Irish Islands IOTA Tour 2018

Beginning June 1st 2018, the EIDX Group will activate ALL Irish IOTA Groups.

Using the ‘Echo Juliet’ prefix, EJ0DXG will be QRV from IOTA EU-006, EU-007, EU-103 and EU-121 this summer.

Starting off with ‘Little Saltee Island’ EU-103 on June 15/16/17/18th…the groups will be QRV on HF and 6m bands using CW, SSB and Digital modes.

Follow our Facebook page for information/dates for all other activations.

Supported by dxwanted.net a beautiful plaque will be available for whoever works them on 4 different IOTA Groups. So, as a ‘Bonus’ station, EI0DXG will also be QRV from Mainland Ireland (EU-115) throughout and until September 30th 2018.

Here is the line-up (weather permitting)

EU-103…………....June 15/16/17/18

EU-007…......………....July 20/21/22

EU-121………….....August 24/25/26

EU-006….....September 13/14/15/16

EU-115……Operation begins June 1st until September 30th.

As with all EIDXG activities, QSL via M0OXO.

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

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

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

  

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,

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

RSGB VHF/UHF National Field Day 2015

The weekend of 4th & 5th of July 2015, I ventured out with the Blacksheep DX & Contest group for the VHF/UHF National Field Day.

We were operational on 50MHz (6m), 70MHz (4m), 144MHz (2m) & 432MHz (70cm) from Locator Square "JO01KJ" under the call-sign "M0BAA/P".

We arrived on site on the Friday at 15:00BST and began to set up our portable stations, weather conditions were amazing on the Friday with the sun beaming down on us as we constructed the stations for the contest which were starting on the Saturday at 14:00UTC until Sunday 14:00UTC. We worked hard into the evening on Friday until the Thunderstorms ceased our operations, so we decided to order a Take Away and have a few beers then bed down for the rest of the night to which got up early on Saturday morning and finished off the rest of the station builds. Weather was certainly a lot different on Saturday morning a lot cooler and the land was wet from the torrential rain the night before. 

Team Building the 144MHz - 4 x 10 Array

 Team erecting the 144MHz - 4 x 10 Array

144MHz - 4 x 10 Array up and running

432MHz Shack going together

 

432MHz Station - 4 x 17 Array on a Versa Tower

 50MHz 7 element antenna on a Versa Tower

 50MHz / 70MHz Shack

The good old Power Horse Generator (Now RIP)

EI5IX / M0XII rolling up Eco Flex 15+ Cable

When things go Wrong....

We had a lot more challenges than usual present them selves this time around but we just put the head down pushed on through then suddenly it was 14:00UTC...CQ Contest!!! 

I had the pleasure of operating with Stephen G4SHF and Nick G4FAT on 50 MHz. Mike G8TIC along with Matt G0XDI and Andy 2E0IBF operated on 144MHz and Dave G7RAU with Bill M0BTZ operated on 432MHz for the start of the contest. We kept rotating operators on the stations which was great as it gave every body a feel of the different bands over the weekend. 

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 more issues which delayed our start on the 70MHz band by 45 minutes. 

Once 14:00UTC on Sunday appeared on the clock some very weary and tired contesters began to disassemble the stations and get ready for the next stage "packing up", We decided to stay overnight Sunday and go for some Fish and Chips have a few beers then get some sleep and be fresh for the morning. We got up Monday early packed up the stations and left the site in the afternoon for journey back home.

We finished up the contest with the following claimed scores and entries into the Open section of this contest with the following:

50Mhz (6m):

182 QSO's - 40'809 Total Points with an ODX of 2007Km with 9H5MC


70Mhz (4m):

91 QSO's - 21'284 Total points with an ODX of 779Km with GM3WOJ


144MHz (2m):

657 QSO's - 268'429 Total points with an ODX of 1100Km with OL7M


432MHz (70cms):

227 QSO's - 75'752 Total points with an ODX of 969Km with OL3Z

I have got to thank the Blacksheep DX & Contest group (Mike G8TIC, Stephen G4SHF, Nick G4FAT, Matt G0XDI, Bill M0BTZ, Andy 2E0IBF and Dave G7RAU) for the hard work they all put in over the weekend and especially for making VHF/UHF NFD contest a success for us even though we had some issues along the way the Team stayed positive and pushed on through, I really enjoyed the weekend, it was great craic and a good laugh and I'm looking forward to the next one.

