CTARC: International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend: 19/20 August

 THIS WEEKEND!  

The CTARC is preparing for the International Lightship and Lighthouse weekend.

 

REMEMBER There is NO monthly meeting this month, however, there will be a Fox Hunt on 26 August, details to follow:

 

Once again we have arranged to man the Green Point lighthouse from the Saturday morning of 19 August until mid-day Sunday of 20 August. We have repeated this so often now that our Lighthouse team manages to do the set-up and take-down with military precision but we still need manpower from our members, especially around 10:00 on Saturday morning in order to get our beam antenna raised.

 

Even if you are not taking part in the Lighthouse weekend, it would be appreciated if club members could come and assist with the set up at Green Point on Saturday morning 19 August 10h00 and for take down on Sunday, 20^th  at 11h00. (Committee members will meet at the clubhouse at 08h30 on Saturday morning to load antennas and equipment).

 

We will be having our very popular and always well attended Sunset Bring ‘n Braai on the Saturday evening (weather permitting) so even if you are not planning to operate, please join us and bring the XYL along for this social event. Fires will be lit at 5pm. Please bring your meat, rolls and salads, refreshments etc; to the braai.

 

We need operators for the event so please pop in and grab a mike or key and make a few contacts with us, it’s always great fun. This should be especially interesting for some of our new hams to make some international SSB contacts.

 

If you are planning on staying over (the more the merrier,) then please do let me know soonest and John can arrange enough room for us all. We already have some members staying over this year, which is great news.

 

See you there.

CTARC International Lighthouse/Lightship Weekend Report - 22 Aug '21

The Cape Town Amateur Radio Centre set up a station at its traditional Green Point Lighthouse venue for the 2021 ILLW event, from Saturday 19th to Sunday 20th August 2021.

Owing to the Coronavirus safety restrictions, our club wasn't able to use the actual Lighthouse or associated buildings this year as we usually do. No mains power plus the temporary loss of access to the large room and lighthouse tower we usually enjoy there made setting up a multi-rig, multi-band, multi-antenna HF station too cumbersome to do this year. However, none of these limitations prevented Chris ZS1CDG from setting up a field station at the venue to make contacts through the QO-100 geostationary satellite. Strict Covid precautions were maintained throughout the event.

A resounding success! The event was attended throughout the weekend by numerous radio amateurs as well as members of the public, who were curious to see radio hams making many international contacts via the satellite. As ever, it was a great opportunity to promote both our club and the hobby to many visitors. It was also a lot of fun!

Among those present were Chris ZS1CDG, John ZS1EQ, Graeme ZS1GAK, Fred ZS1FZ, Stan ZS1HC, ZS1KU, Lem ZS1LEM, Celso ZS1MYG, Peter ZS1PC, James ZS1RBT, Paul ZS1S, Rob ZS1SA (CTARC chairman) & Anne, Tony ZS1TK, Phil ZS1WW, Bryce ZU1BM, Kiara ZU1ISS and ZU1KAT. We were also delighted to see Syd ZS5AYC & Adele ZS5APT who had traveled down here from Natal.

A video of the CTARC ILLW event is [here].

Hats off to Chris ZS1CDG for setting up the event and thanks to all those who attended and operated the station. We look forward to the ILLW again next year where (oh, how we hope!) we will be able to run a full HF station again at Green Point Lighthouse.

A more comprehensive report and photos are in the September 2021 edition of Ragchew, the CTARC's newsletter .

CTARC International Lighthouse/Lightship Weekend - 21/22 Aug '21

Last year I was determined Covid-19 was not going to stop our club's unbroken 20-year odd record of running a station at Green point lighthouse for the ILLW event.

We set up a very basic 100 watt HF station with a vertical whip and made contact with a handful of 40m stations. This year I thought, even though the lighthouse is closed, we could set up a small station on Saturday21 August . Over the last year I have become more interested in the QO-100 geostationary satellite that is capable of communicating with stations from Brazil to Thailand.

I have a dish that we can set up in the front of the Lighthouse with both an uplink antenna and an LNB for the satellite downlink.  The station would probably require two operators as unfortunately I find The LNB can drift a little bit as it is not synchronised to GPS however it is perfectly usable and a lot of fun.  It would be really good if we could cause some havoc on the satellite for a few hours from midday as I think we will be very popular on the satellite as not many stations will have a chance to communicate with a lighthouse station - pile up conditions! If you would like to operate the station you're more than welcome to.

