NPOTA Activation at Naval Live Oaks

Naval Live Oaks near Gulf Breeze Florida is part of Gulf Islands National Seashore. The NPOTA designator is SS08. I am planning to support a BioBlitz/Biodiversity Festival event at Naval Live Oaks on May 21st. So the trip was in part to check out the site prior to the event and I might as well make it an activation.

My antenna choice was the Bravo 7K from N6BT.com. It worked very well for my activation at the Jimmy Carter Plains Georgia site. It has the advantage of being self supporting. Neither NLO or the Georgia site wanted me to use the trees. I find the Bravo 7k works fine on 40 meters but not so well for the close in contacts. This is because a vertical has a null for the high angles required for NVIS.
I did locate the Bravo 7K as close the the shore as I could without being in the way.. The picnic area has saltwater on the south side.

The rig this time was the Icom 7100 that packs up with a tuner and battery in a toolbox. I used my dog stroller to get the gear to the picnic area. Suzy does not need the stroller. I started on 40 meters. I actually worked three other activators at PK04, RC04 and HP17. I worked W4MQC who was maritime mobile. KM4ELJ, Mike, was able to pull me in. He is near Panama City. A highlight was working Tom WD0HBR from Dothan, Alabama. His rig was a Frog Sounds at one or two watts. I think he came in better on my end that I did on his with 50 watts.

I had more than the ten contacts required on 40 but I went to 20 meters to test out the antenna. I had three on CW. Then on SSB I got a string going. I stopped before it became a pile up. I want to save some for the May 21st event. I will use this same setup then.

The weather was nice and sunny. I got a little burned as I never got around to using the sun-screen. Suzy found some shade under the picnic bench. The park filled up as it was a great time to be outdoors.