73's

Pat

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UPDATE - 07/08/2015

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

I'm delighted to announce that we won VHF / UHF NFD contest for the second successive year, though the margin was incredibly close (00.6%, or 21 Normalised points. Thanks (as always) to those who worked us and to VHFCC for the super fast adjudication. Full results at : http://www.rsgbcc.org/cgi-bin/vhfresults.pl?Contest=VHF%20NFD&year=2015

All the Blacksheep Group Team receiving the various Trophies that we won throughout 2015 including for the Open section the VHF National Field Day  "Surrey Cup" 

which Matt G0XDI and Mike G8TIC are holding in the picture above. 

RSGB 50 MHz CW Trophy Contest 2015

The RSGB 50MHz CW Trophy contest on the 28th of June at 09:00- 12:00 UTC under the Blacksheep DX & Contest Group callsign"M0BAA/P" from locator IO91MP.
Bill M0BTZ joined me up on the hill were we put together our Portable setup, FT847 with 100W and a 5 Element Tonna Yagi about 6 meters off the ground.


There was Poor conditions on the 6M band with very little Tropo propagation around and UK activity was low, Thank god for some sproadic E propagation to keep us on our toes but not as much as we would have liked, Weather was Mild but it did rain a few times which hindered rotating the mast at times as we went with the old armstrong method this time around.  We entered the Open section as it was set out for Portable stations and finished up the contest with a claimed score of 50 QSO's 9,375 Points with "YO2BBT" as our ODX of 1797Km. 

Here is a Video of Me operating during the contest:

Here is a map of our QSO's:

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UPDATE - 21/07/2015

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

50 MHz CW 2015

This is the fourth year of the 50MHz CW contest. The number of entries has continued to decrease with only 21 entries this year. Though there were 85 UK stations active in the event.

Tropo conditions were reported as being from flat to poor to terrible. There was patchy sporadic E throughout the event though only 31 Es QSOs were completed with 12 stations in DL, EA, EA8, I, IS0, OZ, YO and YU. The best DX was between G4SGX and EA8DBM at 3098 kms and the best tropo contact was between G3ZVW and GM4PPT at 529 kms.

During the adjudication 8.3% of QSOs were disallowed and some entrants will notice large reductions in their claimed scores. Again the most common error was with RST.

Congratulations go to:

The Tiverton (SW) RC G4TSW for winning the Open section.

Steve G3ZVW for winning the SF section.

The other certificate winners who are identified in the results tables.

This contest is the second leg of the 2015 VHF CW Championship. G4TSW maintain their lead followed by M0BAA/P.

Roger - G4BVY

Thanks to Roger for adjuciating this contest and to all that gave us points during the contest delighted to come in 2nd place, look forward to the next contest, 73 - Pat EI5IX / M0XII

RSGB / IARU 50Mhz Trophy Contest 2015 from IN79JX

On June 20th & 21st the RSGB & IARU R1 - 50 MHz International Trophy Contest took place. I was active again this year with The BlackSheep Contest and DX Group under the callsign "G8T" from Locator square IN79JX. I arrived on site on Friday evening to help the Team put together our station for the weekend.

G8T 50 MHz Contest Station 

Band conditions were very patchy with very few Es on Saturday but much better on Sunday. Our ODX was KP4S at 6453Km via multihop Es on Saturday evening. We finished up the Contest with a claimed score of 638 QSO's and 232 Multipliers totaling 177,146,848 points.

WX was foggy and windy at times right on the coast. 

