Well again, at the beach.  You read my experiences with VHF/UHF in Bethany Beach, Delaware.  I also set up and HF station and had much more luck with that.

Because we stay in a house, I was able to set up a semi-permanent station for the week.  It consisted of an Alinco 30 amp power supply, an IC-7300 transceiver, a 25 foot telescoping pole, 100′ of coax, and a Chameleon EmComm III wire antenna.  In 2020 I used a Junior G5RV that worked well on 40 meters and above.  This year was the first outing with the EmComm III.

Partly by design and partly by luck the house has a flagpole attached to the elevated porch.  I used that to put the EmComm III antenna wire (73′) in an inverted V configuration, the apex being the flagpole at about 30 feet.  The far end of the wire was tied to a tree in the front yard and the near end/feedpoint was secured to a fiberglass pole at about 20 feet in the side yard.  A 25 foot counterpoise ran straight off to the back yard.

You can just see the antenna running from the flagpole down to the left of the white truck.  The wire was well clear of the vehicles and steps.  This also shows the angle I had to put in the antenna to make it fit the lot.  The operating position is just behind the right most windows of the sun porch.

The feedpoint is at the top of the pole and the counterpoise runs above the fence to the back of the yard.  This photo looks toward the front of the house.  The concrete block and pipes you see are base setups that I didn’t need.

The transceiver and power supply were set up in the sun porch of the house with the coax running out one of the windows to the feedpoint.  Setup took about 1.5 hours but most of that was getting the antenna strung evenly.  There was an angle of about 160° between the two ‘legs’ of the V.  I could not get away from this because of the size and configuration of the lot.  The ‘shack’ was comfortable, if a little warm in the afternoon sun.  I solved the sun problem with makeshift curtains made of plastic bags and beach towels.  Voice operations ran at 100 watts and digital at 50 watts.

This was my operating position.  Easy access to the radio and computer and I was away from everyone else unless they came out to sit on the sun porch.  The windows to the left (out of the picture) were blocked with ‘curtains’ mentioned elsewhere.

Results were good.  My VNA showed SWR of well under 2.0:1 on 40 meters and most of the other HF bands.  Eighty meters was slightly over 3.0:1 and could be tuned out but the antenna was too inefficient for good results.  Woody, K3YV did copy me on the Rooster Net but it was all I could do to hear his signal.

Results on 40 and above were much better.  I was able to check into ECARS at 7.255 mHz and got good signal and audio reports.  Running WSJTx on 40, 30, and 20 meters I was able to make between 20 and 30 contacts at various times during the day and evening.  Take down took less than an hour.  Most of that spent winding wires back up.

I was very happy with the results and will repeat the effort next year as we plan to be in the same house.  Based on discussions with Jim, W3FET, I’m considering a truly portable station from the beach itself.  That will take more planning since I’ll be limited to morning and evening operating hours to stay out of the way of the heavy beach occupancy during the day.  I may also consider a smaller and lighter battery powered transceiver and much more portable antenna.

As I like to say, this offers ‘proof of concept’ for portable operations with limited hardware.  Next year I hope to see more success.

An interesting aside from my last day there.  While walking around Bethany Beach I saw what were certainly amateur radio antennas on the rear of the Bethany Beach Fire Station.  They must have a station in there.  Last year I could not get in because of the pandemic.  This year on the last day I walked up to the station, it’s only a block away, and talked to one of the younger firefighters.  He had NO comprehension of amateur radio other than they have a dispatch room they use in disasters.  When I tried to explain that the one antenna was probably for 80 meters and the one could ‘talk around the world’ he said, ‘Oh that must be what we use to talk to Ocean City.’  I gave up at that point.  Later in the day I exchanged an email with a Sussex County ham who told me that they have amateur radio stations in all the fire stations and use them for public service events and disasters.  He promised to give me a tour next year.

The rear of the Bethany Beach Fire Station.  You can just see the folded dipole running across the station and a VHF/UHF ground plane on the center pole.

73, Carmine, K3CWP