DX Féile 2022

Date for your Diary.....Saturday, November 5th 2022.

New Venue... Shannon Springs Hotel, Shannon, Co. Clare

This year, we needed to find another venue, and we are delighted to confirm the Shannon Springs Hotel as our venue of choice for this year's event.

Kicking off at 10:30 am, the day will be packed full of DX-related presentations and other DX Favourites such as the DX Quiz, SSB & CW Pile up Challenges etc. and not forgetting about our giant DX Tombola raffle. Throw in a carvery lunch, a 4-course dinner later that evening, 

Craic agus Ceol at the hotel bar and a comfortable room to bring the day to a close.

 

The price is €160 Per Person Sharing, which includes admission, lunch, dinner, B&B (twin/double)

Single occupancy is €220

Numbers are limited this year, so please book early to confirm your place (advance notice to EIDXG members and past attendees first)

Bookings / Enquiries or Expressions of interest to Dave EI9FBB ei9fbb at gmail.com or +353877444777

First contact on the 40 MHz band between Ireland and South Africa - 21st April 2022

Congratulations to Phil, EI9KP, for a remarkable contact on the 8m band.

The following is a quote from John's website at www.ei7gl.blogspot.com.

"A little bit of radio history was made on the 21st of April 2022 with the first contact ever between Ireland and South Africa on the 40 MHz band. Phil, EI9KP in the west of Ireland, managed to complete two-way contacts with Jan, ZS6OB in South Africa on 40.680 MHz using the FT8 and FT4 modes, a distance of about 9,570 km. EI9KP writes: "For me, a first band opening to South Africa, logged ZS6OB from 1044z till 1420z. To my delight, we managed a 2-way contact on 40.680MHz using FT8 and FT4 modes." EI9KP used 25-watts from an ICOM IC-7300 to a homebrew 2-element Yagi for the 8m band. ZS6OB used in the region of 30-50 watts."

40 MHz use in the UK

The RSGB has consulted Ofcom regarding the status of the so-called "Innovation and Trial" licences, covering 40-42 Mhz and frequencies around 70 and 146 MHz. It permits me to use 40-42MHz with digital modes (including CW) at 5W ERP max. Applicants for these licenses are not required to have passed an amateur exam or hold a call sign. These "Research and Innovation" permits are issued for up to 12 months on a non-interference, no protection and non-operational basis. Ofcom reiterated that there is no likelihood of UK Radio Amateurs gaining an allocation in the 40 MHz band any time soon. However, a small number of UK hams experiment on the 8m band using this type of license. There is a detailed review of these activities on the website of John, EI7GL at ei7gl.blogspot.com. John's website has become the authoritative source of thoroughly researched and well-presented
information about activities and experiments above 30MHz for serious VHF/UHF/SHF DXers and experimenters. Have a look at www.ei7gl.blogspot.com

4M / 70Mhz IRTS Radio News Service

The East Leinster Amateur Radio Club (ELARC) will continue the portable nature of the station and will be transmitting this week's news on 4m from the hills outside Skerries County Dublin.

Date: Sunday 3 April 2022
Time: 1030am local time
Frequency: 70.400 Mhz

The club will be putting out a few radio check calls from 1015am on 70.400 using the callsign of EI 0 EL

This location has given good coverage into Louth, Meath, Westmeath, Dublin, Wicklow and Kildare in the past. So keep an ear out!

MM8C & GM3RCV – Monach Isles, EU-111

I am delighted to announce that I will be active alongside G0FDZ Chris, G0VJG Nobby, G2NF Tony and M0SDV Jamie from Ceann Ear on the Monach Islands EU111 July 22-27, 2021. 

We will be QRV as MM8C for the IOTA contest. Outside the contest, we will be active as GM3RCV on CW, SSB. 

QSL's via LoTW, Club Log OQRS.

EI2DKH Transatlantic Beacon Update

Tony EI8JK, keeper of the EI2DKH 2 metre transatlantic beacon located at Kilcrohane on the Sheep’s Head Peninsula in West Cork has announced that on advice received, the Q65 sub-mode has been changed from A to C, as sub-mode C is reported to be more sensitive for 144MHz. Also following advice, the listening frequency has been changed from 144.120 to 144.178 MHz to avoid conflict with EME operators. All the latest information on the beacon is always posted on the EI2DKH QRZ.com page.

New 40 MHz propagation beacon now operational from the West of Ireland

A new 8-metre propagation beacon with the callsign EI1CAH is now operational from the west of Ireland, and it transmits on a frequency of 40.016MHz. The new beacon will transmit in both CW and PI4 modes with an output power of 25-watts into a horizontal dipole. This new 40 MHz beacon is designed to explore the possibility of VHF paths across the Atlantic as it is situated roughly halfway between the 10m and 6m bands. It is hoped that the beacon will prove to be a handy propagation indicator for any serious 50 MHz stations in North America looking for any impending openings to Europe. It is expected that the beacon can be heard in North America, the Caribbean and South America during the Sporadic-E season going from May to July every year and around the time of the peak of the upcoming sunspot cycle when the MUF goes well above 30 MHz.

EIDX Group Summer Challenge Results

The EI DX Group Summer Challenge ran from June 1st until August 30th and participants earned points for each DXCC country, CQ Zone, Irish County and EI DX Group member worked.

The results were announced in a live Facebook broadcast from Inis Mór, one of the Aran Islands by Dave EI9FBB last weekend. 

Congratulations to the Gold Plaque EI winner, Pat O’Connor EI9HX; Silver Plaque winner, Seamus Campbell EI3KE and Bronze Plaque winner, Declan Horan EI9FVB. The overseas plaque winners were as follows: Europe - Roland DL1EAL, Asia - Alik RX9WN. North America - William AL7KC and Africa - Simon ZS1XG. 

The EI DX group would like to thank everyone who supported this very enjoyable event. The EI DX Group was formed in January 2016 to encourage and facilitate Irish radio amateurs who wished to explore the possibility of participating in a major DX-pedition. Anyone interested in DXing is invited to join the group. Log on to EIDXG.com for all the details.

Silent Key - Dominic Curtin EI9JS

                                        

It is with great sadness that we announce the death of Dominic Curtin EI9JS at The North West Hospice, Sligo, on Tuesday, October 6th.

Dominic had been ill for some time, but despite his illness, he was active on every part of the spectrum from HF, VHF, UHF and SHF bands. He was also heard regularly chatting on the Mayo VHF repeater where he also took turns at reading the IRTS news on Sunday nights at 9pm on the Mayo VHF Repeater. 

Dominic was a long-time member of the Mayo Radio Experimenters Network and was very involved with the club on activations and contests. He attended all radio rallies throughout EI/GI. 

He will be greatly missed by his family, friends and all of our club members. His funeral was on Tuesday October13th at 11am in St Colman’s Church, Derrinacartha, Co. Roscommon with burial afterwards at the Church of Ireland cemetery, Green Street, Boyle. 

Dominic's funeral was live-streamed on Higgins and Sons Undertakers Facebook page. 

We extend our deepest sympathy to his family, relatives and friends. 

Till we meet our good friend again, 

May he Rest in Peace

The EI DX Group 4th Annual DX Féile is cancelled.

The 4th annual DX Féile organised by the EI DX Group for October 2nd and 3rd on the Aran Islands Hotel, Inis Mór has been cancelled due to the current Covid-19 crisis. 

The deadline for receipt of logs for the EIDX Group Summer Challenge has passed and the Group would like to thank everybody who sent in a log. 

There was a surprisingly high number of overseas entries and log checking is currently in progress and results will be announced shortly.

Silent Key - Michael Clarke EI3IG

Words from Peter EI2IU:

It was with deep regret I learned Michael Clarke EI3IG of Ballindrimley Castlerea passed away on Thursday morning 20th August in Castlebar Hospital after a short illness.

Michael was a one of a million type of life’s characters a real gentleman he had a passion for music and played the bass guitar with the Rhythm Stars who’s first hit was Chewy Chewy recorded in the Eamon Andrews recording studios in Dublin back in 1969 which Michael was also on vocals of that famous track they went on to record 7 tracks 8 in total in the same studios that Michael featured playing with Dean Lane one of his great friends. 

Michael was always interested in radio communications as an S.W.L. years before he became licensed back in 1979 he was very active in the local C.B. club in Castlerea with his life long friend Sean Browne. 

