With a mike in my left hand and Mike on the right hand we're ready to activate an island or lighthouse off the Downeast Coast. I think Big Mike helps the bass quality of my audio (he's a woofer).

Home is a log cabin in Washington County, coastal Maine: easternmost county in the US, an hour's drive from the Canadian border. Small fishing village of South Addison: lobsters and clams. Rig is Ten Tec Omni VI (or sometimes Ten Tec Scout or Elecraft K2) and at home antennas are cubical quad 20 M monobander up 12 meters or 80 meter tuned Carolina Windom. For portable, activating islands and lighthouses, I like a Buddipole or an inverted Vee yo-yo antenna. I am retired, living here with my dogs. Fists 7358, no CC. WAS-CW and DXCC.

The lighthouse shown here is Moose Peak Light on Mistake Island, south of Jonesport and east of Great Wass Island on the Downeast Coast of Maine. The present tower was lit in 1851, automated in 1972, and still shining. FN64fl is one of the foggiest parts of the Maine coast, with an average of 1,600 hours of fog per year.

Photo shows Moose Peak Lighthouse emerging from the fog, which can be frightening if you don't know where you are and it suddenly appears!

I frequently put Nash Island Light (ARLHS USA 527) on the air because it's nearby: about 3 miles off South Addison, 50 miles or so from Canada on the Downeast Coast of Maine. Unlike Moose Peak, it was decommissioned years ago and the keeper's house destroyed but it guards a dangerous part of the Maine coast, dangerous because of the many small islands and underwater rocky ledges, the fast cold currents, and twelve foot tides. It is maintained by Friends of the Nash Island Light. Tower built 1873. The only residents on Nash Island now are sheep, a Maine tradition: no fences needed because the sheep won't swim away and it's too far out for predators. If you look carefully you can see a few!

I hope to hear you some day when I'm on an island or at a lighthouse or on top of a mountain enjoying the beauty of this special place, Maine.

73 de N1QLL Jerry