Club Meetings: Meetings are held on the first Wednesday of every month at 21:00 Venue: Breaffy House Hotel, Castlebar

New Members and Visitors are most welcome. 

Farewell to Phil EI9KP

Some of our club members met in Breaffy House on Wednesday 13th of November, to bit farewell to our good friend, Phil Rogister EI9KP.

Phil returns home to Belgium after spending many years living in Aclare Co Sligo.  Phil spent a lot of his time experimenting and hill walking. Phil activated many many SOTA summits around the Island and holds the prestigious Mountain Goat award from SOTA.

He was always very generous with his knowledge and showed great encouragement to new license holders and those studying for the HAREC exam.

Blacksod Lighthouse number is, IE0008, WAI F61, Loc IO44XC

This year the Mayo Radio Experimenters Club members plan to activate Blacksod Lighthouse number is, IE0008, WAI F61, Loc IO44XC on Sunday (only) 18th August 2024 for the International Lighthouse Lightship Weekend – ILLW using the club callsign EI7MRE for the occasion.

Broadhaven/Ballyglass Lighthouse Activation. 2022

Members of the Mayo Radio Experimenters Network plan to Activate Broadhaven/Ballyglass Lighthouse (ILLW No: IE0006, on Sunday (only) 21st August 2022 for the International Lighthouse Lightship Weekend – ILLW using club callsign EI7MRE for the occasion.

Normally held on the 3rd full weekend in August.

This year 00.01UTC 20th August to 24.00UTC 21st August 2022 (48 hours).

Lough Erne Amateur Radio Rally 2022 (LEARC). The club had a table at the Rally this year.

Some club members attended the LEARC Radio Rally in Lisnaskea Co Fermanagh N.I, on Sunday 8th May. It was a pleasure to be able to attend a Radio Rally again, gone are the mask’s as there were only a few in sight. We had a table with a choice of bits and bobs for rummaging through. Brendan EI6IZ, Brian EI6JG, Jimmy EI2GCB and Padraic EI9JA entertained potential customers as they chose what they might spend their hard earned cash on! Business was brisk and customers jostled to get a peep in the boxes hoping to find a bargain. Sterling or Euro was accepted on the day. A great day out was enjoyed by all.

IRTS A.G.M 2022. The club had a table at the Radio Rally & AGM this year.  Thanks to South Eastern Amateur Radio Group EI2WRC, for holding the event. 

It was great to get back to the Radio Rally scene again after the disruption by Covid – 19.  Click on image below for more pictures.

Domnic Curtin EI9JS R.I.P.  06/10/2020

2020 a new year

Coolmine Rally

Along with being active in the first IRTS contest of the year, we had a table at the first rally of the year which is the Coolmine rally. This turned out to be a great day and all present for the club very good time.

A big thanks to to the organizers of the rally for a great day out.

80 meter IRTS counties contest

The club members took part in the annual new years counties contest. Start of the new year would not be the same without the yearly outing.  The wx was fine and band conditions good.  We were kept busy for the entire two hours of the contest.

27 counties were in the log by the end of the contest, with a contact into Finland being the last in the log.

The equipment used was the very tried and tested Ic 7300 with a balanced z match tuner fed into a doublet antenna.

Jimmy EI2GCB, Padraic EI9JA and Dominic EI9JS operated the station. We were also joined by David EI3ECB for part of the contest. The weather remand dry but cold for the rest of the afternoon, this made packing away equipment less challenging when the contests finished.

Follow the link below for more pictures from the new years day contest.

Image gallery

Limerick Rally

The club had a table at the rally this again this year.  Thanks to Limerick radio Club for holding the event.  Click on image below for more pictures.

First Rally of the season

The first Radio Rally of the year was the Phoenix Amateur Radio Rally in Blanchardstown, Coolmine, Dublin on Sunday 17/02/19. Some members of the Mayo Radio club attended the rally, we had a table with many radio related items and other interesting objects that may be interested to punters! a enjoyable day was had by all.  A big thanks to the team organising the event.

