International Weekend for Lighthouses and Lightships

-

The third full weekend of August has become the regular date for the International Weekend for Lighthouses. Countries all over the world have become involved in lighthouse activations on HF. A few years ago the United States Congress declared the 7th of August as their National Lighthouse Day and during the event amateur radio operators in America set up portable stations at lighthouses and contact each other. Their objective is to encourage Lighthouse managers, the keepers and owners to open their lighthouse or lightstation and associated visitors centres to the public, thus raising the profile of lighthouses, light vessels and other navigational aids, and preserving their maritime heritage.

This event is known as the US National Lighthouse Week. In Britain the Association of Lighthouse Keepers, ALK, conducts their International Lighthouse Heritage Weekend on the same August weekend as the ILLW. It came into being in 1998 as the Scottish Northern Lights Award run by the Ayr Amateur Radio Group.

The ILLW usually takes place on the 3rd weekend in August each year and attracts over 500 lighthouse entries located in over 40 countries. It is one of the most popular international amateur radio events in existence, probably because there are very few rules and it is not the usual contest type event. It is also free and there are no prizes for contacting large numbers of other stations. There is little doubt that the month of August has become "Lighthouse Month" due largely to the popularity and growth of the ILLW.

The East Leinster Amateur Radio Club EI0EL will activate St Johns Point in Downpatrick ILLW Reference Number UK0087 on Saturday 21 and Sunday 22 August.. We will be operating phone on 80m, 40m, 20m, 4m (FM and SSB) and 2m. QSL via QRZ 


St. John's Point (Irish Rinn Eoin) is a cape at the southern tip of the Lecale peninsula of County Down Northern Ireland, separating Dundrum Bay from Killough Harbour, which forms its northern extremity. The cape is mostly surrounded by the Irish Sea and derives its name from a now ruined church dedicated to Saint John, being recorded here since at least 1170. A well known beacon in the north-eastern Irish Sea, St. John's Point Lighthouse, built in 1844, sits near its southern tip and, at 40 m (130 ft), is the tallest lighthouse in Ireland (the Fastnet Lighthouse, though taller, is offshore).It is listed as one of twelve the "Great Lighthouses of Ireland" by the Commissioners of Irish Lights, who operate it as one of the 65 active lighthouses on the Irish coast

We look forward to making contact with you and with any other lighthouse and lightship


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Rebuilding a Clansman 1Ah 24 Volt Battery

-
Image
By  Michael Kennedy (EI6IRB) The objective was to undertake a basic rebuild of a 1Ah 24v alkaline Clansman radio battery (NSN 6140-99-620-8058) to allow it to be used on various Clansman radios, particularly the PRC-320 and PRC-351. The battery arrived among the ancillaries with a recently purchased PRC319. It was manufactured in July 1989. Unlikely to charge, let alone hold a charge, the battery was test-charged under constant observation using a standard Clansman 28v battery charger (NSN 6130-99-117-0450). The battery case soon became hand-hot and after ten to fifteen minutes it began leaking battery content which appeared to ‘boil’ and bubble out of the top of the unit. Unsurprisingly, the battery did not hold a charge. As anticipated, it was unserviceable. As the case was in a very good cosmetic condition, there was every chance that the battery could be refitted with a similar voltage and ampere battery and made serviceable again. The first task was to open the unit and remove the
Read more

Black Sky Exercise 2023

-
Image
Introduction On Saturday the 27th of May the members of the East Leinster Amateur Radio Club (ELARC) conducted a Black Sky drill amongst the sunny Wicklow mountains. Some background to the drill. A Black Sky drill is a simulation of a major extended power outage. The power outage can be either man made, such as an electromagnetic pulse, a cyber-attack on the grid or a physical attack on the power distribution network. It can also be caused by a natural phenomenon such as a coronal mass ejection similar to the Carrington event of 1849 which wiped out large sections off the early Telegraph system in the United States. Causing Telegraph stations to burst into flames. Other causes can be winter ice storms, hurricanes, or other major weather events. These black sky events are typically very rare but have a very high impact to the electrical distribution grid. Training Goals This drill is a scripted, Directed Net with some specific training goals: Improve operator message handling skills. Be
Read more

Winter Field Day 2023

-
Image
With portable operations being the main focus area for the East Leinster Amateur Radio Club (ELARC), partaking in the Winter Field Day is not a surprise. We set out to establish a station at the Irish Military Museum & Park . Access to the vast camping area was a factor in our success. Located on the north facing side of a hill outside Collon, just inside the Co Meath border. With good take-off for HF DX to the North, East and West. Our setup consisted of several radio systems in the communication tent. We could operate on 160/80/40/20 metre bands. We used homebrew, dipoles, linked dipoles, EFHW , and Clansman military dipole for the 160m band. 80m and 160m antennas were deployed in NVIS fashion. Where the 40m and 20m were a bit higher relative to the wavelength. Our wires were supported by a 10m telescopic mast, a couple of fishing rods and local vegetation. Radios were a standard HAM issue Yaesu FT-857D and FT-891. In total we were able to operate 4 bands at the same time. We did
Read more