To
All:
Well, like last year, the EARS 2005 Field Day exercise was "all
wet." All went well for the set up on Friday afternoon and early
Saturday morning. At 2pm the SSB station took off on 20 meters making
contacts in the nice afternoon. Tom Glaze, K4SUS, brought out a nifty
mobile trailer with a 2-element 6meter quad antenna. He made a number
of contacts during the weekend which was a really nice surprise given
current propagation conditions. Tom also made a contact with a nice
trout out of the Mountaintown Creek. Around 3pm, the CW station finally
got going.
The
weather was warm and humid throughout Saturday and our cookout that
began at 5pm. Then about 6:30pm, the rains started. It rained off and
on through the night and up until we finally broke camp beginning around
11:30 Sunday morning. The CW station was inundated with water and had
to be shut down several times. Finally the heaviest rain came mid morning
Sunday and that was the final straw.
Bill
Campbell, WB4HAT, is a man of many talents. He cooked the meat for the
Saturday cookout and then on Sunday morning, cooked a wonderful country
breakfast with eggs, bacon, biscuits and pancakes. He also furnished
the SSB rig and one of the antennas. Bill's XYL, Becky, brought some
yummy rice crispy treats and lemonade.
Sam
Underhill, K4SWU, loaned us his generator which was used full time last
year but became our standby this year. Sam and his XYL, Orene, fixed
up their prize chili which Sam brought for the cookout. Sam also furnished
the multiband dipole for the SSB station. That is one great antenna.
Thanks Sam.
David
Barlitt, KF4AWU, brought his generator which we pressed into service
for the entire weekend. He also furnished lots of legwork, gasoline,
and operating hours.
Joe
Frack, VP, was our all around go-guy. As usual, he stuck it out for
the whole weekend and helped in various ways from operating, duping,
and fetching stuff. Louise Frack came out with food for the cookout
and visited a spell in the CW tent listening to all the dits and dahs
flying out of the station speaker.
Marsha
Greenwood, KG4AHV, brought delicious potato salad, salad fixings and
was a champion duper for the SSB station.
Dennis
Rodgers, KA4VHP and his sister Sue, KG4TXJ, operated the SSB station
in the late hours of Saturday night/Sunday morning. Sue brought some
great baked beans and potato salad. Dennis provided transportation for
Sam Underhill's generator.
David
Frederickson-WB4HZG Helped put up antennas and dupe for the CW station.
He operated the SSB station like an old pro. He also brought some beans
for the cookout.
I
know I am going to forget someone but to keep this short, I'll try to
name those who came out to operate, help set up and/or take down, brought
food and served as helpers in myriad ways are: Dow Hoffman, N4VYU-SSB
operator & logger, Sam McInturff-K4MOS CW duper and SSB logger,
Hugh Pendley-KD4SGO-setup helper and SSB logger/duper and copier of
the ARRL Field Day message for 100 points, Ian Malcolm-N4IAN and his
XYL, Tiffany-KI4JAS (who both operated 6 meters on Tom's station), Randy
Key-a former ham who wants to pick up where he left off years ago, Janice
Meadows, brought cookies, and joined us for the cookout. Dave-K4LDI
helped with set up, take down and CW station operation.
Mr.
J.T. Lutrell of the Pleasant Grove Baptist Church, came by to make sure
everything was working OK at the camp.
If
I forgot anyone, please forgive me.
Thanks
to all of you for helping make our 2005 Field Day outing a success in
spite of the rain.
I'll
let you all know how we did score wise in a future newsletter.
73,
Dave - K4LDI