*DXPEDITION REPORT* 2DA/MD-004S Kent Island

On April 7, 2023, I arrived at the activation site on picturesque Kent Island (MD-004S), on the banks of Chesapeake Bay, full of excitement for my first islands dx adventure of 2023.

Furthermore, in line with the Amateur Radio Lighthouse Society’s (ARLHS) parameters around LOTA activities, I was able to confirm that the nearest lighthouse — Bloody Point Bar — was easily visible from my seaside location.

Fortuitously then, the presence of this maritime safety structure made my venture here a double entity dxpedition — both NV/IOTA and Lighthouse On the Air (LOTA) — which was a bonus!

First lit in 1882, this round ‘spark plug’ tower (nicknamed ‘the coffee pot’) is located just off the southern tip of Kent Island, marking the entrance to Eastern Bay, and carries the LOTA reference USA-063.



Testing propagation, my first QSO as 2DA/MD-004S was at 13:40 UTC using a simple car mount mobile antenna, delivering a nice signal into Puerto Rico island via 11SD119 Mike.

After a couple of QSO’s, however, I deployed a 1/4 wave vertical ground plane antenna on the sand dune near the water, with an encompassing view of surrounding seascapes, including the historic offshore lighthouse (pictured above) and Chesapeake Bay’s deepest shipping channels.



From there we went into full steam, working many hungry 11m band island and lighthouse chasers.

Contacts with the Americas (North, South & Central) were as abundant as the many seabirds which squabbled amongst the beach vegetation nearby.

Among them were fellow DA-RC members 2DA120 Tom in the US state of Washington, 3DA002 Roger, 3DA007 Ali, 3DA016 Marcos, 3DA148 Tony, 3DA011 Luiz and 3DA001 Tulio in Brazil, and 196DA010 Roberto on Guadeloupe Island in the Caribbean Sea.



These guys soon gave way to an opening with Oceania and also with Europe.

172AT101 Philippe on Grande Terre Island, 201AT155 Jean-Yves in French Polynesia and 43DA648 Ray on the east coast of Australia were grateful additions.

14DA010 Stephane and 14DA073 Thierry in France were also added to the log and while propagation on eleven meters today weren’t that great, I managed to achieve a total of 80 QSO’s with 24 unique countries which is quite satisfying.

My last QSO as 2DA/MD-004S was at 20:52 UTC, after which time I departed the island getaway for my home QTH in Maryland.


Thank you and congratulations to all the operators who worked this NV/IOTA station, and to the many DA colleagues who got ITL and posted support on the clusters and Facebook.

I know many others wanted to work me also, but unfortunately the band conditions did not help.

Nevertheless, it was a highly enjoyable dx adventure!

Good news is that I’m hoping to return in the future to reactivate Kent Island / Bloody Point Bar Lighthouse, in another double entity dxpedition.

73 de Tim, 2DA012


LOG SUMMARY

* Divisions worked:  1, 2, 3, 5, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 22, 30, 31, 34, 37, 43, 61, 88, 103, 136, 172, 196, 201, 218, 232