International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend

Registrations for the International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend are now being made at http://illw.net.

The event is being held on 16 and 17 August starting at 00:01UTC on Saturday and running through 23:59UTC on Sunday.

There are some interesting video clips on YouTube that give an idea of the history of the event and what it's like to operate from a lighthouse

Yamba Lighthouse 2007

Point Perpendicular

The YouTube description of this video says:
August 18th & 19th 2007 was International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend around the world. This year for the annual event about 380 Amateur radio stations set up portable stations at particular lighthouse around the world. The amateur operators then communicated via the amateur radio bands to each other to support ILLW and its endeavours to highlight the need to preserve the heritage of lighthouses.

This year in Australia the Illawarra Amateur Radio Club in conjunction with the Blue Mountains Amateur Radio Club manned the Point Perpendicular Light at Jervis Bay on the NSW South Coast. Lighthouses Australia, a volunteer group active in the preservation of Australian Lighthouses, lit the old historic light to coincide with the weekend. This was only the second time since the decommissioning of this light in 1993 that the light has been lit. The light has an output of more that 1,000,000 candle power, and throws a beam 26 NM out to sea. The point is normally protected by a solar array light of smaller intensity.

Radio communications were established with many lighthouse around the country and internationally. Temporary radio masts with rotators and antennas were set up in at the rear of the lighthouse keepers cottages. All bands and all modes were worked, as well as the clubs IRLP and Echolink nodes. Many visitors passed through the station asking questions of the lighthouse and it's history as well as many inquiries about amateur radio.

Source: RSGB, YouTube