I just got back from a couple of days on the South coast. I spent a day at Birling Gap and walked up the chalk cliffs at Beachy Head, then on Monday, I spent the afternoon at Dungeness. My plan was to do some photography during the day and some HF operating at night.
After a day of strolling around this strange landscape, I finally got round to setting up the HF station. I used an 85AH Leisure Battery, Yaesu FT-897D at 100W and the antenna was an inverted V for 80m up on a 9m fibreglass pole. I was facing a fantastic sunset (and the two nuclear power stations) as can be seen below.
Parked up at Dungeness for some HF operating whilst watching the sun go down.
I used a few different bands, 40m, 60m and 80m. Conditions on 60m and 80m were great for local contacts and I got good signal reports. It was an interesting spot to operate from. The sea was only 100m or so behind me and Dungeness is a large area of shingle which pokes out of the south coast into the English channel.
Sunset at Dungeness
I operated until after sunset, and it was the night of the ‘supermoon’, which made the location more surreal! I got a few night shots and then headed home about 11pm. It was certainly an interesting place to visit and I will be sure to go back again! Thanks to all those I worked…
Dungeness Lighthouse. This one was built in 1961 because Dungeness A Nuclear Power Station obscured the old lighthouse of 1904 which is behind me here.
Here is a short video of the HF operating: