Quick Hike

With the cool snap today, on the way back from Carrabelle I took a (very) short hike on the High Bluff Trail.  Mostly it was to confirm that the picnic table near the east trailhead is still there and useable.  It is, so it looks like we're good to go for more hiking-with-radio adventures in this cooler weather.

Hits the Carrabelle repeater very easily, especially with the upgraded antenna.

Two More Months to Hiking Season

I keep getting these banners whenever I go to the QRPer.com site, randomly showing an FT-817oid* radio:

Nice photography, and a great site.  It is odd though that various 817s keep popping up in the randomly selected banner whenever I go there.  Downright taunting.  I really, really could use good hike about now, but it's just too hot and buggy to go have fun in the N FL woods at the moment.  FWIW, here's a picture of my FT-817nd out on the High Bluff Trail a couple of years ago:

Two more months, fall is coming.  Are we there yet?

No.  Not yet.

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*FT-817oid: Any of the variants of the Yaesu FT-817 radio: FT-817, FT-817nd, FT-818nd.  More here.

2024 Wrap-Up

Hm, let's run down the list of months:

• Jan: An attenuated Winter Field Day outing – still fun though!
• Feb: Video & stills of a booster falling back from space & landing for re-use.  Good stuff.
• Mar: Santos Fat Tire Fest post & video.  On the new bike, soooo nice.
• Apr: Radio Free Carrabelle!
• May: Auroras in Florida?  Yep.  Harmless, but more than a little spooky.
• Jun: Old movie, new find: Richard III (1995)
• Jul: New HF radio!  Initial Pics | more details
• Jul, bonus: Please Stop Butchering Your Palm Trees  An important post.
• Aug: Huntsville Hamfest: just back from | more, lots more.
• Sep: A near miss by Hurricane Helene.  All too close.
• Oct: A strong cool snap, so I hiked High Bluff & Wright's Lake back-to-back.
• Nov: A commemoration of Thirty Years of Mountain Biking
• Dec: The post Of Angry Neighbors, Black Mold, and Lawsuits may not be the best ever, but it certainly is raising a minor ruckus.  Yes, there is a backstory, but it's not all that interesting, probably would raise even more ire, and in the end is mostly about a bunch of old peoples' reminisces and muddy gravel bike tires.

Bonus Post: Yaesu FT-891 Ownership Post-Mortem.  Save yourself some money and bother, and get something – anything! – else.  On one hand, kind of a downer.  On the other, what a sense of relief to kick this turkey to the curb and recoup a few bucks on trade-in towards the FT-710.

Top hits?  Mostly a bunch of "how to program this radio" legacy posts.  Nothing from this year.

Let's wrap with the Picture of the Year – already in the May post, but here it is for this one too:

What is an aurora doing in Florida?  At least I didn't have trek the frozen wastes north of I-10 to see it.

Near future: Winter Field Day Cometh, so stay tuned.

I feel like I'm turning in 2024 at the Rent-a-Year place with an empty tank and all four tires smokin'.

Gap Point Trail in the Fog

Hiked the Gap Point Trail on St. George Island yet again yesterday, this time with the eldest brother.  It was so foggy that I didn't bother with pictures, but you can see some from previous hikes here and here.  For all the fog, the land itself was remarkably dry and the usual shoe-damping puddles were merely slightly muddy spots in the trail.

Heard some duck hunters blazing away somewhere out on the bay, and later saw them coming in at the Goose Island boat launch.  They were unloading with mostly buffleheads and widgeon, ducks of dubious culinary value, but hey, you get what you get.

Then we stopped off at the Blue Parrot for lunch (regrettably, Signor Ferrari seemed to be out for the day) and then headed back to Apalach.  All in all, a Saturday morning well spent.  So that's three local trails hiked so far this winter – High Bluff and Wright's Lake done previously – with Garden of Eden, Wakulla Springs, and Sheppard Spring still to go.  Maybe more, time will tell.

High Bluff Thursday

This week was the first real cool snap of this fall, so I hiked High Bluff trail... yet again.  Previous outings here.  Not much to say beyond, damn if it isn't one of my favorites.  Dragged along the FT-70 and talked to a few people via the Carrabelle repeater.  Used the 18" Nagoya antenna, and just tilted it a little on my pack harness to keep it from banging against my hat brim.  Worked well enough.

Here, have a couple of pics.

Cool snap, yes, but that's sand not snow.

These grown-over bridges always bring back half-remembered stories from childhood.  Weird.

Stay tuned, because the cool hiking weather's just begun.

