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INTERNATIONAL LIGHTHOUSE/LIGHTSHIP WEEKEND 2006 FEEDBACK ON THE 2006 EVENT |
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INTERNATIONAL LIGHTHOUSE/LIGHTSHIP WEEKEND 2006 FEEDBACK ON THE 2006 EVENT |
From_Name: Alan H. Bauld VE3 CBR
Subject: Message for ILLW list manager.
message: Dear Kevin VK2CE:
The Burlington, Ontario,Canada Amateur Radio Club participated in the International Lighthouse/Lightship weekend for the very first time this year at the Point Clark Lighthouse on the shores of Lake Huron near the town of Kincardine.
We are pleased to honour the memory of the founder of this event, Mike Dalrymple from beautiful Ayr.
We are trying to include to you the press release and photos of the weekend's events that coincided with the local, "Lighthouse Days" that were being held at Point Clark.
We have sent our happy story and photos to 12 media locations in Canada including the major national Canadian newspapers and magazines including CQ Magazine, ARRL, and the TCA (The Canadian Amateur).
The greatest delight of the day was the active participation of the visiting children who showed a remarkable interest in the whole idea of amateur radio, especially the use of Morse Code.
It was an honour and a delight to participate in this adventure and we look forward with increased enthusiasm to next year's participation.
Sincerely,
Alan H.Bauld
VE3 CBR
Burlington Amateur Radio Club
From the Summerland ARC, Lismore, NSW, Australia.
* * INTERNATIONAL LIGHTHOUSE WEEKEND - DELIGHTFUL.
A great, fine weekend was enjoyed by all taking part this weekend.
At various times we had over 23 operators at 5 of our lighthouses.
Fingal Head, Cape Byron, Ballina Head, Evans Head, Clarence Head (Yamba).
Next year we may activate Point Danger, just not able to this year.
Perfect fine weather made it an excellent time at all points.
In all we had an estimated 85 or so ILLW contacts, mostly VK, ZL lights.
The poor sunspot cycle probably limited real good DX results.
Nevertheless all reported having a very enjoyable weekend.
We had enquiries from several visiting amateurs and tourists.
Thanks to all those who worked to make it such a success.
Thanks to all the lighthouse authorities who cooperated to let it happen.
For my part thanks to the National Parks & Wildlife Svce. and Cape Byron
Trust.
Their absolute and complete assistance is very much appreciated.
I'm sure the other lights got equally much appreciated cooperation.
SARC unreservedly thanks all these involved authorities.
Thanks to all, CUAGN next year. Pic att of the Byron roughing it.
* * SARC does ILLW via AMSAT
SARC made sure during the ILLW that at least one Australian
lighthouse used amateur satellites for a QSO. We established two QSOs
from from Cape Byron lighthouse via AO-51 (Echo) under the callsign
VK2WIR/P, on the satellite's Sunday 0840 AEST North-South pass.
We had the FM satellite to ourselves from horizon to horizon for QSOs
with Roy, VK4ZQ (Brisbane) and Jack, VK2TRF (Sydney).
Uplink was 2m with downlink on 70cm, using a dual band 5W Kenwood HT,
and a 2m/70cm handheld Yagi, with almost armchair copy.
You don't need much power - just a strong wrist for the antenna!
de Nick VK2ZTY.
From the Waverly ARS, VK2BV
Some may be interested in the Waverley ARS lighthouse
activations this weekend, which included a new amateur television
distance record between the Macquarie and Norah Head lights. You can see
some pictures of the event at http://www.vk2bv.org/gallery/2006-light
I spent a couple of hours there today and climbed up to the
light platform with Jack VK2TRF and a few others for his ATV distance
record attempt to Norah Head. The Sydney Harbour Trust allowed us to do
this as part of their public open day. This was very successful and I
have posted a few photos of this and the ground activity on the club's
picture gallery. No doubt others will provide pictures of the Hornby
Light activation on Saturday which I was unable to attend.
