Looking forward to the Phoenix Amateur Radio Rally in Coolmine

A short video made on the morning of the Phoenix Amateur Radio Club annual radio rally in Coolmine, Blanchardstown, Dublin.

Comreg publishes new amateur station guidelines

Comreg, the Communications Regulator, who govern the Irish amateur radio service (among many other communication services), have just published the updated Amateur Station Licence Guidelines. Two very notable changes include the increase of the power limit on the 10Mhz band (30 metres), from 100 watts to 400 watts, and also the allocation on a secondary basis of 472-479 Khz for use with CW, QRSS and narrow band digital modes. The maximum power allowed on this MF allocation is 5 watts (7 dBW).

If my calculations are right, that means the wavelength on 472 Khz is 220 metres, meaning if you wanted to put up a quarter-wave dipole for that band you would need 55 metres (181.5ft) of wire!!

Also, under section 8.2, maritime mobile operation is allowed.

Under section 8.1: Land Based Mobile Station Operation the following is interesting to say the least:


67. An Amateur Mobile Station may not be established or used at sea (other than
as part of Maritime Mobile Operation) or within any estuary, dock or harbour
or in the vicinity of an airport or radio navigation installation.

Also interesting is a five-year timeout on Silent Key callsign applications (where next of kin want to apply to retain or re-enact the callsign of a deceased relative):


53. The only exception to the rule that Amateur Station call-signs issue for the
lifetime of the Amateur Station Licensee is that a “silent key” call-sign may be
transferred to an immediate next of kin of a deceased Amateur Station
Licensee. Such a transfer will only be permitted where that the call-sign in
question had not lapsed within the lifetime of the deceased Amateur Station
Licensee and an application to obtain the call-sign is made within five years
(10)
of the date of death of the Licensee. "Next of kin" for these purposes means a
child, grandchild, sibling or spouse of a deceased Amateur Station Licensee.
Further, a next of kin who applies for such a call-sign must hold a valid
Amateur Station Licence or have passed a HAREC exam.


(10) All files relating to cancelled licences are destroyed after five years in accordance with ComReg’s Data
Protection guidelines

The new Amateur Station Licence Guidelines can be viewed on the Comreg website here: http://www.comreg.ie/publications/amateur_station_licence_guidelines.583.104272.p.html 
http://www.comreg.ie/_fileupload/publications/ComReg0945R1.pdf

The Icom IC-756 PRO - what a beauty!

I wanted to take a striking picture of this beautiful rig which has recently been added to the shack. I hope this does it justice. I have greatly enjoyed using this rig so far. It not only looks great, but it performs brilliantly too.

A lovely old film about amateur radio

Some of you may have seen this before, but I came across this quaint old film from 1939 on YouTube. It's about amateur radio, and particular how this service can be utilised in emergency situations. Very interesting.