If you are an animal lover, you should have spent Field Day 2008 with members of Chapter 196 in Fort Myers, Florida. Four members gathered together and did things a little different this year. We decided to set up at a nearby wildlife sanctuary.

Stella Gurka WB2FAU, Don Kilpatrick W9LBY, Dave Penezic WA4GUK, and myself enjoyed a special weekend with over 200 exotic animals that were just a few yards away from our 3 portable stations.

We were given special permission to operate at the Octagon Wildlife Sanctuary in Punta Gorda, Florida, by Lauri Caron who is the owner and director. Lauri has been working at the sanctuary for 15 of its 30 year existence. Being very careful to keep safe distances from the animals and walk paths of visitors, we were able to use two inverted V's, one dipole and a vertical antenna.

The Octagon Wildlife Sanctuary is proud to have an active ham radio club and our QCWA members were just as proud to put W8OWS on the air. Look at your field day logs to see if you worked us.

Some of the equipment that we used were charitable donations to the sanctuary from the estate of our beloved friend Jan Scheuerman, WA2YL / SK. Jan's spirit will forever be in ham radio and the animals that she so admired.