The Humber Fortress DX Amateur Radio Club uses the special call sign 
from Dec 1st – Dec 26th. If you hear us on the bands, please call in so we may wish everyone of the Ham community, a very 
Well, last weekend saw Kevin M0KVK testing out the new Club winter uniform, this was suggested by Jason M0MGF the club’s treasure, As he informed the membership of rising costs running the 3KW heaters all the time, and suggested warmer clothes.
Kevin set the standard with his list below
Thermal Hat, Gloves, and Scarf
and fleece lined Slippers of course to keep your feet warm
and for really cold DX nights a hot water bottle is a must.
Now Kevin found operating the Radio a little hard with the Big Gloves on, he has asked for a bigger VFO knob to be fitted on all radios as this could be the way forward he thinks.
The biggest problem was when operating the keyboard four keys would be pressed at once, this resulting in some funny callsign being entered into the logbook, Kevin has asked if we can look into the bigger keyboards with bigger keys on them.
Kevin feels the first run out was a success and looks forwarded to other Members coming forwarded with more warm Ideas.
P.S
I think I will just stick to the 3KW Heaters :).
This Years Team
Top Left Dave Wilkinson from YWT, Phil M0VEY, Kevin M0KVK, Andy G7LRR, Paul 2E0WPW Dave 2E0TKO, Andy M0TTL, Jason M0MGF, Ian M1DHJ, and not in the picture Marcin M0GLV
Well, what a great weekend’s event as always at spurn point lighthouse.
Big thank you to the Yorkshire wildlife trust @ spurn, Andrew Mason, Adam Stoyle, and the team, for making us all feel very welcome and helping us make this yearly event possible.
Was good to be back on Spurn point after not being able to get down for the last two years and talking to the team down there again was good to have a catch-up.
We tried our best to put on a good station and get the public involved in what we do.
We spoke and worked many other lighthouses and lightships around the globe, as we could also this year work a digimode called FT8.
Not sure about the numbers we worked on as I write this, but will post once done I do know it was in the three hundred range.
Apart from operating radio which is why we were there, it’s great to also relax at spurn point taking a nice walk around and taking in the wildlife, one of the highlights was Binks and Basil coming to pay us a visit and feeding them by hand, these are some of spurn points foxes which over the years the RLNI lifeboat crews have made friends with along with the teams that work with and for the YWT.
All in all a great event looking forward to going back next year.
I know there’s talk of BBQ next year as well that will beat my pot noodles this year hi hi.
Some pictures to highlight the event
Once again, the Humber Fortress ARC club working alongside Yorkshire Wildlife Trust will be putting a live HF Radio Station on the amateur radio bands from Spurn Point Lighthouse. From 21st August and running until 1500 hr 22nd August. The club members are really looking forward to this event. With the move of the radio Club in 2019 and Covid restrictions in 2020, we missed out on our annual trip to the lighthouse.
There are two lighthouses situated close to each other at the southern end of the point. There have been lighthouses on Spurn since 1427 due to the dangerous currents and sandbanks that lie beneath the Humber’s surface.
There is little record of what Spurn’s earlier lighthouses looked like, but we know they have been built in pairs since 1674 and at least eight have been swept away in storms. They were built in twos (called high and low lights) to help sailors navigate in the Humber estuary. In 1852 the last, and still standing, low light was built. However, when the present lighthouse was built the low light was no longer needed as three additional lamps were placed in the body of the lighthouse instead. It has since been used as an explosive store and a water tower. Now it stands deserted.
Thomas Matthews designed the present lighthouse in 1893-5 when the previous one was discovered to be cracking. It stands on an artificial rock foundation that goes down 22 feet (7m) and took nearly two years to build.
Later the oil lamp was converted to electricity (1941) and gas (1957) on which ran until 1985 when it was last used.
First Lighthouse built: 1427
Current lighthouse built: 1893-5
Height: 128ft (39m)
Steps: 145
Made of: 300,000 Staffordshire bricks
Designed by: Thomas Matthews
Built by: Stratten’s of Edinburgh
Last day of use: 31st October 1985
Location: End of Spurn Point.
We will head down to the lighthouse on Saturday morning at 7 am. The trip starts with a ride in the YWT Unimog as the road has been breached over the years and the Unimog makes easy work of getting across the difficult terrain.
Once down at the lighthouse, the equipment will be unloaded from the Unimog, then we will start to set up the station.
One job is to climb the 145 steps to the top of the lighthouse, then lower a 300-meter rope over the side which we run out along the beach. Then we will put halyards along this rope to run 160m 80m 40m dipoles and verticals from.
Once we have set up the station we will be on the air! Please call in into the event if you hear us on the air using callsign GB2SL.
If you fancy a walk down to the lighthouse, please come along but remember to check tide times before travelling.
Please see the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust website for more info.
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