Open above picture for more images of the rally

Good Start to 2019

The annual 80 meter new years day contest started club operations well.  The weather was very kind this year, dry and mild.  The team was assembled at the usual spot and a station was set up. Doublet antenna , Icom 7300 and computer logging was quickly put together.  Generator was place away from the operating area, when all was connected and it was time nearly to get on air.

A few club members turned out for the afternoon’s activity.  Some were surprised how quickly the the station was put together with minimal equipment, it also gave some ideas on how to change/improve there own stations.  There was a lot activity for the duration of the contest with good condition and signals.  Local signals remaining strong until the last half – hour when propagation turned more towards DX.  The equipment worked well with the exception of a switch mode psu which did not like the proximity to RF from the feed line. Also a computer lock up due to operator error ( note to self must do better ).  Operators of the club station was Jimmy EI2GCB and Dominic EI9JS with Padraic EI9JA assisting.  80 plus contact with 27 counties worked in the two hours made for a lively contest.  Thanks to all that took part on the day.  Happy New Year and may 2019 be your best year for DX yet.

Personal low pwr 40 MHz 8 meter beacon

Phil EI9kp is now running a personal beacon on 40.150 Mhz cw while he is in active his shack.

This is for propagation tests and not 24 hr,  and only until the proposed new beacon for the 8 meter band is operational.

Radio update for use on 8 meter band

The following transceivers have now been tested for use on the band

Icom  IC 706, IC 7200, IC 7300

Yaesu FT 817, Ft 857

Vertex Ftl 1011h

Any of the above that have been wide banded will work on the new allocation.  Although these some of these radios will seem to tune to the new 5 meter 54MHz allocation, none will operate successfully.  The only sensible option for this band is a transverter.

Also worth noting that if the current used when operating out of band is very high against the power output there may be a problem  filtering and the operating on that frequency.

P.S. The use of radios on this band is at the owner’s risk.

40 mhz 8 Meter band

First contact on 8 Meters

With the advent of this band being opened up for amateur use.  Some of the club members had discussed how we could operate on this band.  Brendan EI6IZ did some test with his ft 817 and it tuned up to 32 MHz from the 10m section and down to 32 MHz through 40 MHz from the 6m section. This made the radio usable for the new 8 meter band.  Dominic EI9JS then thought that if the 817 can then possibly its bigger brother the 857 can.  Guess what it dose so now some readily available radios for the band.

Phil EI9KP ( ON4TA ) was back in Ireland and was keen on doing some test on this new allocation, as the only know activity is the Denmark beacon on 40.071 MHz.

The only radio he had for the band was vertex pmr radio which was on the band but only 47 MHz FM.  More test with the ft 857 was required as he had one of those used for sota activation.  Dominic set was put on the test set and proved to be fine on tx with 2nd harmonic being at least 60db down and 3rd non existent with the equipment available.

Antennas would be next and wire dipole was constructed for the first test.  the first contact was made on fm.  Not satisfied with this Phil converted his own Ft 857 to operated on the band.  Also he constructed a delta loop for the band.

A more substantial dipole was fitted to the tower at EI9JS QTH and the first real two way contact was made on 40.250 MHz ssb on the 19 oct at 20.29 utc.  More tests are planned in a variety of modes.

These antennas are big.

Click on picture below for more images of the antennas and band pass filters.

Bookmark these web pages for updates on radios and antennas that can operate on 8 meters.

October 40 Meter Counties Contest

The sun was shining and torrential rain had stopped.  Cabin fever had struck so a club away mission was planed,  ringing around Saturday evening before the contest the usual crew plus dogs were assembled.

EI7MRE/p arrived on location and was set up.

12.00 was the start time, fine all was set up with plenty of time.  We started at 12.00 only problem it was local time and not UTC. First mistake of the day should have paid more attention to the small print.

Click on above image for more images of the day

Next issue we had was  a persistent RF hash from the generator on the low bands.  This is a problem that will have to be addressed before the next outing.  When the equipment was returned home one of the patch leads was found to have faulty screen.  This may have had an affect some more testing is required.

Even though we are at a very low part of the solar cycle there was a good turn out on the bands.  The band condition did close early so we didn’t run to the end.  Early home this time, thanks to all that were active through out the event.

