The Howth Martello Radio Group, EI0MAR, was founded in 2005 by Tony Breathnach and a group of fellow amateur radio enthusiasts. Previously, there had been several occasions when special event stations had operated from the Martello Tower in Howth, such as during the annual Howth Festival and for International Marconi Day.
The Martello was refurbished in 2001/2 and has been the home of Ye Olde Hurdy Gurdy Vinatge Radio Museum (Howth Radio Museum) since 2003.
The old tower had been the site for wireless telegraphy experiments carried out by the American Lee de Forrest in 1903, and by the Marconi Company, two years later. There could not be a more fitting location for an amateur radio station. The Tower is also the Ancestral Home of Irish Telecommuncations. A Submarine Cable was laid in 1852 from the Tower to Holyhead (world second only to the cable laid from Dover to Calais in 1851).
EI0MAR operates on most Sundays throughout the year. Morse code is the main mode of transmission on the high frequency bands.Channel S23 (145.575) on the two-metre band is also monitored.
An SGC SG-2020 is used for HF with a maximum output of 25 Watts. A Yaesu FT-90R is used on vhf and uhf. No permanent antennas can be installed. A home-made Slim Jim antenna is used on vhf/uhf. For the HF bands, a home-made 40-metre dipole is used, installed in two hollow telescopic fibreglass fishing poles which can be quickly erected.
A dipole for the 17-metre HF band piggybacks on the longer dipole. Both dipole antennas are fed at a common point.An LDG Z-100 automatic antenna tuning unit matches the antenna on all bands from 7 to 28 Megahertz. An outboard Radio Shack DSP unit (not shown in photograph) is used to optimise audio on CW and SSB.
