Stay informed with the latest news from IOMARS
The committee have become aware that some members find it difficult to get to meetings either in Ballasalla or at the Creg-ny-Baa. If you are in this position, please contact the committee at info@IOMARS.IM and we will do our best to arrange a lift with another member.
Upcoming events
Wednesday the 18th March Scout Building Ballasalla Demonstration of JS8Call A weak signal keyboard-to-keyboard messaging system based on FT8 which can operate with a signal to noise ratio of -24dB as measured in a 2.5kHz bandwidth. The software needed is free and can run on Windows, MacOS and Linux.
Thursday the 26th March Creg-ny-Baa Hotel Talk How to have QSOs by bouncing signals off planes, meteors, and the moon. By Richard GD8EXI Starting 19:30 local time in the upstairs room.
Wednesday 1st April Scout Building Ballasalla Demonstration of FreeDV FreeDV is a suite of digital voice modes for HF radio. The flagship mode is the Radio Autoencoder (RADE). You can run RADE using a free GUI application for Windows, Linux and macOS that allows any SSB radio to be used for high quality digital voice.
Wednesday 15th April Scout Building Ballasalla Morse Code demonstration by Stuart GD0OUD
Thursday 30th April Creg-ny-Baa Hotel Currently just a social event
On Wednesday the 18th of February we are going to run a Bring and Buy Sale at the Scout Building starting at 19:30 GMT, where you can bring along your own equipment to sell.
If you have items likely to be of particular interest, please post details on the club’s Facebook page to raise interest or send details to info@IOMARS.IM so a committee member can post it for you.
The club has a dustbin full of coax mostly fitted with plugs to sell along with some ready-made dipoles, new plugs and some small transformers. There will also be some PSUs, AMUs, and RF Powermeters for sale at bargain prices. Many low value items will be displayed on tables each marked with a price per item e.g. £2.00, 5.00, 10.00 and 20.00.
This testing night will have an antenna and feeder theme. We are going to try to turn the scout hall into a testing range for antennas from 144MHz up to 3.5GHz. No guarantee it will work, and the figures will only be relative, but it should still be interesting. The equipment will also allow us to measure the loss in coax plotted against frequency and the return loss curve for the antennas. So please bring along any antennas and feeders you want testing with plugs already fitted. If you have your own test equipment, then please feel free to bring that along for comparison purposes. There will be some discussion about what the results mean in the real world.
Time permitting other testing will also be possible like harmonic and power output. Filter insertion loss and amplifier gain all plotted against frequency.
Other upcoming events
· Thursday 29th January Creg-ny-Baa 19:00 unless you want to eat there in which case, we suggest you come a bit earlier.
· Wednesday 4th February Scout Building, Ballasalla 19:00.
· Wednesday 18th February Bring and Buy Sale at the Scout Building Ballasalla 19:30.
Thank you to all those who have renewed their membership for 2026 and if you have not, please do so soon.
The new website is now live. You'll know this as your on it :)
Faster, cleaner, with more information for your popular amateur radio group. Keep your eye on the site as it evolves and we introduce new content to it, including an events section, items for sale and kit that can be loaned to club members.
If you spot any errors or omissions please let a committee member know at info@iomars.im
Please come along to the last meeting of 2025 and have some hot mince pies.
All Star Node MB7IGV is active in Glen Vine and can be accessed on 145.312500 MHz • CTCSS 110.9 Hz
Contact the keeper 2D0PEY if you have any questions about this.
As discussed at the AGM we are making some changes to IOMARS meeting format for 2026.
The last IOMARS meeting of 2025 will be on 17th December at the Scout building, with mince pies.
Not surprisingly no Wednesday meetings on either Christmas Eve or New Year’s Eve.
The first meeting of 2026 will be on the 7thJanuary at the Scout Building, followed by one on the 21st. The first Creg meeting will be on the 29th of January.
The new 2026 committee consists of:
President Jeanie MD8JEA
Chairman Richard GD8EXI
Hon Secretary Rob 2D0XIC
Hon Treasurer John GD0TFG
Committee members Stuart GD0OUD and Keith GD5IOM