Category: Open evening

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Radio & Retro Weekend at TOG: 24–25 October 2026

Join us at TOG Hackerspace for a weekend of amateur radio, hands-on workshops, old technology and a bit of messing.

On Saturday, we’ll be building satellite ground stations, trying packet radio, making callsign patches and putting soldering skills to the test. There will be live demonstrations and afternoon talks, followed by our October Open Social and pizza night.

Sunday starts with radio in the park, before we return to TOG for an afternoon of vintage radios, retro computers, consoles and restoration projects.

Radio amateurs, shortwave listeners, makers and curious newcomers are all welcome. You don’t need a radio licence to attend.

Book your place

There are three separate Eventbrite listings, so you can book the parts of the weekend you’d like to attend:

The Sunday morning Parks on the Air session is an open outdoor meetup and does not need an Eventbrite ticket.

Saturday 24 October: Radio Day

10:00–11:30 | Build Your Own Satellite Ground Station

Start the weekend with a hands-on introduction to TinyGS, a network of small ground stations receiving satellite signals using LoRa hardware.

Learn how these stations work and get started with building your own. This workshop has separate booking from the afternoon Radio Day.

Book the satellite ground station workshop

From 12:00 | Live radio demos and callsign patches

Drop in from noon to explore the equipment, meet the operators and try some making.

Pump-up mast with Ben Field, EI9IUB

Ben will demonstrate his trailer-mounted mast, built around an ex-MOD Sankey trailer and a Clark SCAM 12 mast. The setup normally carries a hexbeam antenna and rotator, with a dipole for the lower bands.

Come and see how it works and chat about setting up a portable radio station.

Packet radio with Victor, EI5IYB

Earlier this year, TOG joined the packet radio network. Vic will give practical demonstrations of connecting to and using it, and introduce the applications built on top of the network.

Discover how computers communicate over radio, with uses including messaging, group chat and news and weather services. Thanks to the Online Amateur Radio Community (OARC) for supporting this part of the programme.

Make your own callsign patch with Tree

Tree will be on hand throughout the day to demonstrate TOG’s new industrial embroidery machine and help visitors make their own callsign patches.

Learn how the machine works and see your callsign turned into a patch. Thanks to the Irish Radio Transmitters Society for part-funding the consumables through its Promoting Amateur Radio Fund. Donations towards material costs are welcome.

13:00 and 14:00 | Advanced soldering workshops

Already know how to solder and want a new challenge? We have a range of kits for you to try, with instructors on hand to help you get started and work through the tricky bits.

These informal workshops start at 13:00 and 14:00. Kits cost €10–€20, depending on which you choose, and soldering irons are provided.

Afternoon | Radio talks

Three talks will bring us together for a closer look at different sides of radio in collaboration with Engineers Ireland Electronic and Computing Division . The programme includes

15:00 | Radio skills, skills for life – Vic, EI5IYB

Amateur Radio is a technical hobby but not only. It is a hobby of many hobbies, from mechanical engineering and communication skills to project management. In this talk, Vic will explore the skills that are gained in the ham radio hobby and how they transfer into your personal and professional life.

16:00 | Radiosondes: Radio and Weather Balloons – Met Éireann

An introduction to radiosondes, the instruments carried by weather balloons, and how radio is used to send atmospheric measurements back to the ground.

17:00 | Making Room for the Whimsical in Amateur Radio – Jeffrey Roe, EI7IRB

From Toilets on the Air to sending cat pictures with EI0MEOW, amateur radio has plenty of room for a bit of messing. Jeffrey explores playful projects, lightbulb antennas and Halloween Morse events, asking how we can encourage unusual ideas in our clubs.

A talk about curiosity, experimentation and enjoying radio simply because it makes us smile.

See the Saturday Eventbrite listing for the current talk timetable and full speaker line-up

From 18:00 | TOG Open Social & Pizza Night

Stay around after the talks for TOG’s October Open Social. We’ll fire up the pizza oven, meet members and visitors, show off projects and keep the radio, electronics and making chats going into the evening.

Book your free place for Saturday’s Radio Day, talks and social

Sunday 25 October: Radio in the Park & Retro Day

10:30–12:30 | Parks on the Air at Lansdowne Valley Park

We’ll start Sunday outdoors with a Parks on the Air (POTA) activation at Lansdowne Valley Park Recreation Park.

