Introduction
This year’s ILLW Special Event Radio Station GB0NL was setup in the Car Park at Newhaven West Beach by Stuart M0ABT with his recreational vehicle and table which proved to be very suitable especially as the weather was good with no sight of rain.
Radio equipment, antenna and power supply
The radio equipment and antenna provided by Stuart were as follows:
• ICOM IC-7300 HF / 50MHz transceiver
• HyEnd 8 Band 80/40/(30)/20/17/15/12/10m 131ft (40m) antenna supported between two telescopic poles at 6m AGL.
• Lead acid leisure batteries + solar panels and charger/regulator module (Stuart had added some RF ferrite chokes to the solar panel cables which seemed to have cured the noise generated on the amateur radio bands which was noticeable on 40m at a previous event).
Contacts - lighthouse stations
A total of 115 contacts were made on Saturday and 64 contacts on Sunday. A total of 15 lighthouse stations were contacted which are listed below:
There were a few other contacts that were not included in the list of ILLW registered callsigns so could not be checked easily:
The furthest lighthouse station was 9M4LHO in Malaysia.
Contacts - Other stations
A few of the other more interesting stations contacted:
• CW5X Radiogrupo Sur, Montevideo, Uruguay
• VK2GJC Greg Cogar
• VK3OZY Grant Mahoney
• VK3HX Peter Collie, Frankston, Victoria
• VK2CR Peter Richard Thomas, Sydney
• TK4TH Corsica, France
• GB0WWA Ray, South Dorset Radio Society (SDRS) to commemorate the wartime Battle of Britain airfield of RAF Warmwell as part of the RAFARS (Royal Airforce Amateur Radio Society) 'Airfields On The Air' programme.
• 9A150TEC Radio Club "KARLOVAC" 150th anniversary of Nikola Tesla's graduation from Karlovac Gymnasium and the opening of the Tesla Experience Center in Karlovac on July 1, 2023 - December 31 2023.
• TC100TC 100th Anniversary of the Republic of TÜRKİYE
• CX9ARH Roberto Gonzalez Hohn, Montevideo, Uruguay
• S79VU Ravi Pandit, Seychelles
• VP8LP Bob McLeod, Falkland Islands
Logsheets and ADIF
The GB0NL log sheets have been typed into an Excel spreadsheet and imported into the DX Shell ADIF Master program and saved as an ADIF file which has been uploaded to eQSL so that anyone who contacted us can download a QSL card automatically for contacts that they have made.
Acknowledgments
Many thanks to Stuart M0ABT and the others who helped setup and take down the Special Event Station radio equipment, antennas and those who helped with the operating and logging of the contacts, Philip G8KBI, Steve M7DQY, Steven M0USC, Colin G3ZAF, Andy M0CFO, Gavin G6DGK, Aharon 2E1ALC and those who turned up to make the weekend a memorable event not forgetting Vince G1FBH who captured the event on video.
Thanks also to the landowners Newhaven Port and Properties Ltd and the leaseholder Nick Jones for the use of the West Beach Promenade car park. Nick Jones made an unannounced visit to our Special Event Station on Saturday and was made very welcome to see what amateur radio special events are all about.
A selection of QSL cards
Chris Coward G3YTU
