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.

IRTS / RSGB - VHF/UHF Field Day 2017

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

  

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