Posts

Showing posts from September, 2020

New Toys for Portable Ops

Image
Tom, EI5IEB recently took delivery of the Chameleon MPAS 2.0 Antenna system. Sunday was a lovely day to go out and play radio.  Tom set up on a hill just outside Skerries to test out the vertical mil whip, mil whip extension, cap hat and hybrid micro.  Signals were coming in strong on 20m, including a station in Osprey, Florida, K5RQ .  Waiting a break between contacts a call was put out and a brief QSO was made with Dave, K5RQ , Tom received a signal report of 5 and 7. Dave was coming in at a 5 and 9 Band conditions were reported as fair for 20m, but somehow the skip was in our favour that morning. It was great to hit Florida on 50 Watts from a portable station. Approx.4180 miles, 6727 km.  

70cms and 2m contest September 2020

Image
Today Frank EI8HIB, Dom EI5IAB and Tom EI5IEB headed up to the Cooley Mountains to take part in the IRTS 70 cm 2 meter contests.  The three operated independently with their own HT's , masts and antenna. The weather and the views were amazing.  The wind was a pretty strong at times resulting in the collapse of a portable mast. Luckily there was no damage to the mast, equipment or the team. Frank used a Yeasu VX-6 HT, a modified fishing pole with a roll up dual band antenna Dom used a Baofeng UV5R+ HT ,a SOTA Beams 6m mast with a roll up dual band antenna Tom used a Puxing PX888k HT, a SOTA Beams 6m mast with a roll up dual band antenna

Field Testing DIY Antenna

Image
Today the club got together to field test their home-brew antennas, battery packs, coffee making abilities in preparation for Portable Ops Challenge run by the team at Fox Mike Hotel.  Frank EI8HIB has fine tuned his dipole for 20m.

SOTA Activation

Image
 GI/CA-001 was activated today by Frank operating portable as MI/EI8HIB/P This summit known as Slieve Gullion is location in County Armagh in Northern Ireland Frank collected 4 point for this activation. Weather conditions were not ideal. Well done Frank on the successful activation.