EJ0DXG - Bear Island EU121 Activation June 2018

On June 15th members of the EI DX Group (EI9FBB Dave, EI5GM Jeremy and EI5IX Pat) were all set to activate Little Saltee Island EU-103 using the 'Echo Juliet' prefix, EJ0DXG using CW, SSB and Digital modes but unfortunately due to bad weather after storm Hector's visit across the Irish Sea the seas were very rough to make a landing so as a result, we did not land on Little Saltee Island EU-103 for the weekend of June 15th - June 17th. 

Our Skipper reported 'There is too much swell out on the islands'. This was going to be a 'wet landing' and pure 'tent & generator' style operation so unfortunately it was not possible to activate the island that weekend.

Instead, we activated Bere Island EU-121 and managed to make a crossing to this Island with operations beginning Saturday 16th. This activation was in addition to the already announced activity in August on the 24/25/26th. So, you will have 2 chances to work EU-121.

Here are some pictures of our Activation:

Boat over to Bere Island EU-121 

Leaving Port Early on Saturday 16th June 

Directions to other Islands 

Bere Island EU121

Antennas for the Weekend 

(HEX Beam, 3ele on 6m, 80m Dipole & Vertical on 30m & 17m) 

Vertical on 40m

Dave EI9FBB flat out on SSB & CW

Jeremy EI5GM

Pat EI5IX

Jeremy EI5GM & Pat EI5IX in the belly of CW Pileups

EI5IX Pat operating on 17m SSB

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.

RSGB - 432MHz Trophy Contest 2018

Call: G8P
Operator(s): EI5IX EI7FJ G0HFX G4CLA 
Station: G8P

Class: Open Section
QTH: JO01QD
Operating Time (hrs): 8
Location: White Cliffs of Dover UK

On May 5th the RSGB - 432 MHz Trophy Championship Contest took place from 14:00UTC – 22:00UTC. This was an 8 hour event and the contest ran concurrently with the first few hours of an IARU / RSGB 24 hour UHF contest. This year I was out active with The Parallel Lines Group under the callsign "G8P" from Locator square JO01QD. 

We had a Huge duct into PA but didn't extend much further unfortunately. There was great WX over the weekend with some nice DX, We finished up the contest with a score of 229 QSO’s 90,466 points and our ODX was OL3Z at 932Km.

A great weekend was had by all the team looking forward to the next one.

21st GM-DX Convention - Saturday, 14 April 2018

This year's 21st GM-DX Convention was also a celebration of twenty-five years since the GM-DX Group was founded in 1993. There was 92 Convention attendees and 70 for the GM-DX Dinner. (Pictures by Nigel G3TXF)

The GM-DX Convention has been held in the same King Robert Hotel in Bannockburn for twenty years.

Rob GM3YTS: GM-DX 25th Birthday cake.

L>R Steve MW0ZZK, Declan EI6FR, Pat EI5IX, Dave EI9FBB and Col MM0NDX

GM-DX Speakers Lasse SM5GLC, Nigel G3TXF, Hawk SM5AQD, Chris GM3WOJ and Don G3XTT collect their GM-DX Mugs.

Steve MW0ZZK, Declan EI6FR, Col MM0NDX and Jonathan MM0OKG.

Dave EI9FBB and Pat EI5IX.

Hawk SM5AQD, Clive GM3POI, Lasse SM5GLC and Joe DL4CF

Chris GM3WOJ is presented with the RSGB's Jack Wylie Trophy by RSGB President Nick G3RWF.

Tom GM4FDM and Gavin GM0GAV.

Iain M0PCB, Fred G4BWP, Kerry G8VR and Neil G0JHC.

Nadine MM0WNW, Ian GM3SEK, Martin GM8IEM and Aileen.

Justin G4TSH, Chris G3SVL and Don G3XTT.

Nigel G3TXF is ready to drive back to Edinburgh Airport: EDI

7Q7EI - Malawi DXpedition 2018

Delighted to announce the EI DX Group (who brought you 9N7EI earlier this year) are announcing our next DXpedition for 2018 which will be to Malawi under the callsign 7Q7EI.

A team of 14 operators will be QRV for 2 consecutive weekends from March 21st to April 3rd also taking in the CQ WPX SSB contest 2018.

The team have carefully selected an ideal location on the shores of lake Malawi and will be QRV on all bands from 160m through 10m, SSB, CW and RTTY.

We are looking forward to hearing you on the bands!!!

