Hello everyone! I had another Saturday to operate at Port St Joe, Florida. Two hours of the morning was the RaDAR On The Air Meetup. The first hour was 40 meter and the second 20 meters. I brought my QRO portable setup as I thought the bands would be in bad shape. To the contrary, I found the bands were doing great for this part of the Solar Cycle. There were many good occurrences that made it a memorable day outside on the radio including:
- Mac W4NFG who lives in Port St Joe paid me a visit in person. He later contacted me from his home.
- I was able to work friends Bob WB4BLX and Don KK4DWC in the Panama City Area on 40 meters SSB. I also worked Bob on 40 meters CW.
- Although our club did not do JOTA this year. I chatted with scouts doing JOTA from two locations in Florida, Alabama, and Oklahoma.
- I also worked my Friend Tom WD0HBR in Dothan. He was running 5 watts CW to a random wire antenna.
- I have friends in Sturgis, Michigan John W8JER and Micky KE8ASK. John's station was booming in on 20 meters SSB. We had a good chat. John and Micky will be coming down in January to winter in Panama City.
- My friend Jim K4LIX from Panama City got a signal through on 20 meters he was about 30 miles away.
- John VA3KOT of Ontario, a RaDAR community member, found me on 20 CW. He said they had snow up there.
- To my surprise 10 meters was open and I worked my SKCC Friend Bert F6HKA on CW. I have worked Bert on almost every HF band. He took several minutes to chat.
For the contacts above I used a Wind Camp 40 meter Off Center Fed Dipole hung at least 30 feet high in a pine tree. It fit the bill for my 40, 20 and 10 meter contacts.
 |
| The Pine that supported the 40 meter OCF Dipole |
 |
| My Icom 7100. The rest is in a tool box.not shown |
 |
| Suzy helping out. |
In the spirit of RaDAR I put away the QRO rig and loaded up my backpack with my KX3 and Alexloop. Suzy and I took a long walk. I returned to the same spot and setup. I was pleased to add more contacts running QRP including:
- S57DX Slavco on 17 meters SSB.
- DK0SU on 15 CW
- NJ2BB on board the Battleship New Jersey on 17 meters CW
- W1AW/6 at Pacificon on 17 meters SSB
- N5YT on 10 meters CW
- W4BXI on 40 CW
- W5ODS operating SOTA om 20 CW
All together I made 18 QRO contacts and 10 QRP contacts. We had perfect weather and good HF propagation. Suzy and I enjoyed the day.
 |
| The Alexloop |
 |
| My Elecraft KX3 |
 |
| The Cape San Blas Lighthouse was in view. |