73 Simon
Peconic ARC, using the club's W2AMC call activated Huntington Harbor Lighthouse (USA-445) on Saturday, 8/19, and Horton Pt. Lighjthouse (USA-387) on Sunday, 8/20.
At Huntington, we got off to a somewhat delayed start and could only put use a single band. As a result we worked 20 meters until NAQP started at 1600Z. At that time we switched to 17 meters for the rest of our time on the lighthouse. Operators were K2GLP and WM2Z. This activation has special meaning to us since K2GLP's grandfather was Keeper of the lighthouse from 1919 to 1926. We worked a total of 100 stations from Huntington.
At Horton Point, we worked 20 and 40 meters simultaneously. We logged a total of 181 contacts. Operators were K2GLP, NS2K, KC2PYO, N2QHV and WM2Z. Interestingly, KC2PYO, a newly licensed 14-year old YL, made half of the contacts. It was a pleasure to watch Katie work the mini-pileups and deal with the QRM and occasional weak signals in a very professional manner.
Certificate QSLs featuring a color photo and brief history of the lighthouses are offered for both activations. Send QSLs with SASE (large envelope to avoid folding) to:
Peconic ARC
PO Box 113
Peconic, NY 11958
It was a pleasure to work so many ARLHS members in this event. Thanks to all.
73 de Warren/Charlie
WM2Z #133
K2GLP #1274
Hi Folks,
Well, ILLW 2006 is in the books and, while conditions both propagation-wise
and QRM-wise were not particularly ideal, I think it is safe to say it was a
fun event with plenty of lighthouses and lightships on the air to please
everyone. Our thanks to all the hearty souls who ventured forth to activate lights
this year. Having read some of the reports here on the BeaconBot, it appears
QSO counts are down from previous years, but that was expected due to where
we are in the sun-spot cycle. Still, propagation on Saturday was surprising
as here on the east coast, signals from Europe were loud and plentiful on both
twenty and seventeen meters. An unfortunate scheduling fluke had the NA QSO
Party starting up in the middle of Saturday causing a lot of crowding and QRM
on twenty and forty meters. The WARC bands did, however, provided some
refuge for those seeking and activating lighthouses.
Sunday, I'm sorry to say, was a totally different story with propagation
once again going down the tubes. The silver lining, I suppose, was that the long
skip we enjoyed on Saturday was now short skip on Sunday and thus afforded
the opportunity for many of us to work some geographically closer lighthouses
not heard on Saturday. I don't recall hearing any real DX on Sunday other
than working KP4ES at PUR-002 early (1310Z) that morning. Just past noon here,
there appeared a short opening to the west coast and I managed to work N7L at
the Yaquina Bay LH in Newport, OR, USA-906. And that pretty much wrapped it
up for me. With timeouts for car races and my Patriots football game on TV, I
managed to put forty-six lights in my log; twenty were new ones and eighteen
were DX. Of the DX, most were European with Panama and Brazil added to the
mix.
This was the first week-end of working with my new beam antenna, a Cushcraft
MA5B Mini-beam, tower mounted at about 35 feet. Having been relegated to
using Hustler Mobile antennas for the past six years, the signals I was hearing
with the beam were a revelation. There is no doubt the beam made the
difference for my being able to work the DX lights.
73 & KTF,
Jim Elliott / KA3UNQ
A. R. L. H. S. # 278
Gambrills, MD USA
Activation of Pendlebury Lighthouse CAN-714
By Steven - VE1SLL ARLHS # 1336 and
Cindy - VE9CDL ARLHS # 1337
19-August-2006
This was supposed to be a report about our activation of Oak Point Light CAN 358. But it turned into a report about Pendlebury Light CAN-714 in St. Andrews.
We woke up this morning at 6:15 and got ready to go. Loaded the last of the stuff into the van and then headed out to the local A&W for breakfast.