Michael pursued his passion for radio communications and studied to become a licensed Amateur Radio Experimenter and passed his exam. He was issued the callsign EI6EOB and became very active on V.H.F. as he lived in a fabulous location on top of Ballindrimely hill in Castlerea town and could be heard often on Dundalk to Cork and in between repeaters from his location. 

Michael perused his passion for radio further and became proficient to be able to send and receive Morse Code at a speed of 12 words a minute Micheal spent many hours learning the code in the front room of the house while been carer for his late Mother which he most dearly loved and cared for her right up till her death. 

One story many people do not know is Michael travelled to Limerick to the Department of Marine to sit the Morse test. 

Michael would never use a lift in a building he had a fear of lifts and always took the stairs in any building but when he arrived to do the test in Limerick the Marine Radio Officers office was on the top floor. Michael wouldn’t take the lift, and the stairs were under maintenance, so there was a big problem. 

The Officer arranged for Michael to sit the exam in the reception and Michael passed with flying colours as he did with anything he turned his hands too throughout his life he was so proud of been awarded a Class A Radio Licence it was a major achievement for him at the time and he was issued the callsign EI3IG 

Michael became very active on H.F. as well as V.H.F. and could be found almost every day on the WAI net or chasing DX someplace on the bands and with 100w and a Cushcraft R5 and a G5RV he worked the world. 

Now that Michael is a Silent Key and has passed his time with us I have no doubt in my mind that Michael has gone straight to heaven as he had qualities as a man a friend and a neighbour that were most certainly something that most of us can only wish to aspire too he was the most decent man that ever walked the hill of his beloved Ballindrimely I am honoured to have shared so many fabulous memories with him. 

When Michael had his B callsign, he would always sign off by saying “ goodbye from EI6EOB or END OF BROADCAST. “ 

I thought it was a fitting memory for the day of his funeral, 

Micheal’s Mass of the Resurrection took place on Saturday 22nd August in St. Patrick’s Church Castlerea at 11am burial afterwards was in Cuiltybo Cemetery Loughglynn in the family grave beside his late Mother.

73 Michael till we meet again,

Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam

EI2FG & EA8CXN set new Region 1 1296MHz Tropo record.

Congratulations to John Hearne EI2FG who set a new IARU Region 1 tropo record on 1296MHz on July 17th with an SSB contact with Cesar EA8CXN over a distance of 2,714 kilometres. EA8CXN was using 150 watts into a small parabolic dish which was 50 cms in diameter. The feed point for the dish was a 3-element horizontally polarized PCB Yagi. EI2FG was using his EME station of 150 watts into a 3-metre parabolic dish. The feed point was Right-Hand Circular Polarization on transmit and Left-Hand CP on receive. You can get more information on this achievement on the very informative page run by John EI7GL. Log on to ei7gl.blogspot.com.

EI7M CQ WW DX SSB 2019 OPERATION

 Call: EI7M

Operator(s): EI3JE EI3JZ EI3KD EI4HQ EI5IX EI6JK EI7IG EI8IR ON4EI

Station: EI7M

Class: M/2 HP

QTH: Cork

Operating Time (hrs): 48

Location: Northern Europe

Summary:
Band	QSOs	Zones	Countries
160:	318	12	60
80:	1201	20	87
40:	2641	34	128
20:	2788	37	129
15:	1377	30	127
10:	306	15	59
Total:	8631	148	590	Total Score	11,169,630

Conditions affected (mostly badly) by solar activity, but it was good to catch a few openings on 15m and 10m. After the contest had finished we discovered our beverage was faulty, apologies to those we could not hear on the low bands. Thanks for the fun!

EI DX Group - DX Feile 2019

The EIDX Group was formed in early 2016 with an aim of bringing Ireland's DXers together to form an Irish DXpedition team and to promote DX activity in Ireland. For our 1st DXpedition, we brought you 9N7EI, operating from high above in the Himalayas and netting over 30,000 QSOs! Then, in March 2018 we brought you our 7Q7EI adventure operating from the shores of Lake Malawi logging over 38,000 QSOs. This year saw yet another DXpedition as we operated from Togo as 5V7EI throughout March and netted over 50,000 QSOs!! Plans are already underway for yet another exciting DX location for 2020 - stay tuned! 

