New site found for Irish beacon network - March 2025

A few weeks back, I had a post up about how the EI1KNH, EI0SIX and EI4RF beacons in Ireland had to shut down due to a change of ownership of the beacon site. The good news is that a new site has now been found!

The new location is about 4kms to the south of the old site and it's a bit lower in altitude. It's certainly not as good as the old site but the challenge for any amateur radio beacon is to find any site where a beacon can operate.

The new site is nestled in the foothills of the Wicklow Mountain just to the south of Dublin and then local mountains and hills will certainly have a major impact in certain directions.

This is the approximate horizon of the new site...

To the north-east and on a heading of about 40 degrees, the Irish Sea is visible and there is a very good path to the Isle of Man and Scotland.

As we move further south, the local terrain starts to become more of an issue. The take off to the north of England is reasonable but once we go below a line say running from Liverpool to Leeds, it gets to be more challenging.

For example, the horizon in the direction of London and the south-east of England is about 6-degrees which will make reception difficult especially on tropo. 

To the south-west of Ireland which is in my direction here in Cork, the horizon is about 14 degrees which effectively kills all signals.

This map shows where tropo signals might be heard and the maximum range for one-hop Sporadic-E.

The range for single hop Sporadic-E to northern Europe is pretty good but the maximum range to Spain and Italy is shorter due to the mountains near the beacon site.

As of early March 2025, work in now progressing on the beacon and it is hoped that the beacons will be up and running in time for the start of the Sporadic-E season in mid to late April.

Due to the change in location, the EI1KNH beacons on 40.013 MHz and 60.013 MHz will be getting a new callsign. EI0SIX will return on 50.004 MHz while EI4RF will return on 70.013 MHz.

It is hoped that all four beacons will use FT8 as part of their transmission sequence which should help identification under weak signal conditions.

I'll put up another post once the beacons are operational.