We hit the highway about 20 minutes later than I had planned. But that's ok because I had left us a 15 to 30 minute setup time. Normal setup takes us less than 5 but I had a few plans that I figured would take a little longer.
I had been up to Oak Point a few weeks ago to scout it and talk to the management of the park. It is a provincial park under private management. I was told there would be no problem with the activation. I wanted some further info so they gave me the phone number of the guy in charge. I called and left several messages about the activation and request a couple of picnic tables to set up on. I got no replies So we left Saturday morning figuring I would just ask about the tables when we got there.
So when I get there and meet the guy in charge and let him know what's going on, I'm told that we can not access this site as there is a Corporate function being held and they have booked the entire peninsula. As a provincial park it is supposed to be accessible at all times to the public. But they have let one group take it over and cut off public access.
The problem I had with this was that I was never called and even told. The manager told my he never received any of my messages.
So it was about 15 minutes before our scheduled start time and we drove around to see if we could find an appropriate spot to operate from with visual access to the site. But no luck. So we settled on going to St. Andrews. About an hour to an hour and a half away.
We arrived about 11:30. Found the site and talked to some one who owned a piece of land next to the site as well as some one from the lighthouse preservation society and we were told to set up and have a great time. This fellow from the preservation society was quite excited about the possibility of some attention brought to the site.
So now it's finally time to get started. Setup took a little longer than normal as I had a generator that I borrowed from work, and I brought my rig blaster to do some digital as well.
Got everything done and started on the digital. Should have brought the manual for the darn thing I guess. After messing with it for 20 minutes I gave up. I haven't set it up in over a year and forgot what went where! So I gave up on that aspect. (After getting home I dug out the instructions and wanted to beat my self in the head with them once I saw how easy it was!)
So now its after 12. Not bad considering it was supposed to be a 9am start for us!
After that the day went quite well. Played on 40 and 20. Made a number of contacts. We even got Granite Island on our 1st QSO. And a light in Denmark was our
2nd !
We didn't get a lot of lights, or members. But we did get quite a few people from the mid west that have no way of getting to a lighthouse without arranging a vacation. That made it worth while. The late start was a detriment to our QSO count though.
All in all and despite the problems we had it was a good day. We shut down around 5pm and started packing up.
Until next time
73 de
Steven VE1SLL ARLHS #1336 &
Cindy VE9CDL ARLHS# 1337
Hi Kevin,
What a great weekend we had.
We established our radio station, ZL6LH, this year adjacent to the Manukau Heads Lighthouse.
We had planned to operate from the area along side the new lighthouse but construction was not completed and workmen needed access to the site.
The site was in a paddock just along from the lighthouse on some level ground. The area at the southern heads is all sandhills. The erosion had taken the 2 previous lights and there is a very steep bank some 100m or so down to the entrance to the Manukau Harbour.
We worked from 2 small caravans. One station comprised a Kenwood TS870, Kenwood TL922 and a triband beam at 15m or so. This was our 20m station. >From the other caravan, we set up our 80m, 40m and 30m station. We also had packet running and a VHF / UHF radio. This station comprised a Kenwood TS440SAT and a Heathkit SB200 amp. The aerials were all dipoles. These worked very well it was just a coax problem we experienced.
As for propagation, we made over 1400 contacts. We have not yet sorted through the log to count up the number of lighthouses we contacted but there were many from around the world. We worked into the UK and Europe via the North Pole. Irrespective of the K Index being as low as 6 or 7, we had reports from DX stations that our signal was 59 plus and the only DX station on the band! This seems to confirm the fact that if you call CQ enough, you will get a reply. Consider the activity we hear on the bands during a major contest. The stations are there but many seem to be watching lists on their computers for notice of an interesting contact. We believe each time we were spotted on the cluster our QSO rate increased for a short time. Thankfully, we were spotted many times. We worked Saturday and Sunday evenings through till after 2am local. Will be interesting to see how many countries we worked. Our operation was both SSB and
CW.
