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Last evening Dave K1SWL, Tim W3ATB and I were at Bailey’s Island in Maine. We were there for Lobstercon… an annual QRP gathering at Cooks Corner. After dinner we went to the shore at Lands End. I set up a quick wire and worked Italy, Greece, and the Czech Republic before the mosquitoes carried us away.

As the sun went down we ate dinner at Cook’s Lobster House. The view was the very best.

Then we drove a few miles east to where the sea meets the land… Tim parked the truck with the back toward the beach. The view is breathtaking.

We ran a wire from the tail gate down to the beach. At most the wire was only 3 or 4 feet off the ground. I put the KX3 on the rocks and stood on the sand. I tuned across 20 meters, but didn’t hear many stations… so I switched to 30 meters.

I1ULJ/8 in Italy was calling CQ. I answered Sal and he gave me a 559. I knew I wasn’t strong because I had to send my call a few times… but we completed a good exchange. I had smiles on my face and mosquito bites behind my ear. I didn’t care. Then I heard SV2/RW3AL in Greece finishing up a QSO and I called. This time I received a 339, but that was fine. Again we had a good exchange. The next QSO was the best.

Now I switched back to 20 meters to see if anything had changed. There was OK2RJC in the Czech Republic just booming in. Jiri was calling CQ and I knew he’d hear me. When I answered I received a 589 and I received a “congrats on UR QRP signal.” I folded up the log book and put everything back in the pack. The darker it got, the more mosquitoes showed up to feed. We were exuberant….. with the salt air, the smell of the sea, the view, and the cross-Atlantic QSOs.

Thanks to W3ATB and K1SWL for photos.

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