Penrose Point State Park by W7UUU

Set up on a picnic table at Penrose Point State Park on the Key Peninsula, this time running a 10-element beam but still only 3 watts on 146.520 - and as with my other two beach activations, was only able to reach my friend N7ANN who happens to be at a location all 3 of my beaches have line-of-sight to. Another issue has been competition with Summits on the Air (SOTA). Since I'm in an area with lots of mountains as well as beaches, the conflict has been tough! If I beam anywhere in the 270 - 90 heading, 146.52 is SOTA but they can't hear me because of my local terrain in the way. That means I can really only beam South, which from the 3 I've done so far, is pretty much pointing out at wilderness. So for my next efforts, I will add an amplifier to get me to 35 watts into the 10-element beam. That should at least get me contacts with the SOTA folks. I guess I should find some beaches more towards the cities - but the remote beaches are just so nice to seek out and explore! Just not a lot of hams near them it seems Once warmer dryer weather settles in, I'll be doing HF = "problem solved" :-) But in the meantime, I'm enjoying making the effort at least with 52/58 simplex on 2-meters. Dave W7UUU