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International Lighthouse/Lightship Weekend - 2007 - Operating at Cape Bruny as VK7WCN/p

Summary

21 Australian lights contacted (38 entries).  Some on multiple bands, but counted once.
1 New Zealand light contacted (of 2 entries)

Our station was manned for 24 hours.

The Dirt

Cape Bruny light was activated for the third time in four years by WICEN in southern Tasmania, this time with the call sign VK7WCN.  Cape Bruny is on the southern tip of Bruny Island to the south east of Tasmania.  It was the southernmost Australian light activated for the weekend at 43.3 degrees South and the fifth southernmost in the world (four lights in Argentina lying further to the South).

The Cape Bruny lighthouse was convict built in 1838 and replaced by a nearby automatic light in 1996.  Today, it is administered by the Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Service and maintained by a real Lighthouse Keeper - Andy VK7WS.  The light sits atop the cape with the other buildings at a lower level on the neck between Lighthouse Bay and Quiet Bay.

Kettering ferry terminal was the group’s Saturday morning meeting place for the trip overseas, about twenty minutes to cross the D’Entrecasteaux Channel to Bruny Island.  The French explorer Admiral Bruni D’Entrecasteaux certainly left his name in the area after visiting in 1792.  We must have looked like explorers ourselves.  Our vehicles still carried the mud from a horse endurance ride safety checkpoint job the previous weekend.  Heavy rains and flooding in several parts of Tasmania over the days leading up to it had created quite a mud bath.  The familiar trip down North and South Bruny Island to Cape Bruny ended with a welcome from Andy and his charming XYL Beth.

John VK7ZZ quickly established himself in his campervan at the base of the lighthouse with an IC-706MkIIg, LDG Z100 tuner and both a wire to the lighthouse halyard and FAMPARC multi-band whip on his vehicle.

 Stu VK7NXX with XYL Bev, Peter VK7TPE with Maureen, and Roger VK7ARN took the soft option and moved into the Assistant Keepers cottage with all the comforts of home.  A 12 metre mast erected on the site of the original station mast had an off centre fed dipole strung between it and another mast above the cottage.  The operating position in the cosy cottage kitchen had another Icom 706MkIIg with AT-108 tuner.

For good measure, Peter set up a third 706 with AH-3 tuner in his vehicle in the visitors’ car park with a long wire to Andy’s anemometer mast.

Not the best of propagation with lighthouse contacts being confined to Australia and New Zealand.  Of the 38 Australian and 2 New Zealand lights registered, we had contacts with 21 VK and 1 ZL, some on multiple bands

Over the weekend we were visited by Gary VK7GJD and Michelle on Saturday and Chris VK7FCDW with Liz on Sunday.  The weather was unusually fine through the weekend, Sunday being exceptional with wall to wall blue sky providing distant vista to snow capped peaks in the west, the rocky islets of Pedra Blanca and Eddystone Rock on the horizon to the south and Tasman Head and the Friars to the East.  Our trip home was uneventful, other than a flock of sheep on the road, a stop at the Hothouse Café for coffee and arriving just in time to see the ferry, full to capacity and leaving early and us with an hour to wait for the next one!

 Pictures in the photo gallery

LOG

OPERATOR	CONTACT	BAND	LIGHTHOUSE
VK7ZZ	VK2AAG	20m	Evans Head
VK7ZZ	VK2AMW	40m	Point Perpendicular
VK7NXX	VK2ATZ	20M	Norah Head
VK7ZZ	VK2ATZ	40m	Norah Head
VK7TPE	VK2BEL	80M	Sugarloaf Point, Seal Rocks.
VK7NXX	VK2FREK	40M	Warden Head Lighthouse.
VK7TPE	VK2HBG	80M	Point Perpendicular
VK7ZZ	VK2HBG	80M	Point Perpendicular
VK7ZZ	VK2ILH	40m	Smokey Cape
VK7ZZ	VK2ILH	80M	Smoky Cape
VK7ZZ	VK3ANR	40m	Split Point, Aireys Inlet
VK7TPE	VK3ANR	80M	Split Point, Aireys Inlet
VK7NXX	VK3APP	40M	Cape Otway
VK7TPE	VK3APP	40m	Cape Otway
VK7ZZ	VK3APP	40M	Cape Otway
VK7ZZ	VK3ATL	40m	Point Lonsdale
VK7ZZ	VK3EG	40m	Point Hicks
VK7ZZ	VK3GER	40m	Eastern Lighthouse McCrae
VK7TPE	VK3GER	80M	Eastern Lighthouse McCrae
VK7TPE	VK3ILH	40M	Currie Lighthouse, King Island, Tasmania.
VK7TPE	VK3ILH	80M	Currie Lighthouse, King Island, Tasmania.
VK7ZZ	VK3WI	40m	Williamstown L'hse Timeball Tower.
VK7TPE	VK3WI	80M	Williamstown L'hse Timeball Tower.
VK7ZZ	VK4GHL	20m	Grassey Hill, Cooktown
VK7ZZ	VK4WIM	40m	Pine Islet
VK7ZZ	VK5ARC	40m	Point Malcolm Lighthouse
VK7ZZ	VK5BWR	40m	Lowley Point, Whyalla
VK7ZZ	VK5CPL	40m	Corny Point
VK7TPE	VK5CPL	80M	Corny Point
VK7ZZ	VK6CLL	40M	Cape Leeuwin
VK7ZZ	VK6CNL	40m	Cape Naturaliste L'hse.
VK7NXX	ZL6LH	20M	Manukau Heads
VK7ZZ	ZL6LH	20M	Manukau Heads