BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//wp-events-plugin.com//7.3.3//EN BEGIN:VEVENT UID:456@chadarc.org.au DTSTART;TZID=Australia/Sydney:20220819T120000 DTEND;TZID=Australia/Sydney:20220822T120000 DTSTAMP:20220825T085450Z URL:https://www.chadarc.org.au/events/international-lighthouse-lightship-w eekend-3/ SUMMARY:ILLW South Solitary Island 2022 DESCRIPTION:\n\nInternational Lighthouse &\; Lightship Weekend. [ ILLW ] from South Solitary Island. 2022\n\nThree Coffs Harbour Amateur Radio Clu b members operated their radio transmitters from South Solitary Island dur ing the International Lighthouse &\; Lightship Weekend on Saturday & \; Sunday\, August  20th – 21st. A large number of lighthouses througho ut the world were also manned by similar radio enthusiasts\, each attemp ting to contact others during the two day event. The three club members were Russell  Wotherspoon VK4NGN\, Fred McSkimming VK2FM and Steve Feeney VK2SPF. We used the callsign VK2FM.  A similar two person group also o perated from the Smoky Cape lighthouse. They were Frank Humphreys VK2AF\, and Tony Jones\, VK2VF using the callsign  VK2VF.\n\nThe SSI trio made 8 1 contacts on HF and 13 contacts on VHF/FM/SSB.\n\nDrone video and still p ictures will be available soon.\n\nThe island radio group were given permi ssion from the NPWS office in Coffs Harbour. Access to  Solitary Island was by local helicopter company\, Precision Helicopters. The 23 acre South Solitary island is 18km north east from Coffs Harbour is only accessible by helicopter\, the trip taking about 15 minutes. Solitary Island is one o f two island lighthouses off the New South Wales coastline\, the other bei ng Montague Island on the south coast.\n\nThe South Solitary Lighthouse nu mber for the event was AU-0054 and being an isolated lighthouse there w ere a large number of remote radio operators attempting to contact the gro up on the island.  Our presence on the Island was from Lunchtime Friday A ugust 19th until Lunchtime on Monday the 22nd. We operated from the now v acant head-lightkeepers cottage which is adjacent to the lighthouse and ma de over 100 contacts.\n\nHF frequencies were mainly on the 80m\, 40m\, 20m bands at different times\, using a G5RV antenna on an extendable pole.  Operation on the 2m VHF band using FM and SSB  modes took place  through out the weekend for line of site contacts up and down the coast\,  using a 5/8 G/plane antenna mounted on a large camera-tripod.\n\nThe ILLW operat ing hours were ..\n\nLocal times 10:00 Saturday 20th to 10:00 Monday 22nd. \n\nGMT times  00:01 Saturday 20th to 23:59 Sunday 21st.\n\nI have been t o the island 10 times in my working life as a Telstra technician\, looking after the radio telephone system with its solar  powered battery system. My first trip was in 1968\, by the motor launch "Pamels Star". This 18km trip took well over an hour from  the harbour at Coffs. On arrival at the island we were lifted up 15m in cane basket\, by crane\, and then swung a round onto the steel jetty.  A similar operation took place in reverse wh en leaving the island. This could be quite alarming on a rough day\, espec ially on landing back on the boat on leaving the island. Trips like this w ere always dependent on sea and wind conditions.  This island Jetty has n ow rusted away and only the rusted base remains. More recently however\, t he island is serviced by helicopter and the trip takes about 15 minutes. V ery different from years ago.\n\nILLW reference             AU -OO54\n\nThe IOTA reference is   OC-194.\n\nLogbook for the ILLW weeknd is now visible at www.clublog.org\n\nFred [ freddo ] McSkimming.  VK2FM.   02-66531511.   vk2fm@dodo.com.au\n\n[table id=11 /] ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.chadarc.org.au/wp-content/uploads/20 22/03/solitary-island.jpg CATEGORIES:Special & Field Events END:VEVENT BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:Australia/Sydney X-LIC-LOCATION:Australia/Sydney BEGIN:STANDARD DTSTART:20220403T020000 TZOFFSETFROM:+1100 TZOFFSETTO:+1000 TZNAME:AEST END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE END:VCALENDAR