I was first licenced as EI8GHB in October 2009 but has been fascinated by radio communications since I was young. My first encounter with radio, apart from the commercial FM band and RTE Radio 1 on medium wave was listening to the control tower at Dublin Airport in the 1980s. My brother became active on 11 metres and I soon became fascinated by radio propagation and later followed onto this band. He became licenced as a ham in the early 1990s and due to lack of confidence in my mathematical abilities I never thought I would be able to pass the ham test.
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| Anthony (Tony) EI2KC |
It was in 2009 that a long-time friend, Brian (now EI4KC), decided to sit the test and passed. He gave me some help with the material for the exam and soon I had passed too! Since then I have been thoroughly enjoying the hobby. I am very active on HF, my main interest being chasing DX and new countries. I dip into contesting from time to time but it is not a major interest for me. I am very active on VHF, on 2 metres and 6 metres in particular when it's open.
I am a former PRO of
Dundalk Amateur Radio Society (EI7DAR) and a former member of the committee of the
Irish Radio Transmitters Society (IRTS), the umbrella body for the hobby here in Ireland. I write 'HF Happenings' for the IRTS magazine, Echo Ireland, and read the IRTS news for my local club, Dundalk Amateur Radio Society EI7DAR.
As of May 2012, in two and a half years on the air, I had 260 countries worked and 212 confirmed, 202 of these on CW (morse), which is my favourite mode. For more information, see my page on
QRZ.com
Update: As of September 2014, I have 308 DXCC worked and 293 confirmed on LoTW.
Update: As of December 2015, I have 316 DXCC worked and 305 confirmed on LoTW.