 Team putting antennas together 

Versa Tower no.2 going up

Mandy and Myself enjoying a nice Cuppa Taé

Mike G8TIC and Tim G4LOH

 Jaxon in the hot seat

 Mummy (Mandy) getting Jaxon all prepared

Daddy (Matt G0XDI) taking a rest with Jaxon

I got to say a big Thank you to the guys of the Blacksheep Contest group it was a fantastic weekend. (Pic L>R: Andy 2E0IBF, Bill M0BTZ (with the 50Mhz Telford Trophy from 2013 & 2014), Matt G0XDI, Mike G8TIC (With Shackle our Blacksheep), Rohan M6TIC, 

Nick G4FAT (With the Surrey NFD Trophy from 2014) Tim G4LOH including myself Pat EI5IX / M0XII. Thanks to Matt's wife Mandy for taking the Photo of us all, it certainly was a fantastic experience and great weekend with the group. Looking forward to our next one together. 

UPDATE - 16/07/15

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

There was very good sporadic-e for this contest with 26 stations working across into the Caribbean and Cape Verde at over 6000km. Well done to UR7D and Z35T for working KP4 - Puerto Rico at over 8000km and to G1ZJP, G0VHF/P and M0WAF/P for working PJ4 - Bonaire at over 7000km.

Looking through the logs was very interesting and although at times the e"s were patchy there were 332 different locators up for grabs and 2107 different call-signs appear in the logs. A strong opening to the east and south-east enabled good points for many with good activity from most countries i.e. there were 267 unique Italian calls in the logs.
Turnout this year was similar to last year (98 this year compared to 93 in 2014) with the exception of an increase of overseas entries from 12 to 17 and sections 6S and SF were up by 4 each.

The same logging errors appeared this year as last year and common errors were incorrect serial numbers, some odd calls due to Mixing I"s and O"s with numbers and strange locators i.e. a station placed in Asiatic Russia (not permitted!) and a European station moved to South America and so on. It is worthwhile at least sense checking prefixes and typo funnies before submitting as a number of these were obviously wrong!
There were a number of stations using the DX window 100-130 to conduct European QSOs which contravenes the IARU band plan. The rules are quite clear on this and if you are going to CQ in the window you can only count the QSOs with other continents and should not work the European callers. Warnings have been issued and hopefully next year I will not be reporting on this.

The use of chat websites e.g. KST are allowed for this contest as it is in line with an IARU event but please remember do not to pass any information or assist the QSO in any way apart from agreeing a frequency to work each other, things like please "send the serial again" is seen as assisting the QSO and will result in a penalty being applied. If you want to stop the other station assisting during the QSO then say before starting "No chat during the QSO please".

A final note on operating; I have received complaints and noted myself that some stations were frequency hopping onto other stations frequencies where QSOs were in progress. It is courteous to ask if the frequency is in use (or QRL? In cw) before starting CQ Contest as mutual QRM always destroys the QSO rate for both parties.

Well done to the Blacksheep CG operating again down on the Lizard in Cornwall for retaining the Telford Trophy with a massive score and congratulations to G8XVJ/P " Erik operating from IO93 who takes the Six Metre Cup with a huge lead over the other contenders in this category.
Well done to all the other certificate winners", details are shown in the results tables on the RSGB Website.

Dave Edwards 
g7rau@rsgbcc.org

73's

Pat

M0XII/P - UKAC 50MHz Contest - October

The October UKAC 50Mhz Contest on the 28th from locator square IO91MP was hard going with very deep QSB on the band. I had an issue with my voice keyer (LogiTalker) these last few contests as it seems to suffer terribly on the 6m band with RFI, I've tried various things to get rid of the RF feedback, ferrite rings to grounding the unit to changing the feed cable to the unit from the rig which in my opinion is a bit dodgy anyway but certainly not having a voice keyer in a contest is beginning to become very annoying and I do need to get it sorted (Voice is on its last legs). Anyway sure this is what the fun is all about we will struggle on (If anyone has suggestions on eliminating RFI on a LogiTalker please email me: ei5ixpat at gmail.com)

Activity seemed reasonably good in this contest compared to previous months. I managed to get 7 DXCC's this months contest with the final one (Belgium) right on the line but there was a lot of QSB on the band. 