We have now done an analysis:
Log breakdown.
Total 1409 QSOs.
414 CW.
995 Phone.
20m 926.
30m 26.
40m 331.
80m 100.
2m 10.
70cm 6.
Lighthouse QSOs 63.
DXCC.
Mixed 68.
CW 40.
PH 54.
73,
David ZL1DK
message: Dear Kevin,
Thank you for your fine managemnt of the ILLW 2006.
I operated JA1JCF/1 from the Taito Saki Lighthouse, ARLHS JAP-609.
Being in an entity very disitant from most of the other participants, I could have only 17 contacts with foreign stations. There were two lighthouse stations among them, VK4GHL and Zl6LH. I heard K6PV(lh) calling CQ but was not able to work him.
Neverthless, it was a fun weekend overall. I was able to have about 100 JA contacts, mostly on 40 by CW, and that may have raised awareness on the ILLW among JA amatuers, hopefully.
I met at least three hams and one former ham at the QTH. One of them came to operate on 30cm band with 20x2 element yagi on Sunday. I received many inquiries about what I was doing by other visitors.
It was very hot on Saturday, but constant breeze made it bearable. On Sunday, it rained occasionally, and was unpleasant with very high humidity. As band condition also appeared poor, I shut the station down at noon local time and headed home earlier than had been planned, escaping from heavy trafic of beech-goers.
Best 73s.
Nobi Hyakutake, JA1JCF ARLHS #1356 
From_Name: Roger Nichols VK7ARN
Subject: Message for ILLW list manager.
message: Kevin
Great weekend (again). Thanks for your efforts. Our report can be found at http://wicen.taswireless.net/Activity_Reports/ILLW_2006_Report.htm
and more pictures at http://wicen.taswireless.net/Photo_pages/ILLW_photo_gallery_2006.htm
Regards
Roger
Subject: Cape Pembroke ILWE 2006
Message: Hi Kevin.
CAPE PEMBROKE LIGHTHOUSE, FALKLAND ISLANDS. FAL 001
We are all warm again from a rather snowie South Atlantic.
We had a good weekend with 580 qso's in 46 countries all on SSB, a good score of 12 countries on 80 meters and 29 on 40 meters showed that all is not lost with low sunspots.
Thanks must go to all the operators who gave their time and equipment that made it all possiable, Bob VP8LP, Janet VP8AIB, Neil VP8AWU, Charlie VP8ML and
Donald VP8ON.
Some people might like to take a look at this web site and see some photos, www.falklandsailing.com
and click on Lighthouse.
Till next year 73's Don VP8ON
Hi Everyone,
>From what I'm hearing, ILLWE was not so good in USA/Canada. It was not
good here, but not quite as bad as expected. We even watched an auraua
late Saturday night which must have put the kybosh on reasonable radio
conditions.
Hans, MM0XAU/DJ6AU pounded the brass for most of the weekend while Roger
MM1FJM and I used two different SSB operating techniques - search and
pounce and calling CQ. (I used search & pounce technique in the
IOTA contest 2003? and placed 45th out of 90 in the category)
Here's how we did.....
QSO's = 446
Continents = 5
DXCC = 48
CQ Zones = 12*
ITU Zones = 13*
Prefixes = 218
Lighthouses = 65
US Stations - 14 (8 known States)
(* that we know of)
446 QSO's is probably close to our lowest figure since 2001, but,
Surprise! Surprise! We didn't set
out to break records, but did so just the same! Total number of
lighthouses
in the past was around 40-50. What must now be a new record is 65
individual lighthouses this year.
Also surprising, there were only eight duplicates on the three logs.
There's usually more than that.
We worked 14 US stations and probably more states than the 8 we know of.
Also not counted is Serbia and Montenegro since they split, i.e counted
as one, so there's probably another DXCC to be added.
