Activation Report: Sawgrass Lake Park (US-6700) — October 12, 2026
- 6 min reading time
Fourteen FT8 contacts on 20m at 80W from Sawgrass Lake Park, testing new car cabling and the Radioddity HF-008 with an ATU-100 EXT auto tuner.
Mode: FT8 (Digital) · Band: 20m · Radio: IC-706MKIIG · Contacts: 14 · Park: US-6700
This wasn't about the park. I've activated Sawgrass Lake enough times to have my spot picked out before I leave the driveway. Today was about testing new cabling in the car and putting the Radioddity HF-008 through its first real activation — with the ATU-100 EXT doing the matching instead of a manual tuner.
The park
Sawgrass Lake Park is a Pinellas County conservation area off 62nd Avenue NE in St. Petersburg. It's flat, shaded, and has a paved road that dead-ends at a nature center. The parking lot sits under a canopy of mature oaks, which is great for shade and bad for anything vertical. I operate from the car, antenna on a lip mount on the back hatch, and call it done.
The setup
The IC-706MKIIG sat on the center console, running 80 watts into the Radioddity HF-008 on a lip mount on the back hatch. The ATU-100 EXT handled the matching — I didn't touch a knob. Laptop on the passenger seat running WSJT-X and GridTracker, phone on the dash for maps. The whole point of this run was to confirm that the new car cabling worked end to end: power from the vehicle, coax to the back hatch, and the tuner inline between the radio and the antenna.
The activation
Started calling CQ on 20 meters at 11:28 UTC. VA3TS in Ontario came back first, and the rate stayed steady from there. Fourteen contacts in 39 minutes, all on 20m FT8. The band was open enough to pull in stations from Colorado to Quebec, with KT0D out in DM78 as the furthest at 2,450 km. Nothing exotic, but the point was proving the setup, not chasing DX.
The ATU-100 EXT found a match on 20m without complaint and held it for the entire session. I didn't try other bands — 20 was producing contacts and I wasn't here to test the tuner's range today, just to make sure the whole chain worked under real conditions.
The lesson worth keeping
The cabling has always been permanently installed, but today was the first run with the upgraded coax. I pulled the two cables I had for each lip mount antenna and replaced them with better quality runs. That plus the ATU-100 EXT inline means the whole chain from radio to antenna is cleaner now. The tuner earns its spot — it's small, it's automatic, and it means I don't have to think about matching when I switch antennas or bands.
Would I activate here again?
Yes. Sawgrass Lake is ten minutes from the house, has reliable shade, and the parking lot is usually empty on a weekend morning. It's not a destination park — it's a test bench. When I need to prove that something works before I take it somewhere harder to reach, this is where I go.
73 de W4GGJ
| Stat | Value |
|---|---|
| Park | Sawgrass Lake Park State Conservation Area (US-6700) |
| Date | October 12, 2026 |
| QSOs | 14 |
| Band / Mode | 20m / FT8 |
| Frequencies | 14.075269 MHz, 14.075285 MHz |
| Power | 80W |
| Antenna | Radioddity HF-008 |
| Grid Squares Worked | DM78, EM29, EN26, EN46, EN54, EN94, FM19, FN13 (×2), FN14, FN21 (×2), FN23, FN42 |
| Call Areas | 0, 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 9, VE3, VA3 |
| First QSO | 7:28 AM EDT — VA3TS (EN94) |
| Park Qualified | Yes — 10 QSOs reached at 7:57 AM EDT (KF2T) |
| Last QSO | 8:07 AM EDT — WI5D (EM29) |
| Session Length | 39 minutes |
| Best Hour | 14 QSOs |
| Hottest 15 Minutes | 8 QSOs (32/hr) starting ~7:54 AM EDT |
| Furthest Contact | KT0D (DM78) — 2,450 km / 1,522 mi |
| DXCC Entities | United States, Canada |
| Weather | Drizzle, 75°F, calm 1 mph |
All-Time POTA Stats
| Stat | Value |
|---|---|
| Activations | 41 |
| Unique Parks | 17 |
| Activation QSOs | 1,056 |
| Parks Hunted | 482 |
| POTA Awards | 17 |
Gear used in this activation: IC-706MKIIG · Radioddity HF-008 · ATU-100 EXT
Some links above are affiliate links. My Radioddity affiliate code is W4GGJ.