Come and see a portable amateur radio station in action. We’ll get on the air, including calling into the South Dublin Radio Club Sunday net and listening to and checking in after the IRTS Sunday News on 2 metres.

It’s a chance to see how a station can be taken out into a park and put on the air, or to join other operators for a morning of portable radio.

14:00–18:00 | Retro Radio & Computing Day

Sunday afternoon is for old radios, glowing screens and technology that still has plenty of stories to tell.

Our Retro Day returns with a special focus on vintage radio and communications equipment, alongside retro computers, consoles, games, test equipment and unusual electronics.

Members, radio clubs, collectors and visitors are invited to bring equipment to demonstrate and restoration projects to talk about. Working machines and projects still in progress are both welcome.

Have something to show? Email info@tog.ie with what you’d like to bring, how much table space you need and any power or display requirements.

Come along to exhibit, try some old technology or simply have a look and a chat. Please ask the owner before operating any equipment.

Book your free place for Retro Radio & Computing Day

Getting to TOG

All activities take place at TOG Hackerspace, Unit 1B Motor City, Kylemore Road, Dublin 12, D12 CF6V, apart from Sunday morning’s POTA session at Lansdowne Valley Park.

TOG is a short walk from the Kylemore stop on the Luas Red Line. See our location page for directions. For access questions or other event enquiries, email info@tog.ie.

Radio Day and Retro Day have free entry. Advanced soldering kits cost €10–€20, and donations towards callsign patch materials are welcome. Check the separate satellite workshop listing for its ticket details.

With thanks

The weekend is made possible with support from Dublin City Council.

Thanks also to the IRTS Promoting Amateur Radio Fund for part-funding callsign patch materials, and the Online Amateur Radio Community for supporting the packet radio activities.

Come for a workshop, bring an old radio, join us in the park or stay for the whole weekend. We look forward to seeing you.

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Ealaín Solas: Build & Explore Polarised Light

Cancelled due to Jeffrey getting his arm in a cast. It will be back soon again.

Ever wondered what hidden colours and patterns are waiting inside ordinary transparent materials?

Join us at TOG Hackerspace on Sunday 12 July for Ealaín Solas: Build & Explore Polarised Light, a hands-on workshop where art, science and making come together.

Using simple materials, you will make your own polarised-light viewer and use it to explore tape, plastics, screens and other everyday objects in a completely new way. With the right combination of light and polarising film, these familiar materials can reveal bright colours, stress patterns and unexpected geometric designs.

During the workshop, you will:

  • Make a polarised-light viewer to take home
  • Explore colourful effects in transparent materials
  • Experiment with tape, plastics and other everyday objects
  • Learn a little about how polarised light works
  • Create your own light-based patterns and images

No previous experience is needed, and all tools and materials are provided. It is a relaxed, beginner-friendly workshop for anyone interested in light, colour, science, art or making.

Date: Sunday 12 July 2026
Time: 3:30 pm–6:00 pm
Cost: €20
Location: TOG Hackerspace, Unit 1B Motor City, Kylemore Road, Dublin 12

Places are limited, so booking is essential.

https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/ealain-solas-build-explore-polarised-light-tickets-1992782032704?aff=oddtdtcreator

Stay for Craft Night

It is also Sunday Craft Night at TOG. The workshop will finish in plenty of time before Craft Night starts at 6:30 pm, so bring along a project or stay on afterwards for all sorts of crafting fun.

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Repair Club: Buttons & Patches Edition

Our new Repair Club series is back, and this time we are turning our attention to clothes.

After taking a look at lamp repair in our first session, the next Repair Club will focus on buttons, patches, and simple textile repairs. It is a practical evening for anyone who would like to make their clothes last a little longer, learn a useful skill, or finally tackle that missing button that has been sitting in a drawer for months.

Repair Club is a little different from a Repair Café. Rather than bringing along a whole range of broken things to be fixed, we take a deeper dive into one type of repair and learn about it together.

For this session, we will be getting hands-on with simple repairs for woven fabrics. We will practise sewing buttons back on by hand, adding patches by hand, and looking at when a machine-sewn patch might make more sense. We will also talk about visible versus invisible mending, and how a small repair can help keep a favourite item in use for years to come.

