ILLW 2005

If you would like more information the Eagle Harbor Lighthouse and it's surrounding area, please see Eagle Harbor Links

Our primary callsign:

K8E (K8E/LGT)

County:

Keweenaw

Grid Square:

EN57

Modes of Operation:

CW, SSB, FM Voice Satellite

Bands of Operation:

80 – 20 Meters, 2 Meters, 70cm

Antennas:

Vertical for 20 Meters

Multi-band dipole for HF bands

Arrow antenna for SO-50

QSL via the bureau or direct to:

N8MR

14071 Fairway

Livonia, MI 48154-5227

U.S.A.

NOTE:

For all QSL and certificate requests, please send a self-addressed stamped #10 business-sized envelope (or larger). Our QSL cards are 4 1/8 inches x 5 7/8 inches (105mm x 150mm). They are larger than usual, but they're worth it!

Questions or comments: n8mr@hotmail.com

We want to thank Dave Thomas and the Keweenaw Historical Society for allowing us to operate on the grounds of the Eagle Harbor Lighthouse. We also want to thank Denny, K9GIR for being our lighthouse liaison and Vince KA8FFM and his XYL, and everyone else for allowing us to share this special event weekend with them.

For the fifth year in a row, we found ourselves starting off Friday at 4:00am local time, on our drive to Eagle Harbor. We hit high winds and lots of rain between Gaylord and Mackinac. The rains subsided as we got to the Mackinac Bridge, but the winds didn't, prompting the Bridge authorities to escort large vehicles across.

Once in the Upper Peninsula, the clouds dispersed and the temperature turned warmer. We activated the grid square EN66, just a little southwest of Blaney Park, Michigan. That was the only grid square available to us on our schedule, as well as the satellites' schedules. Unfortunately, AO-51 was not available to us, as its Mode-S downlink was active, and we don't have Mode-S equipment.

Once we got to Eagle Harbor, we noticed something much different from last year...PEOPLE! And lots of them on the beach. The 2nd Annual Ladies of the Lake Symposium brought in lots of people for the weekend, and we were quite lucky to find rooms at the trusty Shoreline Resort, when we made the reservations back in February.

The kayakers all seemed to disappear as we entered town. But this was only for the evening. They would return the next morning. That left us time to have a leisurely dinner without waiting.

After dinner, I decided to walk around the town, taking pictures of things that I had missed the previous four years. I started out at the west edge of the town, at Holy Redeemer Church. Bishop Baraga, a prominent figure in the history of the Keweenaw peninsula area, established the church community in 1847 and the building dates from 1854.

I then wandered over to the park, in which contains several examples of mining equipment, as well as St. Peter's by the Sea Episcopal Church.

Also in the park is Eagle Harbor School and Pythian Memorial. Justus Henry Rathbone taught in this school in 1860. It is also the site at which he founded the Order Knights of Pythias.

Walking toward the eastern edge of town, I took a picture or two of the Eagle Harbor Range Lights. The one above is the Front Range Light, and is a good example of why the Amateur Radio Lighthouse Society should retain the 1000-Meter Rule for activating lighthouses. Not only is the range light not visible from many places, due to the surrounding foliage, it is also a hazardous place to park. It is also surrounded by private property.

Rounding off my walking tour of Eagle Harbor, I stopped at the deck at the lighthouse complex, which offers fabulous views of sunsets. This is a popular spot for both tourists and locals at dusk.

On Saturday morning, we set up the antennas. This year, instead of tying off one end of the dipole to the lighthouse tower, we decided to make an inverted vee, by hoisting the center insulator to the top of the flag pole. The very effective 20-Meter vertical (background, lower right) was set up less than 20 feet from the splashing shores of Lake Superior.

A steady wind of about 10 - 20 MPH persisted throughout the day, but the temperatures stayed above 70 degrees F, making for a rather pleasant outdoor operation. The nice weather also brought more visitors to our operation. Many of them were quite interested in our modes of communication, but when we started operating CW (Morse Code), we got many more visitors to our station than usual. This mode was intriguing to more than just a few of the passers by.

We also caught a pass of SO-50 satellite, giving about four lucky people a QSO with grid square EN-57. FM satellite, using an Arrow Antenna and two handheld transceivers, is another mode that attracts curious stares from visitors.

Even though we dedicated much of our time to CW and the North American QSO Party (Phone) raged on, we still managed to stay on 20-Meter SSB Phone for a good portion of the day. The pileups encouraged us to remain on, but then would suddenly subside, leaving us on a quiet band, calling CQ. Intermittent propagation continued that way throughout the weekend. Every time signals disappeared on the 20 Meter Phone band, we would simply switch to CW and get another pileup of grateful Europeans.

Once again, it was Vince's homebrew 20-Meter vertical (as seen above between the buildings) that provided us with outstanding signals all over the world. Rarely did we get a signal report of less than S-9. Of course, being on a peninsula and using Lake Superior as a reflector must have helped.

As the sun set, we began to hear signals from Siberia. About an hour later, the moon began to rise over the mountains. It was the first time we had seen the moon, full and bright, rise over such a beautiful location. Not too much longer afterward, propagation took another slump, allowing us all to head back to the motel for much-needed rest.

The next day, a blanket of clouds had rolled in, along with higher winds. We started our operations on 40-Meter SSB Phone, but got surprisingly few responses. Even though the North American QSO Party was over, the 20-Meter Phone band was still crowded with many on-going QSOs. Back on 20 Meters, we switched back and forth between CW and SSB. As activity waned on one mode, it seemed to pick up on the other. This continued until about 2200 UTC. At that point, between us being wind-battered and the propagation dropping out, we decided to pack up and head home.

This was not our best year for the number of QSOs we made. It was, however, our best year for DX contacts, with our more than doubling the DX country count from any previous year. From the size and number of pileups, we were very much encouraged by the interest in our operation to this rather remote part of Michigan. Maybe we can increase our QSO count next year.