I think I will sort everything out from about 11h30 a.m. with the aim to start transmission at about midday. ZS1S Paul will help with the battery and if anyone has a gazebo it might be a good idea to bring with them so that we can avoid the sun. Additionally if you'd like to set up a HF station alongside the QO 100 station you're more than welcome to and they may even investigate using DMR as well with the club's callsign so there's plenty of opportunity to do some operating if you so wish.

My only request is that if you do want to operate the satellite station please bring a second pair of headphones with a 3.5 mm jack so that I can tune the RX whilst you operate the satellite. For those that don't know, making contact with satellites it is traditional to give a grid square locator as well as RS report and additionally the reference for the Lighthouse which is Zulu Alpha 006.

There is no need to be nervous when operating the satellite as I will guide you with the correct procedure - I’ll write all this on a sheet of paper in front of you so you won’t forget.  This would be a wonderful opportunity for RAE candidates to explore another side of amateur radio.

If you cannot make the event you can listen to us live by following the website below.

https://eshail.batc.org.uk/nb/

73

Chris ZS1CDG

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NB: This event has now taken place. A brief report is [here] and a more complete one will appear in our Ragchew newsletter of September 2021.

CTARC International Lighthouse/Lightship Weekend - 22 / 23 Aug '20

Every year our club has activated the Green Point Lighthouse on Cape Town's western seaboard for the International Lighthouse/Lightship Weekend (ILLW).

While the Coronavirus lock-down has imposed restrictions on access to the lighthouse premises and buildings, the CTARC Committee hopes to still take part in the event this year.

The ILLW takes place on the weekend of Saturday/Sunday 22/23 August 2020.

An announcement on the format of this forthcoming event, in compliance with the lock-down regulations, will be made shortly.

CTARC Lighthouse Weekend - 17/18 Aug '19

Hi Everyone

It’s that time of year again when CTARC prepares for the International Lightship and Lighthouse Weekend. This year it seem a bit later in the month but actually it’s not. It is always the third FULL weekend in August. For us down in the Southern Hemisphere, it’s a time of cold weather and storms which makes it even more challenging!

Once again we have arranged to man the Green Point lighthouse from the Saturday morning of 17 August until mid-day Sunday of 18 August. We have repeated this so often now that our Lighthouse Team manages to do the set-up and take-down with military precision, but we still need manpower from our members, especially around 10:00 on Saturday morning in order to get our beam antenna raised.

Even if you are not taking part in the Lighthouse weekend, it would be appreciated if club members could come and assist with the set up at Green Point on Saturday morning 17 August 10h00 and for take down on Sunday, 18th at 12h00. (Committee members will meet at the clubhouse at 08h30 on Saturday morning to load antennas and equipment).

We will be having our very popular and always well attended Sunset Bring & Braai on the Saturday evening so even if you are not planning to operate, please join us and bring the XYL along for this social event. Bring your meat, rolls and salads etc; along. We will provide the fire.

We need operators for the event so please pop in and grab a mike or key and make a few contacts with us, it’s always great fun.

If you are planning on staying over (the more the merrier, ) then please do let me know soonest and I can arrange enough room for us all. We already have several staying over this year, which is great news.

See you there!

Regards

John, ZS1EQ
(CTARC ILLW Coordinator)
073-740-0543

PS: We will be working over the next two weeks on getting the equipment up to shape for the event so if you have some spare time available, please drop us a WhatsApp on +27-73-740-0543 so that we can organise suitable times.

Regards,

Anne Bareham
(CTARC Sec:/ Treasurer / Editor)
072-268-1207

 

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NB: This event has now taken place. A report is in the September 2019 Ragchew.

CTARC Photos of ILLW at Green Point - page 4 - 18/19 Aug '18

CTARC Photos of ILLW at Green Point - page 3 - 18/19 Aug '18

CTARC Photos of ILLW at Green Point - page 2 - 18/19 Aug '18

CTARC Photos of ILLW at Green Point - page 1 - 18/19 Aug '18

The following photos, of the CTARC field station at Green Point on the recent International Lighthouse Lightship Weekend held on 18/19 August 2018, have been kindly provided by John ZS1EQ, Peter ZS1PGC and Paul ZS1S.

Read the article here on in the September 2018 Ragchew newsletter.