ILLW 2025- Rathlin Island

Ten members of Bushvalley Amateur Radio Club made their annual pilgrimage to Rathlin Island to participate in this year’s ILLW event. We activated all three lighthouses on the island using special event callsigns, from Rue Point Light the callsign was GB1RP, from the West Light it was GB2WL and from the East Light we used GB2EL.  In total 1957 contacts were logged using SSB, CW and FT8, with 65 DXCC countries worked and 31 USA states.  Notable DX included several stations in Australia and the best DX was New Zealand worked on 30 metres CW.  All three stations used Yaesu FTDX-10 radios with an FTDX-101MP also in use at GB2EL, antennas in use were 2 x  80-10 metre end feds at GB2EL, a similar antenna was deployed at GB2WL and GB1RP used dedicated dipoles for either 20 or 40 metres.   Travel to Rathlin Island is via frequent ferry services from Ballycastle and takes approximately 45 minutes.  This year we had fantastic weather with temperatures hovering around 25C, with no rain and, unusual for Rathlin, virtually no wind. For more information on the lighthouses please see each lighthouse's QRZ page for each respective callsign or email bushvalleyarc@gmail.com