Category: Radio

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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 | 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.

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 | 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.

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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TOG at the Kildare Amateur Radio Buy & Sell Extravaganza

The TOG radio crew will be heading to County Kildare on Sunday, 18 October, for the Kildare Amateur Radio Club Buy & Sell Extravaganza.

We will have a TOG and EI0TOG table at the event, so come over and say hello. We will be happy to chat about the hackerspace, our radio shack, our amateur radio activities and the projects our members have been working on.

The event brings together amateur radio operators, CB operators, shortwave listeners, clubs and traders from across the island of Ireland. It is an opportunity to buy, sell or swap surplus radio equipment—or simply meet old friends and talk radio.

There should be a wide range of equipment available, including radios, antennas, receivers, power supplies, SWR and power meters, antenna tuners, handheld radios, repeaters, cables, fittings and plenty more.

Event details

Date: Sunday, 18 October 2026
Time: 11am to 1:30pm
Venue: Kill GAA Football Club, Kill Village, Co. Kildare
Eircode: W91 XP95
Admission: €5 per person; children under 12 go free

There is ample parking at the clubhouse, with easy access from the N7 and M7.

The clubhouse bar will open at 12 noon for refreshments, with lunches available from 12:30pm onwards.

Anyone who has surplus equipment to sell can book a table free of charge by emailing info@kildarearc.com. Traders will be admitted from 10am to allow time to set up.

Further details are available from the Kildare Amateur Radio Club:

Kildare Amateur Radio Club – EI0K

We are looking forward to meeting everyone on the day. We will also try not to return to TOG with more radio equipment than we brought—but no promises.

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Repair, Radio and a Bicycle: Clonmel to Waterford

Read all about our member Jeffrey‘s trip to The Circular Square.

On Saturday 5 September I put my bicycle on an Irish Rail train in Dublin and headed south to Clonmel. With the bike safely in its rack and the panniers packed, it was a pleasantly straightforward start to a three-day trip running through to Monday 7 September.

The main reason for travelling was a weekend of repair and Linux workshops at The Circular Square. Around that, I had plans for some cycling, portable amateur radio and a little monument photography. It sounds like several different weekends packed into one, but they fitted together rather well.

Continue reading “Repair, Radio and a Bicycle: Clonmel to Waterford”
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Bringing an Old Test Receiver Back to Life

It was Tuesday Open Night at TOG, and once again there was an interesting bit of equipment sitting on the electronics bench.

This time it was a Rohde & Schwarz ESH 3 test receiver, part of a recent donation from Testwall. It covers frequencies from 9 kHz to 30 MHz and was designed as a serious piece of test equipment rather than an ordinary radio receiver.

As you may know, TOG also has an amateur radio club, with the callsign EI0TOG. A radio receiver like this is complete overkill for simply listening to amateur radio, which naturally meant that it caught our attention.

We did what any group of makers would do: we took it apart.

After plenty of poking around, checking voltages and trying to understand the collection of boards inside, we found a few blown fuses, some jammed buttons and a wire from the power supply that appeared to be stopping the unit from turning on when it was plugged in.

We disconnected the troublesome wire, replaced the fuses and tried powering it up again.

There was no magic smoke. Instead, we had lights!

It is not completely repaired yet. The receiver still displays an error message when it starts and is unhappy about some of its calibration settings. That did not stop us from wanting to find out whether it could receive anything.

We connected a length of wire as a very makeshift indoor antenna and tuned to the 40-metre amateur radio band, around 7 MHz. At first, we were not hearing very much. That was hardly surprising given our poor antenna, its position inside the building and all the electrical noise around the space.

Then a station from Italy came booming through the speaker. They must have been putting out a good signal to overcome our antenna arrangement and all the other things working against us.

After a little more experimenting with the front panel, we figured out enough of the interface to select single-sideband reception and tune around properly. Despite its remaining faults, this old piece of test equipment was receiving amateur radio again.

It was a great example of repair and of bringing something back to life rather than simply throwing it away.

We would still like to understand what the ESH 3 was originally used for and how to operate all of its test and measurement functions properly. Does anyone remember using one of these when it first came out, or know their way around this kind of equipment?

Even if we never manage to use every specialised feature, the amateur radio enthusiasts at TOG will find some use for it. Who knows, with a proper HF antenna connected, it might even become genuinely useful.

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EI0MEOW: TOG’s Cats Take to the Air

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?

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TOG joins 145 Alive for a day on 2 metres

On Sunday 12 July, TOG Hackerspace will be putting the club callsign EI0TOG on the air for 145 Alive.

145 Alive is a day to get people chatting on 2 metres, dust off the handhelds, call into a local net and see who is about. TOG will be one of four Irish nets taking part, alongside stations in Tipperary, Mayo and Donegal.

Jeffrey, EI7IRB, and Tomasz, EI2KSB, will be running the Dublin City net from TOG. Listen out for EI0TOG on 145.425 MHz FM between 12pm and 3pm, and give us a call. Whether you are on a home station, in the car or out with a handheld, we would love to hear you.

Of course, the nicest way to take part is to come along in person. Everyone is welcome at TOG Hackerspace, Unit 1B Motor City, Kylemore Road, Dublin 12, D12 CF6V. Licensed amateurs can get on the air, while SWLs and anyone who is simply curious about amateur radio can see the station in use, meet a few radio people and have a supervised go themselves.

It should be a nice relaxed afternoon of calls, chat and hopefully a busy band. See you on 2 metres.