Reports from entrants in the 2015 ILLW event. Please send photos as attachments rather than embed them in the email.
Thanks once again to all the entrants for joining in the fun of the Lighthouse Weekend and for making it another wonderful year.
From VA3VQ at Cape North Lighthouse: https://va3qv.wordpress.com/2015/08/17/illw-2015-report/
A Facebook report from the Canary Islands: https://www.facebook.com/GrupoDxGranCanaria
From Corrubedo Lighthouse, Spain: http://www.ea1rch.es/index.php/galeria-fotografica/illw-2015-faro-corrubedo
From Poland SP1KNM at Darlow lighthouse: Facebook page
From North Queensland:-
OLD SEA HILL LIGHT, Gladstone Queensland, Australia. AU1024
As a result of a number of the normal “crew’ being away from the area, the Rockhampton and District Radio Club did not activate the remote Cape Capricorn Lighthouse, AU0059, this year but combined with the Gladstone Amateur Radio Club and Central Highlands Amateur Radio Club to visit the Old Sea Hill Light now situated at Gladstone’s East Shores Project and registered as AU0124. About 20 members from the three Clubs attended for a most enjoyable social outing and good contacts were made with other lighthouses, other Australian amateurs and later in the afternoon, a flood of USA and Canadian operators. Good propagation from a three element beam and off-centre fed dipole, with the station erected directly above the shores of saltwater Auckland Creek. It was pleasing to hear an increasing number of home based stations actively collecting lighthouse contacts, with some advising well over thirty lights on their list.
Gladstone Port Corporation is predominant in the continuing development of the East Shores Project, a magnificent parkland and play area, with the light and the retired Patrol Boat “Gladstone” already on site as part of the Maritime Museum to be transferred from elsewhere. Many thanks to the Corporation for supply of facilities including electricity and barbeque and their assistance during organization and liaison with Gladstone Club’s Rob Sinnott VK4GST.
While the Rockhampton and District Amateur Radio Club will return to Cape Capricorn in 2016, Gladstone Amateur Radio Club intends to activate the Old Sea Hill Light.
From King Island in Bass Strait at the tallest stone lighthouse in the Southern Hemisphere, Cape Wickham:
Flew down to King Island on Friday morning, established station at Cape Wickham new golf club Friday afternoon. The clubhouse is a temporary structure, over looking a small bay and Cape Wickham lighthouse. It offered a great vista, shelter and power. Used the Icom 775, Cushcraft R5 vertical.
Operated Friday afternoon, and all day Saturday. It was tough being single operator station, especially when a DX operator in Germany wanted to spot me on a DX cluster. Massive result and dog pile. It was overwhelming the number of contacts
Noise levels didn't exist, no RF interference, nothing, so very easy to work any station. Some notabale countries worked, Canary Islands, Cuba, Balltic Islands,Guatemala. Heap of European contacts, USA, Alaska, Australian, New Zealand.
The golf club will open to the public in October this year. With accommodation being offered at the end of the year.
Plan to return next year, and work the entire period of the event. But a brillant location, outstanding coastal vista. Plus one very tough golf course waiting.
Glenn Alford VK3ILH /7
From County Wexford in Ireland,
Hello all.
Once again The Southeastern amateur radio group (SEARG) had the great pleasure of activating EI2WRC/P at Hook Lighthouse in County Wexford Ref # IE0003.
Hook Lighthouse is the Worlds oldest intact working lighthouse and is situated at the tip of the Hook peninsula in County Wexford , in the southeast of Ireland.More details can be found at
http://hookheritage.ie/
Last year we operated from inside the watchtower, however , this year because of our increased number of operators , we decided to operate just outside the lighthouse property so as not to disrupt the visitors center at the lighthouse.(also for safety)
David EI6GVB landed at the lighthouse with his caravan on Friday night. He got the radio and main antenna set up and was testing on air a short time after, ALL stations were running on battery power only with some solar panels that were trickle charging the night battery which ran the lights in the caravan . Alan EI3HDB was the next in site at around 9:00am, during the day more operators from SEARG arrived, Martin ,Sean,Eoghan,Kieran,Eamonn,John,Mark and some family members all joined the team throughout the day. Band conditions were variable with 40m being the band seeing the most activity at first and 20m a little later on .
