Donegal Amateur Radio Club Explores Murvagh Beach for WWFF Activation

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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.

Donegal Amateur Club at Murvagh for WWFF activation as EI1DRC. L-R: Paul Sinclair EI5GTB, Jason McGarrigle EI9LB, Daniel McGlashin EI4HNB, Dave Barnes EI5IMB, Dan Nelson EI6GN, Ian Evans EI3KT and Esther Harper EI4KT

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.

Paul EI5GTB in the camper as EI1DRC on 20m

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.

Ester EI4KT operating as EI1DRC

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.

2023 AGM of Donegal Amateur Radio Club

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Polo shirts on display by the incoming 2023 committee: Secretary David Barnes EI5IMB, Treasurer Jason McGarrigle EI9LB and Chairman Paul Sinclair EI5GTB

Our 2023 AGM got off to a frosty start – not that there were any arguments…! but the weather was so bad with the recent snow and icy spell so we had to postpone for 2 weeks! Thankfully the Tuesday 31st January the conditions were much better for our meeting which took place in Donegal Town in the Castle Bar.

Looking back at 2022

Secretary Paul EI5GTB recalled the past AGM’s minutes and it was very positive reading as during the year of 2022 we hit the majority of the targets we had set. This includes the printing of a club banner to display at club events (many thanks to the Irish Radio Transmitters Society/ IRTS for funding this). Also our repeater officer David EI5IMB did great work on the repeater on Truskmore, and tracked down some persistent RFI, and it’s all fully functioning, covering a massive area, and is proving very popular. We also designed and printed Polo Shirts with the club logo on them.

Insurance was also arranged for paid up club members via the IRTS on club events and lots of other small club targets were met. All thanks to the club members for 2022 and to those who have renewed for their support, and the very kind donations also – without this we could not undertake the works done so far.

Looking Ahead

A number of projects were discussed for this year including:

  • The feasibility of linking the repeater to other locations to expand our range.
  • Another order of Polo shirts may be possible this year
  • A call-in net on the 2m repeater to encourage more in-range to get on the air
  • Outdoor activations by the club to get a chance to meet other members & the public
  • Encourage new entrants to the hobby and to help with exam prep if needed
  • If anyone is wishing to learn morse code this year we can help and will happily arrange a few skeds with club members to practice

New Committee

After election promises were made, and a keenly contested vote was taken, the new committee emerged on the first count as follows:

Chairperson: Paul Sinclair EI5GTB
Secretary: David Barnes EI5IMB
Treasurer: Jason McGarrigle EI9LB

We look forward to meeting more of you all during the year and events will be promoted on our Facebook page or by an email directly to club members.

VHF Repeater at Truskmore

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Testing is complete of the new TB8100 repeater unit in its temporary location. It spent 14 weeks running in this location and is destined to be restored to it’s former glory on Truskmore.

EI2TKR amateur radio repeater at its test location in Co Donegal

A few tweaks were made by the station keeper David EI5IMB to the operation and now it’s been running smoothly for 7 weeks so it was deemed stable enough to be prepared to return to the main mountain where a VHF repeater has been missed for the past number of years.

It should offer good coverage in Donegal, Fermanagh, Tyrone, Derry, Leitrim, Sligo, Galway, Roscommon and Mayo and hopefully further afield.

It will be accessible with an output of 145.700 and an uplink -600khz at 145.100. There is a tone on the uplink of 77.0. It is an analogue repeater and currently off air as of March 2022 but hopefully back active soon.

To check the latest status of EI2TKR please check out http://irishhamradio.com