Wow it's been a long time since I've written a blog and just sitting here in the car waiting for Caitlin to do some shopping and I thought why not.

Lately my focus and concentration has been on selling items on eBay and trying to build that as a form of business model to bring a little bit of income into the pot for playing portable radio. More on this in a future Blog :)

this will make an interesting blog for another time so keep a watch out for it.

in today's blog I thought it'd be interesting to talk about BOTA or BEACHES ON THE AIR.

Now I've heard a lot of different portable ops talking about summits on the air or parks on the air but not a lot of people know about beaches on the air.

Beaches on the air is much the same as parks on the air or summits on the air in that you activate an area, in this case a beach and gain points for activating and people gain points for chasing.

When I activated Culdaff beach (37295) for my first beaches on the air activation, I was asked by a lot of my contacts what beaches on the air was and where they could find information about it. I directed them to the beaches on the air website www.beachesontheair.com

So for me beaches on the air is a bit of a godsend in that I'm not able to climb mountains to do summits on the air and here in Ireland we don't seem to do parks on the air.

Given that I live on a peninsula there are plenty of beaches for me to choose and to set up portable and participate in a fun bit of portable radio.

Much like summits on the air, beaches on the air awards points to activators and chasers alike.

Their website also holds a league table of all of the activators and chasers.

So I set about getting my portable radio equipment ready.

You may remember a YouTube video that I produced back in 2017 (https://www.youtube.com/user/stevetck/) with regards portable radio equipment what has changed a little bit is the radio featured in that video the Yaesu ended up being repurposed for my HF packet radio bulletin board system.

So for my birthday in April (2019) I received a brand new Yaesu FT450d. I went for the 450d as I've had one of these before they're nice and small and they have a built-in tuner.

Ok so let's talk antennas I have two antennas that are used for portable use the first one is a 10-m fishing pole with a wire of the middle and the second is a small windom antenna that I use on a 9 m fishing pole.

 10m Fishing Pole.

Oh yes I nearly forgot that I have a small mono band 20 m mobile antenna for the car that I use when I'm stationary.

AMPRO 14MHz (20m) Mobile Antenna

Both of these antennas work very well and depending on the location and the surroundings depends on which antenna I choose to use.

Ok now for the power supply.

Here I have two options the first is a 45 amp hour sealed lead acid battery and the second option is a 30ah mains power supply.

I know a lot of people will be thinking that a 45 amp lead acid battery is going to be heavy but bear in mind I only operate from the car or just outside of it so having a heavy battery is not generally an issue for me.

The mains power supply that I have is generally used when mains power is available .

One of the other things that I have in my kit is a Signalink for doing digital modes. Digital modes of great when the bands are in very poor shape and you can still make contacts all around the world on just a few Watts.

The digital modes I can use my laptop that runs Windows 10 or I can use my Android tablet if required. This means that I can tailor my equipment depending on the location that I'll be working from.

I prefer taking my laptop when I go portable because I am able to use it to connect and control my radio this is great when using logging programs like ham radio deluxe. Ham radio deluxe has been my logbook of choice for many many years and is constantly being updated.

In summary for now beaches on the air has really given me a way to get outdoors and play radio at the same time. For most of us amateur radio hams we never seem to remove ourselves from the radio shack and the comfort of indoors.

It's nice now to get outside and have a bit of a challenge, it's also great meeting new people and explaining what amateur radio is all about and this is great for community relations between amateur radio operators and the local community.

But let's not forget the most important thing here is that I get to play radio and have a challenge.

I look forward to having a qso with you and have a chat on the air very soon. Don’t forget to check out the beaches on the air website at www.beachesontheair.com and register.

Here is some further information I have managed to get so far about BOTA – In terms of rules etc this will change as I get more information and I have no issue sending any updates I have in the form of a PDF file to your email address.

Beaches On The Air – BOTA

Beaches On The Air (BOTA) is an award scheme for radio amateurs that promotes portable operation from beaches. We have rolls of honour and awards certificates for activators (those who operate from the beaches) and chasers (those who contact them from home or elsewhere). 

You can participate from any beach, country or region around the world. Our programme currently lists more than 30,000 beaches & growing every month, often drawn from official sources, such as environmental protection agencies, but also allows the addition of individual beaches sponsored by users.

Activators and chasers accumulate points with each QSO. As an activator, you will earn points based on the number of QSO's you make, as well as the number of confirmations you receive from chasers through our website. 

As a chaser, you will earn points with each QSO that you confirm on the website. 

Unlike in other programmes, you can activate, or chase, the same beach as many times as you wish and you will always earn additional points. Unlike other programmes too, Beaches On The Air does not impose any restriction on how you get to the activation point or on the power source you use for your station. It supports energy efficiency, however, by creating a special category for QRP operations.

Facebook Group:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/beachesontheair/

Guidelines

In this page we will try to compile some guidelines for activators and chasers. These guidelines will evolve as the programme develops. They should be understood as recommendations.

1. Announce your activation. Whenever possible, you should add your activation to the Beaches On The Air website before it starts. You simply do not fill in the QSO count yet. You will be able to edit your activation to include the final QSO count after the activation has finished. This has the following advantages:
   1. It serves as an announcement of your activation for chasers.
   2. Chasers will be able to claim their QSOs with you immediately after making them, while the activation is still ongoing.
2. Promote Beaches On The Air. During an activation you should try to promote the programme among chasers by
   1. Calling CQ 'Beaches On The Air' in phone or CQ BOTA in CW.
   2. Responding to any other CQ call, referring to your 'Beaches On The Air' activation, and sharing your beach name and reference.
   3. Ensuring your activation gets posted on the DX Cluster, e.g. by asking your chasers to spot you there after their QSO with you.
   4. Inviting your chasers to visit the programme's website 'beachesontheair.com'.
   5. Encouraging chasers to claim their chaser points by confirming their QSO with you on the Beaches On The Air website.
3. Take pictures and videos. You should try to take pictures or videos of your activations. Other members enjoy this very much, and it also helps us promote the programme among visitors. When taking a picture or especially recording a video, please do it in landscape format!

Other things to note:

• No Minimum QSO count to activate a beach.
• No limit on the power you can use.
• No limit on the power source that can be used.
• No limit on the transportation to the beach.
• Digital modes are allowed but NO FT8/FT4
• you can activate, or chase, the same beach as many times as you wish
  

Leaders:

Leaders are activators with the greatest following among registered chasers. Leaders earn one point each time a chaser confirms a QSO with them.

Chasers:

Chasers earn points with each activation they work.

Activators:

Activators earn points with the square root of the number of QSO's they log on each activation.

Sponsors:

Beach sponsors contribute to the expansion of the program by sponsoring new beach listings, irrespective of who activates them. Each fee-paying member is entitled to a beach sponsorship allowance, and some of them choose to use part of their allowance to sponsor the listing of beaches activated by other users. You can contact them if you need sponsorship for your activation.