This month I finished the contest with a claimed score of 107 QSO's and 16 UK Multiplier squares and a total of 220,592 claimed points with 7 DXCC entities worked. It was really nice to work Dave GI4SNA in IO64XM Square as my furthest ODX of 467Km, Once again a big Thank you to all stations for the points and multipliers this month it was very much appreciated. Looking forward to the next contest. :)

My working conditions was an FT847 Transceiver with 100 watts into a 5 Element Tonna F9FT Yagi up 5m from Ground.

Here is a map of the QSO's made during the Contest:

M0XII/P - UKAC 50MHz Contest - September

The September UKAC 50Mhz Contest on the 23rd from locator square IO91MP was hard going with very little propagation to the North of the UK. Activity seemed down in this contest compared to previous months. I managed with a hard struggle to get EI in the log from IO91 Square heard two stations in EI this month but only completed the QSO with one and worked GI/MI a couple of moments later but I didn't hear or work any GM/MM or GD/MD or GU/GJ on the band, conditions were just too weak to to the North this month. 

This month I finished the contest with a claimed score of 84 QSO's and 14 UK Multiplier squares and a total of 133,868 claimed points with 4 DXCC entities worked. It was really nice to work Joe EI3IX in IO53KU Square as my furthest ODX of 602Km, Once again a big Thank you to all stations for the points and multipliers this month it was very much appreciated. Looking forward to the next contest. :)

My working conditions was an FT847 Transceiver with 100 watts into a 5 Element Tonna F9FT Yagi up 5m from Ground.

Here is a map of the QSO's made during the Contest:

M0XII/P - UKAC 50MHz Contest - August

The August UKAC 50Mhz Contest on the 26th from locator square IO91MP was excellent with regards to propagation some sporadic E contacts during contest into Spain and Sweden. Activity in this contest was again up this month and it was great to hear a few new stations give away extra multipliers on the band. I managed with a struggle to get three Scottish (GM/MM) stations a few Welsh (GW/MW) stations and one Northern Irish station (GI/MI) and one station from the Isle Of Mann (GD) including a station from (ON) Belgium these were all worked from IO91 Square unfortunately this month I didn't work (EI) Ireland but I could hear Dave EI9FBB on the band but conditions were too weak to complete the QSO. Maybe next month we will get my home country in the log.

This month I finished the contest with a claimed score of 113 QSO's and 15 UK Multiplier squares and a total of 300,390 claimed points with 8 DXCC entities worked. It was really nice to work Hans EA5/DL5EO on his holiday's in JM08AQ Square as my furthest ODX of 1443Km, Once again a big Thank you to all stations for the points and multipliers this month it was very much appreciated. Looking forward to the next contest. :)

My working conditions was an FT847 Transceiver with 100 watts into a 5 Element Tonna F9FT Yagi up 5m from Ground.

Here is a map of the QSO's made during the Contest:

73's DE EI5IX / M0XII - Pat

M0XII/P - UKAC 50Mhz Contest - July

The July UKAC 50Mhz Contest on the 22nd from locator square IO91MP was excellent with regards to propagation some unexpected sproadic E's towards the end of the contest into Sweden and Finland made the band go wild. Activity in this contest was well up on previous months and it was great to hear a few extra multipliers on the band. I still struggle to get GM/MM stations from 91 Square but just about managed to get Andy GM4JR, unfortunately this month didn't hear any EI or GD.

This month I finished the contest with a claimed score of 117 QSO's and 16 UK Multiplier squares and a total of 350,976 points with 8 DXCC entities worked. It was really nice to work Timo OH1TM on the band in KP01VJ Square as my furthest ODX of 1752Km,  Once again a big Thank you to all stations for the points and multipliers this month it was very much appreciated.

My working conditions was an FT847 Transceiver with 100 watts into a 5 Element F9FT Yagi up about 3m from ground.

Here's a map of the QSO's made during the contest: