A record number of participating Amateur Radio stations are expected for the International Lighthouse Lightship Weekend (ILLW) August 17-18, sponsored by the Ayr Amateur Radio Group in Scotland. The annual event, now in its 16th year, aims to promote public awareness of lighthouses and lightships and the need for their preservation and restoration, as well as to promote Amateur Radio and foster international goodwill. It sees hundreds of hams getting on the air from or in the vicinity of lighthouses and lightships.

So far more than 450 participants are registered and ready to activate and explain the history of their locations; many offer special QSL cards. Stations will be on the air from the Americas, Europe, Asia, Africa and Oceania, and activations have taken place from 85 countries since the ILLW began in 1998. The ILLW, held on the third full weekend each August, is not a contest.

Registered stations and event guidelines are on the ILLW website. There’s still time for additional stations to register and activate a lighthouse, lightship or marine beacon August 17-18. The ILLW ham radio event coincides with the International Lighthouse Weekend, organized by the Association of Lighthouse Keepers, when many world lighthouses are open to the public. — Thanks to Jim Linton, VK3PC; ILLW