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DX Féile 2018 was the last activity as part of our Irish Islands IOTA Tour 2018 programme,where we activated all Irish IOTA Groups as well as logging over 33,000 QSOs!

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'Féile', is a word taken from the Irish language (Gaelic) and translates into English as 'Festival'. So basically, we are holding a 'DX Festival' this coming September but with an IOTA twist!

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The chosen venue for this 'festival' is quite exciting as it is actually on Inis Mór, Aran Islands (EU-006). To mark this occasion, 2 x stations will be QRV for the weekend where attendees will be able to operate the EJ1D callsign for as much or as little as they like. 

We chose an amazing line up of DX Related talks presented by some of the World's finest DXpeditioners/DXers. (see the 'Programme' page for full line-up https://www.dxfeile.ie/programme). Add this with the friendly Irish atmosphere and Céad Míle Fáilte (One hundred million welcomes) made this a great DX filled weekend for sure.

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Some of the memories from the weekend:

Some of our visitors this year...

Signed Flags 

More Signed Flags

EJ1D from EU006 Inish Mor - Aran Islands Group

EJ1D up and running with EI5IX 

Hal W8HC 

EI5IX & EI4GZB on SSB

 F5AGB on SSB as EJ1D

DK6SP Philip on CW as EJ1D

 Hal W8HC as EJ1D on SSB

Feeding time in the Zoo

L:R> EI4GK, EI6FR 

L:R>GM3POI, EI9JF 

L:R>EI8KN, EI5IQ 

L:R> EI2II, EI4L 

L:R>EI3HA, EI6IB 

L:R> M0SDV, DK6SP 

L:R> EI5IX, EI5GM 

 L:R> G3KMA & K9AJ

 L:R> EI2II, W8HC doing the "Gentry"

L:R> F4TTR & XYL, F5JTV, F5AGB & XYL 

L:R> EI6IL, EI6FR, EI4HH

G3KMA 

EI4BZ 

K9AJ 

EI5IX 

 Hal W8HC

 SSB & CW Challenge 

SSB & CW Challenge  

 SSB & CW Challenge 

 SSB & CW Challenge 

L:R>  F5AGB, F4TTR, M0OXO, F5JTV

 L:R> EI9FBB, F5JTV, EI5GM

 Presenting VP6R a donation from EI DX Group

L:R> EI2CN Raffle Prize Winner presented by EI9HQ

Guest Speakers presentations

EI DX Group Dinner... 

Our Menu...

 2019 EI DX Group Crew 

Silent Key - John McAndrew, EI3JM

It is with the greatest of sympathy we also report the death of John McAndrew, (EI3JM) Ballinvoy, Aughagower, Westport,Co Mayo, Monday September 9th 2019. 

John operated mostly CW on HF, but was also heard regularly on 2 meters FM. John was a valued member of the Mayo Radio Experimenters Network. He was club chairman from 2006 - 2009 and also served as treasurer in recent years. 

He also acted as the reader of the weekly IRTS News Bulletins on 2 meters on behalf of Mayo Radio Experimenters Network. He will be sadly missed by all his colleagues in the Club. 

We extend our deepest sympathies to his wife Kathleen, daughter, sons, brothers and sisters and his extended family. 

Ar dheis De go raibh a anam dilis.

EI - 6m (50MHz) Beacon

The EI 6m (50MHz) beacon has moved to 50.004 and now has an extended transmission time of three one minute sequences of PI4 and CW . The following two sequences will soon be taken up the the GI 6m beacon. The beacon hardware has been upgraded to an RF Zero board and is GPS locked so it can be used to check the frequency calibration of your radio. Please spot the beacon if you hear it.

73,

Pat EI5IX / M0XII

Call: A35EU

Operator(s): EI5IX, GM4FDM, PA3EWP, PA4WM

Station: A35EU

Class: M/2 HP

QTH: Wisbech
Operating Time (hrs): 48
Location: Oceania

Band   QSOs   Zones    Countries
160:      1            1             1
80:       325        17           32
40:       564        28           64
20:       610        29           52
15:       241        19           24
10:         0           0             0

Total:   1741     94          173        Total Score 1,330,194

A Token effort from Tonga, thanks for the QSO's. GL to all... 73