Activation Report: Chassahowitzka Wildlife Management Area (US-6296) — August 12, 2026

• August 12 2026
• 6 min reading time

A 15-contact morning at Chassahowitzka Wildlife Management Area (US-6296) on 20m FT8 — 5 watts QRP into a Radioddity HF-010, a 1,988-mile run to Ottawa, and a 24-hour TikTok ban for streaming while moving between spots inside the park.

Mode: FT8 (Digital) · Band: 20m · Radio: Xiegu X6200 · Contacts: 15 · Park: US-6296

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A new park, a shaded picnic shelter, and 46 minutes of steady 20 meter FT8 at five watts. Also: a lot of bugs, and a 24-hour TikTok ban for streaming while moving between spots inside the park.

The park

Chassahowitzka Wildlife Management Area (US-6296) sits north of me up in the Brooksville area, and getting in is half the experience — a narrow sand and limerock road winding through dense woods, no pavement, no signage to speak of. It opens up into a cluster of open-sided shelters with picnic tables, which is about the best thing you can ask for on an August morning in Florida. It is also my fifteenth unique park.

Clear sky, 83°F, and about 2 mph of wind — which is to say none. That last part matters, because the bugs were relentless. Long sleeves and repellent are not optional here.

The setup

I claimed a table under one of the shelters and built the station out of the backpack: the Radioddity HF-010 outside, the Xiegu X6200 at 5 watts on the table, DigiPi running WSJT-X, and the tablet up for logging. Internet came from the Starlink Mini again — second field outing in two days and it has yet to give me a reason to leave it home.

NanoVNA on the antenna first, as always. It came back at 1.12 SWR with the marker on 14.070 — about as clean as that antenna gets. Conditions were cooperative too: solar flux 136, K index 1, with 15, 17, and 20 meters all looking usable.

On the air

First call in the log was VE3GLN in Ottawa at 9:31 AM — 1,988 miles, and the longest haul of the day. From there it ran north and west in a steady rhythm: W8RLG in West Virginia, WD4CVK up in the Georgia mountains, KC1MMC in Vermont, W8KRS in Michigan, NA2NY in upstate New York. WB3JUV in Delaware and WV3L in Pennsylvania closed out the first half hour.

K9SQ in Plano got me to nine unique, and K3VAT in Winchester, Virginia was number ten at 10:03 — park qualified. The last stretch brought AC3LX and AC3RA out of Pennsylvania and AA5HH in east Texas, and I closed the log at 10:17. Fifteen entries total, thirteen unique callsigns — a couple of accidental repeats slipped in, which happens when the decodes are stacking up. Twelve grid squares, nine states plus Ontario, all of it on five watts and a vertical.

I ran most of the morning live on TikTok as well, walking viewers through the solar propagation dashboard and the Activate site between decode cycles. Good conversations, decent turnout for a weekday morning.

The one that cost me

With the park qualified I packed up and moved from one spot to another inside the park — still live, phone mounted on the dash, on a park track rather than a public roadway. TikTok does not draw that distinction. Twenty-four hour ban for streaming while the vehicle was in motion, full stop.

Nothing unsafe happened and I would do the driving part the same way again, but the platform enforces that rule flatly and there is no appeal worth the effort. So if you stream your activations: end the live before you move the truck, even inside the gate. It is not about how careful you are.

Would I activate here again?

YES. Shade, tables, quiet, and a low noise floor — Chassahowitzka has the makings of a regular. Bring repellent, bring long sleeves, and take the sand road slowly.

73 de W4GGJ

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Activation Stats

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All-Time POTA Stats

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Gear used in this activation: Xiegu X6200 · Radioddity HF-010 · NanoVNA · 50L MOLLE Backpack · LiFePO4 Battery · DigiPi on RPi 4

Tags

20 meters 20m amateur radio Brooksville Chassahowitzka Chassahowitzka Wildlife Management Area DigiPi Digital field operations Florida FT8 ham radio Parks on the Air portable HF POTA QRP Radioddity HF-010 Starlink Mini TavaOne Activate US-6296 W4GGJ WSJT-X Xiegu X6200

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