SO2R with FT8 and CW when I arrived. I took over the FT8 station and switched the other to 40M SSB and began by
hunting DX while running 30M FT8. I’ll run till 5 when a relief op comes up and I’ll head down to get the morning
coffee and breakfast ready for the team. After breakfast is over and put away, I’ll get a bit of a nap before the
rest of the team arrives on the Yankee Freedom. When they arrive around 10:30 we’ll have 2 operators head up to the
radio area while the rest set up their tents and settle in.
The daily schedule is broken into 2 hour operating slots, with assigments from 6 am till midnight. We are tring to
keep 2 stations up thoughout the day and one or two all night. Over the weekend as power allows we’ll try to run 3
stations. We got behind i charging batteries as yesterday was cloudy most of the day.
Lunchtime is on your own, we have a cooler with drinks and lunch meat so everyone can help themselves, supper is
usally at 5:00, baked potatoes, hamburgers and finger veggies with brownies for desert was the menu last evening.
Yesterday K3IWU Dave, and KD3ANE Lyn, left with Captian Chris aboard the Naugti Tuna that had brought us all
out on Tuesday. A storm front was moving in faster than expected and the Captian was anxious to get started but
was waiting for another group to get packed up. The waves were already building when they left and it was looking
like a long rough ride on a 30 foot boat. They have 48 miles of open gulf until they get to the proteced waters
of the Marquasa
As I write this, the waves are crashing on the seawall to my right while the birds are chirping to my left on
Bird Key. There is a rookery on Bird Key and many birds arrived yesterday ahead of the storm. The frigiate birds
are impressive to say the least, soaring for as long as 15 minutes at a time without flapping their wings as they
ride the thermals. The harbor is a safe haven and many fishing boats came in last evening, their mast lights
twinkling in an otherwise black night.
73 till next time
Molly de W3NY