out to the Sunday entrants. 

The Single Operator Fixed section was won by Dave G7RAU from the Isle of Wight, with G0JJG runner-up.

The Open section was won by G8T, the Blacksheep contest group, with a fine antenna setup and many eastern Dx contacts. Sadly they were the only Open entrant

Jeremy Brown, G3XZG, operated the G3MEH station again this year, and won the 6 hour Single Operator Fixed section. G4ZTR was runner-up.

John Cockrill, of the Northampton club G4CZB/P, was again the winner in the 6 hour Open section. G3TCU/P was runner up .

Other certificate winners:

G0OOG leading station running 25W or less to a single antenna in SF section

G4HVC leading station running 25W or less to a single antenna in 6S section

No leading foundation or intermediate station certificates were awarded due to lack of entries being received for these categories.

The leading overseas entry was ON4KMB .

This contest was the final event in the VHF CW Championship.

Mike G3VYI

CQWW SSB Contest - October 24th / 25th 2015

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

Class: M/S HP
QTH: WISBECH
Operating Time (hrs): 48
Location: Northern Europe

Summary: 

Band QSOs Zones  Countries

160:     61        6         38

80:    723      15         81

40:  1070      26       108

20:  1753      37       142

15:  1439      37       137

10:    748      32       138

Total: 5794  153      644 

Total Score; 9,575,158

Our first real stab at M/S in SSB, the whole station is now in a new shack so we expected some issues, most were minor, some different antenna configs and other changes helped us to a reasonable score for G. 

Band conditions were OK, not great rates with some quite steady periods too, 80m and 160m were disappointing, nice to find 10 open for a time both days but not for long enough. 

Fun was had by all ops, looking forward to CW leg now.

Team G2F

IRTS Contest Calendar and Rules

The IRTS contest calendar for 2016 includes a number of changes from previous years.

As signalled in the latest issue of Echo Ireland, the 80 metres Summer counties contest has been dropped, but an additional 40 metres contest, to be held in the Autumn, has been added.

In addition, we will be running two one-hour evening 80 metres counties contests - an SSB contest in February and a CW event in November.

The contest rules have been updated. The updates include two principal changes: firstly, the requirement to pre-register Field Day contest stations has been dropped. Secondly, a bonus arrangement to encourage greater emphasis on CW is being introduced for the mixed mode sections of the HF counties contests.

Look at www.irts.ie/contests for the 2016 calendar and rules.


73's DE EI5IX / M0XII - Pat

IOTA Provisional Contest Results 2015

Provisional results for the 2015 IOTA contest, which took place last July, have now been published. Most contestants reported poor HF conditions, so scores were somewhat lower than last year. 17 logs were submitted by EI and GI stations, see our contest results page www.irts.ie/results for a link to their results.


In other IOTA news, the RSGB have announced the setting up of a new organisation called the IOTA Foundation, which will manage the IOTA programme in partnership with RSGB. One of the tasks for the new organisation will be to develop a new online credit system, to be completed in 2017.

RSGB Convention 2015

The RSGB 2015 Convention held between the 10th -11th October 2015 was at Kents Hill Park Training and Conference Centre in Milton Keynes. There was plenty to choose from over the weekend whatever your interest whether that’s Contesting, DXing, Technical matters or Computing in radio. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and it was a fantastic opportunity to meet up with some familiar faces and new one's too. The VHF Trophy presentation was Sunday morning where the Blacksheep Contest Group managed to collect some silverware. 

Back L>R:  John G0ODQ, Bill M0BTZ, Andy 2E0IBF, 

Matt G0XDI, Mike G8TIC, Dave G7RAU, Roger G3MEH. 

Front L>R: Pat EI5IX / M0XII & Rohan M6TIC.

  

Mayo Radio Experimenters Network 2015 AGM

The Mayo Radio Experimenters held their annual A.G.M. on Wednesday evening 7th October at 9.30pm in the Welcome Inn Hotel, Castlebar. There was a good attendance on the night. 

