Kevin, K4PG and I started the 110 mile trek to Guano Reef in the
Florida Keys
(Fiesta Key KOA at MM70) at about 9AM. We stopped to visit Tim, N4UM
and his son
Mike, K4RUM on Islamorada at about 11AM where we enjoyed lunch, a tour
of the shack,
and the opportunity to watch a huge manatee drink water from Tim's
garden hose for
about fifteen minutes. We trekked the remaining twenty miles to Fiesta
Key, arrived
at about 1:45PM, and began setup. It took us only about fifteen minutes
to setup
the computer controlled, marine battery powered Elecraft K2 station on a
picnic table
under the chickee at the camp ground and to erect the 4BTV on the nearby
seawall.
We were up on twenty meters at just after 2PM and took one hour shifts
for each of
the next six hours. Conditions were fair - even fifteen meters was open
- but
participation was very light as expected. All afternoon, a thunderstorm
hung off to
our north and gave us a fairly high noise level. Fortunately, it never
did come ashore.
Later in the afternoon, the storm clouds gave us one of the most
beautiful sunsets ever.
As I write this, however, Hurrican Rita is heading directly for the Keys
and expected
to cross our exact location this evening!
Tim and Mike came down from Islamorada to visit us around 3PM, but
chose not to
operate. But at least Kevin and I were able to chat with them since we
wouldn't have
been able to talk to each other. When they arrived back at their homes,
first Mike,
K4RUM called us on twenty meters and we walked him through four bands.
A few minutes
later Tim, N4UM called us and did the same. We tried eighty meters, but
apparently
we couldn't tickle the 4-band vertical with enough RF there for Tim to
hear us. Later
in the afternoon, Kevin worked K4P, a special events station set up on
nearby Pigeon
Key to activate the IOTA. The organizer was Nelson, NE4LS, and I think
he later told
me they had about nine operators.
We had planned our six hour operating period to include at least
one hour after
sunset to give us some forty meter propagation. Unfortunately, the
above mentioned
thunderstorm prevented us from hearing any but the loudest stations on
forty.
Kevin did that last hour. I kept urging him to go to forty and log some
mults,
but since he was wearing headsets, I wasn't hearing the static levels
that was making
that near impossible. During the last few minutes though, signals
starting peaking up
and Kevin was able to work a few. In retrospect, we might have done
better if we had
started an hour or so later giving us more opportunity on 40M. But
trying to figure
which "six contiguous hours" out of the twelve would have the most
participants was a
guessing game at best. I beg the contest committee to reconsider that
rule and
designate the same six hour period for everyone next year!
Breakdown of the station took about the same fifteen minutes and we
were on the road
for home by about 8:15PM. Traffic was a little heavier driving back up
the Keys
and the drive was slow until we hit Homestead and the Florida Turnpike.
We finally
arrived at my house at about 10:30, dog tired but satisfied that our
final operation
as the Guano Reef Bashful Perverts was a success. We had been using
this same KOA
campground for Field Day for almost every one of the past 38 years! But
the campground
is to close in March and a developer will break ground for condominiums
next summer.
This operation is dedicated to Grant, N4GM - the third pervert
during our past few
Field Days - who was unable to join us this year for health reasons. We
also want to
thank Pat Larcomb of the Fiesta Key KOA staff for giving us the perfect
FD site for each
of the past few years, and for day passes in the occasional QRP sprint
such as this one.
Here is the band by band breakdown:
CW CW
band QSOs pts mults
-----------------------------
40 11 110 10
20 72 720 34
15 25 250 13
10 2 20 1
-----------------------------
TOTAL 110 1100 58 SCORE: 63,800
--
73, Bob Patten, N4BP Plantation, FL
E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Website: http://www.qsl.net/n4bp
QRP ARCI #3412 SOC #1 ARS #799 SMIRK #6625 FISTS #7871
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