On 7/28/25, the management committee for this event had its first organizing meeting via a Google Meet video. The committee consists of the following volunteer members from the Tamiami ARC: Paul KN4BAR, Jim N7JIM, Jon W4OMX, Ken NS1C, Mark KQ4EKK, Steve NS4P, Frank W2XYZ, Jack W1JJR
A “rules sub-group” was formed to review and recommend new rules for 2026. A draft of the new rules will be reviewed by the full committee on 8/21/25.
We did all agree on the following guidelines for taking this event forward to 2026 and beyond:
- not to schedule in conjunction with the FLQSO Party
- to hold the 2026 event on April 18 and 19, 2026
- to accept only .adi format log files
- to develop an aggressive marketing and promotion campaign for the 2026 event starting in January 2026
- to eliminate the high power (>100 W) category
- to exclusively use ONLY the POTA US-xxxx park identifier
- to review and update the events “official” FL State Parks List
- to add the solicitation and support of youth (<18 yr old) participation as a goal of the event
- to consider a Youth operator category or a score bonus for including youth operators in your activation or hunting operation.
- to consider, perhaps, extending the event time frame to include portions of Friday and/or Monday in the operating time
The event date for 2026 is carved in stone as is not operating in conjunction with the FL QSO Party. Everything else is still under consideration and review leading up to the adoption of final 2026 rules later this year. Please respond here with any comments or suggestions you may have for this event, or you can email to [email protected] with your comments.
Our committee will meet again in closed session on 8/21/25 and an update to this post will be made shortly thereafter.
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Paul KN4BAR