VHF Field Day 2018

Due to our resounding successes on the high bands over the last few years.  We decide to have another go, will we never learn.  This year I have been playing on 4 and 6 meters at home and the best conditions this far north west seem to be either the morning until midday or at around tea time.  As we wanted run the clubs station at some stage over the event a decision was made to meet at 9am Sunday and run single band restricted on 4 meters.

Back to Sleive Carn was the plan.  After many days of hot and dry weather the morning was misty and damp.  The team consisted of Dominic EI9JS, Padraic EI9JA, Pat EI5IX and Jimmy EI2GCB, we all arrived about 9am to set up.  A 5 element beam was attached to a drive on mast, arm-strong method was used for rotating.  A Icom 7300, computer and power supply was set up in the van which acted as a shack.  A new generator was trialed as the old one had given up the ghost on a previous occasion.  The new one performed well with no noise noted on the radio.

Part of the exercise for the morning was to try N1MM software with the spectrum display running.  This did make it easier to find any stations that might be on the band.  The plan was to run until midday as the band has been dropping out then.  The first station we heard was EI9E they weren’t that good of a signal, that did not surprise us as they would be beaming away from us.  A few calls but they did not hear us maybe later.  Traces started to appear on the display, so the hunt was on, stations from G and GM were worked.  The Scottish stations stayed strong during the entire time we were active there was a good path in that direction.  We managed to get EI9E’s attention so they turned there beams least we got them in the log.  There was no sporadic all the contact seem to be on tropo.  After all that we worked 13 stations this was 13 more than last year the best distance being Spain.  As the 4 meters was staring to lose propagation we ran FT8 mode to see what could be caught.  A few stations were worked and a contact into the Canary’s was a high lite for the morning.  During the morning some of the club members came to visit the station and try the equipment.  As the morning went on the sun broke through and it began warming.  When we pulled camp it was getting very hot so the timing was about right.  The team and the dogs hand a great time and a lot of different ways operating was tested for the next time.

Enniskillen rally 2018

The rally was held in the share center which is a annual event.  There is normal a good attendance from the club, this being it is one of the nearest held.

The club had a large table of usefull and interesting stuff for sale on the day.  the weather was good and every body had a great time.

Irts Agm April 2018

The club attended AGM weekend.  As usual we took our collection of pre-used equipment (junk). Mayo club  was also asked to run the bring and buy stand.  This also brought a good level of extra activity.  There was a good attendance from members of the club and a great time was had by all.

Click on pictures above for more images of the AGM

Limerick Rally

The club had a table at the rally again this year.  The members that attended had a great day out again. Click picture below for more images of the day.

Coolmines Rally

There was a good representation from the club at the Coolmines rally this year. Many thanks from the club to the organizers for and very good rally and a great day out.

Club competition results

The club holds a monthly competition to create on air activity by members throughout the year. This years result is.

1^st Dominic EI9JS

2^nd John EI7FAB

3^rd Padraic EI9JA

MREN 80m Counties Contest

New Years Day – Monday 1st January 2018

Mayo Radio Experimenters were QRV as EI0M/p in the IRTS 80m Counties Contest for their first outing of the New Year from locator IO53JW, Co. Mayo.

The hardy operators for the day were Jimmy EI2GCB, Donmic EI9JS, Padraic EI9JA and Dominic’s two dogs.  Despite the wind, cold and showers of rain an 80m doublet antenna was erected in a short time on a mast supported by a drive on stand under the wheel of a van. This was coupled by a Z-match to one of the clubs Icom IC7300. Conditions were good and strong signals were heard from around the country.  22 counties were worked and good band conditions prevailed with 59 QSOs around EI/GI and a number of QSO’s with stations outside EI/GI,  PA being the furthest.  This was a very enjoyable contest and a great start to 2018. Hopefully this is the first of many portable activation’s for this coming year and again thanks to all that made it into the log.

Final score will be calculated during the coming weeks.

Click on image for more pictures on the day

Sunday 8th October

The second 40m counties contest was held this Sunday. The weather and band conditions turn out well for the day.  This was a surprise as the rest of the year had been a struggle for any radio conditions.  Club team on the day was Jimmy Padraig and Dominic, equipment was the now mandatory Icom IC 7300 connected to a doublet dipole antenna.  This contest dxcc enties were added to the score to help if the band went long.  As it happened the band performed well and a good selection of contacts worked. 24 counties and 5 dxcc’s were work by our self’s.  After the contest was finished we operated EI44WAW for an hour as skip was short gave a few more local stations a chance to get WAW in the log.  For a few more pictures click on the image below.

