PCE News
GVSU Crew Activates Amateur Radio At Remote Lighthouse In Lake Superior
November 04, 2021
A group from Grand Valley traveled in August to the Upper Peninsula to participate in an amateur radio activation at a remote Lake Superior lighthouse.
The group included Nicholas Baine, associate professor of engineering; Jared Bergeron, lab technician for the School of Engineering; and Dan Mills, Grand Valley graduate and founder of the university's amateur radio club, W8GVU. Mills had the idea of doing what in amateur radio terms is called a "DX-pedition," a journey to a remote location, and connected with Baine and Bergeron.
Their journey to Stannard Rock lighthouse, 20 miles from Au Train, took nearly four hours by boat.
“We couldn’t take bigger boats out there because of the depth of the water at the lighthouse,” Baine said. “The whole point of the lighthouse being there is that it sits on Stannard Rock, which is like a mountain in the middle of Lake Superior.”
Carl Lindquist, executive director of the Superior Watershed Partnership and Land Conservancy, which works to maintain the Stannard lighthouse, stressed the importance of the structure. Not only does the lighthouse mark an area of shallow water, it is also vital for climate research by the United States and Canada, and serves as a historical landmark.
Credit: Michele Coffill (link)