K4L mini-DXpedition On 18 Aug 2007 the Motorola Amateur Radio Club (Florida Chapter, W4MOT) conducted the K4L mini-DXpedition to Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park. Located on the southern end of Key Biscayne (IOTA NA-141), the park is home to the Cape Florida Lighthouse (ARLHS USA-118), a fact we hoped would intrigue island chasers, lighthouse chasers, or hams just tuning around the band. KD4HKR, KI4LAA, KI4LNL, N4II, and N4PL started to set up at around 0830. We began by erecting our three element Yagi (courtesy of K4XF, who couldn’t be there). The park strictly prohibits digging, staking, or attaching anything to any tree, pole, or structure, so we used cement bags to weigh down the plywood-mounted antenna mast. Below is a picture of N4II placing cinder blocks to secure the mast’s guy wires. It was a good thing we guyed the antenna: Hurricane Dean was blowing through the Atlantic 600 miles to the south—far away enough for us to be safe, but close enough to kick up gusty WX. But the strong breezes were actually a blessing, keeping the warm South Florida summer day tolerable if not pleasant. |  |
N4PL (below) finishes setup of the vertical for 40m operation, using the same cinder block and cement bag securing technique.
Previous experience taught us that the pavilion’s 120 V mains can’t handle the load of a transmitting rig at 100 W and a computer without a detrimental voltage drop, so KD4HKR (below) set up a marine battery and a 1.5 Farad cap to supplement the rig’s power supply.
Here are N4II, KD4HKR, and KI4LAA getting tuned up to go on the air with the club's Ten-Tec Omni-VI.
KI4LNL is working PSK31.
We ended up with 268 QSOs, mostly 20m SSB, along with some CW and PSK31. Here's a shot of the operational K4L station.
We finished at about 1830, noting that the QSO rate had dropped, and that we needed time to disassemble the station before the park closed at around sundown.
As always, we thank the staff of Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park for their support throughout our event!
As always, we thank the staff of Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park for their support throughout our event!