Lighthouses QSL Card

Introduction

Former TRINITY LIGHT VESSEL 55, the 'John Sebastian', is moored in Bathurst Basin in the centre of Bristol and has her own postal address, namely: 'The John Sebastian, Bathurst Basin, Bristol BS1 4RL'. However, there are some specific details that will be of interest to radio hams:

  • Lat/Long: 51.446579°,-2.595022°
  • IARU: IO81qk
  • IOTA: EU005 (UK Mainland)
  • WAB: ST57 – England
  • ILLW Reference: UK0176

Location

Operation

This years International Lighthouses and Lightships on the Air weekend took place over the 16/17 August. Once again we were fortunate to be guests of the Cabot Cruising Club on the John Sebastian (Former Light Vessel 55) in Bathurst Basin, part of Bristols historic City Docks.

Our operation followed the principles of last years operation with the following equipment being employed:

  • Yaesu FT 840 100W HF Transceiver
  • MFJ 934 Manual ATU
  • Manson EP-925 25Amp PSU
  • Club laptop running Ham Radio Deluxe for logging only
  • 20m Full Wave Delta Loop

Changes from last year were more from the point of view of practicality than any particular operational requirement. The main change being the substitution of a Delta Loop antenna in place of last years half size G5RV, the main reason for this being that we were not able to tether the far end of the G5RV, and with a limited turnout the Delta Loop is more easily erected, especially as the deck had a convenient metal eye screwed into the gunwhale to take the foot of the single roach pole used for support.

Henryk M0HTB OperatingHenryk M0HTB Operating assisted by Julian M6JCEReady for Action - Henryk M0HTB and Julian M6JCE prepare for the pileups

Saturdays operation took place from the foredeck, very similar in arrangements to last year. On Sunday however, early morning rain caused a retreat to the interior of the John Sebastian.

We were slow off the mark on Saturday, not getting on air until about 11:30 local time. Our first log entry was Dungerness Lighthouses giving us 2 for the price of 1. Following a brief chat with Gert operating PA1200PA we secured Loop Head in Ireland. This was followed by a quick contact into Anglesey before spending about 1.5 hours bagging a string of UK, Dutch and Irish lighthouses.

By the end of the day we had contacted 54 other stations including 16 (30% of our contacts) with other lighthouses in the UK and Europe.

FT-897 with auto ATUDelta Loop Antenna on the deck of the John SebastianThe John Sebastian in Bathurst Basin

There was a momentary lapse of reason or some other cosmic perturbation on Sunday which slowed us down for some reason. We suddnely found ourselves with a dead band, the causes of which remain something of a mystery but over the course of a couple of hours we:

  1. Swapped the feeder;
  2. Switched the club FT-840 for an FT-897 brought by a club member;
  3. Put up a second delta loop antenna and connector box;
  4. Tried out a FT-857 and ATAS 120 in a members car which promptly stopped auto tuning the antenna.

As we said the reasons remain unclear, but at the end of about 1.5 hours we were back on air. This setback, however drastically reduced our QSO count for the Sunday. As a result Sunday closed with only an additional 13 contacts of which 10 (77%) were other participating lighthouses.

Overall, therefore, we managed 67 contacts as GB0CCC of which 26 (39%) were participating lighthouses. Based on the entrants list for ILLW 2014, there were a total of 543 participating stations, although some of these are noted as cancelled on the entrants list. This means we managed only 5% of the possible entrants. UK and Ireland participants accounted for 80 stations of which we managed to contact 22 or 28%.