Vhf/Uhf field day 1/2 July 2017

As predicted the conditions for the weekend were horrible.  Even the big guns like EI9E found it a struggle.  With being located so far north west the VHF bands need to be wide open for us to have any chance, they weren’t.  Still the hardy few thought OK we would have a go, so we set up a few bits on the Saturday afternoon.  We soon gave up the idea of entering the contest and used the hours for some antenna tests.  We did work some local stations and EI9E on 6m nothing on 4m and a local station on 23cm. the bands were very dead even lacking any cw or jt65, you would expect to work some but nothing was to be heard.

The decision was made to dismantle the station before dark and the midges came out. At least the evening stayed dry.  We also ironed some more niggles out of the clubs equipment so it is easer for the next outing.

Click on image for a few more of the day

Cw Field Day 3/4 June 2017

The club took part in the cw field day this year running as EI0M/p.  The station equipment was the clubs portable tower supporting a doublet antenna, this was connected to a balanced tuner. radio used was the clubs ICOM.  Conditions were difficult as it has been for this year so far.  Even so contacts were made on all bands.

Click on picture for a few more images taken on the day

40m Counties Contest May 2017

The IRTS 40 meters contest was held on the 7th of may.  As with the rest of this year the conditions were very bad for high angle local contacts.  So a plan was hatched to get some operation of the clubs station.  It was decided to run EI44WAW so as to give some contacts to any one partaking in the contest and also activate the call sign.

Conditions as expected were grim with only 30 contact made!.  One of the club members had obtained some ATU’s and a SWR meter so the day was a good chance to put them through there paces.

2m Counties Contest Spring 2017

The 2 meter spring IRTS contest was held on Easter Monday. The club took to the hills once again.  This year there was also a 70cms contest for one hour before the 2 meter 2 hour contest.  The club EI7MRE/p call was used for this contest.

Slieve Carn IO53lu was once again the location used.  Weather was good and the contest was well supported by portable stations. A good number of stations were worked on 70cms and 2 meters during the contests.  For the last hour we activated EI44WAW on 20m as we had some HF equipment to test.

Equipment used for the contest was Yaesu ft 857d Diamond 510 vertical UHF crossed Yagi and a VHF beam.  All worked well with no issues apart from the generator stopping before the end having sucked in to many bits of dust and dead flies. A carburettor strip down is required. Not a job for in the field.

 

Coolmine Radio Rally 2017

The Club made the trip to Coolmine again this year.  We had a table this year with a selection of club and members items for sale.  It was a long day as we had to arrive there before 9am to set up.  The day went very well, all the tables were full and lot attended including some of the club members who also made the long trip.

The images below are from the rally when we we setting up before the doors opened.

Weather Station

David EI3ECB has inform us that his weather station is now viewable online

at  weatherlink

Zoom in on Ireland and look for  his station which is called Ballyheane EI3ECB.

And the winner is?

These are the results of last years 2016 club competitions are as follows.

1st John EI7FAB with 884 points

2nd Jimmy EI2GCB  797 points

3rd  Dominic EI9JS  690 points

4th Padraig  EI9JA  684 points

5th Brendan EI6IZ  398 points

Hopefully this coming year band conditions will improve for a easer contest.

First Mayo Radio Experimenters  Activation for 2017

For the first day of the new year we decided to compete in the 80m counties  contest as a portable station. If time permitted we also wanted to activate the Wild Atlantic Way call for Mayo which is EI44WAW.  So the crew met at 1pm outside EI2GCB’s qth and set off for a nearby bog to set up for the day.

The day turned out to dry and bright but there was a cold breeze so not a day for standing about.

A doublet antenna was supported by mast and a drive on stand.  This was coupled by a Z-match to the transceiver.  All was up and running by about 2.15pm so we decided to run the EI44WAW until 3pm.  20 meters was tuned-up on the radio and the first CQ EI44WAW was transmitted.  It did not take long until a pile up built once we had been posted on the dx cluster .

