Last weekend we (ON4CCC, ON4CIS and Myself ON7RU) attended for the ninth time in a row in the ILLW.
ILLW stands for International Lighthouse Weekend. We're not talking about contesting here, Lighthouses are just activated and the goal
is to handout some new references. Over the years the ILLW became more and more popular. A couple of years ago we were happy with 500 QSOs,
last weekend we passed for the first time the 1K marker.
Maybe the 100 digi modes QSOs from our visitor Tommy, ON3TD made the difference.
The installation of the antennas started on Friday, on top of the LH we installed a monoband dipole for 20m, we had a G5RV for 40 and a
homebrew dipole for 80m. Conditions were that good, that Mark stayed till 2am to handout the BEL-001 reference.
I arrived Saterday afternoon to work some CW but 20 was full with UA constest stations.
Late in the evening we had great runs on 80m SSB and 80M CW, didn't knew that so many hams were up that late @ night.
Saturday night/Sunday morning I tried to get some sleep around 3am, but a 2 x 1500w flashing light didn't make things easy.
Finally I felt asleep but around 6am I woke up and after two blinks of an eye I was back at the key. I switched between 20 & 80m and put many
more in the log. Mark & Luc arrived @ 9am with the breakfast, thank guys.
We stayed there till 6pm and managed to work + 1K QSOs, but what's more important, we had a great day/night.
We enjoyed the great comments and feedback.
 
Special thanks to Mark for the loan of his outstanding ICOM 775 DSP, Luc for his backup/2M IC7000,  Tommy for the digimode QSOs and the section EKO for their support & visits.
Another word of appreciation goes To Henri Meere, the lighthouse keeper. After all these years we are welcomed guests and without his
support it wouldn’t be possible to activate the lighthouse. The lighthouse is a museum as well (free entrance) bring Henri a visit and
ask him about the "crazy radiomateurs", he can tell stories for hours...so can I, but that's for next time.
 
So long and see you on the air.

hi dear readers.

A couple of weeks ago I visited Friederichshafen. As last year I had the opportunity to join Ruddy, ON7DR for a 500 mile drive direction south.
This year we had an old fashioned hot edition and we enjoyed temperatures of 30+ degrees.
Was it worth it? Well if you drive down there just to see the beautiful eyes of optibeams Diana, no it's not. But for all other reasons it is.
There were many commercial stands and I had the impression there were more visitors then last year. You could find some good deals as well,
the german W**O was my favorite dealer this year. Last year I hesitated to buy the FT2000 @ the hamfest. A couple of months ago I decided to buy one in Frederichshafen, but couple of days before leaving I found a great second hand FT2K in PA-country. Another 350 mile drive..... I found some good deals for the FT2K accessories like the speaker, CW filter and the keypad.

The fleamarket was as big as last year. Over 2 halls were filled with old radio junk and some interesting parts could be found. Some dealers move from
the main hall to the fleamarket to reduce their costs, so it's worth to check these dealers as well. Like all other fleamarkets also Friederichshafen has
stands that have nothing to do with hamradio nor electronics, but I consider them as a moment to relax my eyes and attention.
Friederichshafen is just more dan hardware, there were several interesting meetings. I joined the 3B7C presention, IOTA conference and the DX'ers meeting.
For me, the 2008 edition was well worth the money & time. A thing I would like to see more in the future is the distribution of QSL cards of some major
DXpeditions. In previous editions you could easely score some nice QSL cards, this year, only 4U1ITU was offering cards. well done guys.

Enjoy my windows XP Bodensee picture  hihi

Early 2008 my girlfriend booked a holidaytrip to another EU IOTA island. I have to admit Kelly supports my hamradio hobby.
In return I only had to pay the trip  hihi. After activating SV8, EA8 she agreed on a trip to EA6. This year we left the 28th of
May for a 9 day stay. We rented a bungalow in a resort called tropicana ***, its located at the south-east side of the island.  The bungalow itself was located  20m ASL and 200m from the beach.
Last year I learned I'd better had my own fisshing pole with me to support the antenna, so I took the 12M (36ft) pole from dx-wire which did a great job.
This year I had a G5RV instead of a FD3 I usually use on a trip. There were easy to climb lightpoles available to support the legs of the G5RV.

Conditions were not that good, so I concentrad on the lower bands like 30, 40 and some 80M. EA6 is not a rare country, but had some nice runs on 40 cw.
I operated holiday style, so only in the evening, about 2 or 3 hours a days with some days of no activity at all.
At the end I had about 500 QSOs in the log. 75% CW, 10% SSB and 15% PSK.
Thanks again for the contacts, you QSL card will be answered, Kelly is working on that topic.

P.S. see what nice lightpoles they have in EA6, the are all hamradio compliant/support climbing.