TOG Hackerspace has registered the special event callsign EI0MEOW, and throughout August we will be getting on the radio in support of cats.
With around 100 members in the TOG community, it will probably come as no surprise that many of us are cat people. For the month of August, our radio operators will be taking part in two international amateur radio activities celebrating cats and raising awareness of animal welfare.
Cat Day on the Air
Cat Day on the Air runs from 1 to 31 August, with amateur radio stations around the world getting on the air to support cats and the organisations that care for abandoned, abused and homeless animals.
Listen out for EI0MEOW during the month and give us a call when you hear us.
Find out more on the Cat Day on the Air website.
Cat Pix on the Air
We are also taking part in Cat Pix on the Air, an SSTV activity taking place on International Cat Day, Saturday 8 August.
SSTV, or Slow-Scan Television, allows amateur radio operators to send pictures over the air. Instead of only exchanging callsigns and signal reports, operators will also be exchanging pictures of cats.
TOG members have contributed photographs of their own cats, and we have created a gallery of 14 special EI0MEOW SSTV images.
We are revealing the first one here: Swanson, Cat 01.
To see the other 13 cats, you will need to find EI0MEOW on the air and receive the images yourself.
More information about the activity is available from the Cat Pix on the Air website.
Find us at Hamfest
EI0MEOW will be operating from Hamfest in Mullingar on Saturday 8 August, where we will be transmitting images from the gallery throughout the day.
Come over and meet the TOG radio operators, see SSTV in action and find out how pictures can be transmitted using amateur radio.
Everyone else can listen for EI0MEOW on the bands throughout August. Have a QSO with us, exchange a signal report and see which of TOG’s cats arrives through the noise.
Can you collect all 14?