Amateur radio club connects with five continents from Ludington lighthouse

June 14, 2022 (Volume 45, Number 18)
Article by Michele Coffill

in front of a lighthouse, two people work at a table fixing wires into a ham radio

two people holding a wire on a balcony of a lighthouse with sand dunes and Lake Michigan in background

sign outside bottom of lighthouse for W8GVU amateur radio council

Student Justin Wolters, left, and Nicholas Baine, associate professor of engineering, set up a radio outside of the Big Sable Point Lighthouse May 14 for a W8GVU Amateur Radio Club event.

Photo Credit: Kendra Stanley-Mills

Members of Grand Valley's amateur radio club, W8GVU, used Big Sable Point Lighthouse in Ludington as an active operating base in mid-May and reached 250 contacts in five continents.

Jared Bergeron, lab technician for the School of Engineering, said the event was meant to draw attention to amateur radio and the 112-foot lighthouse at Ludington State Park was the perfect venue.

"Its location was great. The lighthouse has a furnished keeper's quarters and even Wi-Fi," Bergeron said. "The people from Sable Point Lighthouse Keepers Association were so welcoming."

Despite the 250 contacts (from 41 states and 22 countries), Bergeron said they expected more but weather and solar flares impeded radio waves. In August, W8GVU traveled to a remote Lake Superior lighthouse for a similar event.

Field Day

W8GVU will next participate in Field Day at the Ravines on the Allendale Campus on June 25-26, when club members join a 24-hour national event and thousands of other radio clubs in North America.