Wright's Lake Trail, Spring 2024 Version

Took a hike at the Wright's Lake Trail today.  I'm working on checking off all of the local trails for the year – High Bluff, Garden of Eden, Wright's, and St. George.  Just one left to take in before the hot weather hits.  It's been written up before, but here are some pics from today.  As always, click to embiggen.

Recent control burn.  Looks messy, but it is very necessary.  If it looks like something out of Area X, that's because, well, it is.

Zooming in on a couple of the palmetto heads, you can see the green sprouting back out.  Beautiful, healthy, and a natural part of these woods.

One of the big slumps, aka nascent sinkholes.  Nicely burned, to the waterline.

Easy to see the path today.

Walking this bridge is a true leap of faith.  Here it is in dryer times.  About a foot deep over the top of the bridge at present.  The blue thing on the right is a trail marker blaze.

Little to no cell coverage of the area, so I simply put my phone on airplane mode.  Not out of touch though, I brought along my FT-70.  Talked to an acquaintance over in Live Oak just to make sure it was working well enough, and it was.

So overall another good day in the woods!  Shoes are in front of fan drying right now.

High Bluff Trail & Yaesu FT-70d

In the gap two weeks between the opening few days taste of deer season and the For Reals Months Long Deer Season, I grabbed a quick hike today on the High Bluff Trail between Eastpoint & Carrabelle.  It was kind of impromptu: load the 22L pack with the day's supplies & go.  Beautiful weather, topping out around 60F under bright blue skies.  The trail was a little wet, maybe 3" at most, so I just bulled through and have my boots in front of a fan drying now.  The foliage was... well, it's what we've got here in NW FL.  Beautiful fall colors, no not really, but at least the turkey oaks can show a change of season.

I took along the FT-70 HT.  I'm getting used to it, and really starting to like it.  I kept it scanning the 2m & 70cm calling channels, the sports talk channel (the real one), and the local 70cm SARNET repeater.  Here's a short list of observations re the '70:

• The stock rubber duck antenna is convenient.  With the '70 on the pack strap (belt clip in a too-small cell phone pocket), it rides at the right height and the stock antenna doesn't poke my face or bang against my hat brim.  Perfect.  If only it performed better; more on this below.
• It was set up to scan the first three of the channels, but I wanted SARNET in there as well.  It's simple enough that I figured out without a manual.  Button's right there on the bottom row.
• Receive from the repeater – being 20 miles away – was patchy in the dips, but very steady on the hilltops.
• Transmit was somewhere between "no way" and "scratchy but useable" depending upon elevation.  This is no real surprise, as the repeater puts out about 10 dB more power.
• Solutions: (A) use the 16" long Comet whip antenna, gain maybe 6 dB, and live with it banging on hat brim; (B) previous, plus an 18" tiger tail ground wire, and gain maybe another 3 dB; (C) rock on with the rubber duck antenna for listening, then stop & hang the N9TAX antenna in a tree if I need to transmit.  Personally, I like Option C.  Also, when hiking Wright's Lake trail the duck'll do fine, being only 2 miles from the repeater.  Convenience for the win.
• A couple of feet of paracord (pictured) makes a first-class leash in case the clip fails.
  
• In real-world practice on the trail, I had to turn the speaker volume down and the mic gain up.
• The battery was already low, so I brought along a spare.  Didn't need it, but it was good to have along.  Li batts are light, too.  Remember, when not in use, pop a 70's battery out to keep it from running down.  Works great, these will hold a nearly full charge for... I haven't found out yet.  At least six months.
• The FT-70d has all but replaced the FT-60 as my go-to trail radio.  Still keeping the '60 though, because I'm thinking about branching off into satcoms.
• More on the FT-70d: manual programming, chirp programming, splits, battery management.
• As always: Do and Learn.

All for today.  Got to go finish unpacking, cleaning, & stowing gear.

5 Watts from Hell

With a QRP radio in Tate's Hell Swamp, that is.  (completely unrelated to 40 Watts from Nowhere, btw) Nothing remarkable, just a short hike on the High Bluff Trail and a couple of hours play with the FT-817nd.  Lots of interesting listening, plus four voice contacts.  Lots of fun.

Mostly though, it was an exercise in "how fast can I get out the door?"  Everything was pre-sorted into a storage box, all batteries charged, just a matter of putting it in a pack after lunch and going.  Naturally I forgot several items: the one-ear earbud that I prefer using outdoors, the spiffy arborist line that makes antenna hanging so easy, hanging line for the HF antenna (used the one from the VHF antenna), and multi-tool.  (Glad the batts in the tuner held up, because without a phillips screwdriver on the multi-tool I never would have gotten them changed.)  Made it all work anyway, but there is much room for improvement.  Do and learn.

Then I came back to civilization to find that the current version of this radio has been discontinued, due to parts availability problems.  Two announcements of this, at QRPer and The SWLing Post respectively: End of an Era and The Yaesu FT-818ND has been discontinued  Lots more detail there, including down in the comments.

Anyway, it was a good day on the trail, with temps in the mid-60's and a sunny blue sky.

ps and to add on & review:

• earbud
• arborist throw line & bag
• antenna hang line
• multi-tool
• band plan – going to pick one of the Nifty (brand) laminated manuals for this.  I've been relying on printed inserts into the clear front pockets on notebooks, but those are large-ish and I simply neglected to bring one on this lightweight hiking trip.

Repeat: Do and learn.

High Bluff Monday

Yet again hiked the High Bluff Trail two days ago.  It was a little hot, things are a little bushy, and overall it was a really nice day.  Not a lot to add beyond some of my past posts on the subject.  Here's the one worthwhile pic I took, an inchworm on a black-eyed Susan:

One More One More

As with last week's re-hike of the High Bluff Trail, made one more pre-summer hike of the Gap Point Trail.  No pics today, didn't want to slow down and give the yellow flies more time to bite.  Still, when the winds were right to keep the bugs off, it was pretty pleasant.  Saw a little wildlife (leopard frog, garter snake, lots of springtime birds), and just.... walked.

Will be back there next fall, probably not before.

OK, Just One More

One more hike on the High Bluff Trail today.  Said "that's it for this spring" almost three weeks ago, but pfft, one more cool front and one new hiker ready to go, and it was off to the woods again.  No pics needed, just another morning in the woods.

I swear, it's like eating potato chips.  You know, the ones with bbq flavoring.  With cold beers.

Once More Before Hot Weather: High Bluff Trail

Fast hike on the High Bluff Trail on Friday, spanning lunchtime.  Started in the mid-60's, ended up in the mid-70's.  Just clicking out a favorite local trail once more before the spring weather heats up.  Here, have two pics.

Foreground: sand pit.  Midground: Apalachicola Bay.  Background: East end of St. George Island.

Mid-point on the south side trail.

Other than perhaps following an unexpected cool front and a sudden dash to something a little more distant, this is likely the last real hiking for this half to the year.  Onward to more biking.  It's easier to outrun the bugs that way.

Arborist Throw Lines & Antennas

 Yesterday's outing was once again to the High Bluff Trail (previous outings here) to tune up old and test out new gear for the winter hiking season.  Long story short, I brought the QRP radio and made one HF contact and two SARNET-FL repeater contacts.  Nothing to write home about, but it was fun.  However this was the debut of a real game-changer:

Tuner, plastic bags, and one-earbud not included.

Even though I was only putting a line up about 25' to use an end-fed rigged as an inverted-V, that was the easiest 25' throw I've ever done.  First time out of the box and never used before, it took me only two tries to put the line exactly where I wanted it.  Then I practiced on a ~40' limb and, while the results were decidedly more mixed, limbs up to the 50' range seem now within reach.  The difference between working with the 21' "mini" W3EDP antenna and the 43' "medium" W3EDP is like night and day.  Putting the line up 85' for the full-on version is forever beyond my reach however.  That's OK, I'll continue to use it horizontally for 80 & 160m NVIS work.  In the meantime though, getting the mini up will be a snap and getting the medium up to full stretch is possible.  (Going to need to practice a little more though for that medium 43' one.)

Onward to the links & recommendations part.  Here's where I got mine: throw line & weight and throw line bag.  (huh, Bartlett Supply doesn't seem to have the bags in stock, so the second link is to the manufacturer)  The cheap slick poly throwline seems plenty serviceable, probably no need to go to higher-dollar stuff; 100' is plenty of length, probably all you'd want to manage.  A 12 oz. throw weight is also plenty.  I probably couldn't zip anything heaver to the heights I need.  Other useful stuff from the QRPer blog: how to pack a throw bag, and a field antenna's best friend.  You can dig around for "how to throw" yourself videos at youtube, they abound.

Anyway, yeah, get a decent throwline rig.  It's a game-changer, and way more portable than an air-driven PVC spud gun.

Passage Into Fall

 It's a funny thing.  When I started a late afternoon nap on Wednesday it was still summer, astronomically and weather-wise, but when I woke the moment of equinox (3:20pm) had passed and the rains of the first real cool front had just ended.  So I fell asleep in summer, woke up in fall.  It's a nice feeling, I heartily recommend it.

