There is a long history behind both events. I'll try to make it short. In 1976 the United States Congress, as part of our country's bi-centennial, ordained the FIRST weekend in August as National Lighthouse Weekend. It has remained so in the USA ever since, with many lights opening their doors to the public on that weekend and giving tours etc.
In 1996, following patriotic tradition, I suggested a ham radio national lighthouse weekend to coincide with the FOURTH of JULY and posted a notice to this effect on this new way of communicating -- the internet. It wasnt long before I heard a cry of objection from USA hams: "You can't do that! Lighthouse Week, by government decree and Congressional approval, is the FIRST week in August, with August 7th being National Lighthouse Day; so I posted another notice changing the date from July 4th to the FIRST weekend in August.
It wasn't long before I heard from Mike, GM4SUC, who said, "Hey, you can't do that! Lighthouse weekend is the THIRD weekend in August in Europe." I also heard from Finn Emsby, OZ4EL, and the Danish Lighthouse Society. Mike, Finn, and I got together, to lay down the plans and guidelines for a ham radio lighthouse weekend.
Mike was insistent on the THIRD weekend because any other weekend conflicted with some other European events. The active USA lighthouse hams at the time (notably N2OB, "Ol' Barney," the Barnegat Lighthouse club) insisted that we follow the Congressional decree of the FIRST weekend. Neither side would budge -- mostly out of national pride and tradition.
It was at this point that Finn wrote me a note suggesting that I create a national NLLW in the USA and allow the ILLW for an international weekend later in the month. He also suggested joining forces with the Danish Lighthouse Society to create a worldwide ham radio lighthouse organization. It was out of this idea and suggestion from Finn OZ4EL that the ARLHS was born, and the ARLHS and DLS have remained "sister societies" ever since.
So we all agreed to disagree on the dates. Two weekends were born, and in the next few years both events grew in popularity. In 1997 the ARLHS was born and in 2000 was officially recorded and trademarked.
Mike had wanted the ILLW to be an EVENT whereas the ARLHS Board of Directors was under growing pressure from its membership to make the NLLW and the ILLW contests. In 2001 the ARLHS took over the ILLW and kept the ILLW weekend in the beginning of August, the first weekend, making the event a QSO Party and contest.Shortly thereafter, Mike became a silent key, whereupon an ARLHS member defected and seized the opportunity to "hi-jack" the ARLHS membership and e-mail lists, claiming them for himself. He convinced Mike's Ayr Radio Club that since he had been on the ARLHS staff (as the Austral-Asian Rep) and had been co-ordinating the ILLW for the ARLHS that he should continue to do so. The Ayr Group agreed, and this individual insisted on the third weekend again. Thus, as it now stands there are two "rival" ILLW groups: an original "official" ILLW under the sponsorship of the ARLHS, meeting the first weekend in August and adhering to the USA Congressional declaration of August 7th as National Lighthouse Day; and the upstart "hi-jacked" group, consisting largely of European followers of the Ayr Group, holding forth on the third weekend.
Hope that explains it to all those history buffs who wanna know why!
Created on ... May 04, 2007