I have never wanted a holiday by the sea before (well certainly not a UK seaside), but now that I have an Amateur Radio Licence, things are different, so I looked forward to the opportunity to play radio and reach further afield.
Luckily, the weather was superb for 5 of the 7 days and I was able to spend a good few hours relaxing on the beach with my FT-818 while my wife enjoyed a bit of beach-combing for the sea-glass that is famous in this area.
Using a SotaBeams 20/40 linked dipole, I enjoyed many QSO's across Europe, deep into Asiatic Russia and even into America on just 2.5W. One guy in Florida gave me what he described as a 'genuine 55', while another US operator gave me a 44. That's 7,000km or 2,800km/Watt 😮
Needless to say, I had to spend time with the Station Manager on trips to various places, but even that provided me with some opportunities to use Elecraft's amazing AX1 telescopic connected to the 818. Some of the trips included visits to Bamburgh Castle, Lindisfarne Holy Island, SeaHouses and Whitby.
When we got home, I started work on installing my YAESU FTM-300D, connecting it to a PC ready for both analogue and digital use on Wires-X. I eventually got it configured so I could use it in Direct Mode, Access Point (using my FT3D handie) or going through my OpenSpot2.
Now I've got another week off work to decorate our main bedroom and install new wardrobes. Phew!
1 comment:
Good morning Tom, very nice shots of the vacation! Julie and I went in England went to Holy Island and very cool that you have to wait until the tide is out for the road. We were also at Bamburgh as well. We also spent a week in London travelling about there. Julies was born in England and goes over each year for a month to travel and visit the family.
73,
Mike
VE9KK
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