Malta operation
Several members of the Bristol Contest Group (Robin/G3TKF, Alan/G3XSV, Colin/G3YHV and Paul/M1DSE) will again operate as 9H6YB from Triq San David, Mtarfa, Malta (IOTA EU-023) during the 2019 RSGB IOTA Contest on July 27th and 28th.The log will be uploaded to LoTW and ClubLog after the contest. Paper QSLs for this activity are only available via G3SWH direct with adequate return postage and the use of the OQRS facility on (www.g3swh.org.uk) is strongly recommended. There will also be a log search facility at (www.g3swh.org.uk).
QSL cards sent via the RSGB or Maltese Bureaux will NOT be collected or replied to.
OPDX
St. Paul Island DXpedition news
In less than two weeks the CY9C DXpedition team will arrive in Dingwall, Nova Scotia, in preparation for the DXpedtion to St. Paul Island. The dates for the DXpedition are July 31st-August 8th.All seven team members are ready with gear packed and weighed to help facilitate an efficient process of ferrying the gear to the island via helicopter. The team is not employing a boat for this DXpedition as all operations will be from the Northeast Island. There are no longer any facilities for a boat to be able to dock at the Northeast Island with its foreboding cliffs and sharp rock formations that encompass the island. With that being the case, extra care must be taken to transport the generators and fuel by helicopter.
Pat, N2IEN, the helicopter pilot, and helicopter mechanic Barry Smith, will supervise and oversee the loading of all gear on each flight. An advance team will fly to the island first in order to erect the operation tents. While that is taking place, the first of many chopper trips will commence with all of the other DXpedition gear.
Hopefully the weather will cooperate and we have good VFR flying weather. On the 2016 CY9C DXpedition we had a number of very stormy days (and fog) where flights were not possible.
Updates will be provided to the bulletins by Murray/WA4DAN or Randy/N0TG as well as at (www.cy9c.com).
Phil, VA3QR, will again be giving updates and status reports on his blog which was very popular in 2016.
73, -- Murray Adams, WA4DAN
ILLW reaches 300
The Namibian Amateur Radio League, V51NAM,
has submitted the 300th entry in this year’s International Lighthouse
Lightship weekend which takes place on 17th and 18 th August. Being a country with a short coastline, it only has a handful of Lighthouses so it is a great pleasure to have the Namibis ARL take part in the event for the 12 th time since the year 2000.
The database that we use as our lighthouse encyclopaedia, http://www.ibiblio.org/lighthouse/, has these details:-
Pelican Point (Walvis Bay)
1932 (station established 1916). Active; focal plane 35 m (115 ft); three white flashes, separated by 3.6 s, every 20 s. 34 m (112 ft) round cast iron tower with lantern and gallery. Tower painted with black and white horizontal bands; lantern painted red. An adjacent 3-story building, the former harbour control centre, is now the Pelican Point Lodge. Fog horn (one short blast, two long blasts, and one short blast every 30 s) located 180 m (200 yd) north..
Ordered originally by the government of South Africa for use at Durban in eastern South Africa, the lighthouse was installed instead at Walvis Bay, then under South African administration. It replaced a post light hastily erected after South African troops recaptured Walvis Bay from German troops during World War I. A powerful light with a range of 40 km (25 mi) was installed in 1961.
Pelican Point is a long sandy peninsula sheltering Walvis Bay, the best naturally protected harbour on the southwest African coast. The light station was built at the tip of the peninsula, but over the past century the spit has extended itself almost 2 km (1.2 mi) farther to the north. The spit is a protected nature reserve, and access is limited, but tours to the light station are available from the town's waterfront. ILLW NA0003.
Kevin Mulcahy vk2ce
https://illw.net
