FT8, down at the beach.

Saturday mornings sometimes provide that rare event when the rest of the family have things to do, and I am left with free time to play radio!

So, off I went to the east side of Anglesey, down to Traeth Coch (the 'red beach'), which is well-known for excellent long-haul DX.

75 degrees of wide, open space...

From this location, depending on the tidal state, you either have an extremely large salt marsh environment, or a large extent of seawater immediately in front of you.

The 75 degrees gives this long-DX coverage!

This morning, it happened to be low water on a spring tide.  Being very shallow, the sea was nearly 2km away.

I set up the TS480SAT in the boot with my mobile whip for 14MHz.  The Raspberry Pi was with me in the front of the car, trying out FT8 at 15W.

Raspberry Pi bringing in signals from the far east.

Certainly, this proved to be a good fishing ground for long DX.  I had contacts into the Pacific coastal regions of Russia, and a couple into Japan (although impatient Italians stamped over the JAs, and prevented a confirmation.  Grrr!)

Well, I managed a good few calls altogether, and was very happy to get those DX with a very simple, cheap antenna and computer set up.

Horses and radio.  Perfect!

Even better was getting to chat with a mother and daughter taking their horses for some exercise.  As always, going portable or mobile is a great way to introduce others to radio, and introduce yourself to others' interests!