DX'pedition to The tour took place between February 16th and rd by Bob Myers, K2TV February 23 leaving from JFK airport and landing in Dublin, Ireland. After arriving in Dublin early Walter, KA2CAQ and I had the opportunity to Sunday morning, we boarded our CIE tour bus and take a tour of the and Northern headed North along the Irish coast, visiting Ireland along with our YL's. It was decided that Downpatrick where St. Patrick and St. Bridget are we would take our VX-5 hand held radios with us buried. Then on for a tour of Belfast where we to meet some of the local hams while on tour. made our first QSO on the Belfast UHF repeater. A little homework had to done to secure the proper While waiting for the Crown Liquor Saloon to open licensing documentation. The first thing was to at noon we chatted with Jim, MI5AMO and John, check the ARRL website. I operated portable in MI0JFC who gave us a nice warm welcome to Ireland a few years ago. I knew that there was an Belfast. agreement called the CEPT agreement which allowed some US licensees permission to operate in most European countries and allows European licensees to operate in the United States without filing formal papers. It turned out that recent changes limited CEPT operation to advanced and Extra class licenses. The CEPT information and paperwork required can be downloaded from the ARRL website (http://www.arrl.org/FandES/field/regulations/io/) and you need to print out a copy of the agreement and carry it with you oversees. Since our trip will take us into Northern Ireland () which is part of the United Kingdom we needed to get rules and regulations from the Radio Society of Great Britain (http://www.rsgb.org/operating/visitors.php). Then we needed to get information on operating in the Republic of Ireland and repeater frequency listings from the Irish Radio Transmitters Society's website (http://www.irts.ie/cgi/repeater.cgi). The frequency Walter KA2CAQ operating 430 MHz FM outside of the allocations for ITU region one is much different Crown Pub in Belfast. than region two where we reside and the rules and regulations are also different. Even our calls After lunch and a pint of Guinness, we boarded our changed from the short US K2TV and KA2CAQ tour coach for a trip further along the coast to to “EI/K2TV/portable” “MI/K2TV/portable” and Balygaly where we stayed the night at Balygaly “EI/KA2CAQ/portable” Castle Hotel located on the coast of the Irish Sea. “MI/KA2CAQ/portable” ..... talk about a tongue The next morning we again headed North along twister, try saying those quickly! The repeaters in the beautiful scenic Irish coast along the Nine Europe generally are either carrier squelch or Glens of Antrim to the Giants Causeway. An PL'ed, but many require a 1750 HZ tone burst to impressive area of hexagonal columns formed over bring them up. We found that by whistling into the 60 million years ago by cooling lava and has given microphone when we first keyed up we were able to many legends over the years. to bring up the repeaters. Once they were brought up on the air we then just had to key up normally. Of course most modern VHF/UHF rigs have provisions for tone burst. We drove up to the Peninsula and on to the , one of the finest old stone forts in Ireland. It was from the top of this fort which sits on top of Greenan Mountain that we were able to hit a repeater in the town of Limavardy and have a QSO with Larry, MI3YXX/mobile. So we were able to put the ancient fort on the air! Back to Londonderry for dinner and a few pints at the Rockingchair Pub, where we made many friends. A pub in Ireland is a real social place and if you come in and sit down KA2CAQ conquers the Giant's Causeway and order a “pint”, within 10 minutes you will have This was something that Walter and I had been several new friends. The Irish people are really looking forward to seeing. Then on to Bushmills friendly. Live Irish music is usually found during distillery, which is the worlds oldest whiskey the evening hours. distillery having received a license in 1608. The next day we left Londonderry and drove to Donegal, where we visited . Then we went on to visit the Belleek Pottery factory, a favorite with the ladies. No factory seconds at Belleek, they destroy any pottery that has flaws. We then visited the Knock Shrine and then on to the city of Galway via the beautiful county side. The interesting thing about Irish weather is that if you don't like it, wait a half hour and it will change.

KA2CAQ & K2TV try out the whiskey barrel operating table at Bushmills.

We checked out the possibility of using a whiskey barrel as an operating table. After a lunch and some 12 year old whiskey to wash it down with we headed for our hotel in the city of Londonderry (). Derry had two repeaters listed, but we were unable to bring either of them up, so we used Walter & Bob at the “operating position” a simplex frequency for communication between Galway was interesting because it has a really good us. two meter repeater and for the two days we were Londonderry is a beautiful 17th century walled city there we never heard anyone on the machine, with lots of history. The people there were happy Walter and I used it between ourselves and we to see Visitors from America and we got a warm could not figure out whether there were no users or reception. There has not been much tourism there they wouldn't talk with us. One thing that for the past thirty years mainly because of the impressed us in our travels was the beautiful “troubles” in the past between the Catholic and country side that truly has forty shades of green. Protestant citizens. Now that there is a peace When we finally left Galway, we drove around the accord tourism has begun again, there is a shores of Galway Bay and through resurgence of people willing to see their beautiful Country to the . The cliffs are a country. wall of rock that plunges 700 feet to the churning While we didn't make many contacts on our trip, Atlantic Ocean below. Very impressive, but very we really were not there to chat on the radio. We windy when we were there. This was the second wanted to see the beautiful country of Ireland and time both of us had visited the cliffs. to experience the hospitality and friendliness of the Irish people. If you should ever have the opportunity to travel to Europe, consider taking your radio with you and operate under the CEPT agreement. If you want to experience operating in Ireland without leaving the states you might try the Echolink **Ireland** conference.

Kathy, Walter KA2CAQ, Marge KA2NIE, Bob K2TV at the windy Cliffs of Moher

Our last night was at the Castle hotel next to the 15th century and the Bunratty Folk Park. We saw a dinner show at the Folk Park and then had a “pint”.... well, maybe a couple of pints for our last night in Ireland. No ham radio contacts were made in the Bunratty/ area, but we were not really trying. The next morning it Bunratty Castle built in 1425. Note the palm tree in the was on to Shannon International Airport and home picture. They are very common in Ireland despite the via Aer Lingus Airlines. high latitude due to the warming effect of the Gulf Stream