International Lighthouse / Lightship Weekend

[g4tut]

International Lighthouse / Lightship Weekend

This highly popular annual amateur radio event (not a contest) will be held over the weekend of 16-17 August 2008.

There were 380 lights on the air from 48 countries last year.

All you need to know about the event is contained on the official web site at http://illw.net which has been the official web site since 2001.

The event is organized and managed by the Ayr Amateur Radio Group in Scotland since the passing of the founder of the weekend, Mike Dalrymple, GM4SUC, in December 2005.







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[PR7CPK]

I am a chaser Lighthouses around the world and have very high interest for this event. I making a personal invitation to all my ham friends for participating of the annual LIGHTHOUSE WEEKEND. It is wonderful...!

Edmilson Rodrigues do Ó, PR7CPK

[N0FPE]

Looks like fun...i will be tuning around to work a few over the weekend.

:o:D

[vk2ce]

Thanks G4TUT for posting info about the weekend event. It is a great and enjoyable experience and those who enter nearly always come back the following year. I am hoping we will make the 400 entries this year and it would help spread the word if those reading any official PR could pass same onto their radio clubs

If anyone has any questions about the event which are not answered on the web page http://illw.net please email me. The web site also has an online entry form. Registration is not necessary but it is helpful for others to know who is taking part.

See you in August.

[mm5psl]

Hi, I've taken part in ILLW every year since 2001 and wouldn't miss it for the the world.
Keep up the good work with the event. See you again in August.

Peter
Shetland Islands

[n2lxm]

One fun weekend. The Sandy Hook Lighthouse will on the air once again. This is the Oldest continuously operated lighthouse in the U.S. The Ocean Monmouth amateur Radio Club will be signing N2MO. Look for us in the General portions of the CW and SSB sub bands. ope to work you on the air from Fort Handcock.

[wa3vjb]

To give you an idea of just how much fun this event can be, check out the AM Expeditions to Thomas Point Lighthouse as K3L, that we've done to a site about 2 miles offshore in Maryland's Chesapeake Bay.

The lighthouse, No. 845 on the list kept by the Amateur Radio Light House Society, is considered among the most rare to be activated in the events organized by the ARLHS. In keeping with the historic nature of the event, we specifically operated AM and CW to match a vintage style of operating.

Here is a streaming video "float-by" showing the circa 1875 lighthouse. We put the generator on the lower landing platform (seen almost at the waterline) and ran the supply cable up to a door.

http://www.wa3vjb.com/pics/TPL-3%20Qtrs%20LoRes.MOV

And here, the lighting by an oil-filled lantern recalls what it may have been like for the lighthouse keepers in years past:

http://www.wa3vjb.com/pics/K3L-II.jpg

http://amfone.net/index.php?pid=2

www.qrz.com/K3L/

[G1UGH]

A great weekend to work or visit a Lighthouse. I have worked many Lighthouses, also look up the Lighthouse worked for some great pictures. I am a member of the ARLHS No 1135 and the BARLS No 461. So if you hear me calling, give me a shout. 73s Keep Shining. G1UGH Terry

[k6jpd]

a group of us here in south west florida are going to activate the BOCCA GRANDE (GASPARILLA ISLAND) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gasparilla_Island_Lights light house (USA 910). to the best of our knowledge, it has never been activated before. we are still working out the details, i'll repost here and all the usual places when we get firm dates setup.

[vk2ce]

a group of us here in south west florida are going to activate the BOCCA GRANDE (GASPARILLA ISLAND) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gasparilla_Island_Lights light house (USA 910). to the best of our knowledge, it has never been activated before. we are still working out the details, i'll repost here and all the usual places when we get firm dates setup.

I'm not sure where you got your info but that light has been activated by K8ONV every year since 1999 according to my lists on the official web site http://illw.net
As always it's a case of first in best dressed so if you want to get an entry in go to the online entry form at:
http://illw.net/contact_us.php
Having said that I now realise that you may be intending to activate it outside the ILLW and if this is the case you don't need to fill in an entry form.

Best 73

[PJ2LS]

The lighthouse weekend in 2008 will bring on the Island of Curacao a first activation.
The call sign will be PJ2LS/LH, all the information you can found on:
http://pj2ls-lh.ath.cx/

[KC2HOU]

The proper web site for ILLW information and registration is at
http://illw.org

[vk2ce]

The proper web site for ILLW information and registration is at
http://illw.org

With all due respect to you KC2HOU, it is highly unlikely that I would make an error with the URL of the web site I have been maintaining since 2001, i.e. http://illw.net

[W7WLL]

I also have operated from an Oregon lighthouse every year since the inception of the ILLW in 1999.

There is a gross error in the posting by KC2HOU (club station of K2JXW, owner of the ARLHS). The website listed is IN ERROR. The correct and official website for information and registering for this worldwide event is and has been http://illw.net.

I hope that this mistype does not confuse the dedicated worldwide radio amateurs and SWL's who have depended upon the Ayr Amateur Radio Group and the website efforts of VK2CE. Again, official ILLW Event information and registration website is http://illw.net.

Don W7WLL

[AF6IM]

Back in the 60's I was skippering a commercial salmon fishing boat working off the California coast. I was only 17 and my Dad, who taught me the trade as a deckhand on his boat, kept an eye on me. When summer was ending and I had to get back home to start college, it meant a long several hundred mile run from the Eureka area down to San Francisco. My Dad stayed up north to finish the season.

Since I would be making the trip without any other boats accompanying me and had no radar, loran or liferaft, he made me promise to check in with lighthouses on the way down the coast. That way there would be a record of my position if I turned up missing. I didn't want to do it because... well, it was embarrassing. Fishermen didn't need to have their hands held and nobody ever called a lighthouse on the radio. But... a promise was a promise and as I headed out to sea at 1:00 AM from Noyo River where I had stopped for supplies and fuel, I made my first call on 2182 kc AM to the Pt. Cabrillo Light.

Turned out that the lighthouse keepers were delighted to have me check in as I made my way down the coast. I got a warm welcome from each one. Pt. Arena took my call as I rounded that dreary landscape and headed towards Bodega Bay. Pt. Reyes and Pt. Bonita were my last two check ins as I neared home many hours later (speed 7 knots). As I passed each lighthouse I told the guys how much fishermen depended on and appreciated their lights and fog horns (and LF beacon if they had one) and you could tell they really appreciated it. I don't think they got to talk to boats very often and perhaps wondered if their dependable light tending was even noticed.

Now, decades later, I have a nice dry shore job and visit these coastal areas as a tourist staying in a cushy B&B rather than bunking down tired, cold, dirty and smelling like fish. Trying to catch a few hours sleep in a damp focsle, pitching and rolling while anchored in Mendocino Bay was no picnic, believe me.

The lighthouses I communicated with still operate, but autonomously. As GPS, DGPS and WAAS become standard, I wonder how long the smaller lighthouses will be kept operational. I feel privileged to have been part of the era when mariners at sea depended upon light keepers on shore to guide them and keep them out of harm's way. It was a golden age and I was so lucky to have experienced it.

73,
Mark, AF6IM

[KC0WWD]

a group of us here in south west florida are going to activate the BOCCA GRANDE (GASPARILLA ISLAND) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gasparilla_Island_Lights light house (USA 910). to the best of our knowledge, it has never been activated before. we are still working out the details, i'll repost here and all the usual places when we get firm dates setup.

It would be great to see that reactivated. My grandparents spent their winters down in Fort Myers and there were times they visited Gasparilla Island.

73