We had 3 stations on air ,the main station was the caravan which had a Yaesu FT897 and nested dipole, next we had the 2m station which worked mostly local stations(EI) then we had the outside tent station (Mark EI7IS) with his battery powered FT897 and buddypole.
We had contacts from far and wide and wish to thank everyone who took the time to call our station, it was a pleasure to work you all. All going well, we hope to activate the Hook lighthouse next year again, not only is it a fantastic location, but also a very historic one also , it being the oldest intact operational lighthouse in the World .
Looking forward to next year,
73 to all .
This is a short report from Gaevle Kortvegsamatvrer (SK3GK) on the activity at Bvnan lighthouse just north of Gaevle on the east coast of Sweden.
It is tradition that members of Gaevle Kortvegsamatvrer were present at Bvnan lighthouse (JP80PR) during the ILL weekend. SM3AVQ/Lars, SM3CBR/Dick and SM3CCT/Bengt had rigged an inverted-V dipole for 80 m on the lighthouse which is a wooden structure from 1840 and has a height of over 16 m thus still dwarfing the modern pilot station next door.
The rig used was a Kenwood TS570 (100W) with CW on 80 m. At the end of the weekend and despite rather poor propagation on the band over 90 QSO's were made including a handfull of lighthouses, all in Europe.
"The transmission method was perhaps that which visitors showed most interest in - particularly with children. We had an extra key and buzzer, where we "sent" the name of the child who whispered it in the ear of the operator and AVQ/Lasse would then say the name of the child. This created a lot of interest from the children curious to know how it worked and also from some parents, says CBR/Dick"
On Sunday lighthouse day was celebrated at Boenan for the thirteenth year in succession by the local Community Group. It was a lovely warm summer day with clear blue skies and as usual the place was well visited - between 300 and 400 as an estimate. Tradtional music, speeches, market stalls selling local produce including the famous "herring burger" and other foods were in place.
It was possible to both climb the 73 steps to the top of the lighthouse for an even better view of the coastline and to board the impressive Sea Rescue craft Greta Dybaeck and watch Gaevle orange pilot boats http://www.sjoraddning.se/gavle/batar/
A visitor on lighthouse day "SA3ARQ"
The Swedish version of the above text can be found on the homepage for GKA "http://sk3gk.se/2015/08/fyrhelgen-15-168-2015/"
You are welcome to use the photographs that are shown there.
Best regards,
SA3ARQ/Martin Crowther
The boys from Cuba had a ball with 13 lighthouses on air over the weekend. Get you translator out:-
Hi Kevin!
Look for Cuban activities reports at http://www.frcuba.co.cu/ all are in spanish but maybe u cud translate them with google?...HI...
Unfortunately propagation didn't help.
Best regards and see u in 2016!
Raúl
GDXC
From St Bees Lighthouse in England, UK0028
The club could not operate there because of restrictions on vehicular access and accommodation. The Lighthouse is at the end of a narrow private road with no parking, so cars have to be left at the road end. The weather was good so I used the bike and operated from the roadside. The setup was FT-817 and an inverted v on 40m plus an end fed dipole for 2m & 70cm. The lack of power limited the number of contacts but it was a pleasant Saturday afternoon.
73 De
Andrew Holland G4VFL/P
FROM DL1KVN at Helios Tower in Cologne:-
Another spontaneous Saturday singLe op activation. Helios Tower in cologne - de0011.
140 qso. half cw, half ssb.
because of the heavy qrm from the nearby railway i wasn't on top of the tower this year. went some meters away from it.
was fun like the years before!!!
FROM the Netherlands, PA6FUN
From Schiermonnikoog, The Netherlands:
The PA6FUN-team (this time consisting of Ray PE1GUR and Maus PA3HHT) decided to activate the lighthouse NL0027 on Schiermonnikoog Island, the second smallest of the northern groep of Dutch islands (EU038). On the Schiermonnikoog are two lighthouses, one coloured white and one red, standing 1.000 meters apart. The red one is still in operation and one of the last 24/7-manned towers in the country.