The outgoing Chairman Padraic Baynes EI9JA thanked everybody who attended meetings and activities and helped out at all the events over the last year. 

The Sectary Brendan Minish EI6IZ reported on correspondence with the IRTS and
other business. He also reported on his handling of all QSL cards going to and fro - from the clubs’ activities over the past year. 
The Treasurer Adrian Healy EI2HAB, gave a report on all the clubs expenditure for the year.

The assembled meeting discussed possible club activities for the forthcoming year. However, no firm decisions were made and final decisions will be made closer to the dates.

The new committee elected for the coming year are:
Chairman: Jimmy Kelly EI2GCB, 

Sectary: Brendan Minish EI6IZ, 

Treasurer: Adrian Healy EI2HAB, 

Pro: John O Grady EI8GIB, 

IRTS Rep: Gerry Cregg EI4GD, 

Rally Director: Padraic Baynes EI9JA. 

QSL Manager: Brendan Minish EI6IZ.

CQWW RTTY Contest - September 26th / 27th 2015

Call: G2F
Operator(s): EI5IX G4MKP MØCHK MØCKE M6ZTO
Club: Wisbech Amateur Radio & Electronics Club

Class: M/S HP
QTH: Wisbech
Operating Time (hrs): 48
Location: Northern Europe

Summary:

Band  QSOs   State/Prov     DX    Zones

80:       183          15            52        13

40:       682          45            88        27

20:     1187          54          103        34

15:       585          47            90        30

10:         36            1            26        13

Total:    2673       162         359       117 

Total Score: 4,328,192

First CQWW test of the year and a good time to test of a few of the new station tweaks to G2F, this contest allowed us to test some new tactics but also to see what additional work is required for SSB, all I can say is we need more hours in the day. We enjoyed some nice runs on 40m through to 15m, the 10m band never really opened up and 80m was rather disappointing, however we all had fun and even had the F1, MOTOGP and Rugby World Cup was streaming onto the laptop to entertain us, not something that's done in SSB or CW of course. Anyway thanks for all the contacts and see you in SSB / CW legs.

73's

All @ Team G2F

G2F Station

Selection of Antennas @ G2F

A new England Record made in this contest 

6 meter (50MHz) DXpedition Saint Barthélemy (FJ)

Dave, W9DR is planning on operating (DXpedition) from Saint Barthélemy with a call, FJ/W9DR on 2016-06-17 through 2016-06-29.

6 Meters only, 50.115 Mhz. SSB & CW) Grid Square of FK87.

During low periods of activity, will be running a Beacon on 50.115,7 Mhz. Have a great launch angle to EU & NA. I will be running an SDR radio into a 5 element Yagi.

QSL direct at W9DR (See QRZ Page)

Also, Tom, FJ/W9AEB will be with me operating 40 though 10 Meters SSB & CW.

Dave, W9DR




73's DE EI5IX / M0XII - Pat

144MHz IARU / RSGB Trophy Contest - G8T from JO01KJ - September 2015

On September 5th & 6th the RSGB & IARU R1 - 144 MHz International Trophy Contest took place. 
I was out again this year with the BlackSheep Contest and DX Group under the callsign "G8T" from Locator square JO01KJ.

G8T Station

I arrived on the site Thursday evening and helped the Team put together our station for the weekend. 

60ft Pipe Mast going together 

60ft Pipe mast with 4 x 10element DK7ZB Yagi's

Station slowly coming together

One of our 14 element DK7ZB antenna just built

Mike G8TIC and Bill M0BTZ erecting the 2 x 14 element antennas 

Completed 2 x 14 element antennas up in the air and ready for testing

Conditions were flat to poor over the weekend with high winds at times along with no tropo conditions, harder work than usual with deep QSB on some QSOs. 

We finished with a claimed score of 699 QSO's 271,931 points and our ODX was 
OE2M at 967Km. 

Thanks to all who called us over throughout the weekend. 

