The Members of FARA again this year participated in the annual ARRL Field Day Event. This year our Field Day Chairman was our President, KN4GDX, his first time being involved with Field Day in this capacity. We also were able to get some pre-Field Day press coverage:
The weather prediction was for good weather and it turned out to be a perfect weekend. Everyone gathered Saturday morning at C.M. Crockett park for setup. David, KK4UYX had his trailers and other equipment at the site ready to go. The plan was to operate in the 3A category with a VHF and GOTA station which made for a total of 5 stations to be set up. We had quite a turnout of club members for the setup, with many members new Hams, and all hands were needed. Up went the portable tower provided by Frank, W4NHJ, as others were shooting lines and setting up tripods for the different antenna’s to be used for the weekend.
This year thanks to member Brad, N7IVV, we had a new addition to our Field Day as he brought his military M35 “Deuce and a Half” or just “Deuce” to be the CW shelter and operating position this year. The Deuce was outfitted with lights, 120 V hookup, A/C and a refrigerator. A very nice way to rough it on field day!
As 1400 approached and passed all the stations were on-the-air with a few needed tweaks here and there and everyone started making contacts. While the stations were being manned other members floated around checking out how each station was doing. New members asked a lot a of great questions and got a chance to operate outside their license class, with control operators there, and getting their first taste of real HF contacts.
We had quite a number of visitors to the site, many with their children, to check out what Field Day is all about and see that Amateur Radio is still a “thing”. Our ambassador again this year was Justin, NB3A, who spent almost the whole time teaching the visitors what amateur radio is like today and doing his best to get people interested, how much fun it is and how easy it is to become one.
A few people stayed into the very early hours in the morning and then after sunrise people started returning to the site to continue the field day fun for day two. Then when 1400 on Sunday came, the task of breaking down the site and packing all the equipment up. We were tired but very happy with the success of our field day. We didn’t win any awards but that wasn’t the club’s goal. Our goal was to test our field operations, public relations, and for the fun, camaraderie and love of the hobby.
Special shout out to Bruce, KN4GDX, Field Day Chairman and CW Station Captain; Brad, N7IVV, Phone Station Captain and Deuce owner; John, KX4O, Digital Station Captain; Andy, K1RA, VHF Station Captain; Justin, NB3A, GOTA Station Captain and Ambassador; and finally David, KK4UYX, Networking, Safety Officer, and Logistic’s man.
A collection of pictures from our weekend:
