Last week, I took the opportunity presented by good weather and lighter evenings, and activated both the Lodmoor parks in Weymouth. So far so good, but that’s not all Weymouth has to offer the POTA activator—there were still three more to go. And so, the following week…

POTA on the Beach in Weymouth

First up was the Rodwell Trail (GB-4190), once part of a railway line that connected Weymouth and Portland. This had never been activated for POTA before, probably in part because it’s quite new to the programme, but possibly also due to the lack of open space. Just about the whole of the trail is bordered by steep cliffs, and the parts that aren’t are covered in dense undergrowth. However, the POTA rules helpfully allow any activation spot within 30m of a trail “park”, so I took advantage of this and grabbed the small and difficult-to-access beach immediately west of Castle Cove sailing club. At this point the Rodwell Trail is also part of the South West Coast Path, GB-1265, and King Charles III National Scenic Trail, GB-0711, so an automatic 3-fer.

I had 19 QSOs here, all on 20m with the FT-891 at 100W and the JPC-12 vertical, the base of which was approximately 5cm above sea level! Highlights included John 9H1XT, only my second Maltese SSB contact, and Dana YO3DYL also operating as YP0FD and YP1EX.

After the Rodwell Trail, I moved on to Chesil Beach (GB-0066, GB-0183 and GFF-0330). Being a huge bank of pebbles 200m wide and nearly 20 miles long, I was spoiled for choice of where to set up, but since I didn’t have a lot of free time I just parked in what’s now called the “Wild Chesil centre” on the causeway and walked a few hundred metres up and along the peak of the beach. Back when I used to live here, the cafe on this site used to have an extremely greasy “dirty burger” option; it looks like it’s gentrified somewhat in the intervening decades and is now part of Dorset Wildlife Trust.

My activation location on Chesil Beach

For some reason my antenna SWR was a little off here, despite me setting it up the same way as always, and my radio didn’t seem to want to let me use more than 50W. However, I made 26 QSOs in 23 minutes, so this certainly didn’t prevent my signal from getting out.

The final location was Radipole Lake (GB-0196 and GFF-0104). This was another more difficult one, as the majority of the park is water and shallow reed-beds, with only a single path providing access for visitors. However, the park is quite big, and towards the north-west end I found a flat grassy area that (at least in May) is not too damp. The background noise from the main road wasn’t great, but the 20m band was steadily performing better and better for me, and I got 25 QSOs in the log before it was time to pack down and head home.

Many thanks to my all my contacts yesterday for helping me complete my round-up of Weymouth’s POTA parks. See you on the air next time!