FOBB ADVENTURE: Mosquitos, Gnats, Deerflies and a Lot of Fun

For this year’s Flight of the Bumblebees, James Henson, AJ4AY, and I decided to hike
about 1.5 miles down the Pine Beach Trail in the Bon Secour NWR. This is a few miles west of Gulf Shores, AL. The trail ends at the Gulf of Mexico, but we would be about a half mile north of the Big Water.

There are two bodies of “small water” in this area: Gator Lake to the west, and Little Lagoon on the east.

There is a spit of land – OK, really it is sand, as is all of the ‘land’ around here – running north and south, that is only a few yards wide, that separate these two. Little Lagoon is about a half-mile north to south here at its western end.

There are heavy wooded areas to the north, beach to the south, and this spit of land is clear from about midway on south.
I had scouted the location before and found that the best site was about midway up the spit of land. There is a lot of salt in this area, so what trees there are rather small. No towering pines around here, only short ones. But the site we picked had a tree to the east and west that would be adequate, if not great, antenna supports.

One reason for selecting this site is the openness of the area. There are lots of mosquitoes, gnats, deer flies and other biting critters around. But if you are out in the open – and near the Gulf – there is usually enough breeze that they have a hard time finding you.

One big problem, though, is that there is no shade. The sun is hot here and the humidity is high. That makes for a pretty uncomfortable time if you’re out in the sun.

The scrubby trees are small and stand alone, so it is tough to find enough shade for the four hour time period. We came up with a solution to that, though: a canopy made from a poly tarp and held up by two bamboo poles and some pieces of line. AB9CA put this up in his back yard a couple of times to get the system down and it makes a good sun shelter – but there is no blowing rain!

On Sunday morning we gathered up our stuff and headed out. About 2 or 3 miles before we got to the parking area we drove into a thunderstorm. We both hoped it was only one of those little popcorn clouds that would keep on moving and not hang around all day.

It was still raining when we parked, but you could tell it was letting up. It soon quit and we began to unload our stuff and get ready for the walk to the site. Little did we know that we would have about as pleasant a day as one can have around here in late July. Not that hot; no more rain, a pretty good breeze and fun on the radio.

We had decided to use a couple of hand trucks to carry our stuff. That may sound like a really easy way out, but it was actually a tough decision. The path we would walk has areas of hard sand and areas of soft sand. Anyone who has pulled a loaded hand truck through soft sand knows that this is not an easy task. If we were to do it again, I think we’d take less, leave the hand trucks at the house, and pack in it.

After about 40 minutes of walking over hard sand, through soft sand, and around numerous puddles, we got to the site and began to set up. For antennas we’d be using a homebrew vertical dipole that AJ4AY built and a homebrew trap dipole that was AB9CA’s creation. The vertical is built for 20-15-10 meters and the trap dipole was for 40 and 20 meters.

The trap dipole would only be about 25’ up since that is the height of the trees, and AJ4AY set up the vertical dipole a few yards away. Photo 1 shows the site looking northwest, with the canopy erected. If you look closely in that photo and Photo 2, which shows the site looking southwest, you can see the coax running up to the dipole and maybe even the black dots in the sky, which are the traps. In Photo 2A, which is the view looking east over Little Lagoon, the coax is more easily visible, but none of the antennas can be seen. Photo 3 is Jay with his vertical dipole and Gator Lake in the background.

For a rig we’d be using AJ4AY’s K2 running off a 12 AH SLA battery. You can just barely make it out in Photo 4 and Photo 5, which are AJ4AY and AB9CA, respectively. These also give a good look at our ‘quarters’ for the day.

The canopy worked pretty well - keeping the sun off and letting the breeze in. The breeze picked up a few minutes after we finished setting up and we were not bothered by biting critters to any extent. ’Course, having been bitten lots in the past, AB9CA did basically shower with OFF!

So how did we do? Well . . . it could have been better. We started out fairly well – we worked about 20 stations in the first hour or so of rather relaxed operating. But at about 1800z, 20 meters suddenly got very, very quiet. We could still hear a few loud stations – ones we had already worked. But we could hear no one else and no one answered our calls. Kind of strange to tune up the dial and know there are stations out there, but you can't hear ’em.

We went down to 40 meters and could find only one station, WØCH, but they could not hear us. No one was on 15 meters, either. This lasted about an hour. Then suddenly we could hear stations again on 20 meters. We worked a few more, then the quietness settled in again. This lasted only about 15 to 20 minutes and then we were up and running again. We worked a few more, then the quietness again. But near the end we were calling and getting answered.

Even if the bands were less than 100 percent cooperative, we still had a great time. We worked 40 stations (28 Bumblebees) and had a great day.

We want to thank John Huffman, NA8M, and the whole crew at ARS for hosting such a fun event. Good to hear so many familiar calls and thanks to all who were patient in digging us out. We’re already looking forward to next year!
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Dave Hottell, AB9CA / 4, is a QRPer and outdoorsman living in Loxley, AL.