ARLA/CLUSTER: Australia teve 17% dos farois activos no ILLW-2011.

[João Costa > CT1FBF]

International Lighthouse Lightship Weekend - 2011

Kevin VK2CE, the Event Organizer, has sent a personal congratulation
to all VK amateurs who participated in this year's ILLW event held
last weekend.

In 1998 four Australian stations participated in what then was a very
young event. Last weekend saw 66 stations registered with possibly
others on the air who did not send-in an entry form.

Australia has around 400 lighthouses which qualify for the event which
means some 17 percent of our lights were on the air.

Some of these lighthouses are in remote locations and require some
expenditure and effort to get there and set up a station. For example
a VK3 ham went to King Island, another amateur walked a long way to
get to Wilson's Promontory lighthouse and no doubt there are others
who can speak of similar feats.

VK's were second only to the USA where 80 stations registered which is
only a very small proportion of their total number of lighthouses. It
was good to see an upsurge in numbers from that country.

Kevin singled out Jim Linton VK3PC for his untiring efforts to promote
this event both here and overseas, and hopes to see you all again next
year and oh! Bring a friend!