So, with a loose Sunday afternoon on offer, I took off to one of the north coast of Anglesey's beaches, where easy car access close to the sea is possible, and the kids could feed the ducks on a nearby lake.
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| Perfect... |
Armed with nothing more than an SO239 chassis mount and three wires cut for 15m, arranged as an elevated quarter wave, I set the whole thing up on a 7m fishing pole, and connected to my trusty TS480SAT.
Running just 20W maximum output on SSB, I was surprised to immediately break into a big pile-up working a Canadian station - although the reason for the pile-up wasn't immediately apparent. I worked a couple of US stations, all with good signal reports, and even one on short skip to Belgium.
Those contacts were enough to remind me - and all those machoistic folk around - that beach working with a simple quarter wave is extremely powerful and very satisfying. It's just a pity that there is a large cadre of folk out there who don't realise or accept this.
My initial rough estimate lengths for the vertical were a few inches too long. It took me about a minute to trim on site, achieving a 1:1 match with ease. It's not every antenna you can say that about!
What I didnt achieve was raising any interest amongst the public. A curious little boy was whisked away with nervous apology by his overprotective mother, after I asked them both if they'd like to hear someone in America. "Oh, it's a radio", said she, quickly diving into the comfort and safety of a car. The UK is a sad, sad place, now...
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