3pm came along very quickly so the band was changed to 80 meters and the call-sign reverted back to EI0M/p. We were soon in the putting calls into the log for the contest.  25 counties were worked and 3 Wild Atlantic Way stations,  the rest of the afternoon went well and the weather stayed dry but cold, as time went on feet and hand were starting to suffer.

Hopefully this the first of many portable activations this coming year and again thanks to all that made it into the log.

Click on above image to see more pictures of the day

40M Counties contest 9 October

Late Saturday we decided to run the club station portable for the Sunday contest.  So Jimmy EI2GCB Padraig EI9JA and Dominic EI9JS set off to run the station outside of Castlebar at a nearby bog.

A quick set-up this time as we did not know how the band would be on the day.  The van was the shack for the event and poles attached to the van held the doublet in place.

This was going to be a good test for the clubs new transceiver.  A SEM z-match was used to couple the doublet to the transceiver.  The conditions on the band turned out to be very alive with lots of inter EI activity.  We worked 54 contacts in two and a half hours, the generator ran out of petrol after that amount of time and as the band was starting to go long, so we decided not refuel the generator.

Here is Jimmy EI2GCB resting between pile ups making full use of the new automated systems

Thanks to all that participated to make it an enjoyable few hours.

2016 Club AGM

The clubs AGM was held on Wednesday the 5th October

There was a good attendance for the meeting.  The treasurers report on the clubs finances was read out, this was followed by the chairman’s report.  In this he thanked all the club members for there help and support through out the year.

Next item of the meeting was the election of the 2016/17 officials for the club the result is listed below.

Chairman – Jimmy Kelly EI2GCB

Treasurer – Adrian Healy EI2HAB

Secretary – Brendan Minish EI6IZ

PRO – Dominic Curtin EI9JS

Rally Director – Padraic Baynes EI9JA

Club IRTS  Rep – Gerry Cregg EI4GD

QSL Manager – Brendan Minish EI6IZ

After this was concluded there was a lively debate of the clubs activities of this year and next years activities and activations.

Thanks to all that attended

A new radio for the club

This year we decided to retire the clubs Yaesu FT897 which had served on many events down the years.  After much deliberation it was decided to go for a brand new radio.

The radio which is catching the attention of many as good value for money is the Icom IC7300.  So one of these has been purchased and here it is.

The rack handles had to be fabricated as we have found the ones fitted to the clubs IC 7200 have protected the front of the radio in transit.  With this and the IC 7200 we now have two good radios for portable work.  They both can run digital modes with ease on the various activations. Both sets have been now tested with N1MM+ WSJT WSJT-x and FL-Digi.  These are the software packages we favour when out with club activations.

UHF/VHF Portable Weekend  (2/3 July 2016)

This weekend we decide to run the club equipment to see if problems with computers could be cured.  So off to the hills it was.

This time we wished to check out another hilltop towards the south of the county overlooking Lough mask, we were not bothered about times of the contest, unlike other sites there is no masts or even E.S.B. lines anywhere near this location, a perfect location for the high bands. We were not disappointed! Yagi’s for 50 and 70 MHz were set up, we concentrated on the digi modes making contacts on jt65 and ssb.

As is the norm this year conditions were poor to bad.  We did make some contacts and tested the equipment thoroughly.

Click this link for more images

First Portable activation 2016 Mullet peninsular IO44

As this is a rare square on VHF. This year the club decided this year to have a go at some activations from it

The day was hot and band conditions on 6m were not that great.  However being IO44 it brings its own band openings as it is a wanted square on VHF and upwards.  The Cushcraft beam worked very well and even with a computer failure we managed 30 contacts

Maybe next year we will have another go activating some squares

We had some company while there

And a visit from Mini owners club

For more pictures of the activation click here

Spring 2 Meter counties contest  EI7MRE operating from Slieve Carn

The operators on this occasion was Jimmy EI2GCB and Dominic EI9JS, the conditions on the day were poor,  It did give a opportunity to evaluate a Kenwood Ts2000 as a replacement to the clubs Yaesu Ft 897

Pic