8:15 am - I finish loading up the AF4PS Camry and throw a 2m 1/4 wave 
magmount on top for my HT. (I even do 2m QRPp!)  Heard some snowbird W8DIZ 
who was traveling south on the road immediately!  Diz's fancy mobile 
antenna (have you SEEN that thing?) picked up my 1/2 watt about 15 miles away!

8:45 am - DIZ BOUGHT BREAKFAST!!!!!! (Paul and I both CONVENIENTLY forgot 
to stop at the ATM.)

9:45 am - We head to Ft. Desoto park - CONVOY!!!!

10:00 am  - We arrive at the proposed site -- COOL no one had grabbed it 
.  One big tree, several small trees, 4 picnic tables, bathrooms, just off 
the pier and beach!  Diz did a good job staking this out.

THE DIPOLE

10:15 am - A crowd gather to laugh at us trying to toss a wire over a HIGH 
limb.  After several tries Diz gives up with his side splitting from 
laughter, Paul is rolling on the ground laughing - no help at all, so I 
finally just tossed a water bottle over a limb softball style -- leave it 
to the wimp with a torn rotator-cuff to get the job done. sigh.

10:30 am - We now have the center of the dipole up 25 or 30 ft. with the 44 
ft legs sloping down in a vee.  one end tied to the charcoal grill, the 
other to a palm tree.  It's fed with 300 ohm window line.  Diz's Multi Pig+ 
tuned it up super on any band we tried.

10:50 am - We rest from the effort and try to disperse the heckling crowd.

THE PAC-12

11:00 am - I stuck up the PAC-12 for 15m with 6 radials. The bad part was I 
brought all my stealth colored wire and people could not see the radials... 
Diz had some fluorescent orange wire, but it was too comical watching me 
trip over the radials, I think. It worked pretty good, well it HEARD well.

THE J-POLE

11:30 am - We erected a SUPER field day antler.  Diz has used this before, 
last at Dayton, I believe.  It's a 20 meter J-pole made from 14g house 
wire, insulators, and the 33ft fiberglass push-up pole.  we lashed it to a 
palm tree and ran coax to my K2.  This antenna turned out to work the best 
of the lot, as 20m seemed to be the best band for us.  HOWEVER, Diz and 
Paul also made some amazing contacts on 40 for that time of day with the 
Dipole.

WAITING

We sat around watching "birds" on beach until the 2:00pm start time, (I 
learned a new word "EYE CANDY") but Paul noticed an odd thing.  There is a 
fenced in area at this beach for dogs - but dogs were all over, leashed and 
unleashed. THERE WERE SHOWERS FOR THE DOGS! Paul took pictures so watch for 
the pics later.  Leave it to Diz to stake out a DOG beach.

TWO HOURS OF FUN

We worked about 2 hours with contacts from California and Washington State 
to Vermont and CT.  That J-Pole was awesome.  Paul had to leave early 
'cause the baby was sick.  Paul's a good dad.  It was VERY windy and rain 
and lightening started, so Diz and I packed up and got ready to leave 
too.  That was when the ranger showed up.

I had to show him ID and explain Amateur Radio Field Day to him... he musta 
thought we were terrorists or something.  I'm glad Diz had bail money.  As 
soon as we were all packed, it stopped raining.  Isn't that the way?  Diz 
and I sat and watched the beach birds for a few more minutes and headed home.

Paul is gonna be the trustee of the WCF Chapter FP Call, and I'll back him 
up. Diz, of course, will have to provide bail money as needed.

It was fun.

Respectfully submitted,


-MAC-
AF4PS
FP-51