I was very intrigued to see a spot earlier today for this previous unactivated SOTA summit as I was of the understanding that in order to get into the activation zone of this SOTA summit that a special permit is required and therefore I am certain that permission would also be required to carry out the SOTA activation (see Mountain Views Skellig Michael, Sceilg Mhichíl 217m hill, Iveragh NW SW: Skelligs Ireland at MountainViews.ie). Therefore, I would be very interested to hear on how Karol SP9KZ successfully carried out the SOTA activation of Sceilg Mhicil EI/IS-121. I also see that Erich OE4EXE has alerted to activate Sceilg Mhicil EI/IS-121 on the 14th July 2024.
On another matter, I have noticed that Karol SP9KZ used the EI prefix from Sceilg Mhicil EI/IS-121 earlier today and Enrich OE4EXE has alerted to use the EI prefix from this same SOTA summit next month. Sceilg Mhicil EI/IS-121 is an Irish island and I would like to remind everyone that the correct prefix to use on Irish islands is EJ, I previously raised this on the SOTA Reflector last year (see Irish Islands). I am not sure if using the EI prefix instead of the EJ prefix on Irish islands is a breach of licensing conditions.
Andrew beat me to it but I would have guessed the same. That would make access to the island valid. Though if the wrong prefix was used they should be forced to pay again and repeat it with the correct prefix this time
Its probably not been activated before because its quite difficult to land. I tried to go there 3 or 4 times when we lived in Co.Cork but each time it was too rough and/or too big a swell… You certainly don’t need a guide although you’ll always get propositioned to have a tour of the island.
I seem to recall the subject of prefixes for the islands of Ireland came up once before (I thought more than one year ago - but…?) Someone posted a reference to the use of the the ‘correct’ prefix and the wording in the reference given implied you could use that suffix but wasn’t compelled to.
It should be a given that you use the prefix and / or callsign that most makes you look like rare DX.
EI call: plenty of them on the air every day.
EJ call: relatively rare, makes you something to chase (SOTA or otherwise).
I see the same when I use the MS prefix compared to MM. MM/GM stations are ten a penny in comparison, MS are much less common. Sadly large numbers of UK licence holders have no idea what an MS prefix is. Or the other less common prefixes (MN, MC, MT etc.) It is sad if you don’t know your own licence rules etc.
Permits / permissions and the very technical actual summit access aside, 2m only activation attempts from the far south west of Ireland are challenging to say the least.
I see that Michael OE6MRX was spotted earlier today on this very same SOTA and operating both 20m SSB and 40m SSB also. I see that the correct EJ prefix was being used this time. However, although I understand that trips to this island are possible, my understanding is that is both the true summit and the whole activation zone is a a big pile of rocks which is off limits unless you request a special permit. Even if a special permit was obtained to climb the rocks, I don’t think permission would have been granted to set up any amateur radio and I really don’t think it would have been possible to set up HF on them rocks unless one of those HF handhelds that I have heard about was being used.
Have you done many HF activations @M0HGY Jimmy? It takes less than 1 minutes to chuck your wire on the floor/rocks, connect to your transceiver, in my case the KX2, and make 4 contacts. The amount of summits I’ve had to run my wire lying on the rocks, lying down a cliff, or lying on the ground, and I’ve still worked a nice pile-up. It doesn’t matter if the summit was triangular peaked, as long as your in the AZ and work 4 stations, the rest is history. Also, using EI or EJ, I don’t think this should matter, this conversation has been brought to attention before. If people are travelling afar to activate a summit and have some fun, I think it should be left alone, that’s my personal opinion, at the end of the day, it’s a hobby, and one I’d like to think everyone enjoys with no policing.
Yes, I concur that HF activations would be doable with a KX2 and whip or by draping wire down the rocks. And yes, we previously established that with the current Comreg wording, use of EI/ from an island would not be a breach. Though I concur with Andy - if the opportunity is there to use EJ/ then why wouldn’t you?!
The permit issue is possibly something, but maybe that was all sorted out as part of the landing tour.
That’s a fair point Fraser, but I have previously read up on Mountain Views about needing a permit to be on the rocks. It will be interesting to see if permission was granted for amateur radio operation as well as obtaining the permit.
Fair point Ben as I do most SOTA activations on 2m FM, but I have done a few HF SOTA activations in the past and if ever I am struggling to make 4 contacts on 2m FM, I will resort to HF. All understood about the KX2 as well.
It is probably OK to use the EI prefix rather than the EJ prefix when operating on an Irish island, but I do agree with Andy @MM0FMF that the EJ prefix should be used as it is a rarer prefix and will attract a lot more response.
I do agree with this Ben, but I always think it’s good to do some full research on the licencing conditions of the country you be operating from and to do some full research on the SOTA summits that you plan to activate as well.
I completely agree with this Tom and Jimmy, I would also certainly use EJ, it’s a nice unique prefix. I’m just making the point that the activator has paid a lot of money to get onto the Island, so EI should be fine as a successful activation.
He was spotted earlier today as EJ/OE6MRX so no issues there. It was Karol SP9KZ who spotted himself as EI/SP9KX/P on this same SOTA summit on the 18th June 2024, but I believe he was only using 2m FM and made no contacts at all. There is also an alert from Enrich OE4EXE for this same summit on the 14th June 2024 and the callsign in that alert is EI/OE4EXE/P.
It was will be interesting to see if the permit was obtained to access the true summit/activation zone on this island and if permission was granted also for amateur radio operation.
According to wikipedia the island receives 11,000 visitors a year, and we all know that Luke Skywalker lived there, so I really don’t see what the big deal is.
However, a May the 4th activation would be worth writing about!
From reading reports on Mountain Views ( Skellig Michael 217m hill, Iveragh NW SW: Skelligs Kerry Ireland at MountainViews.ie, Sceilg Mhicil has 2 summits, a north summit and a south summit. The south summit is the higher summit and is all rock and off limits. It looks like the saddle between the north and south summits is more than 25m below. One of the posts on Mountain Views mentions details of obtaining permission to climb the south summit.
Spending lots of money does not mean it’s a valid activation.
Look, I am a miserable and suspicious old fool and anything that strikes me as a bit odd gets me digging. The use of the “wrong” prefix makes me want to check the i’s were dotted and the t’s crossed. Why? Well if they are going to spend money going to what is a desirable location you’d think they’d check every last detail. So you would know EI islands use EJ irrespective that you can use EI because using EJ adds kW to your signal and it’s in the CEPT docs. If you miss that then maybe you never checked that summit does need extra permits on top of paying for the boat and getting de-facto permission to be on the island.
I really hope that all the permissions etc. were obtained so that a somewhat “exotic” summit has now been successfully activated. It only leaves about 150000* unactivated summits to go
Although not very clear, one of the panoramic photos of Google Maps for this island has a big notice below the south peak where the true summit lies about the access requirements.
When spending a lot of money to do a SOTA activation, it’s always best to do full research regarding the access requirements and also licensing conditions (don’t just rely on what the CEPT doc says).
It’s my understanding that the operator is to be invited to establish that he had the correct permission to climb to the South Summit and did complete the technical climb to get there. I’m sure any climber will have photos of such a special ascent. Right now he’s qrv from the easy drive up of Ben of Howth in Dublin so after driving the length of the country overnight he will probably take a little time to reply. I’m sure the issue will be resolved one way or another shortly
