Special Event Station - International Lighthouse & Lightship Weekend Celebration - 2023. AT5KLH - Kachchhigadh Light House ILLW # IN0028 ARLHS WLOL # IND 142 Date: 18 to 21 August 2023 To celebrate International Light House & Lightship Weekend 2023, beautiful Kachchhigadh Light House located at world-class Shivrajpur Beach (Blue Flag awarded beach of Gujarat state) is going to be activated by active Ham Radio Operator Rajesh Vagadia VU2EXP and his team (VU3EXP Sakshi Vagadia, VU3WHO Snehal Vagadia, VU3GLY Priyesh Vagadia). Kachchhigadh Lighthouse is just few miles away from famous Shree Dwarkadhish Temple at ancient city Dwarka, where Dwarkadhish Temple is the main attraction dedicated to Lord Krishna. Pilgrims visit the temple to seek blessings and witness the region’s rich religious and cultural heritage. We received official permissions to operate Ham Radio Station from Kachchhigadh Light House authorities DLL/DGLL. We also got Special Callsign AT5KLH for our Lighthouse activity from Ministry of Communication, DoT, WPC Wing, New Delhi. We are thankful to both the authorities to support & encourage for our activity. All the logs will be uploaded to LOTW & eQSL (Will take few week after event). Direct QSL via VU2EXP only - (Pse send appropriate postage for Direct QSL). Shivrajpur Beach is world class Blue Flag certified beach from Gujarat, Activating Khachhigadh Lighthouse at this beautiful beach will be added attraction. Rajesh Vagadia VU2EXP active Ham Radio operator and his team will be operating Ham Radio with special callsign AT5KLH from Khachhigadh Lighthouse near Devbhoomi Dwarka, Gujarat India. Beautiful Sunset view at Shivrajpur Beach! Can we find any better place in nature? Rajesh Vagadia VU2EXP and his team will be spending 4 days for Ham Radio operation at this beautiful Khachhigadh (Shivrajpur) Light House. AT5KLH Kachchhigadh Light House at Famous Shivrajpur Beach Near Dwarka will be activated by Rajesh Vagadia VU2EXP, Sakshi Vagadia VU3EXP, Snehal Vagadia VU3WHO & Priyesh Vagadia VU3GLY Rajesh Vagadia VU2EXP remain FM Satellite chaser, from Kachchhigadh Light House he will be QRV on active FM Birds as his schedule permits. This will be 2nd Light House of Gujarat state which will be activated after Veraval Light House (AT3VLH) activated by Rajesh Vagadia VU2EXP & Sakshi Vagadia VU3EXP (father & daughter). Our Motive for AT5KLH Lighthouse Activation is to; Spread awareness of Khachhigadh Lighthouse amongst students & public Highlight the World class Shivrajpur Beach which is only Blue Flag awarded beach from Gujarat State Aware about Lighthouse functioning Highlight its importance in Maritime traffic Understand it's Heritage value Show our gratitude to the Lighthouse keepers & administration To give exposure of Amateur Radio to young generation Enjoy Ham Radio Activity at the coast of Light House! Operation Dates: 18th to 21st August, 2023 Grid Locator: ML42LH HF Operating Bands: 40m, 20m, 15m, 10m VHF Band: 145.500 MHz simplex Modes: FM, SSB, Digital & Satellite Radio: Icom IC-718, Icom IC-705, Kenwood TM-281A, Pair of HTs Antenna: Fan Dipole for 40m, 20m, 15m EFHW Antenna 40m - 10m Satellite antenna: Arrow-II, Dual Band Yagi, IOio Antenna More details will be published at www.qrz.com/db/at5klh Look for AT5KLH Thank you 73 Rajesh P. Vagadia - VU2EXP Rajkot - Gujarat - India E: vu2exp [ at ] gmail (dot) com www.qrz.com/db/vu2exp
Good luck to the team Rajesh - I hope you get many contacts and many visitors. Ed DD5LP (Lindau Westmole DE0138 & Mangturm DE0140 lighthouses).
Thank you VK2JI/DD5LP for your kind wishes for our activation. I also wish you a very successful light house activation of DE0138 & DE0140. Btw I appreciate for your concept to send unique qsl card for each recipient, very interesting! Thank you once again. 73 Rajesh Vagadia for AT5KLH
I wish you successful DX, Rajesh! I'd like to contact you from the USA, but it is still difficult to reach India even with the sunspot cycle ramping upwards. I will watch for AT5KLH on FT8.
I will look for your stations during these events. I do not see VU stations on DX spotting sites very often. Can you operate in our General portion of the 20 meter band (14.225-14.350)?
Now our station QRV on Digital, you may try/look on 20/15m for AT5KLH Enjoying the wonderful location of lighthouse & ham radio! 73
Hi Hi Rafiq AI4RA Wish we had QSO at least on weak signal digital modes. though bit difficult to establish fb qso with moderate RF power and simple IOio homebrewed antenna, but miracle happens. will keep trying. thank you once again. 73 Rajesh Vagadia for AT5KLH
Good luck Rajesh! It is great seeing so much new activity coming from the great State of India! Kent K9EZ
I spoke with one of your colleagues in India who advised us of your activation but we couldn't hear you on the air at the time. We activated the Lighthouse at Cape Leeuwin in Western Australia, VK6CLL. Hope you had a good weekend anyway. Regards, VK6TEK, Phil.
Thank you Adam for your kind wishes. We finished our Light House activation successfully at beautiful location near Shivrajpur beach. Was great experience. Soon we will update & post more details with pictures in profile page of AT5KLH. Thank you 73 Rajesh Vagadia VU2EXP Rajkot Gujarat India
Thank you so much Kent K9EZ for all your encouraging comment. We are really eager to learn & enjoy different activities with ham radio and light house is no exception. As per ILLW.NET data this year 39 countries activated around 318 different light house! From India there were two activation (1) AT5KLH from Shivrajpur - Gujarat (2) AT2LH from Fort Aguada at Goa Please note from my state Gujarat I have started activating lighthouse from last year with AT3VLH, but from our country India it has been activating since 2008, first light house from India AT8LH was activated at Mahabalipuram by our good friend VU2JHM OM Ajoy. Wish to enjoy many more ham activity from the region. Thank you 73 Rajesh Vagadia VU2EXP Rajkot Gujarat
Thank you Phil VK6TEK for your kind wishes and attempt to connect us via lighthouse radio. Sorry that we could not get connected there with AT5KLH. we we're QRV on Digital, Satellite and SSB Modes. But were facing two challenges frequent power cut and unavailability of mobile network. I was giving priority to fm Satellites during activation, attempted more than dozen passes of various birds and successfully did handful of contacts including one DX sked qso. Though I was having small battery backup to work digital but not enough to push 100W from my primary rig. due to this situation SSB operation was compromised and missed many contacts. BTW I learned about your wonderful activation VK6CLL, great things to learn from you all. I really liked the nature of light house activation celebrating under ILLW.NET Program, we are not stressed for chasing big scores or submitting time bound logs. Simple enjoying ham radio at peaceful location, highlighting important & heritage value of light house, creating awareness of ham radio via such activation attract us to join & continue lighthouse activation. Hope you had great time at LH. I will update more details very soon on AT5KLH profile page at qrz.com Thank you 73 Rajesh Vagadia VU2EXP Rajkot Gujarat India
Thanks Rajesh. We hope to hear you on the Bands next year, when we do it all again. 73's and good DX.
