The club has been awarded its callsign from Comreg.

It is EI1DRC - hopefully we will have this call on the air soon with some club events.

We are ordering qsl cards with this callsign over the coming days.

Thanks to Derek at Comreg for his help with our callsign application.

The club got a nice 1/2 page write up in the Donegal Post edition of Wednesday 7th January.

The paper is distributed all over the South of Co Donegal and has weekly sales of 6,000.

It's hoped this will increase awareness of amateur radio in Donegal.

Thanks to Editor Michael McHugh for putting this in the paper.

 Donegal Amateur Radio alive and well

The Donegal Amateur Radio club started the New Year with the regular monthly meeting in the Mill Park Hotel, Donegal Town. The meetings are held on the first Monday of the month in the Hotel at 8pm.
The club was set up at the end of last summer as a result of renewed demand for one of the most respected and fascinating hobbies in the world.
A club ‘callsign’ has been applied for with COMREG which means that members of the public will have an opportunity to use the club’s equipment to communicate worldwide. Normally you must be licensed to use such radio equipment however with a club callsign we can allow people to use it under supervision. It is hoped that this will allow us to introduce many more people to the fascinating hobby of amateur radio.
Some of the club participated in the recent All Ireland counties contest where each participating station has 3 hours to make as many contacts around Ireland as possible.
Paul Sinclair, EI5GTB, was the leading club member on 5,500 points with contacts in 27 of the 32 counties and over 60 different conversations.
Jason McGarrigle, EI6GRB, was second on 4,900 points having 26 counties and 56 individual contacts. Next year it is hoped to have a club station entering the contest using the callsign EI0DRC to raise the profile of the club throughout Ireland.
We are also starting into a project of building an ‘echolink’ radio repeater for Barnes gap area which would enable amateurs from all over County Donegal to talk via radio handhelds or base rigs to most parts of the world for free via a combination of radio waves and the internet. There will also be a exam held at the start of the summer for anyone wishing to try for their own licence. The club members are happy to help anyone who wishes to go for the exam.
Amateur radio is an interesting hobby which allows you to make contact across town or worldwide. You can use simple homebuilt equipment or just pick it off a shelf. You can also use satellites such as the International Space Station to relay your signal back to ground or even use the moon to reflect your signal back to earth!
So if you want to find out more or become involved in amateur radio please come along to our next meeting. It will be held at 8pm in the Mill Park Hotel in Donegal Town on Monday 2nd February 2009 or you can contact ei6grb@ dxireland.com for more information.