ILLW
International lightship/Lighthouse weekend
With all those clues clearly the answer is a 'lighthouse', and this a reminder that the International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend run by Scotland's Ayr Radio Group GM0AYR is only four months away on the 21st and 22nd of August.
So far 135 registrations from 23 countries have been received for the International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend being held by Scotland's Ayr Radio Group GM0AYR on 21 and 22 Augusut.
Those to activate lighthouses and lightships for this popular and friendly on air weekend are radio clubs and individual radio amateurs.
An interesting trend in VK this year is the number of lighthouses that will be put on air for the very first time.
These include VK4DMC Archer Point Lighthouse, VK5PBZ Port Germein, VK6FLAM Guilderton and VK7ZM Rocky Cape Lighthouse.
Each lighthouse has an interesting history.
For example the Guilderton Lighthouse in Western Australia is one of our youngest, a red brick structure built in 1983 at the place where guilder coins were found from a Dutch ship Vergulde Draeck (Guilded Dragon).
The sailing ship came to grief in 1656.
To see where Australian lighthouses are located you can download a Google Earth file at http://illw.net/australia_lights.kmz or from the website http://illw.net
Amateur Radio Victoria VK3WI will activate the Williamstown Lighthouse and Timeball tower on both days.
More than 100 registrations have been received so far at the website illw.net for this year's event on the weekend of the 21st and 22nd of August.
It will be the 11th annual weekend run by Scotland's Ayr Radio Group GM0AYR. The registrations to date are from 19 countries with nearly half of them from Germany and Australia who always strongly support this fun event.
Other countries include Argentina, Belgium, Chile, Denmark, England, Finland, France, Honduras, Italy, Malaysia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Scotland, Sweden, USA and Wales.
It's only early days and organisers of the International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend, the Ayr Radio Group, is hopeful that with improved HF propagation the record of 442 registrations set last year could be beaten.
To register or check out the lighthouses already registered for the weekend visit the official website illw.net
The International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend (ILLW) held on 15 & 16 August had an all time record 442 registrations from 50 countries.
The International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend 2008 topped 406 entrants worldwide, 23 more than the previous record set in 2004.
The 200th lighthouse to register International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend is GB4KAY, the Kay Kendall Memorial Lighthouse, Withernsea, Yorkshire.
