I got K5D in the log this morning on a long burst when his signal came up for about 30 seconds. It was a struggle and it’s apparent that he wasn’t hearing that well. Here’s a MP3 of what he sounds like much of the time here:
Month: February 2009
6M Ready for Desecheo (K5D)
I installed a small, non-optimized, and somewhat resonant 3el 6M beam temporarily to try to work the K5D DXpedition on this band. This morning, I heard a couple CQs from them on 50.106 Mhz but they weren’t copyable long enough to make a QSO. I’ve got a pretty good shot in that direction, as you can see in the 2nd photo.


The Brown Boobies of Cay Verde
My crew recently spent two weeks patrolling the southern Bahamas, and we spent some time anchored next to Cay Verde. My Executive Officer and I spent some time exploring the island. As we soon discovered, the island is inhabited only by birds, lizards, snakes, and crabs. Brown boobies were nesting all over the island, most tending to a pair of eggs.






FW5RE on 80M
FW5RE was QRV this morning on 80m with a good signal.
The story behind my header photo
I took the photo used for the header image. It shows the USCGC PEA ISLAND’s cutter small boat, transiting southward just off the east coast of Anguilla Cay. Anguilla Cay is the eastern most island of Cay Sal Bank, part of the Bahamas, which is located about mid way between Cuba and the Florida Keys. Back in 2008 when I took this photo, Cay Sal was a commonly used stopping point for Cuban migrants trying to make their way to US soil. We went ashore not only for a chance to explore, but also to look for evidence of recent migrant activity. I loved this photo because of the turquoise waters.