Line of Sight to the DMR repeater EI7CDD

After a spell of four years off the radio, I got on air again in late 2016. Once I came back, I found out there were some new developments in the world of digital radio with D-Star, Yaesu System Fusion and DMR. I read up on these but at that stage at the start of 2017, there were no digital repeaters anywhere near me in Cork.

After another short spell off the radio from May to December 2017, I found out in January of 2018 that a new digital repeater with the call sign EI7CDD had been installed in West Waterford in September of 2017.

The new repeater was located on a 300m high hill called Carronadavderg in West Waterford which just so happens to be line of sight to my house!

Carronadavderg is high enough so that it is visible for me over the hills to the north of Killeagh. The repeater is 45kms / 28 miles away.

On any sort of clear day, I can see Carronadavderg on the horizon. This is a photo I took today with a small telephoto lens on the camera. The golf course in the foreground is about 2-3kms away.

The white below the summit of Carronadavderg is a layer of snow while the darker summit is covered in trees.

On closer inspection, some white microwave dishes can be barely seen on the summit when the sun was shining there. The houses in this view are some 25kms distant.

The view was a little better when the dark masts were contrasted against a bright background. I can pick out six masts in total...three large ones and three small.

Pretty amazing what the camera could pick up from 45kms away!

The main thing of course is that it is line of sight from here which allows me to access the DMR repeater with 1w from a TYT MD-380 handheld with a whip antenna.

When I check the Last Heard list for EI7CDD, I seem to have a signal of S4-6 when I stand next to a window here in the house so I can get into the DMR system fine.