Skegness: What's it like?
I never used to like Skegness until I moved here and it was never a place
I would choose to visit if I wanted to travel to the coast, always preferring
the Cornish countryside, or resorts like Scarborough, my childhood family
holiday destination. I have a strong liking for the south coast too,
particularly Bournemouth and to the west across Dorset and Devon.

Skegness is a small coastal town of less than 19,000 population, yet it
feels much bigger. Skegness is a fairly typical English family holiday
resort - teaming with holiday-makers in the summer and relatively
peaceful in the winter months, though the season never really stops here.
Most of our visitors come from the Midlands and Yorkshire, but we also
get a lot of visitors from the north-east and Scotland. It is not uncommon
to hear Dutch, French and German accents as you walk around.

People are very friendly and welcoming - typical of this part of the country.
It seems that just about everybody who lives here has originated from
another part of the country, though I suppose this is quite usual for
coastal areas because many people choose to retire to the seaside.

Skegness has a lot more going for it than some people inagine, but you need to spend a good deal of time here and explore all those little places
which are tucked away, well off the regular tourist routes in order to fully appreciate the area. Skegness might be a town of endless amusement
arcades, chip shops (A few very good ones too!), burger joints and tacky gift shops, but it is also quite an affluent area with golfing ranges and
nice places just outside town. Skegness took the top spot in a recent survey by "Yours magazine" which looked at the best retirement places in the
UK.

The streets are very clean and well-maintained by the local council and it is lightyears ahead of the miserable and murky North Midlands where
I used to live. The grass really did turn out to be greener on this side.

Amid the seemingly endless casinos and illuminations, from which the name "SkegVegas" derives, lies a small town which transforms itself from a
bustling family resort during the summer months, to an empty and peaceful vista out of season, but that season never fully ends as many places,
including the ever-popular Butlins resort, stay open year-round. The famous illuminations carry on until November. Many hotels and guest houses
always seem to be displaying their "No Vacancies" signs right up to the new year and daytrippers galore always visit each weekend, no matter what
time of year, but the peace and tranquility of the areas which lie immediately outside the town are quite spectacular in their own way.

Blue Flag beaches sprawl the entire Lincolnshire coastline and the golden sands seem to run without end. There are numerous nature reserves tucked
away in and around the large bay and estuary known as The Wash. The Lincolnshire Wolds, a designated AONB (Area Of Outstanding Natural Beauty),
is not dissimilar to parts of The Cotswolds and contains many tranquil rural settings with quaint villages and rolling hills, but the contrasting flat
Fenland scenery, just a few miles down the road, also has a natural beauty all of its own, offering never-ending 'big sky' views from horizon to
horizon with sparse population.

The weather is kind here too, the east coast officially being the driest and sunniest place in the UK. Those Wolds ofen have the effect of breaking up
inclement weather as it approaches from inland, so it is common to see cloud to the west while we have blue skies overhead and out to sea. We know
about it in the winter though when the winds swing round from the north-east. Brrrr!

That's eight paragraphs and no mention of radio! Skegness is a *fantastic* radio location and I would argue one of the best for VHF and UHF in the UK!
My Korner 9.2 FM antenna is less than a mile from the beach and I have probably experienced more than my fair share of ducting across the North Sea.
The VHF bands are awash with continental signals. Medium wave has also turned out to be far better than expected. Let's face it, this is the wrong
coast for receiving transatlantic DX, plus I am much closer to the continent here so European stations are a bigger problem, not to mention the fact
that I have to beam across the entire UK before my antenna sees any part of the Atlantic Ocean. There is one good side to this however, signals from
the western side of North America take a near 100% sea path,m arriving from the north, so I do quite well in hearing the west coasts of the USA and
Canada when that path is open. I have already received several western Canadian provinces and states, including Alaska and Canada's North West
Territories. Receiving DX from the Far East has also been nothing short of spectacular, with Japan being heard almost daily in the winter months.

Summarizing, Skegness does not have the most mountainous scenery. There are much nicer places. It's spectacularly poor for shopping. It does not
have dramatic clifftops and we are quite an isolated town. Lincoln, our nearest city, is 43 miles to the west. But my wife, who used to live here a
few years ago, has always adored the place and I too have become very fond, not just because of the excellent radio potential, but I know I would
really miss Skegness if I ever had to move away, which we often consider. Jane also lived in beautiful Looe in Cornwall and I know she would love to
return there one day. Who knows? Maybe one day we will move down that way.

Ah! It's now 2019 and here is an update! The move to Cornwall did indeed happen. Sadly, not for me. My wife Jane met up with an old boyfriend on
social media and she now lives with him. I was divorced a couple of years ago and now live alone. Oh look ... plenty of time to play radio now! :O)