The weekend of 1st & 2nd of July 2017, I ventured out with the Wexford VHF Group for the IRTS VHF/UHF Field Day. This year we were operational on 50MHz (6m), 70MHz (4m), 144MHz (2m) 432MHz (70cm) & 1296MHz (23cm) from Locator Square "IO62OM" under the call-sign "EI9E/P".
On Thursday the 29th of June I drove from London in England to Pembroke Dock in Wales where I got the Nigh time ferry across to Rosslare in Co. Wexford in the south east coast of Ireland. The crossing was choppy that night with gale force 7-8 winds throughout the night but nothing that well needed sleep didn't solve. At 7am I arrived in Rosslare where I met up with the rest of the crew for the weekend. (Janet, Billy EI7FJ, John EI2FG, Pete G4CLA, Mark EI3KD, Neil EI3JE, John EI7IG, Dan EI3JZ, John EI8JA, Roger EI8KN, Pat EI8IQ, Tom EI5ASB, Pete EI4GZB & Declan EI9HQ)
We arrived at the stations site on top of White Mountain on Friday afternoon at 15:30BST. First thing first, Lunch was prepared. Fair play to John EI2FG he put together an incredible Beef Stew with a "spicy" kick which went down a treat and certainly gave us a great start to the weekend. After lunch was demolished we began to build our portable stations for the weekend, weather conditions at this point of the day was at least dry for station setup but it did have a chill in the air especially up on the mountain top. Work began on the 6m and 2m stations where antennas were put together and erected including the 6m/4m/2m shack. Later the 70cm and 23cm stations was put together and would be finished the next morning. Once it got dark everyone got the their heads down for some well deserved rest and as soon as the sun broke at 6am everyone was up and at it. Breakfast (fit for a king) was prepared by Billy EI7FJ and Janet.... just what the doctor ordered. The 70cm and 23cm stations were finished off after breakfast and all antennas was erected and tested for the weekends contest. Everything was working smoothly and having a separate main course and pastry chef worked very well, although custard supplies were low this year and someone dropped solder flux into the Friday night stew which was the "Kick" I reckon :-). It was a very enjoyable weekend with mighty craic and it was great to meet new faces too. Thanks to everyone who beamed our way, it was fantastic to work you all.
We finished the contest with the following scores:
50MHz:
134 QSO's - 57,454 Points and ODX: IT9FXY at 2,212Km
70MHz:
86 QSO's - 31,944 Points and ODX: PA2M at 791Km
144MHz:
339 QSO's - 144,342 Points and DK5DQ at 980Km
432MHz:
118 QSO's - 46,832 Points and DF0MU at 958Km
1296MHz:
38 QSO's - 15,166 Points and PI4GN at 909Km
Installing the 2m and 6m antenna
2m: 4x5 LFA Antennas
2m: 2x12 LFA Antennas
70cm and 23cm antennas
EI9HQ & EI4GZB installing 23cm antennas
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We are delighted to receive the IRTS Thomond Trophy for the Open section of the IRTS VHF/UHF Field Day and a certificate from the RSGB for the Leading Non-UK Entry in the open section. As always thank you to the adjudicator's and to you for the points. Looking forward to the next one. 73
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