Surrey Amateur Radio Club & Dundalk Amateur Radio Society

From: John Brodie VA7XB 

Many of you will remember our visitor from Ireland, Tony Allen EI4DIB and his wife, Madeline, who visited SARC on Field Day a few years ago and again in 2016 at a summer get-together at the OTC. Heather and I reciprocated the visit in September when we were in Ireland. Tony and Madeline live in Drogheda (pronounced “Droh-duh – the “g” is silent), a lovely village of population 38,000 a few km north of Dublin. 

The Certificate of Twinning

We took the train from Dublin along the coast and were met by Tony and Madeline at the station on a cloudy and cool, but rain-free, morning to begin our tour of this historic part of Ireland. Tony introduced us to a ham friend, Adrian O’Gorman EI2KJ. Like many villages in Ireland, the Catholic Church is the dominant architectural feature of the place but there is plenty else to interest the visitor including Old Mellifont Abbey, the Battle of the Boyne memorial and Newgrange. Newgrange is a Stone Age (Neolithic) monument in the Boyne Valley, County Meath, constructed about 5,200 years ago (3,200 B.C.) which makes it older than Stonehenge and the Great Pyramids of Giza.

It was Tony’s idea to “twin” SARC with the Dundalk Amateur Radio Society EI7DAR, a regional club serving County Louth and neighbouring counties. After our return to Surrey, the question was considered by SARC’s membership at the October 12th/2016 meeting where, after a brief discussion, a motion was made and carried (as follows):

“Moved that SARC VE7SAR formally twin with the Dundalk Amateur Radio Society EI7DAR located in County Louth, Ireland.”

Tony and Adrian

The Dundalk Club, founded in 1969 and based in Dundalk, Co.Louth, has about 30 members active on HF, VHF and UHF. Their website can be found at: www.ei7dar.com.

The society has its own clubhouse located on the Castletown Road in Dundalk, and from this location they hold monthly meetings and other amateur radio based activities, including contests, VHF/UHF Field Days, radio & antenna construction and emergency/public events communication.

DARS is affiliated with the Irish Radio Transmitters Society (IRTS) since 1969, which is the national society for radio amateurs in Ireland. Its purpose is to encourage radio experimentation, to provide services to amateurs and to represent their interests nationally and internationally. The IRTS is the member society for Ireland of the International Amateur Radio Union. DARS operates a 2 metre VHF repeater EI2CCR with TX on 145.675 Mhz, RX on 145.075 Mhz using a tone of 110.9 Hz operating from Clermont Cairn Mountain. They also host an Echolink internet gateway node 57007: EI2MOGL on 145.2125Mhz.