I spent the most time at Eagle Harbor area at the Cape San Blas State Park. I sat within a few feet on water. It kept rising and I had to scoot back. My first QSO was K4ARQ in Tallahassee. That was good NVIS on the Alexloop. Then I switched to a 100 foot wire fed with 9 to 1 unun. I worked VA, FL and GA on SSB. I got a glowing report from KB8OTM in Lake City FL. Then I switched to 17 SSB and still on the 100 foot wire. I got MI, FL and IN. The Florida contact was Bob KK4DIV from 45 miles away in Panama City. He was weak but got that he was 5 watts portable. That is quite a close in contact for 17 meters. Next was LY1G Lithuania on 17 CW. I had a good run on W1AW special event stations. I got W1AW/7 Wyoming on 17 SSB and 15 SSB. Then I got W1AW/0 MO on 10 SSB and 10 CW.
I returned to the Alexloop and worked KF5RAU. He was running a 1/2 watt on a Rockmite. Awesome! I also worked KC9WY0/0 who had a 11 year old CW operator doing a great job. I decided to go to the beachside of the park with Alexloop. I worked VE4AKI in Manitoba on 17 meter SSB. We both were 10 watts. I also checked into the OMIS net with KK5EDD in OK as net control on 20 SSB. I got a sprinkle of rain and packed it up. It threatened rain all day but we had very little. Time was getting short and I drove back to Port St Joe area to Jetty Park. I got one last QSO. It was AF5U in Dallas, TX.
A great day and not overly hot. There was pretty good crowd taking advantage of the water at all three sites. Florida in May is hard to beat!
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| Eagle Harbor at the State Park. The wind was kicking up some waves. |
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| The Gulf Side of the State Park |
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| Jetty Park in Port St Joe |
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| My favorite picture of Eagle Harbor when the winds died down. Great Colors. |
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| A bird at Jetty Park |