Ballycurrin lighthouse is the only inshore lighthouse of its kind in Europe. The Lighhouse stands approximately 22 ft high and the top section would have been used to burn timber as a beacon. It was probably built in the late 1700's by Henry Lynch to guide the Cong-Galway Steamer to the quay to drop provisions for Ballycurrin House. 
A survey of the site was carried out on Saturday and the location of the antenna was decided. Sunday was absolutely spot on when it came to weather. On Sunday morning Steve EI5DD was on site at 8:30 am and commenced work on the 40 metre antenna. By 9 am John EI7FAB and Joe EI3IX arrived and work on the 40 metre antenna was completed. An initial check with the MFJ antenna analyser revealed that the antenna was slightly too long for the so a quick adjustment had it spot on. In the mean time Joe, EI3IX had set up the generator, power supply, and FT100 ready for action.
The 40 metre band was quite lively and open well into Europe with a little activity from the UK. Unfortunately conditions did not permit contact with any Irish stations. 80 metres was our next choice. The 80 metre antenna was already in the final stages of construction so it was just a case of hoising it up and checking it for resonance. Once again a little had to be chopped off before it was suitable for the lower end of 80 Metres. Well the difference was amazing when EI4DC was worked at a good strength 9 followed by many more EI and UK stations. Conditions on 80 metres were good at this time. 
A call in to the IRTS 80 metre news resulted in us getting called back in second place which meant we must have been pretty strong. A small commercial whilst giving our report resulted in a mini pile-up on 3.667MHz. All of the EI stations and indeed the UK stations were strength 9 which is probably due to the fact that the antenna was only about 20 ft off the ground and also strung over a very wet soggy counterpoise on the lake shore. Many very enjoyable contacts were made and, as activity died down, we gave 40 metres another shot. We made a fair number of contacts before the activity died down. Conditions had changed on 80 metres and stations were becoming weaker in strength.
A change back to 40 metres resulted in many contacts into Europe and a number of UK stations were able to break through the QRM at this point the band was becoming noisy. At 3 PM we decided to head over to the local Pub for a pint, a sandwich and a debriefing session.
The results were impressive from this site although it does not qualify for the lighthouses on the air weekend. We printed QSL cards featuring the Lighthouse and lake scenery. We hope to activate this area again in the future.
