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All photographs by Bill Newman....MØBNN...MMØBNN/p

In the 1999 & 2000 also 2001/2/3/4/5World Wide Lighthouses and Lightships Event , Wirral Amateur Radio Society where able to operate from Fort Perch Rock with the call sign GB2NBL

The photographs here are from the Jan 22/23 GX3NWR/2K/P The Club call sign activation at New Brighton/Perch Rock Lighthouse, we operated from my motor-home, when we arrived there was quite a heavy sea running and as you can see in photo, middle left, the sea was just starting to enter the car park, please note that the car park is NOT raised above the shore line , but on a level with the oncoming sea. lucky for us the the tide started to ebb. This is as near as it is possible to get to activate the lighthouse. The propagation was very poor and we only made 29 contacts but we did work 14 different Countries.Equipment: Yaesu FT 707 and Pro-am mobile whips for 7/14/21/28 MHz. In the WORLD WIDE LIGHTHOUSE AND LIGHTSHIP 2000 EVENT myself and Bob M0BZZ operated again from my motorhome/RV on 20/15 meters with the call sign GB2NBL while the rest of the W.A.R.S. team worked on 40m from the Fort.. Bob and I made 244 contacts including 14 lighthouses and 1 lightship plus a nice contact with Frank VK7BC in Tasmania who before he moved to Tasmania lived in this area.

Perch Rock lighthouse is located in the mouth of the River Mersey at the seaside resort of New Brighton and 6 Km. down river from the Port of Liverpool north west England. and for amateur radio/ham operators the W.A.B. is SJ39 Lat/Long 53. 26.6 N 03. 2.2 W .

QE2 Passing Perch Rock lighthouse

When the QE2 first visited the River Mersey and the city of Liverpool, it was the Wirral & District Amateur Radio Club who used Perch Rock Lighthouse under the special event callsign GB2QE. The event was arranged through the then Chief Medical Officer of the QE2 Dr Andrew Eardley G3UXO and the Chief Radio Officer Jim Barlow G3VOU with the co-operation of Cunard We chatted with them both from Perch Rock Lighthouse as they left Lisbon on their journey to Liverpool changing to VHF once they passed the Liverpool Bar Lightship, which was about 6.30 am in the morning. We had a sloping 80m dipole tied to the top of the lamp room right out to the breakwater and at 90 degrees to that an inverted G5RV for 20 and 15 meters and we ran both stations simultaneously. occasions. We also used the lighthouse for a subsequent visit of the QE2 under a different captain also with GB2QE and also for the Western Approaches Anniversary using GB8WA .. and there were other occasions.

On the 8th. June, 1827 the foundation stone was laid, it was designed on the lines of the famous Eddystone Lighthouse by John Foster and built with marble rock from the Isle of Anglesey by Tomkinson & company. Each piece of stone is interlocked into the next and the whole structure covered with a volcanic substance. The first 45 feet / 15 meters is solid and the total height ninety feet / 29.6 metres

It cost £27,500 /$110,000 ( at $4 to the £ ) to construct and was not completed until 1830 on account of the work only being able to be carried out at the low tide. the first light flashed across Liverpool bay on 1st. March 1830, the sequence being two white followed by a red, with a range of fourteen miles from the lamp house, which was seventy-seven feet / 25.3 meters above the half-tide level.

The "PERCH" in both the Perch Rock, New Brighton Lighthouse (which is only about 200 meters from the Fort Perch Rock) and the Fort, gets it's name from the fact that there used to be a wooden "PERCH" which carried a light on top of a pole. it was erected in 1683. this structure was continually being smashed by the heavy gales or damaged by ships. it was therefore decided to replace it with a stone lighthouse

LAST UPDATE 31th.OCTOBER 2007

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