The lights are not easy accessible due to the fact that on this island cars are prohibited. This is probably the reason why the lighthouses are not been on air since the first activation by PA6FUN in January 2009.
We went off on Friday morning and after a 2 hours drive we left the car behind on the main land, pulled our little trailer with all the stuff in it on the ferry and finally taxied it from the dock to the red tower. After a warm welcome by the tower staff we set up our camp in not-so-tidy-PA6FUN-style. It was a luxury that we could use the power and the toilets from the tower.
In evening we were up and running. The set up was simple: two operators, one tent, one radio (and one spare), 500W amplifier and one 12m fiber mast with exchangeable mono band inverted-V's. As an experiment we also pulled up an full size GP for 40m in case we needed a low take off.
Friday night we had horrible weather, stormy and thunderstorms 360 degrees around us. The unstabele weather and corresponding high noise levels remained throughout the weekend. Band conditions were very pour too and we had to restrict ourselfs to 40m. Nevertheless we managed to log about 900 QSO's - almost all phone and form Europe - before an approaching heavy rain front forced us to close down the station on Sunday early afternoon.
We thank everyone who activated a lighthouse and to all the stations who gave us a call: a very big thanks! We are looking forward to meet you again in next years event!
73#
Maus PA3HHT
FROM Verona Beach lighthouse, New York, USA:-
Once again I set up at the inland lighthouse on Oneida Lake in the state of New York in the United States. The local lighthouse is part of the Erie Canal system that was integral in the early development of New York State and points westward. I used a small 10X10 screen house with an ICOM 746pro feeding a Cushcraft R7 vertical. As most everyone already knows, band conditions were the worst in a long time … Still managed 17 lighthouses and one lightship ….. FAR below last year’s 83 lighthouses and 4 lightships! We did however have a New York State Senator stop by to visit and work another lighthouse, thanks to Senator Joe Griffo for the visit and the encouragement!! We were able to hit the Canary Islands, Canada, Cuba, and of course the rest in the US. I am already planning next year’s endeavor and have a few volunteers so we may be able to run all 48 hours instead of just 27!
Once again special thank you to the organizers of this event …. You guys are the BEST!!
73’ to all
Fred Legawiec, W2LGA
From Germany:-
2015 was the 8th session for the radioamateurs from Chemnitz (S54) with the call DM2C/LH at the lighthouse in Moritzburg (DE0021), nearly the capital of Saxony, Dresden,and 500km away from the coast.
This year again we had some problems with the weather(thunderstorms) and different conditions on HF.Nevertheless reached 600QSO in the log.
We worked normally with 4 stations on HF in all operating modes. Antennas:G5RV, dipole and longwire.Our QRZ-page (www.qrz.com/db/dm2c)this year we had a live stream - and at all stations, we have performed over a network the logbook of UcxLog-software.
Too bad again this year hardly would allow the activities of the RDA-contests, the QSO to 20/15m.
Nevertheless - many nice contacts on HFand many interested visitors.We look forward to the 2016 event.
73 de Steffen DM6WAN
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FROM EG1LWC:-
Another great ILLW. See you next edition ¡!
Good luck every one
All photos and video:
http://www.ea1rch.es/index.php/galeria-fotografica/illw-2015-faro-corrubedo
73s
EG1LWC at Corrubedo Lighthouse
From Edmund M0MNG who used to be an SWL operator and operated from his home near Shoreham Lighthouse in England. I don't usually publish reports from home operators but he has some suggestions and comments that may be useful for newer operators and SWL's.
Hello Kevin and thank you, as ever, for all your hard work organising the ILLW.
I chased lighthouses from home again this year using my callsign M0MNG, and I also visited my local lighthouse at Shoreham on Saturday afternoon. I have attached a photograph I took of GB8SL (UK0023) and you are welcome to use it on the ILLW website if you like.
