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Shining a light on Museum Ships Weekend

Posted: 06 Jun 2022 07:04 AM PDT https://www.kb6nu.com/shining-a-light-on-museum-ships-weekend/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email


Saturday and Sunday marked the 2022 edition of Museum Ships Weekend. Sponsored by the Battleship New Jersey Radio Station, its a great special event. This year, 89 ships were on the air, and I was fortunate to be able
to participate from the Lightship Huron (LV-103, ARLHS USA-394), courtesy
of the Eastern Michigan Amateur Radio Club.
The Lightship Huron was commissioned in 1921 as Lightship Number 103 and operated primarily in southern Lake Huron near Port Huron and the mouth of the St. Clair River.

The Huron is located in Pine Grove Park in Port Huron, MI. The park is located on the St. Clair River, just south of Lake Huron. The park itself
is quite historic.

On Sunday, I joined Stan, AC8W; Trisha, KD8AZA; and Tony, KE8BIT. The four
of us kept the ships station, NM8GS, all day long. Stan and James, NO8RF, worked the station on Saturday as well, mostly on 20 meters. I took two
turns on Sunday, operating phone the first time and CW the second.
Original radio gear aboard the Lightship Huron.

The call sign for the station is NM8GS. The reason for this odd call sign
is that the  original call sign for the Huron was NMGS. , the ship held
when it was in operation. The ship still has the original radio equipment (see right), but unfortunately, its not currently working. Instead, the
club has installed an Icom IC-725 in the radio shack. The antenna is a 20-meter dipole strung between the ships masts.

Band conditions were pretty good on Sunday, and Stan said that they were
even better on Saturday. There was a lot of activity, too. Rarely did we
have to call CQ. Most of the time we were managing pileups, both on phone
and CW.

According to Stan, MN8GS made 432 contacts, including 401 phone contacts
and 31 CW contacts. We worked station in 43 states and 6 provinces.  In addition, we made 7 DX contacts, including Bermuda, Cuba, France, Netherlands, Portugal, Puerto Rico, and Slovenia. NM8GS worked 16 museum ships, 17 if you count the USS   Texas Battleship which wasnt registered.

Overall, I had a great time. It was my first time aboard the Huron, and I
got a nice tour from the docent when I wasnt operating. And, not only did I get to take part in the museum ship special event, I was able to activate a lighthouse as well.





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