A BEAUTIFUL PARK
Last year, I activated Egmont Key State Park with Anson (WU2F) and Pat (KX4HL at the time, now AA0O) for Florida State Parks on the Air. The island is beautiful and serene, and is surrounded by saltwater… making it a great place for HF!
A couple months ago, the three of us decided we’d like to return to this park for FLSPOTA 2019. We recently added a fourth team member, the newly-ticketed Amanda, KN4TPF. We requested and received the special event call W4E for the weekend, and just over a week out, we’re excited!
THE PLANS
We will travel by ferry to the park on Saturday, April 6th, with plans of being on-air around 11am EDT (1500Z) and operating until 1pm (1700Z). There’s a chance we may be able to stay until 5pm (2100Z), but it will be up to the ferry captain. I wouldn’t count on it.
Once on the island, we will set up three stations. The HF stations will use switchable bandpass filters to permit simultaneous operation on two bands.
- WU2F/N1COR will operate an HF station using a Yaesu FT-847 (with an FT-450D as backup), transmitting through a Chameleon P-Loop 2.0 antenna. We will also have an HFedz end-fed antenna and 12m Spiderbeam mast as a backup if we need to bump it up to 100W.
- AA0O/KN4TPF will operate an HF station using a Yaesu FT-891 into a 20m dipole or 40m wire vertical with elevated radials, supported by a 12m Spiderbeam mast.
- We will have a Kenwood 710G and Arrow antenna for FM satellite passes.
10-day predictions show 3 FM satellite passes during our time on the island:
- AO-92, 11° @ 10:41 EDT
- AO-92, 27° @ 12:14 EDT
- AO-91, 28° @ 13:05 EDT
Due to scheduling conflicts, I will return to the island on Sunday and operate W4E by myself, operating HF only. Expect the same timeline of 11am-1pm (1500-1700Z).
BY THE NUMBERS
- The FLSPOTA ID is EGK
- The WWFF ID is KFF-1863
- The POTA ID is K-1863
- The IOTA group is NA-034
- The Amateur Radio Lighthouse Society number is USA-269
- The northern half of the island, where we’ll operate, is in grid EL87oo