Tipperary Group Active for ILLW

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Tipperary Amateur Radio Group will activate Ballinacourty Lighthouse ILLW (Ref IE0018) on Saturday and Sunday 19th & 20th August 2017 as part of the 20th International Lighthouse & Lightship weekend.

Ballinacourty Lighthouse is located on the south coast of Ireland in County Waterford. The light at Ballinacourty was first established on 1st July 1858.

The club will use the callsign EI7T for the activation.

EI7TRG Club website - http://www.ei7trg.ie

YOTA 2017 Summer Event

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The annual IARU Region 1 Youngsters On The Air (YOTA) summer event will take place at Gilwell Park on the outskirts of London in the UK during the week of 5 to 12 August 2017.

This year's YOTA camp has been organised to enable 80 young people from 30 different countries to come together to experience a range of amateur radio activities such as antenna building, portable operation, direction finding, kit building and operating the multi-station special event station GB17YOTA.

With excursions to Bletchley Park, the National Radio Centre and the Science Museum in London, it is certainly going to be an eventful week.

Annually this event brings together youngsters from different nationalities to create, in addition to amateur radio, an opportunity to learn all about different cultures, foster international friendships and goodwill as well as learn new skills.

Youngsters on the Air - https://www.ham-yota.com/

GB5RC - Special Radio Caroline Event Station

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In early August 2017, the Martello Tower Group will be operating as GB5RC, from the MV Ross Revenge, moored in the Blackwater Estuary, near Bradwell-on-Sea, Essex.

The Special Event Station is to celebrate fifty years of offshore broadcasting, with the MV Ross Revenge being the home of Radio Caroline.

The group are setting up on the 3rd August with operation expected to start in the evening and continuing through until the early hours of 7th August 2017.

Activity will be centred around 80m, 40m and 20m which were the busiest bands by far in 2016 with the option to retune verticals for 17m, 15m, 12m and 10m if required.  The group will also attempt to operate on VHF/UHF although noise from the on board solar panels made this difficult before.

With the recent announcement from Ofcom that Radio Caroline has been issued a licence to broadcast on 648kHz, interest in the station is the highest it's been for many years.  Amateur radio has played a big part in offshore broadcasting over the years so this seems a perfect time to celebrate five decades of offshore radio.

QSL via G6NHU

Martello Tower Group - http://www.martellotowergroup.com
Radio Caroline - http://radiocaroline.co.uk