Activation Report: Sawgrass Lake Park (US-6700) — June 2, 2026
- 5 min reading time
W4GGJ · Sawgrass Lake Park (US-6700) · June 2, 2026 · 20m FT8 · 14 QSOs · 5W
Sawgrass Lake is becoming a Tuesday morning habit. I was wheels up from the house early, pulled into the park at 7:37, and had the station running by 7:52 — thirteen minutes from backpack to first signal. Nothing dramatic on the agenda, just a quiet weekday activation at a familiar park. That's exactly what it turned out to be.
The park
Sawgrass Lake Park (US-6700) sits in the heart of Pinellas County — a boardwalk-laced wetland of cypress, red maple, and plenty of Florida wildlife doing its thing while you work the pile-up. I set up in the pavilion this time instead of my usual open spot, which helped with the morning sun and gave me a clean, flat surface to work from. The park was quiet. A few early walkers, a great blue heron doing laps. Good company.
The setup
The Xiegu X6200 came out of the pack and onto the table. The Radioddity HF-010 went up in the pavilion — SWR dialed in at a rock-solid 1.059 on 20m, confirmed on the NanoVNA before keying up. DigiPi handled digital mode duty as usual, WSJT-X running on the Pi's VNC desktop with the Android tablet as the display. Five watts, FT8, straight to the waterfall. Setup time was 18 minutes, first contact at 8:14 local.
On the air
The band cooperated well enough. Not a hot morning — no big pile-up, no rapid-fire runs — but the log moved at a steady pace throughout. First contact went to TI5RR in Costa Rica (EK70), which is always a nice opener. The session stretched from 8:13 to 9:18 AM, picking up contacts from across the midwest and northeast, a DX hop to VE3GLN in Ontario, and NT6K out in CN91 on the West Coast. AA2QL came in at +02, the best signal of the morning. Fourteen QSOs total. The park is qualified; the coffee was earned. Shut down at 9:48 and packed out clean.
Would I activate here again?
Yes — and clearly I already keep doing exactly that. Sawgrass is reliable, accessible, and just far enough from the noise floor of St. Pete to make 20m FT8 work well from a pavilion. A 3/5 day by the numbers, but sometimes a clean, straightforward activation is exactly the right kind.
73, W4GGJ
Activation Stats
| Park | Sawgrass Lake Park |
| Reference | US-6700 |
| Date | June 2, 2026 |
| Band / Mode | 20m FT8 |
| Frequency | 14.074 MHz |
| Power | 5W |
| Antenna | Radioddity HF-010 |
| SWR | 1.059 |
| Arrive / On Air | 7:37 AM / 7:56 AM |
| First Contact | TI5RR (Costa Rica) |
| QSOs | 14 |
| Session | 8:13 – 9:18 AM local |
All-Time POTA Stats
| Total Activations | 26 |
| Unique Parks | 13 |
| Total QSOs | 651 |
| Parks Hunted | 277 |
| POTA Awards | 14 |
Station: Xiegu X6200 · Radioddity HF-010 · 50L MOLLE Backpack · LiFePO4 Battery · DigiPi on RPi 4