An hour at the seaside.

Earlier this year I sold my KX2, it was just not getting used and I bought a Yeasu 891 to replace it with. Not that the KX2 is not a nice radio, it is, but my hobbies also include Short Wave Listening and also AM station listening of which the KX2 is not really built for. I don't do CW and sometimes need more than 12w output. That's another story.

With the Easter Bank Holiday looming. We headed off for a well deserved break to Normans Bay East Sussex. I though it would be a good idea to take with me said shiny new Yeasu 891 and one of my older model 100w EFHW antennas for a quick QSO on the beach. Old in the sense it takes a PL239 and does not have an integrated winder, which is a pain.

It's been a couple of months since I last went pedestrian portable so before leaving home I packed way to much gear. Radio, Headset, Antenna, CMC, Coax,Patch Lead, RigExpert AA54 antenna analyser, 6m fibreglass pole (7m actually but the top snapped), string, pen knife, roll mat to sit on, 5,200mha battery various ground stakes etc. Anyway everything I though I would need.

After a couple of beers earlier in the afternoon I set off from the campsite to the beach and setup. Nothing special just a sloped EFHW next to the sea. 1m from the sea to be precise, with the tide going out. A very important thing to do is ensure after you have had a couple of beers is to ensure the tide is going out.

I checked the SWR which was pretty much 1:1 across the whole of 20m band did a couple of calls back to some very loud stations and then set a frequency of 14.216mhz for me to call CQ Portable on.

Using 50w into the antenna I had some nice chats with fellow radio amateurs including a couple of other portables and one BQ3 who's call sign I could not complete, so it does not count. See below some QSO's.

Anyway all was good and the nice coast guard helicopter waved at me when they flew by, or at least I think they were waving at me? Until I was slobbered on by a wet Cocker Spaniel, that's when you know its time to leave.

I'll be out on a SOTA soon on 20,15 and 10 with the new antenna. I'll let you know how it goes.

M0VUE

P.S. Top tip, never sit crossed legged for an hour without checking you can still feel your right leg. I didn't and fell over when standing up!