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Lighthouse Weekend
August 19-20, 2000
By Ernie Orman, W5OXA
Well here it is again, August, and the temperature is in the upper 90's and climbing with a heat index of 110 degrees. I have a truckload of equipment and another old dude like myself to help with putting up the antennas. Kim N5XGI, my old faithful buddy, is always there to help me with these situations that I get myself into. It did not take too long to put up the antennas but we would have to work for about 10 minutes and then drink water for a half hour. After all the antennas were installed we then moved into the building which was air conditioned, and it worked perfectly. We installed all the equipment and checked out the systems, and they were all within Mil-Specs. Now all we had to do is wait until 0001 UTC and start whaling away. I took the first shift and we racked up some 100 contacts. By that time I was so tired, wet, and hungry I took my body home and put it into the shower for an overhaul, and then to bed I went. Saturday I was up at the crack of dawn and off to the usual breakfast at our local greasy spoon with the local hams. Kim followed me to the Biloxi Chamber building (our hosts), and we started again. The bands did not seem to be in very good shape, but the old stand-by was hot: TWENTY METERS. Later that morning, Randy W5UE, a member of our DX Assn. (The Magnolia DX Assn.), dropped by and volunteered his talents in operating, and he hung in there for the remainder of the weekend. Darryl KD5CQT, also of the DX Assn., dropped in and operated for a long time along with another local Ham Frank WA5GDF. Using four operators and one station by 0251 UTC the 19th we had racked up 607 QSOs, and we called it quits for the night. On Saturday we had several visitors drop by which added to the excitement of the event. The Executive Director of the Biloxi Chamber, Harry B. Joachim, dropped by and chatted with us for a while and presented us with T-shirts with the new Biloxi Chamber Logo on them. He also said that we would be able to use the building next year and in the years to come. To promote the International Lighthouse/Lightship Weekend we have tossed around the idea of sending NTS (National Traffic System) messages from the lighthouse. Our lighthouse is sort of unique because it is on the historical register, and the city conducts tours of the structure. Lots of tourists visit the structure. Harry told us that he would have a banner made for us, and all we needed to do is tell him what we wanted on it... I have never heard of a city that helped hams out as much as Biloxi, Ms. I am certainly glad that I stumbled onto this event. Sunday was a slow day for participation. I arrived at the site around 7 AM and started operating the station. I added 50 QSO's to the list before I had to leave to attend church. I returned to the site around 1733 UTC started calling CQ again and seemed like everyone in the world was waiting for me to get there. I checked the other bands, and the only one that was producing Q's was 20 meters. Around 1800 UTC Randy W5UE showed up and relieved me for a couple of hours, and after that we took turns operating. Randy and I were the only operators for Sunday, but Kim N5XGI my old stand by came by to help take down the station. Well as you would have it Murphy Law took over at the end of the event and here came a thunderstorm. We could see hundreds of boats coming in from a boating event that took place on Ship Island. "By the way there is a new lighthouse on Ship Island, but I don't know much about it yet. It was reconstructed after it was destroyed". I knew that something was in the wind, so I went outside and looked around, and there it was, "big black clouds heavy with water and lighting", so we decided to cut the weekend short instead of taking the antennas down in the rain and lighting. One good thing about the storm the temperature dropped from the high 90's to the low 80's. I don't think that I even worked up a sweat taking the station down.... With the close of the day and a weekend well spent we were very proud to have accumulated 933 QSO's with one station running and 4 operators. We are all looking forward to a better International Lighthouse/Lightship weekend next year. Maybe we will be able to put up two stations and work more bands. By Monday, the writing of this article, the QSL cards were rolling in, and I guess that is a sign that it is all over with except for the all the paper work.
73,
Ernie, W5OXA