Logbook

Date (UTC) Time (UTC) Station Worked Band or Frequency Mode RST Operators Name QTH Notes
Sent Rec'd
17/08/14 15:05 DL0RWE 40m LSB 59 59   Essen Germany DE0046 – Alter Leuchtturn Borkum
16/08/14 10:38 GB1DLH 40m LSB 59+10 59 Phil Dungeness UK0059 and UK0060 – Dungerness Lighthouses
16/08/14 10:47 PA1200PA 40m LSB 59 57/59 Gert Netherlands  
16/08/14 10:53 EI0LHL 40m LSB 59 59 John Eire IE009 – Loop Head
WAL Square Q64
16/08/14 10:55 GB2TD 40m LSB 59 45 Alan Anglesey  
16/08/14 11:03 GC4BRS/P 40m LSB 59+ 59 Ken Wales UK0072 – Nash Point Low
WAB SS96
16/08/14 11:11 GB8SL 40m LSB 58 58 Pete Shoreham UK0023 – Shoreham (Kingston Buci)
16/08/14 11:21 GB4EUL 40m LSB 59 59 David Newport UK0159 – East Usk Lighthouse
ST38
16/08/14 11:24 PA9M 40m LSB 59 59   Netherlands NL0026 – Blokzijl
16/08/14 11:31 GB0NFL 40m LSB 57 57 Ian Broadstairs UK0128 – North Foreland Lighthouse
16/08/14 11:47 GB6HPL 40m LSB 59+10 59 Karl Hartlepool UK0188 – Hartlepool Lighthouse
16/08/14 11:51 GB0NLH 40m LSB 59 59 Dave Isle of Wight UK0067 – Needles Lighthouse
16/08/14 12:03 GB4WIL 40m LSB 59 59+10 Chris Barrow in Furness UK0160 – Wlaney Island Lighthouse
SD26
16/08/14 12:18 EI2WRC/P 40m LSB 58   David Eire IE0003 – Hook Head Lighthouse
16/08/14 12:28 PD1JFB 40m LSB 59 53 Frisel Netherlands NL0035 – De Ven
16/08/14 12:34 OT6A/P 40m LSB 59+     Andenne Belgium ONFF425
16/08/14 12:38 ON4OS 40m LSB 59+10 59 Luc Oostende Belgium BE0008 – Lange Nelle Oostende
16/08/14 12:55 GB4SPL 40m LSB 57 59 Graham Sea Palling Norfolk 40 years of Palling Lifeboat (QRZ.com)
16/08/14 13:00 PA/DL3SFK/M 40m LSB 56 59 Bea    
16/08/14 13:03 ON4ACJ 40m LSB 59+10 59 Marcel Wilsele Belgium 25km East of Brussels
16/08/14 13:07 GM4VUG 40m LSB 59 59 John Kinross  
16/08/14 13:10 G0UZL 40m LSB 59 58 Chris Blandford Forum  
16/08/14 13:15 PA1MV 40m LSB 57 57/59 Jaap Delf  
16/08/14 13:17 G3PXT 40m LSB 59+10 57 Gordan Norwich  
16/08/14 13:20 G0FEX 40m LSB 59 58/59 Ken Leicester  
16/08/14 13:22 2E0LJT 40m LSB 59+10 59 Eddie Bristol  
16/08/14 13:27 G0WWD 40m LSB 56/57 57 David SW UK  
16/08/14 13:28 M1EYA 40m LSB 57   Richard Hinkley  
16/08/14 13:34 G3TKF 40m LSB 59 47 Robin Kelston Bath  
16/08/14 13:46 G8YPL 40m LSB 59 59 Pete Liverpool  
16/08/14 13:56 GB2LSH 40m LSB       Wales UK0049 – Stumble Head
16/08/14 14:13 MU0GSY 40m LSB 59 58 Lionel Gurnsey  
16/08/14 14:16 M0PBZ 40m LSB 59 59 Phil Swindon  
16/08/14 14:19 EI4HBB 40m LSB 57 45   Galway  
16/08/14 14:20 G0TRB 40m LSB 59 57 Roger Tamworth  
16/08/14 14:21 G4SQA 40m LSB 59 59 Dave Peterborough  
16/08/14 14:22 DL2EF 40m LSB 59 58 Frank Kerfeld Germany  
16/08/14 14:25 2E0GBK 40m LSB 59 56 Keith Leatherhead  
16/08/14 14:26 ON4IZ 40m LSB 59 59 Dek Ghent  
16/08/14 14:27 MOPER 40m LSB 59 59 Alan Chester  
16/08/14 14:29 ON3ND 40m LSB 59 57 Jack Charleroi Belgium  
16/08/14 14:31 PD1CW 40m LSB 59 59 Patrick AE Hulst Netherlands  
16/08/14 14:32 G1PIE 40m LSB 59 42 Mark Procter Preston Lancashire  
16/08/14 14:34 G6JVT 40m LSB 59 59 Colin Worthing  
16/08/14 14:36 G1YRV 40m LSB 57 57 Rob Bromley Kent  
16/08/14 14:38 DL5MU 40m LSB 55 55   Ilsenburg Germany  
16/08/14 14:41 F/G0PLA/M 40m LSB 59 57 Tim Vendee France  
16/08/14 14:43 EI8CE 40m LSB 59 59 Aiden Waterford  
16/08/14 14:44 DL1BFR 40m LSB 59+10 59   Georgsdorf Germany  
16/08/14 14:48 EA1ATH 40m LSB 56 55   A Coruna Spain  
16/08/14 14:48 DL1BL 40m LSB 59 59   Schmelz Germany  
16/08/14 14:51 GB5BL 40m LSB 55 59 David Carrick Fergus UK0032 – Blackhead Lighthouse
16/08/14 14:54 GM0GOV 40m LSB 59 59 Fred Glasgow  
16/08/14 14:58 HB9BQR 40m LSB 55 47 Roland Switzerland  
16/08/14 15:17 GB0TNL 40m LSB 57 53 Jack Inverness UK0151 – Tarbet Ness Lighthouse
17/08/14 10:55 GB0BMB 40m LSB 55 58 Rod River Beaulieu UK0002 – Beaulieu Millennium Beacon
17/08/14 11:13 EI1K 40m LSB 59 59 Billy Eire West Coast  
17/08/14 11:30 GB2LBN 40m LSB 59 59 Billy Scotland UK0034 – Barns Ness Lighthouse
17/08/14 11:36 GC6BRC 40m LSB 59 59 Ken Wales UK0071 – Nash Point High
17/08/14 11:52 GB2LK 40m LSB 59 59 David Scotland UK0164 – Killantringan
17/08/14 12:09 GB0HL 40m LSB 59 57 Jack Norfolk UK0007 – Happisborough Lighthouse
17/08/14 12:25 GB0NL 40m LSB     Barry Newhaven UK0190 – Newhaven Lighthouse
17/08/14 12:43 G8HBS 40m LSB 55     Great Yarmouth  
17/08/14 14:19 GB6HPL 40m LSB 59 59 Karl Hartlepool UK0188 – Hartlepool Lighthouse
17/08/14 14:26 DL/ON6EF/P 40m LSB 59 57 Eddy   DLFF003
17/08/14 14:32 GB2WLH 40m LSB 59 59 David Yorkshire UK0013 – Withernsea
Local Museum Lighthouse
17/08/14 14:55 EI1NC 40m LSB 59     Co Cork Eire IE0010 – Roches Point