VK2MB at Barrenjoey Lighthouse
17-18 August
The Manly-Warringah Radio Society has participated in the International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend since 2003. We were back again this year again! As in previous years, we activated the historic Barrenjoey Lighthouse at Palm Beach, some 30km north of Sydney (lighthouse code AU0046).
We were a bit short-handed this year, as a number of club members were overseas, or otherwise occupied with work or family commitments. Nevertheless, “the show must go on” and “VK2MB portable” was active
It was extremely blustery from Saturday afternoon onwards, with 60km/h winds, but the setup team soldiered on installed an OCF (Off-Centre Fed) Dipole antenna on the lighthouse.
HF operations were on the club’s Icom IC-7300, which was supplied courtesy of the Amateur Radio New South Wales Development Fund. We also had a 2m mobile station running at the south end of the lighthouse keeper’s cottage for local work.
VK2MB made more than 100 contacts, mostly in Australia and New Zealand, with a a few as far way as Indianapolis in the USA and Seoul Korea; the nearest was in Newport NSW!
There were many contest stations on air, with the annual Remembrance Day Contest taking place on the same weekend. The Russian District Award Contest was also on, and many stations from that part of the world could be heard on the various bands. But most contest stations were too busy earning points to have a leisurely chat with anyone calling CQ Lighthouse.
Other lighthouse stations were on air, of course, and VK2MB found them in most Australian states, and in New Zealand. [to do: list the lighthouse stations]
About a quarter of the contacts were made overnight. Philip VK2APL and Richard VK2SKY kept the lighthouse occupied during the “graveyard shift”. We had one visitor, Luke, a young fellow who was up at Barrenjoey doing some time lapse photography of the Milky Way. Check out Luke’s YouTube channel, where you can see some of his earlier work at Barrenjoey.
For a change, the nighttime weather at the lighthouse was fairly mild, turning chilly only shortly before sunrise.
All up, VK2MB/p made about 130 contacts, including 22 lighthouses:
- AU0001 Ballina Lighthouse (VK2PMG)
- AU0006 Cape Byron (VK2MNM, VK2LRB)
- AU0008 Cape Leeuwin (VK6CLL)
- AU0012 Cape Schanck (VK3CSH)
- AU0013 Clarence Head (VK2CLR)
- AU0018 Evans Head (VK2FSAV/p) check: illw.net lists AU0018 as Marino Rocks, in VK5
- AU0019 Grassy Hill Lighthouse (VK4GHL)
- AU0021 Lowly Point (VK5BWR)
- AU0022 Macquarie Lighthouse, Sydney (VK2BV )
- AU0027 Point Hicks (VK3EG)
- AU0028 Point Lonsdale (VK3ATL)
- AU0029 Point Malcolm (VK5ARC)
- AU0032 Split Point Lighthouse (VK3SPL)
- AU0035 Warden Head Lighthouse (VK2HBG/p)
- AU0036 Williamstown Timeball Tower (VK3WI)
- AU0048 Lowhead (VK7ALH) logged as VK7LH
- AU0060 Sea Hill Point Lighthouse (VK4CQR, VK4XXX)
- AU0110 Port Albert Museum Citadel Light (VK3ILH)
- AU0117 Whalers Bluff (VK3DX)
- AU0126 Cape de Couedic (VK5/GW0VML)
- NZ0001 Cape Campbell (ZL6CC)
- NZ0021 Tiritiri Matangi, Tiritiri Island (ZL1AB)
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