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| Lighthouses  International Lighthouse Weekend is an annual amateur radio event organised and controlled by the Ayr Amateur Radio Group. It came into being as a development of the Scottish Northern Lighthouses award weekend and over the past 7 years it has grown from a relatively small event to one in which over 380 lighthouses in some 51 countries around the world now participate.
The event is always held on the 3rd full weekend in August starting at 0001 UTC on Saturday and finishing at 2359 UTC on Sunday. It also now coincides on the Sunday with the International Lighthouse Day which is an event organised by the International Association of Lighthouse Keepers whereby as many world lighthouses will be open to the public for the day.
The basic objective of the event is to promote public awareness of lighthouses and lightships and their need for preservation and restoration, to promote amateur radio and to foster International goodwill.
The event is not a contest so each stations operators decide how they will operate their station with regard to modes and bands. It is the intention that operators will enjoy themselves and have fun whilst making contact with as many amateur radio stations as possible. Stations take time to work other lighthouses and lightships as well as newly licensed or QRP stations.
Whilst International Lighthouse Weekend is the major lighthouse event of the year, many other activations also take place. These may be in the form of DXpeditions to rare or preserved lighthouses and they may also qualify for one of the many awards which ham radio operators chase.
Activations such as these are difficult to organise, expensive to run and always require the permission of the relevant Lighthouse Authorities. Some of the costs incurred may be defrayed by companies such as Icom, Kenwood, Yaesu and the major ham radio retailers but often the bulk of the costs are paid for by the amateur radio community itself
My own Club, the Lagan Valley ARS, successfully activated the lighthouse on Sanda Island during lighthouse weekend in August 2007. More than 600 QSO’s were made over the 48 hours of this event and members reported a very enjoyable time was had by all. Updated 14 June, 2010 11:05:22 GMT
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