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.