The Donegal Amateur Radio Club recently embarked on a brilliant Sunday morning out last month at the picturesque Murvagh Beach, a designated WWFF (World Wide Flora & Fauna) area. This remarkable coastal location, situated along the scenic Wild Atlantic Way, provided the perfect backdrop for the club’s activation, which involved setting up multiple stations for Voice, CW, and FT8 operations. Led by experienced WWFF activator Dave (EI5IMB), the club members embraced the opportunity to operate portable and engage with an active ham radio community. From the well-equipped mobile shacks to the delicious lunchtime feast, the day proved to be a remarkable success, resulting in numerous contacts and memorable experiences.
The WWFF encourages you to leave the shack and go outside and operate portable in protected Flora & Fauna Areas all over the world. Murvagh is one of the over 26,000 areas registered in the scheme and it’s identifier is EIFF-0180.
Dave’s cool VW camper van is well kitted out to operate Portable with his trusty Yaesu and Ampro and I’m sure many have seen his youtube videos about his many SOTA adventures and much more ham radio related at https://www.youtube.com/c/IrishHAMRadio.
All in all we operated 3 separate stations under the club callsign EI1DRC to have SSB, FM, CW and FT8 capability. Paul EI5GTB also provided a lovely space for a mobile shack in his trailer kitted out with mains power and a gas stove – a very handy thing to have for the cups of tea and the sausages that were to be devoured at lunchtime! From here Jason EI9LB was running a FTDX10 into a PAC-12 antenna and operating CW. Paul was sending FT8 from a XIEGU X6100 to an end fed draped up a tree. Meanwhile Dave and Daniel EI4HNB were getting the SSB off to a great start and once spotted on the WWFF cluster they launched into the pileup.
Many thanks to Coillte who let us have the keys to the barrier which we soon opened up to allow Ian and Esther EI3KT & EI4KT to bring their camper van in with all their own portable gear. It was all getting serious at Murvagh now with enough communications gear to launch a space shuttle between everyone!
Dan Nelson EI6GN arrived soon after and demonstrated his Nano Vna analyser which is a really cool bit of kit and so small and neat and soon was put to the test. And to everyone’s surprise the end fed was actually working quite well when tested on the analyser.
It was great to see all the ways of setting up portable and to see the range of modes in operation. And members of the public were involved including one man from Greece who was once into CB but took great interest in getting licensed as he was a little worried about the legalities of his old system!
As the day drew to a close, the members of the Donegal Amateur Radio Club packed up their gear, bidding farewell to the captivating surroundings of Murvagh Beach. With over 100 QSOs made across the three different modes and connections established with 24 countries, it was a testament to the passion and camaraderie shared among the radio enthusiasts.
Looking ahead, the club eagerly anticipates their next adventure, a foxhunt, which promises to bring even more excitement and enjoyment. For updates on their upcoming events and activities, interested individuals can visit the club’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/groups/donegalradio.