US Islands Awards Program

NS4J Marco Isl. FL025S January 2012

This activation of Marco Island, FL025S was not very successful in my eyes. I was plagued with equipments problems both days of operations. The first day the Yaesu was over run with static crashes on receive. I only managed 25 QSOs in a little over 2 hours, but I did snag Japan and Australia. The second day the Yaesu would only manage 20 watts out on all bands. With the NA QSO party in full swing it wasn’t worth my time yelling CQ so after 2 QSOs I packed it in and met my wife on the beach for a Pina Colada.
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The Adventure to Goat Isl. AL029L

by KG4RWZ with K9TEN (Ottis and Craig)

In May of 2008, I was looking through the contest season calendars and noticed the US Islands contest in mid-October. Reading further, I realized that the only real way to compete with any dignity would be from a qualified island location. I started looking through the list of islands in North Alabama and Southern Middle Tennessee to find a suitable island to visit for the contest, but found only one island close by. That island is accessible via road and doesn’t appear to be much of an adventure to access. I also noticed that a very popular and well-known island, at least to the locals, is near a friend’s house on Smith Lake had not been qualified. So the quest began to find some friends to go play radio with me on the island.
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