It's definitely feeling  fall-ish  these days since.  Yesterday was a good day for a hike on the High Bluff Trail.

A lunchtime break.  No contacts, I mostly listened to the local weather.  "Recover"?  Yeah, from August.

For all the nice weather, it is good to remember that summer events aren't quite over yet.

Not bad, but still a tad colorful for my tastes.

Another Day, Another Hike

Back to the usual operating table (radio operating that is) along the High Bluff trail.  The ionosphere was miserable today, with stateside stations wavering in and out over the course of a minute or two.  A couple of European big-gun stations were booming in, but my QRP power level couldn't reach back.  Zero contacts!  

Still, it was a nice day in the woods.  I parked at the west trailhead and hiked 3.5 miles east, just to get some trail time in with a reasonably full daypack, to learn how it carries.  Pretty well, as it turns out.  The bugs were out in force but not biting, likely due to an outer coating of sunscreen and and an inner coating of Monster drink.  The day topped out at 82F.  Summer's on the way, but not here yet.

Here, have a couple of pics.

Sand, not snow.

DHMO, the drink of champions.  I could just bathe in that stuff.

Notes for next time:

1. Probably worth it to use a water bladder rather than bottles, now the weather's warming up.  Weights in the pack better (closer to the spine), more capacity, and you don't have to pause to drink -- a real bonus in bug season.
2. Big-brimmed hat and sunscreen, check!
3. Considering a bug shirt, but $$$ and heat.  We'll see.
4. While the iPhone, PSKer software, and interface dongle all work pretty well, that rig's not as fast on the draw as the laptop running fldigi.  That could make the difference in fast-varying conditions.  3 extra pounds though.  Hm, we'll see.

Trail Portable Radio is Habit-Forming

Another day on the High Bluff Trail, another handful of contacts.  Enjoying it while the weather's good.

Even though I lugged along everything needed for digital contacts, I stuck with voice.  Sometimes it's just more fun that way.  Taking a clue by four from the last outing...

1. A 3 oz. lead teardrop fishing weight has about the right heft for getting the antenna line up.  Much easier than using a pocket knife on the throw line.  It also slides through foliage without snags.  Still need to practice with the new weight though.
2. 50' of coax gave a little extra range to find a better antenna-hang tree.  Very much worth the small extra weight.
3. Broad-brimmed hat still works great.
4. Couldn't find the seat pad!  Anywhere!  I know it's around the house... somewhere.  But it was a warm & dry day, so it didn't matter.
5. UHF-male-to-SMA-female connector arrived today, but I didn't work any VHF/UHF so I didn't use it.

Things are moving along, improving, getting faster on the set-up time.

High Bluff Re-Match

250% more contacts than last Saturday's outing on the High Bluff Trail -- that counts as a success!  Of course 10x the power on digital modes and 20x the power on voice tends to make the most of the current poor ionospheric conditions.  First some pics, then on to notes.

Same place, different day.  10x the power.

And 4x the weight.

After struggling with 2.5 watts of digital brawn last Saturday, it seemed like time to step up to the similar 100-watt unit.  OK, that's 100 watts on voice only, have to dial it back to 25 watts on digital modes to keep things from melting down.  Still, it's a good step up.  The price of course is approximately 4x the weight: 6-ish lbs for the FT-817nd & Talon pack, vs 22-ish for the FT-857d & medium ALICE.  Noteworthy contacts were a voice conversation to NC (voice! finally! the ionosphere is recovering!), a PSK-31 chat to Canada, and most importantly, a 5w digital contact to Delaware.  So I still operated QRP today, if only briefly and when the ionosphere momentarily smiled.

Lessons for next time:

1. That 21' W3EDP antenna (other posts on this beast here)  is easy to hang, but I really do need to bring along a throwing weight.  The pocket knife just isn't heavy enough to easily get some line over a 22'+ limb.  
2. Also, stepping up from 25' to 50' of coax would be nice.  It opens up some other farther-from-operator antenna positions and just makes the whole tree-picking exercise that much easier.  For a small, small weight penalty, to be sure.  TANSTAAFL.
3. The new full-brimmed hat did well.  My neck and cheeks feel pretty un-burnt this evening.
4. Bring the seat pad.  Even if it's not that cold, the table lumber was still wet after last night's rains.
5. ps: Bring a UHF-male-to-SMA-female connector (I've got one around here somewhere... I think) and leave the FT-60 home.  Unlike with the digital/audio interface, if I'm using the data port (and yes, lugging a laptop along) the switch from HF to VHF/UHF is seamless.