The focus will be on items such as shirts, trousers, jackets, cushions, toys, bags, and similar things. Stretchy fabrics such as socks and T-shirts are a different challenge, so they will have to wait for another day.

Please bring along one or two clean items that need a button replaced or a small hole patched. This will be a friendly, beginner-focused session, so no sewing experience is needed. If you are not sure whether your item is suitable, get in touch with us before the event.

The session will be led by TOG member Tríona.

Event Details

Date: Wednesday, 22 July 2026
Time: 7:30 pm–9:00 pm
Location: TOG Hackerspace
Cost: €7.50, with ticket income going as a donation to TOG

Book your place on Eventbrite

Come along, learn a few useful skills, and give a favourite item a better chance of staying out of the bin.

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Back to the Pixels: Retro Computing & Gaming Day 2026

Dust off your joystick skills, prepare for the glow of a proper CRT, and join us for an afternoon of old computers, consoles and games at TOG Hackerspace.

Our Retro Computing & Gaming Day is back on Saturday 11 July, bringing together a collection of machines that have survived several decades in exhibitors’ houses, attics, sheds and increasingly full spare rooms.

Expect a mix of computers and consoles from the 1970s through to the 2000s. There will be classic home computers, old consoles, games, controllers, demos, and plenty of odd bits of technology that have been kept alive long after their manufacturers expected.

We are hoping to have everything from ZX Spectrums and early home computers to consoles, Windows XP-era machines and, most importantly, plenty of CRTs.

What to expect

  • Retro computers and consoles from the 1970s to the 2000s
  • Games, demos and hands-on play
  • A chance to chat with fellow retro computing and gaming fans
  • Proper CRT screens, complete with their unmistakable glow and occasional hum
  • A relaxed random game tournament on the day

Many of the machines will be available to try out. Please ask the exhibitor before touching anything, as some of these machines are older than many of the people attending and can be a little temperamental.

Want to exhibit?

We would love to have more people showing off their retro computers, consoles, games, peripherals and strange old technology.

If you have something you would like to bring along, get in touch through our contact form. Let us know what you would like to show, roughly how much table space you need, and whether you have any particular power or display requirements.

Event details

Date: Saturday 11 July 2026
Time: 2:00 pm to 7:00 pm
Location: TOG Hackerspace
Cost: Free, with optional donations welcome

Book your free place on Eventbrite

Pizza, chats and LAN gaming afterwards

Once Retro Computing & Gaming Day wraps up, we will head straight into our TOG open social night.

We will fire up the wood-fired pizza oven, have a chat, and set up a Quake III Arena or Unreal Tournament ’99 LAN party. Bring your own laptop if you would like to join in, as we do not have enough machines to lend out.

Come along for old hardware, strange peripherals, games from another era, pizza and some late-1990s multiplayer chaos.

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Monthly Makerfur Meet

Tog hackerspace is kicking off with a new monthly event that welcomes all furries into the space.

The event will kick off on the 4th of July and run on the first Saturday of every month from 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM.

Are you a beginner fursuit maker who wants to learn the craft? Are you into electronics and want to figure out how to make your LED strips emit custom patterns? Or maybe you want to talk on the radio with your fluffy friends? No matter how big or small, fluffy or simple the project is, bring it in to us for a social, fluffy event for all cats, dogs, wolves, foxes, and even protogens or any other species known.

All you need to take part is an idea that you want to bring to life.

The furry maker night will run every first week of the month.

This is not a taught class, more like an informal working group of self-directed makers.

While you can bring your fursuit in, either to work on it as a project or for repairs, it is heavily discouraged to wear them inside the space. Accessories such as tails are also discouraged for safety reasons.

We are looking forward to seeing every fur in our space.

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Craft Night is back

Starting Sunday, 31st May, Craft Night will return to Tog. From 6.30 pm to 8.30 pm every second Sunday, drop by and join in, whether you make the yarn itself (we love spinners!) or noodle about with e-textiles and blinky quilts.

If you haven’t been to Craft Night before, it’s mainly people working on portable crafts like yarn-based and textile projects, but feel free to bring your current WIP (Work In Progress). We’ll take over the common area with crafting and conversation.

We might even try to bring a group Craft Night project to Dublin Maker (it’s been a while!).

You’ll find the nights on our calendar, so you don’t need to remember which every other Sunday it is. Newcomers to Tog are more than welcome to join us.

See you there!