Kite Antenna at the Beach
September 2013
Judy and I went to the beach today. I launched
my antenna with a kite and worked Greenland,
Greece and Italy in less than 10 minutes.
It was a remarkable day. It was nearly 90F and not a cloud in the
sky. We headed
to the New Hampshire coast and arrived at Rye Harbor for a picnic
lunch.
After a walk on the beach, Judy went to swim, and I went up to the
point
and launched a parafoil kite.
There was a good breeze and it went up in a jiffy. I had it
up about 120 feet. At mid-point I placed a loop in the
line and tied my 33 foot wire to the loop. I had a nice vertical
and set up the KX3 right below the wire.
I started on 15 meters and heard Peter OX3XR in Greenland
with a strong signal. He returned my call and gave me a 599.
He went on to the next station. I was thrilled.
I switched then to 17 meters and quickly worked a special event
station SV130PAP in Greece.
Again there was a quick exchange of 599 and we signed. Back to 15
meters and
I heard IK3VUT in Italy calling CQ. Luca gave me a 559 and I gave
him a solid 599.
With that I shut the station down. In barely 10 minutes I had worked
three nice DX
stations with the kite wire and I was pretty excited. Who could ask
for more? Besides
I had agreed to meet Judy in a few minutes.