QRP on the High Bluff Trail

 A short walk in from the High Bluff east trailhead, there's a picnic table with nearby limbs suitable for hoisting the Par 10-20-40 trail-friendly end-fed antenna.  Operated for a couple of hours, made two contacts (hey, you try talking 2300 miles on 2.5 watts), including one half-hour-plus rag chew up to New Hampshire.  Just stayed on PSK-31, didn't even try re-arranging menus to do voice.  The new iPhone did great as a computer, with the same interface that worked so well with the 4S (had to add a Lightning-to-3.5mm dongle, a big $9).  Here, have some pics and we'll wrap with lessons learned.

While breaking down.  Almost forgot to take a pic before leaving.

"The road goes ever on and on, down from the door where it began."

About a 20 minute drive to the trailhead and a 12 minute walk to the table site.  Not bad at all.  Back to lessons learned.

1. I need a new broad-brimmed hat.  This sun is a little much as it slants in on my ballcap in the late afternoon.  Will attend to this detail next week.
2. When switching from digital modulation to voice, the menu system on the FT-817nd needs to be reset, even when going over to an FM repeater setting in memory.  Vox, etc., all those things that are a fiddly mess when working in the woods with the lightweight phone audio interface.  Of course, this is no problem at all if the signals are fed in through the data port, but that requires carrying along a laptop & SignaLink.  It may just be easier to haul along the FT-60 and use that for VHF/UHF work and leave the 817nd for the HF heavy lifting.
3. The ionosphere is in still in poor shape.  Next time out, I may go heavy with the FT-857d, laptop, etc. and work things at 10x the power.  Out of 10 fairly solid signals that I could copy, I could only reach back and work 2 of the stations.  Frustrating.  This of course will triple the pack weight, which will in turn necessitate going over a heavier pack, with all those tumble-on effects.  OTOH, it's only a 12 minute walk from the trailhead and this is no big deal.

All in all, a nice afternoon in the woods.  Think I'll be doing this more often.

More Tate's Hell-acious Doings

 Hiked the south side of the High Bluff Trail between Eastpoint and Carrabelle today.  It's beautiful, at least the south side which I can vouch for.  I hear the north side is flatter, wetter, and with more jeep road sections.  I'm going to give that a try next time out; hike it north first then loop back on the south side.  The most noteworthy thing about the trail is that it's through a forest grown over old sand dunes.  Very hilly, with interesting oak hammocks between piny ridges.  It really must be seen to be believed.  In the meantime, this site has some excellent pictures as well as discussion of the trail, far better than any that I took today.  However, below are a few things they missed.  As always, click to embiggen.

Nice bridge.  Oh BTW, you will get your feet wet on this trail, no way around it.  Just no dangerous creek crossings to fret about, and this bridge was a help.

Very tannin-ous water.  Probably good to drink, if you dig a nice bitter IPA.

This oak hammock, it was like a dream from childhood of an enchanted forest.  Too bad that vibe doesn't quite pop in this snapshot, but trust me, coming in from the bright sun it was every bit as spooky as a full moon on Halloween.

Mysterious lichens.  Wish I knew more about 'em, they seem to be able to live on nothing more than bare white sand and an occasional bit of pine straw.

Dwarf Cypress Forest in Tate's Hell

Here's all about a short adventure from last week: the dwarf cypress forest in Tate's Hell State Forest  I'd explain about it, but the description, pictures, and video at the link are more in-depth that I'm going into at the moment.  One thing to note however is that all of the visuals at that link were evidently done in winter, when the cypress trees are bare.  Here's a much nicer pic showing their summertime verdant colors:

Yeah, how about that?  The trees themselves seemed to all top out at around 15 feet, where they twist over and bush out any extra growth.  Go figure.

Getting there was easy in the current dry weather.  The Mustang had no trouble negotiating the gravel roads once we left S.R. 65.  Not sure how it would fare after a heavy rain however.  Just use good sense.  Not too sure about cell phone connectivity there either, it seems to be more of a CB area.  Again, exercise good sense.

BTW, Florida Hikes is a pretty nice site that shows about all the hiking in the Apalachicola area, among all the other good wild places in Florida.  In particular, the High Bluff Coastal Trail looks interesting.  All in good time – and in much cooler weather.  In the meantime, dig around there for things suitable for adventures next fall.

One more thing to mention, those backroads through Tate's Hell look primo for gravel biking.  With the closest real mountain bike trails nearly two hours' drive away, this is something to keep in mind.