On Friday evening (18th Oct 2013) I drove down to the beach at Corny Point and set up my gear, hoping to get some contacts on the 7130 DX Net.  It was a really warm evening, so shorts & t-shirt & thongs were in order.  I found a nice little parking spot on Lighthouse Road, which had some steps leading down to the beach.  There were no issues with lighting, as there was a full moon.  The beach was beautiful and sandy and there was just a very gentle breeze coming in off the Spencer Gulf.  Everything seemed to be perfect…so what about propagation conditions ?

After setting up the 40m/20m linked dipole on the 7m squid pole, I turned the 817nd on, and the signals coming in from the 7130 DX Net were very strong.  The noise floor was virtually non existent, so I decided to give the 2.5 watt setting a go.  And it paid off, as people were hearing my little QRP signal.

I had a few very interesting QSO’s during the evening on the DX Net.  They included Wolfgang VK2LKW who was operating portable from the Deua National Park in New South Wales (5/9 both ways); special call ZM90DX (5/9 S and 5/2 R); Brian ZL2ASH (5/9 S and 5/7 R); and Rod VK4FLYT who was running QRP 3 watts (5/8 S and 5/4 R).

Below is a photo taken during the day (the following morning) of where I operated from.

After the 7130 DX Net closed, I decided to go up to 20m and have a quick listen in on the Southern Cross DX Net.  Again signals were strong so I decided to check in, bumping my power up to 5 watts.  I managed to make contact with Larry W4VES (5/9 S and 5/2 R), and Bill W1OW (5/9 S and 5/3 R).

During my 2 enjoyable hours on the beach, I had managed 15 QSO’s in total on 40m SSB and 20m SSB.

I worked the following stations:-

Mal VK5MJ; Wolfgang VK2LKW/p (Deua NP); ZM90DX; Brian ZL2ASH; Andy VK4TH; Shaun VK5FAKV; Rod VK4FLYT (qrp 3 w); Roy VK7ROY; Paul VK5FUZZ; Frank VK3GFS; Iva VK4HG; Steve VK2MD; Greg VK2XE; Larry W4VES; and Bill W1OW.