My wife and I headed to our favorite park, Beavertail (US-2868) on Conanicut Island, RI, to watch the Eclipse this afternoon. We were too far to the east to enjoy totality, but we figured it would be fun to see 91% of the sun occluded. The weather sort of cooperated, with thin high wispy clouds and a temperature in the low 50s. But I didn’t quite plan on the stiff breeze blowing right off the water into our faces – I was shivering, especially my hands.
I figured that I could use this as an opportunity to try out my Elecraft KH1 and it’s built-in 41-inch whip antenna at a park. Despite my trembling fingers, I managed to make ten QSOs between 2:15 and 3:09 PM, all of which were during part of the eclipse. I was actually pleasantly surprised that folks could even hear me, but they did with a few fills required and signal reports ranging from 539 to 599. That completes another of my goals for 2024, by the way.
My view looking SSW from Beavertail – it was a nice early spring day but WINDY.
My Elecraft KH1 laying down on my chair. It was fairly easy to work 10 stations with the attached 41″ whip (and 13 foot counterpoise wire laying on the ground)