Most distant, a Russian station in the Far East.
'New' DXCC stations for Eshaness this year - Namibia, Chargos Island,
United Arab
Emirates.
Possibles - French Guiana, Honduras,
New Lighthouse/DXCC, Iceland.
Without doubt, conditions were pretty poor and it was hard work, but we
contacted a lot of new lighthouses plus a many we worked in previous
years.
Despite conditions, it was a first class 'Scocial Gathering' Not eaten
so much for a long time!
We had a firework display on Saturday night. One fell short and exploded
between the lighthouse and our two American visitors Sharma and Connie.
Sharmas husband Dean wants to know WHY I missed her and could I improve
my aim for next year!. Sharma (guest speaker at last years convention)
her pal Connie both from Michigan, Roger MM1FJM, Hans DJ6AU/MM0XAU, and
Les my ex-wife doing the cooking, were rolling around on Sunday night
with fits of the giggles!
Some of you should try getting to Europe? If we can do it with an aurora
thrown in, it must have something going for it!
There's the pick of three self-catering lighthouses to stay at with
prices a little less than the local hotel.
Sumburgh Head Lighthouse (SCO232) was also on - the first time we've had
two lighthouses taking part from here
It gets better every year.
Peter
MM5PSL
#183
Kevin,
Just a brief summary of the weekend. Plus a few pics
While the weather could not have been kinder, unfortunately radio conditions were very
depressed, which was expected due to the position of the current solar cycle.
Most of our contacts were within Australia with a couple of New Zealand and USA stations.
Approximately 170 contacts were made over the weekend, of these 23 were lighthouse
stations. Listed below along with their designated number:
Smokey Cape AUS-140
Montague Island AUS-110
Cape Shanck AUS-045
Cape Jaffa AUS-033
Tacking point AUS-158
Hornby Lighthouse AUS-093
Fingal Head AUS-073
Narooma AUS-113
Evans Head AUS-175
Ballina Head AUS-142
Warden Head AUS-166
Cape Byron AUS-025
Point Hicks AUS-133
Greencape Lighthouse AUS-085
Williamstown Lighthouse Timball Tower AUS-170
Burnett Head AUS-281
Grassy Hill Light Cooktown AUS-083
Bulwer Light AUS-220
Pine Islet AUS 127
Cape Clevland AUS-027
Cape Bruny Tasmania AUS-026
Manukau South Head Museum (New Zealand) NZL-033
We were very pleased with the response from those who took the time to visit our site.
It is a magnificent location to play radio and we intend to keep our options open for next
year.
I'd like to thank those who assisted, not only over the weekend, but during the preceding
weeks. These events don't just happen, many hours of planning and co-ordination by
dedicated members are required. Members that Westlakes Amateur Radio Club is indeed
fortunate to have in abundance .Members like Allan VK2JED who arrived Friday afternoon
and stayed over for the whole weekend and in my opinion was the backbone of the event.
I'd also like to thank The Norah Head Lighthouse Trust particularly Jim Smith and caretaker
Todd for their assistance and tolerance, The Central Coast Tourism's Horst Endrulat and Joy
Groves for their part in making the public aware of the event.
Lets hope we can do it all again next year,
Frank VK2FJL
From Argentina
Desde la Argentina quiero agradecer a los organizardores del evento FIN DE SEMANA DE LOS FAROS ya que participo de este evento desde hace seis años consecutivos activando el FARO SAN ANTONIO ARG 011 de la Ciudad de San Clemente del Tuyú. Bs. As. Argentina.
Este año hemos contactado con màs de 400 estaciones de todo el mundo.
Un fuerte abrazo a todos los amigos y colegas que a lo largo y a lo ancho del mundo nos encontramos desde abajo de un FARO.
Muy QRV y ´73!!!!!!!
Ariel Orentlijerman LW1DE 
An early (0800hrs) start was achieved on the Saturday morning at Portland
Bill Lighthouse for the I.L.L.W. 2006 event.