73,

Information and Updates: 

http://www.7q7ei.com/

DX Féile - 6th & 7th October 2017

Saturday 7th October will see the '1st DX Féile' take place on Inis Mór Island, Aran Islands for a DX filled-convention.

World renowned DXpeditioners Kenneth LA7GIA, Nigel G3TXF and IOTA Deputy manager Cezar VE3LYC along with Declan EI6FR and Jeremy EI5GM will host a day of DX related talks followed by a Dinner and Social evening amongst other activities.

2 x HF stations will be QRV signing the EJ1D callsign and giving out the EU-006 IOTA reference for the weekend. Full information is available on their website www.dxfeile.ie Early booking is advised due to limited availability.

Looking forward to seeing you all there and maybe working some of you on the air from EU-006!!!

73,
Pat

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

  

IARU / IRTS CW Field day Contest 2017

The Mayo Radio Experimenters took part in the IARU / IRTS CW Field day  on the 3/4 June 2017 as EI0M/P.  The station equipment was the clubs portable tower supporting a 240Ft Doublet antenna, this was connected to a balanced tuner and the radio used was the clubs Icom IC7300.

 Club Tower with Doublet Antenna

 650w Generator

 Station in action on 10m

Station Setup

EI5IX operating

Conditions were difficult as it has been for this year so far.  Even so contacts were made on all bands.

Claimed Score



Looking forward to the next one,

73

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

Thanks to the contest manager who published the results so quickly.

20th GMDX Convention Saturday April 1st 2017 and GM6NX Club Station Visit

The 20th GM-DX Convention was on Saturday 1st April 2017 with over 100 day-time attendees and 80 for the GM-DX Dinner that evening. I always enjoy going to the GMDX convention as it has an even balance of Socialising along with very interesting Talks. This year Olof G0CKV shared his adventures to 3B9HA Rodriguez Island and interesting insights into antenna selections for various contests done from there then Chris G3SVL followed with a talk where he shared his experience with the ZL7G Team on Chatham Island in which they received a GM-DX quaiche for their excellent Dx-pedition. After a short break John G3WGV did a great talk on SDR's with knobs on which left me thinking that the future is really bright for this hobby and it could get really interesting in another few years with SDR Technology. To finish off the Programme for the day the final talk was done by Dave EI9FBB on the EI DX Groups recent Dx-pedition to 9N7EI in Nepal.

Rob GM3YTS welcomes visitors to the GM-DX Convention.

Chris G3SVL and Olof G0CKV with Chris's VHF raffle prize.

John G3WGV demonstrates his "SDR with knobs on".

Dave EI9FBB giving a Talk on 9N7EI from Nepal.

Chris G3SVL and Nigel G3TXF receive a GM-DX quaiche from Rob GM3YTS for the 2016 ZL7G Chatham Island DX-pedition.

Dave EI9FBB receives GM-DX trophy quaiche from Rob GM3YTS for DX Excellence.

It was fantastic event over all and it was really nice to meet up with new and familiar faces, there was even some mighty craic had at the GM-DX Dinner and Hotel Bar afterwards down into the small hours of the morning with some hilarious moments being shared throughout. Thanks to Nigel G3TXF for some excellent photos and I'm looking forward to seeing you all again next year at the GMDX Convention.

GM6NX Club Station Visit 

The morning after the night before... Dave EI9FBB, Col MM0NDX and I decided to go visit the crew (Billy GM0OBX, Hugh GM0UYE, Jonathan MM0OKG and Steve 2M0EVS) up at the GM6NX club station and have the craic up there for a while.

"S9 DXR" = DX-World automobile.

Dave EI9FBB squeezing into "S9 DXR" before our adventures to GM6NX.

 Some QSL cards on the wall of Fame at GM6NX Club Station.

New desk layout in the station, very comfortable layout I might add.

160m & 80m full-size Verticals with an OB 9-5 Yagi 

Hugh GM0UYE was having a lot of fun working Meteor scatter on 6M.

another OB-9-5 in the Background

2ele Yagi on 40m and vertical for 2m/70cm.

There was Bacon and Black Pudding Rolls being made and Iron Bru being drank it was also great to go back again to the club a year later and see all the recent shack upgrades that had being carried out and even watching Jonathan MM0OKG and Steve 2M0EVS dig out the base of a new tower for a new project at the station. This certainly is a fantastic club station with a real vibrant feel about it and certainly well worth a visit if your ever in the area. Thanks again to a great bunch up there I'm looking forward to going back again soon.