Omagh was the home to Ireland’s first digital communications conference organised by a keen group of amateurs from the West Tyrone Amateur Radio Club.
DiGIcon, which was attended by over 7Ø enthusiastic amateurs from all corners of Britain and Ireland,was held in Omagh’s Technology Education Centre on September 19th and was accounted as a ‘tremendous success’ by the RSGB’s regional manager Peter Lowrie MI5JYK.
DiGIcon had something to please every amateur who attended. Following registration, visitors were able to view the trading stalls of JBT trading, TA Electronics and Steven Boyd (Second Hand Radios). As well as the traders, Ian Morrow MI1CCU was providing information on Echolink and the local Echolink node MB7ICU.
Children and adults were also greatly interested in the RSGB’s new Mobile Communications Demonstration Module, GB4FUN, which has not visited Northern Ireland before. The visitors to GB4FUN were able to have a look around the unit, which was touring the schools in the area, which is the primary function of GB4FUN. The visitors also had a chance to view the workings of amateur radio and discuss it with the operator Carlos Eavis GØAKI.
There were four lectures held throughout the day and many of the visitors took a keen interest in them. The lectures covered Digital Amateur Television, Software Defined Radio, Amateur Satellite and D-Star.
Two main prizes of an IC-E92D with a HM-174 Speaker Microphone donated by Icom and TA Electronics, also a Weather Station was donated by Waters & Stanton, were raffled off to two lucky winners. As well, as door prizes supplied by the RSGB.
The conference was a great success and we hope that more of its kind will be held in the near future. The efforts of the organisers clearly shone through and deserve to be highly commended.
By Kirsty Morrow MI3JVN
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