On Wednesday the 19th of October 1994, a meeting was held in Grants Hotel in Cashel in order to determine if there was enough interest in Amateur Radio in Tipperary to warrant the formation of a new organisation in the county.
The meeting was chaired by Alfie Coyle, EI3BQB. The name Tipperary Radio Group was proposed by Alfie, and was unanimously agreed with. It was also decided that the new group should meet at 8:30 on the first Wednesday of every month.
A committee was elected and consisted of:
- Alfie Coyle – EI3BQB, Chairperson
- John Lofthouse – EI3DIB, Vice Chairperson
- Walter Keating – EI7EWB, Treasurer
- Liam O’Brien – EI7FE, P.R.O.
- Hazel Leahy – EI9ELB, Secretary
The first committee meeting, under the stewardship of Alfie Coyle, from Cashel, County Tipperary took place on the 27th of October 1994, a slight amendment to the name of the group was proposed and the name was changed to Tipperary Amateur Radio Group.
A lot of ground-breaking work was undertaken by the first committee in setting up and formalising the group. The Group received its official callsign in August of 1995 and since the EI7TRG/P has become a very familiar and well known callsign on all amateur bands along with EI7T which came later. The club is affiliated to the Irish Radio Transmitter Society, T.A.R.G. is a regular contributor to the weekly news service, its bi-monthly magazine and is a well respected participant in IRTS competitions and events.
Tipperary Amateur Radio Group has members in various counties in Ireland, the majority living in County Tipperary.
The club is active during summer months for local and international competitions. The group is also a keen supporter of annual local events where our hobby can be put to constructive and helpful uses for the community. TARG actively encourage the use of the 70cm’s band and are mindful of radio experimenters ever decreasing bandwidth allocation.
Meetings
Group meetings take place as required at the 2023 AGM, the decision was taken to return to a previous location of The Princess Bar, Irishtown, Clonmel (E91 PW90) for meetings. All visitors to our group meetings are welcome to attend and there is always someone monitoring 145.450Mhz & 433.450Mhz in case directions to the hotel are required.