[IRCA] Tybee Island, Georgia, Saturday Sunset

[Gil Stacy <gilstacy@xxxxxxxxx>]

Folks,

My foray to the beach last night was not as successful as the first and was
probably some sort of corollary to Murphy's Law regarding degree of
preparation with results being inversely proportional to the amount of
preparation and enhanced level of expectations. The first time I went last
week, preparation was an afterthought.  I carried a Bog reel, compass, and
two radios and a bag chair and clearly heard audio on 3 TA's, two on a ULR,
and numerous hets.

Yesterday, beginning at dawn, I drove to the beach to look for a better site
with a wider sand apron at high tide than what I had the first time.  High
tide was at sunrise and sunset yesterday so what I would see at morning
would hold true for last night.  I also soldered battery connections for my
pre-amp and phaser to be powered by a Duracell Instant Jumpstart System. I
loaded my E1, D96L, Palstar R30, pre-amp, phaser, two bogs, 500' and 325', a
bag chair and piece of plywood for a table top onto RollEeze collapsible
beach cart http://www.beachcartsusa.com/ and shoved off about a hour before
sunset.  The gear fit with room to spare into two plastic milk crates, the
type that make great loops a la Kevin and are usually available behind
grocery stores at night, just underneath the sign that states the criminal
penalties for unauthorized removal.  They will never take me alive.

I set up the rx, phaser and amp before rolling out the bogs.  I shot a 60
degree azimuth from rx to the edge break of highwater mark and the 325' bog
fit perfectly.  Plan was to aim the longer bog at 45 degrees.  To make it
fit the apron, it had to be laid 30 degrees.

I thought the set up was relatively perfect other than the longer bog's
azimuth, but I had success at 30 degrees the other night despite the beam
plowing up and through the Eastern seaboard.  Being above the high tide
line, beachcombers tend to avoid the sand apron or at least that's what I
thought.
However, tt seemed that every damn jogger, kid, and tourist walked across
the wires and two kids followed them to the water's edge.  I just knew they
were going to pull on it but they didn't.  Thoughts about buying an electric
fence charging set up for use on my next trip ran through the more evil
hemisphere of my brain.

I fed the bogs directly to the phasers without transformers.  I believe the
design can tolerate higher impedance matches.  However, phasing was not as
good as I experience at home.  I couldn't knock down much with phasing.
My home bog set up has the wires separated by only 3-4 feet running
parallel.  Perhaps that was the difference. I set at the dials from 2330 to
0100 and ran the dial from top to bottom and heard numerous carriers but no
audio. Strongest hets were at 1521 and interestingly at 1251.  It was cold
and windy and began to mist, so I reeled up an went home, being the victim
of too much planning, high expectations and lousy condx.

73 Gil
Tybee Island, GA
E1, D96L, Palstar R30
335', 500' BOGS
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