L>R: "2E0IBF Andy, G8TIC Mike, M0BTZ Bill, G0XDI Matt, EI5IX/M0XII Pat, 

M6TIC Rohan, G4FAT Nick (Taking Photo)

Once again got to say a big Thank you to all the guys of the Blacksheep Contest group for having me along again to contest with them this year, it certainly was another experience to remember on 144MHz and I'm looking forward to the next one. 


====================================================================
UPDATE 26/10/2015
====================================================================

144MHz Trophy 2015

In general the weather was kind to entrants though some reported wind and rain at times. While some entrants rated Saturday as the better day, the majority thought that conditions were better on the Sunday. Though at best the conditions were rated as average with some entrants rating them as poor. Many stations, particularly in urban environments suffered with high noise levels. The numbers of entrants rose again this year, from 71 to 82, mainly in the six hour sections, continuing the healthy trend over the last four years.

In total nineteen countries appeared in the logs in one hundred and seven locator squares which included thirty one UK squares. There were 101contacts greater than 800kms of which 14 were greater than 900kms and only one exceeded 1000kms. Of these 101 DX QSOs, 62 were made from JO01, 13 from IO93, 7 from IO90 and 6 from JO00. These longer distances were worked into DL (42), EA (7), F (21), HB9 (1), OE (5), OK (15), OZ (5) and SP (3). There were two other interesting contacts between JO01 and IO89 and between IO86 and JO10 demonstrating another open path. The best contact was between G3M (JO01) and SN7L (JO70) at 1010kms. Many entrants commented on the lack of UK stations, particularly on the Saturday. However it is interesting to note that of the 1214 active stations, there were 417 UK stations, 378 DLs and 215 Fs.

For the third year European entry logs were used as part of the adjudication process. These comprised the following logs: DL(354), F(153), PA(25) and ON(4). Interestingly a number of leading stations will note that a high proportion of their errors were identified from these logs! Logging standards showed a slight decline with 5.8% of all QSOs being disallowed. A number of leading stations lost less than 4% of their scores with a number losing less than 2%. The errors were spread across all elements of the exchange: callsigns 26%; received RS(T) 30%; received serial number 17%; locators 22%; and 5% not-in-logs. Simple checks prior to log submission would improve accuracy. UK stations with claimed scores of over 1000kms are a give away and usually caused by errors such as IO01 rather than JO01. Locators and countries not matching is another common error. Perhaps the most worrying error is the mis-copying of callsigns and the failure to log /P. Don't forget that you can access your UBN reports via the links in your log received email, the results email or viahttp://www.rsgbcc.org/ubn.shtml. Using these reports you will be able to see "the error of your ways" and improve your scores and positions in the future!

Congratulations go to:
The Parallel Lines, G8P, who won the open section for the tenth year running to retain the Mitchell-Milling Trophy. 

Erik, G8XVJ/P, for winning the single operator (others) section and, as the highest scoring single operator, is awarded the Thorogood Trophy. 

Roger, G3MEH, who won the single operator (fixed) section for the third year running.
Nigel, GW0IRW/P, who won the six-hour (others) section. 

Bob G1ZJP, operating as M1MHZ, who won the six-hour single operator fixed section.

These stations together with those identified in the results tables will receive certificates.

Roger - G4BVY

73

Pat

EI5IX / M0XII

MREN Activation of Blacksod Lighthouse 2015

Members of The Mayo Radio Experimenters Network will activate the Blacksod Lighthouse at Blacksod in County Mayo on West coast of Ireland on Saturday 15th and Sunday 16th of August 2015 as part of the 18th International Lighthouse & Lightship weekend.

The Callsign will be EI0M on this occasion and the International designator for Blacksod Lighthouse is IE0008, the QTH locator is IO44XC and WAI / WAM Square is F65.

For more info on the International Lighthouse & Lightship weekend please see: http://www.illw.net/ and our own account of past activation's check out The Mayo Radio Experimenters Network website: http://ei7mre.org/?page_id=435.