The first one is one I am personally looking forward to...NCRG does Spike Island! This is Ireland's Alcatraz and bound to be a sought after event, seeing as it hasnt been done before and is also classed as a CASHOTA.
The event is taking place on Wednesday, 8th August. We have to travel to the Island by boat and seeing as I dont do un-solid platforms under my feet, I could be reaching for something to settle my stomach (hopefully it'll only take 10 mins so I may not be affected).
The next event will be for Cork Heritage Day on 18th August and we are back at Blackrock Castle. We love activating this site as it is a great opportunity to meet people, as well as giving people the opportunity to operate the station. The buzz in the air is great and we always make a steady stream of contacts, including our good friends next door (UK) and at home, as well as new contacts seeking to collect the CASHOTA reference (in case you may not realise, we are enthusiastic ambassadors for the CASHOTA programme)
Our final event for the month is at Roches Point Lighthouse as part of the Lighthouse weekend on 19th August. We would have loved to do this for the whole weekend but as Heritage Day is the day before, we can kill 2 birds with one stone (disclaimer:- no actual birds were harmed in the typing of this blog lol). This is another first, both for the Group and the location and well have to wait and see what this brings.
Our most recent activation was at Seefin Mountain where a number of new antennas were tested. OMG it was coooold on that mountain, and I left the activation when finished dreaming of a fire and cosy pyjamas!! In saying that, we had a lot of fun and I was amazed at the flow of contacts coming back to us on 20m, including US and Canadian stations, as well as our locals down the road lol.
Ive attached a few pics of the antennas and station used at Seefin, I cant wait for the next activation - Im counting down the days!!!
Ciao for now
Lisa EI9GSB
