So my Florida QSOing ended at 53 contacts in just about 73 hours. (Again, I wasn’t trying hard; it was true “holiday style” operating. I’d operate for a while, then go do something else, then operate for a while, go do something with my wife, etc., wash rinse repeat.) I had one 6M JT65 contact but that was nothing to write home about; it was a Florida ham who was only a few miles away. I also had one complete 15M JT65 contact with a ham in Brazil, but I had to stop using 15M after that because the antenna was too close to the rig and even at 15W it was interfering with the USB link between the SignaLink and the computer. (I was lucky that the other ham was patient.) But I was ready to stop then anyway; it was my last QSO of the trip.
All QSOs were JT9 and on 20M except for those two, which were the last two; I stayed on 20M because it was easiest to leave the Buddipole configured for that band, and I was only playing around at the last. According to the log, I worked hams in Brazil, Spain, Italy, Poland, Sweden, the Netherlands, Canada, Portugal, France, and European Russia — all entities I’ve worked before, but who cares about that. The other 42 contacts were all US, at least one from each call district. Sadly I didn’t work anyone from Alaska — or from Hawaii or West by God Virginia, either, the two of which I NEED for JT65 and JT9 both. (Not that I can count any of these toward WAS — I was too far away from home.)
The Buddipole worked splendidly. I really liked the ease of setup and it was pretty simple to work it with a tuner, but I think I wouldn’t have had any trouble getting the SWR down even without the tuner. I’ll probably try that now that I’m home and can set it up outdoors.
All in all a fun trip; I hate going outdoors in Florida in the summer, so this worked out quite well for me. We also ate well. Too well. And got to see some friends we hadn’t seen for a while. One thing we did that we had never done was visit the Naples-Baker Museum of Art, which had some interesting exhibits on display.
I’m looking forward to our next Florida vacation 🙂