A Trip to the Beach
July 2018

Judy and I went to the beach today. I set up the KX3 near Rye Harbor.
I only operated about 10 minutes, but made two nice contacts on 20 meters.



After walking a few miles along the shore, I sat down near Rye Harbor. What
a stunning day! 86F and crystal clear. Just a few feet in front of the bench where
I set up was a rose bush with some bind weed flowers popping through.



I raised the 30 foot DK9SQ mast with a wire attached and strapped it to the back
of the bench. Then I started tuning around 20 meters. Oh... the propagation was
awful. But Donna WB9TFF was calling CQ from Wisconsin and had a strong signal.
She gave me a 579 and we had a great QSO.



Then I called Mike K4GMH in Virginia. After a couple of overs, the QSB hit us and he could no longer
hear me. Before I knew it, he disappeared too. He went from a 589 to nowhere. I've operated at the
beach at least a half dozen times. I can never remember a time when I didn't work a bunch of
European stations. The bands were really at a low today.



Judy and I had brought our bicycles. Before heading home, we rode a couple of miles along the
shore. Even though the bands were lousy, the day was glorious and we enjoyed every minute of it.