Plans for two H.F. stations had been agreed by the participants for both
days.
Russell, G5XW and I for Saturday and Mike, M3VWK and Russell for the
Sunday.
On the east side of the tower a Carolina Windom special was strung from the
Davy Escape Equipment fair leads, sloping north east, resulting in a very
long length of feeder to reach the Day Room in the west garden.
It took approximately 50 minutes to sort the east side Windom out after the
antenna, feeder and support lines became entangled whilst trying to lower
the contraption over the side of the tower. I blame the westerly 20 knot
wind rushing around the tower entirely! Working one handed didn't help
either.
The transceiver used for the east side Windom was the Kenwood TS480HX.
This was to be the first time that the HX was going to get a chance to try
out
it's full 200w output.
The Day Room in the west garden is the usual location for the shack and
there are all the comforts of home, within a kitchen, a nice size table for
the equipment and an easy chair with a view north to the Old Higher
Lighthouse, ENG 108 and slightly east to the Old Lower Lighthouse ENG109.
My kit was soon up and running. A few cautionary tests from 50W through
to the (indicated) 200W from 80M through to 6M and all was ready.
At 0930 (local) the first QSO took place with Keith GM3VTY of the W.A.B.
(Worked All Britain Group) along with Brian G0BFJ and Ivan G3GKC.
These three were goods tests for the 40 and 80M bands with good signal
reports sent and received.
Russell arrived a little later than expected and wasn't feeling %100 fit but
was keen to get amongst the activity of the day.
Russell set up his Windom as an inverted V from his Land Rover on the west
wall and was up and running very quickly.
We had planned for his Windom to be hanging from the west side of the tower
but it was quicker and easier at the time to go for the easier option.
Apart from anything else, it was a bit windy still.
A total of 109 QSOs were made in about ten hours on the Saturday with the
480HX and the east side Windom on 80, 40, 20 and 10 meter bands.
Calls were made on 50.110 but no replies or other activity was heard on the
band.
Apart from the 50Amp power supply feeling a bit warm to the touch at the
end of the day, all equipment worked flawlessly... ...Nice one Kenwood !
Best DX was with Mike, PY5HOT on 17M and the nice surprise was a brief
QSO with Ram, VU3DJQ from Delhi on 20m, who responded to my CQ call.
Russell achieved a total of 55 QSOs in 18 DXCC with the best to a N8.
Some satellite activity was planned but a vital connector had been mislaid
during the initial equipment gathering and selection.
(Apologies satellite fans.)
Sunday:
I had to work, Portland Bill Lighthouse is my place of work, but I didn't
want to miss out on any of the action, so having heard from Russell that he
wasn't well enough to travel, I slung the trusty old PALSTAR end fed wire
down the east side of the tower, and in amongst the visitors to the tower,
made 10 QSOs in to the EU with the YAESU FT707.
Mike, M3VWK arrived in the early afternoon and set up his station along
side the west wall and used his home brew 20m dipole for the rest of the
afternoon, which resulted in several good QSO's in to the EU.
Mike uses a Kenwood TS570.
GB1CPB, relating to GB One Century Portland Bill, to mark its 100 years
operation, has been on the air since 11th January 2006 and will be active
most days, except Saturday, on 7.060 or 14.265MHz, until the end
of September. From then till the 1th January 2007 activity will take place
mainly on Sunday afternoons from 1200 to 1530 UTC.
Please see QRZ.COM for QSL details and an aerial view of Portland Bill
Lighthouse with some history of the lighthouse and operational details.
Further details of other radio orientated expeditions and activity carried
out by Russell, Mike and I and others, can be found on:
www.pmtdxgroup.co.uk
Looking forward to 2007 already!
Regards,
Dave. G1OCN.
Member of Purple Mug Tour DX Group
Serious Operators Having Serious FUN! 
