EI0EL

I am pleased to announce that EI0EL placed 9th overall, 3rd place in Europe and 1st place in Ireland for the Portable Operation Challenge 2020. Well done to all that took place and a special congratulations to  Magnus Samuelson (SA0AQT)  who placed 1st overall. 

Shortly after 1200 on Saturday members of the club met to get their antenna's setup for the 8 hours Portable Operations Challenge contest run by the team over at Fox Mike Hotel .  The team setup a home brew linked dipole (20m and 40m) using 3x 6 meter telescopic masts for TX. One supporting the dipole centre and the other two supporting the ends of the legs. This allowed us to get the legs as horizontal to the ground as possible.  Taking turns operating, logging and coffee making was key to keeping us semi-sane for the duration. Luckily the rain held off but there was a chill in the wind. We started off operating from a table in the open but soon took refuge in the comfort of the back of a van.  This acted as a rather large wind breaker. We had two people inside the van at a time , one as logger and the other as operator. This enabled us to follow the current DoH guidelines regarding social distancing. The radio was powered off a combination of a lead acid battery and hom...

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