I'm an amateur radio operator and this past weekend the Amateur Radio Relay League held its annual Field Day. It's an opportunity for people around the country to try out their equipment, test their antennas, etc. Typically we operate off-grid using generators, solar, battery, or a combination. Since I'm in Florida this is an opportunity to find problems before the heart of hurricane season is upon us.

My church has 24 acres of beautifully wooded land on the marsh that they let us use so I took the opportunity to hang the hammock and left the tent at home. Someone stole my spot and the trees I ended up with were at the extreme limit of my suspension (even with whoopie extensions) so it wasn't optimal but based on the reports of my snoring (which I don't believe) I slept very well.



I prefer to use the newer digital radio modes since they require less power and there are some very excellent weak signal modes. In some cases the software can pull out a signal that you can't even hear is present. This is the view from my hammock. I'm using an Icom IC-7000 transceiver, a LDG AT-7000 autotuner, and a Signalink USB soundcard interface with my Acer netbook.



In addition to everything else that was going on, a surprise party was thrown for me. My boss almost blew it when he forwarded the invite to me and scared the hell out of me on Fri. I was blocked by a co-worker from going to my desk and then he called my boss who proceeded to get on my PC and into my email. Then he said it was nothing to worry about. Of course I did until I realized what had happened when everyone appeared. My friend (pictured) help facilitate my latest goody. Now I have a new gas/charcoal dual grill for the 4th!



The forecast was 20-30% chance of thunderstorms and while we did take our antennas down for a couple of hours we only got some light rain and the lightning stayed in the distance. I simply enjoyed sitting in my hammock listening to the rain on the tarp. We've had literally hundreds of wildfires and the smoke has been horrible but even that stayed away. A light sea breeze made things pretty nice for the most part.

With the heat we face in Florida this time of year there aren't many opportunities to hang so I was glad to take advantage of this one.