International Lighthouse Lightship Weekend- August 2013 (Click on photo to enlarge)

 

The International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend ( http://illw.net ) organises an event on the 3rd weekend of August every year, at which Amateur Radio operators are invited to establish stations inside (or in close proximity to) registered lighthouses.  The ILLW objective is to raise public awareness of these lighthouses, particularly those in need of restoration and maintenance. Many lighthouses use this event also to offer activities for the public, but radio amateurs at one lighthouse will attempt to contact  other lighthouses during this 48 hour period.  For 2013,  ILLW announced over 500 lighthouse participants from some 50 countries!

The Malta Amateur Radio League (MARL) decided to set up the only lighthouse amateur radio station on Malta  this year at the old  Delimara Point lighthouse. This building has been restored a few years ago by Din l-art Helwa.

We used the MARL club equipment:
Alinco DX-77 transceiver (100 watt)
Kenwood Antenna tuning unit
Full size Windom antenna  (10 - 80 meter) sloping from 10 meters to 3 meters height.

Radio operations commenced 17 August at 4.30 pm (14:30 GMT) on 20 meters (14 MHz), later moving to 40 meters (7 MHz) and the following day also on 15 meters (21 MHz). Operations ceased on Sunday at 1.20pm (11.20 GMT). A pause was held between midnight (22:00 GMT) and 7am (05:00 GMT) for food/sleep. On Sunday morning Mike, 9H5DX, rigged his Hexbeam  and changed over from the Windom. This was a lot less noisy, probably owing to the proximity of the Windom  to the radar antenna motors.

We established contacts with 30 other lighthouses, from 13 different European countries. As a courtesy to other stations wishing to contact Malta, we worked a total of 360 amateur radio stations, some from outside Europe, including USA, Canada, Algeria, Australia.

Operators were:  9H1ZZ, 9H1D, 9H5MT, 9H5DX and 9H1SP
Support members (site and food): 9H1VW and 9H5TS

Thanks to everyone who provided support, actively or passively. 9h1zz