I was on the air from home for about 12 hours altogether in bursts across the two days. Most of the time I was running 20 Watts SSB on the 40 meter band into my inverted V dipole. On 17 and 15 meters I used 50 Watts.
The highlights:
• I have been learning CW recently, and I was thrilled to work my first ever lighthouse using Morse. Many thanks to GB1OL in the Orkney Islands (UK0195) for slowing down to my 12wpm and for putting up with my sending mistakes. Great operating on his part!
• I worked several new countries including Slovenia, Portugal, Poland and Denmark. I used bands that I use rarely too – notably 20 and 15 meters. This meant I was only on 40 meters most of the time rather than all of the time!
• I worked my first ever QRP lighthouse station. 2E0HPI/P at Seaton Carew (UK0198) was using 5 Watts from his Yaesu FT-817ND. I understand this lighthouse has never been activated before. I also worked a Maritime Mobile station for the first time; MM5AHO/MM was close to Hoy Sound High and Low lighthouses (UK0194). Both were on 40 meters SSB.
• My local lighthouse GB8SL at Shoreham was 59 every time I heard it on 40 meters. Usually Shoreham is barely above the noise level here, despite being less than 10 miles away. Nevertheless GB8SL was using the same 100 Watts and same antenna as usual.
• The debut of the “event spotter” page was really useful – thanks to everybody who posted.
Finally, honourable mentions go to two lighthouses that I heard on 20 meters SSB but that “got away” - 7T7T in Algeria and ZB2LGT in Gibraltar.
My plans for next year are improving my CW, using CW on the 30 meter band, using datamodes, operating /P from the beach at some point and arranging a nice sporadic E / tropo opening for 10 meters and above!
My top tips: use bands that you don't use normally, learn CW, and learn a few words in several foreign languages.
Best 73 to you and lighthouse fans everywhere. I'm looking forward to August 2016 already.
From Portugal:-
CR5L – Farol da Boa Nova –Leça da Palmeira (Portugal) A team of 7 operators (CT1DSV, CT1DZR, CT1ENV, CT1ETE, CT1FJL, CT1HXB and CT2IWW) 
installed a double setup for SSB and CW using a motorhome in the lighthouse premises.
With a FD4 Fritzel dipole and 1 element triband quad antenna we made about 600 QSOs (Europe, North and South America, Australia and New Zealand) in a very friendly atmosphere between ham operators and members of the Portuguese Navy serving in the lighthouse.
The lighthouse inauguration was held on the 20th February 1927, the building is 47 meters high, located at 57 meters above sea level. With 3 white flashes every 14 seconds, this is the second tallest lighthouse in Portugal.
A few ham operators came to visit us and, as always, this was a memorable weekend so you can count on us next year.
A few pics are attached
73s
CT1DSV
From Geoff Crowley, maritime mobile around Scotland:
MM1EUI and MM5AHO operated from Yacht Contender between two leading lights, Hoy High and Hoy Low on Graemesay Island, Orkney, Scotland this year.
Sailing there from the Clyde and returning was a 16 day trip of some 605 miles, but it was a holiday as well as an activation.
237 Contacts made, 34 with lighthouses, and covering 33 countries and 3 other maritime mobiles. Nearby the Orkney club activated Cantick Light, so we visited them on Friday night, anchoring just off their lighthouse which was about 10 miles from ours.
Geoff Crowley
Images show us and the Orkney club members we visited, our sea groundplane, and Hoy High Light, as well as MM5AHO operating from the boat.
From Germany:-
Lighthouse Hiddensee/Dornbusch Germany DE117
Hiddensee is an island in the Baltic sea off the coast of Northern Germany. There are no autos allowed on the island so we had to push our cart full of equipment, antennas etc. up the hill from the harbour at Kloster to the top where the lighthouse is located. It was a little easier this year because there were three of us: Markus DL1MV, Martin DO4ZH and myself DL8VKO. The lighthouse is still in operation, open to the public and one can climb the stairs to the balcony from which one has a splendid view of the northern tip of the island! We had a good time, lots of visitors, lots of success, were even mentioned on the local television program and are looking forward to participating again in 2016.
