April 16th, John (KJ4RSF), myself and my son Ross headed to Matlacha, FL to setup station in a small community park and enjoy a day in the field. The park has plenty of covered pavilions with concrete picnic tables and a grill for barbecuing. There are a few palm trees and some small oaks but nothing really high enough for launching antennas into, so we used 20' telescoping fishing poles to erect a 75' inverted L random wire.
Looking out at Matlacha Pass
The park over looks Matlacha Pass which is a back bay waterway leading to Charlotte Harbor and Port Charlotte. The other side of the Island is Pine Island Sound which separates Pine Island and Sanibel Island. The waters are loaded with fish and fishing is a major attraction in the winter months as tourist flock to the state like migratory birds.
Myself (left) and John / KJ4RSF
We setup station just after noon and were calling CQ by 1:00 pm. The bands were pretty decent with plenty of signals despite a spotless solar disk. This was John's first outing and also marked his first ever CW/QRP contact other than myself. John was running an OHR 100a by Oak Hills Research. It is a 40 meter mono band CW kit radio with a 5 watt output.
John calling CQ
I was using my Elecraft K1 on 20 & 40 meters. Since we only erected the one antenna, we would take turns making contacts while the other took a break for refreshments or took photos. It was a perfect day for a QRP/CW outing. Sunny and near 80 degrees with a slight breeze off the water that kept us cool. Signal reports were good with 5-9's & 5-7's the average.
The park also has a public boat ramp which saw plenty of traffic as fishermen and pleasure boaters launched there vessels. We would occasionally get interference from the older outboard motors. We got plenty of interested looks as by passers heard the CW tones and wondered what we were up to.
My son Ross spent the day fishing. He walked up the road to the Matlacha Pass Drawbridge and caught a few fish. Although he never brought anything back for dinner. All in all is was a great day in the field and is a location that we will definitely visit again. Thanks to all the stations who took the time to work our portable stations.
