QRP from the Seashore
July 2017

Judy and I drove over to the beach today. It was glorious! We got lots of sun, had a fantastic walk,
and I operated in the CWT sprint for a few minutes. The highlight of the operating was making a
beach-to-beach QRP QSO with K4KRW in North Carolina.



We drove over to Rye Harbor in the morning and had a picnic lunch as soon as we arrived. Then we
walked a couple of miles along the beach. After this Judy lay down on the shore to soak up
some sun. I rode my bike about a half mile inland to play radio for a while. I'd brought a kite, but
there wasn't quite enough wind to lift an antenna... so I went in search of some trees. I found a wildlife
area not too far from the road.  A narrow path leads through the woods to a platform overlooking
a beautiful inland marsh.



Except for the heat (high 80s in the shade), the spot was perfect. I had a 30 foot tree nearby and
set up the wire as a sloper. The little deck even had a chair and a bench to operate on.  I ran the KX3
on 20 meters and right away worked IK0YVV in Italy. Marco gave me a 559. Then I worked Gilly,
WA5SNL in Texas. He also gave me a 559.



After signing I tuned up to the QRP frequency. K4KRW, Richard, was calling CQ. To my delight,
he was operating from a beach in North Carolina with a KX3 and an end-fed wire. But... his wire
was lifted by a kite! After arriving home, I found an email from Richard with a photo of his
operating position.



We had a great QSO and exchanged 559 signal reports. What a thrill to work another
KX3 operator on the beach!

Now the CWT sprint had started and I joined in. I only operated for 10 minutes,
because by now my shirt was drenched and I'd had enough of this heat. Here's
my log. I've changed it to reflect the other station's QTH instead of the CWOPS
member number used in the real exchange:

19 Jul-17 1840  14.028 IK0YVV CW 559 579 Italy Marco  
19 Jul-17 1848  14.029 WA5SNL CW 559 579 TX    Gilly  
19 Jul-17 1854  14.060 K4KRW  CW 559 559 NC    Richard   
19 Jul-17 1902  14.036 AA3B   CW 599 599 PA    Bud  
19 Jul-17 1903  14.035 K9CT   CW 599 599 IL    Craig  
19 Jul-17 1903  14.034 AD8J   CW 599 599 NC    John  
19 Jul-17 1905  14.032 K4RO   CW 599 599 TN    Kirk  
19 Jul-17 1907  14.026 N4ZZ   CW 599 599 TN    Doc  
19 Jul-17 1908  14.036 N2SR   CW 599 599 NJ    Tom  
19 Jul-17 1909  14.034 NR4M   CW 599 599 VA    Steve  

With this I packed up and headed back to Rye Harbor. This is really a beautiful spot.
Wild rugosa roses form a hedge along the road and fill the air with fragrance. Next to
the harbor is a little state park with facilities. It's a perfect place to spend the day.