Malin Head Coast Guard Radio Callsign EJM

1644 & 1677 KHz MF

Malin Head Coast Guard Radio is one of two Medium Frequency Coastal Stations in Ireland, the other being Valentia Coast Guard Radio.

 

These photographs are all (c) Finbar O'Connor EI0CF They should not be used elsewhere without permission (Text by Finbar)
The small pictures below can be clicked on to view a larger version.
Remote Antenna site at Belmullet The Radio Room at Malin Head
External Station shot Malin Head Radio
Malin Head Radio Transmitter Room Malin Head in winter
       
  

We replaced our venerable valve output  1kw  6 channel transmitters made in the UK  by  SPT.

These were installed in 1989 and gave sterling service over the years.  Easy to maintain, classic RF construction,  real radio.  The  4 new Rohde and Schwarz   1kw transceivers cover from 1.6  mhz to 30 mhz with it's associated  antenna tuning unit, to resonate our  50 metre towers. The new gear is modular, PC controlled and quiet.

 

Radio room, part of  Bravo position , ie MF and VHF watch.
Front top left,  Navtex receiver for off air quality control. Printer for MF DSC receiver.
Back up MF DSC receiver, in parallel with combined MF and VHF DSC PC unit.
Local MF/HF Scanti  1.6 - 30 mhz  750 watt transceiver, fed to  3 wire top hatted vertical.
Remote MF/HF Scanti 1.6 - 30 mhz 750 watt transceiver fed to  3 wire top hatted vertical at our Belmullet ( CountyMayo ) MF/VHF site.
Hagneuk general coverage receiver, normally set to  2182 khz. Touch screen control panel for Rohde and Schwarz transceivers.
Eddystone general coverage receiver set to  2187.5  MF  DSC.
Phone used  should the PABX exchange crash, main station phone lines default to a number of simple handsets.  Not shown is Motorola control panel. PC log and PC control for  MF/VHF DSC.

Looking down on  equipment in the transmitter room,  or High Tension room as the old timers would say, shows MF , HF  and Navtex gear  with a tiny corner of the  VHF  DSC control rack in the right foreground.
      
 In the right background top is the ATU for the Skanti  750 watt transceivers, which are below , mounted on a steel frame. To the left are   4  Rohde and Schwarz  1 kw transceivers. Just in front of them are two  S.A.I.T  Navtex transmitters, which have been pushed back to make way for the 3 cabinets for the new  1kw  Navtex transmitters.

The centre cabinet is for control and  switching to the  ATU , to the extreme right, out of camera.  The navtex antenna is a "Tee" , the drop wire  is fed through an insulator and then to the antenna tuning unit in the transmitter room.
       
The following photographs have been sent to me by Rolf DL9CM and are his copyright.

The following photographs have been sent to me by Alan Gale and are his copyright.
Antenna feed point
The aerial farm
Station building
The feed through insulators One of the radio operating positions One of the masts The Navtex aerial feed point
A Skanti Transmitter

 

The following pictures are (c) Alan GI0OTC Taken Easter 2003
Antenna Mast MF Operating Position Navtex System VHF Operating Position

Click HERE for a recording of Malin Head Coast Guard Radio recorded January 2004
First is Finbar calling St Johns Coast Guard Radio, they replied but were buried under a Spanish coast station making his announcement. Finbar waited until they finished then went back to VON. He replied and they completed the Trans Atlantic qso. Quickly followed by two North Sea oil support vessels working one another, then a UK registered Spanish crewed fishing vessel calling Malin Head and Finbars reply in Spanish, changing them to their working frequency.

Hopefully this should give a flavour of 2182 khz in 2004 at Malin Head Coast Guard Radio /EJM.

This recording was made by Alan Doherty, GI0OTC

Click HERE for a recording of Malin Head Coast Guard Radio recorded 25th November 03

Finbar O'Connor, Radio Officer at Malin Head Coast Guard Radio wrote..

" I am working RAF Nimrod Rescue 51 on VHF as he heads out to perform "Top Cover" for R115, the Shannon based Irish Coast Guard S61. The Irish Coast Guard also have two other S61's , one based at Dublin Airport, the other at Waterford Regional Airport. The Irish Army Air Corps are presently covering the NorthWest region with a further S61."
"In this incident the ship is quite a way out in the Atlantic, so the S61 has flown up from Shannon Airport and landed at Blacksod Lighthouse. There is a fuel dump there and the resident lightkeeper, Vincent Sweeney has refuelled the aircraft and she is ready for take off again. I give the co-ords to R51 who will fly ahead and find the vessel, then guide the Rescue helo in directly, saving time on scene. In this incident, four frequencies were in use. Channel 16 VHF. The airband frequency 123.1 Mhz, for inter aircraft communications, and 5680 khz, three way comms between Kinloss Rescue, R51 and Malin Head Coast Guard Radio. Meanwhile we are keeping in constant communications with the vessel on our main MF working frequency pair, 2102 khz for the ship and 1677 khz for EJM."

This recording was made by Alan Doherty, GI0OTC


Click HERE for a recording of last broadcast from Finbar O'Connor before his retirement
at Malin Head Coast Guard Radio March 2009
Recorded by  Paul   EI7JM,  who  first  listened on 2182 khz for the  announcement,
then tuned to 1677 khz for the navigational  warning broadcast and notice to  shipping.


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