Hams On The Water: Group Portable Radio Activation of Georges Island

It all started with a casual email from Joe N1QD just saying him and his wife Kelley were going to Georges Island to activate the Boston Harbor Islands National and State Park (K-2421). And did anyone want to come along? And, we did.

A dozen of us packed up our radio gear and other goodies and headed out from Boston’s Long Wharf Gate A2 on the top deck of the Boston Harbor Island Ferry (or from a similar boat out of Hull, MA). In the schematic above, you can see the predetermined destination (circled and arrow) in a grove of trees on Georges Island, home of the decommissioned Fort Warren.

The mid August day was beautiful, sunny and in the 70s, with a gentle breeze. The ferry rocked gently in the waves. We made the approach to the Fort Warren dock.

As soon as we got off the boat, we found our way to the harborside grove and got to work setting up our antennas.

Below you can see our set up. Starting at the right, Ethan KC1OIP, N1QD, and Kelley took the picnic tables closest to the water. KC1OIP’s antenna is labeled “1” and N1QD’s antenna is labeled “2”. Greg KC1NRJ and Julie KC1RRR chose the middle table, and there antenna is labeled “3”. AA1F and I chose the last table, and our antennas are labeled “4” and “5” respectively. KC1PWO and Marlene set down in some chairs and Scott K1SU and his family toured the island.

KC1OIP set up a vertical Chameleon MPAS and operated FT8 on 15M.

His full station is here, and includes an ICOM IC-705, an Evolve III Maestro PC, a 4AH Bioenno battery, and other gadgets.

Below KC1POW and Marlene are taking in the sites.

Visitors to Georges are playing on the rocky beach, with recreational boats anchored close by, and the Boston Skyline more than 6 miles away.

N1QD’s station is the Elecraft KX2 running off an internal battery, another Evolve PC, a RigExpert Stick 230 antenna analyzer, and a portable CW paddle. N1QD had the most success with about 3 dozen CW contacts.

NIQD’s antenna is seen here. I am not exactly sure which brand or model it is, but it ran fine on 20M.

KC1NRJ and KC1RRR are operating SSB with a Yaesu FT-891. There antenna is another Chameleon MPAS and they were working 10M, 15M, and 17M. We were all interfering with each other.
The picture below captures newly licensed technician KC1RRR’s first HF contact on 10M! For which we all gave her a big hip hip hooray!!

AA1F, posing a bit bizarrely below, also used his FT-891, and made his activation operating predominantly on 40M.

He strung a 20M EFHW between two trees and less than 6 feet off the ground at its lowest point. He did not care if his antenna was resonant on 40M or not (it’s not, not even close). He just matched it with the LDG Z100 Plus autotuner, pumped 100 watts through it, and got a dozen qsos or so. There is no point in telling him you aren’t supposed to do that…he’ll just shrug and tell you it works. And, well, it works…

A kayaker enjoys the beautiful day!

My station is the usual.

Again a Yaesu FT891 with a 15ah Bioenno LiFePo battery, and another LDG tuner. AA1F’s is identical to mine.

The antenna, to be a subject of another blog post, is what makes my station interesting. It is a homebrew 64:1 unun with a linked EFHW radiator attached. It is set up for the higher HF frequencies including 10M through 17M.

And I build it on a polypropylene cutting board. I made ten contacts and then one for good luck on 12 and 17 meters.

Here KC1RRR and Marlene hang out and catch some lunch.

The 3:00pm ferry pulls in to the dock and it is time to go.

We return to the same spot on the upper deck and watch as Boston comes closer and closer.

Hams are not known for their spontaneity from what I can tell. I lot of ham events tend to have a lot of planning and thinking associated with them. A lot of build up. A few days before this trip, Joe N1QD simply sent an email, and without any of us really giving it much thought, we purchased tickets and found each other on the docks. We then sat down and played radio together. These are my favorite type of events. And I really hope we have a lot more of them.

In N1QD’s email, he wrote “the more the merrier.” This is exactly how I feel. And I am pretty sure we all feel like this. Sure we created a lot of radiofrequency interference trying to operate all at once without bandpass filters… just consider it a part of the group POTA sport to work around it. But ultimately, I think we are all really happy that everyone else showed up and contributed to what was really and simply a great day. Perfect idea Joe!

Yours As Always,
KM1NDY

(This last pic is a bonus for those who were on the trip….Boo Yah!)