SRARC Field Day 2013 AAR

Post date: Jun 26, 2013 4:25:23 PM

It all started when we were running out of time for a site to have Field Day. We posted a sign-up sheet on http://stonesriverarc.com for Field Day participation. N8LJJ responded and offered the possibility of the site @ Tennessee Technology Center. The process began with SRARC President K4ING Frank and N8LJJ. After a few days and several conversations the decisions were made. There was a scheduled meeting @ the site where several club members gathered and made some defining decisions for the event.

Now the real work begins. Everyone had their little piece of the pie to work on. Flyers need to be made. Food preparation, what are we going to do. How many people will attend? Antennas, how many stations will we erect? Generators, how many do we need. What about rain, heat, ice, first aid, electrical lines. Etc.

N1EMP Doug Lowe made arrangements for the Tennessee NG State Guard to participate @ our Field Day event. This was a great interoperability exercise an a real pleasure to watch the Unspoken Unison at work. There were about 15 Guardsmen on site with training in different areas.

Weather was hot with some breeze most of the time. We managed to escape any foul weather other than the near extreme heat. Without that breeze it would have been an entirely different story. We did have one ham that was overcome by the heat and was treated on site by a Guardsman and his wife that happened to be an EMT. They cooled him down with ice packs and a fan. After about an hour the ham was back at it again but just a little slower.

K4ING our Club President was unable to attend as he was recovering from some major surgery. The following is a short email giving him a idea of how the event was going. 06/22/2013 10:59 PM

Ouch,

Get Well Ole Man.

A good turn out overall. Marty got hands on after dark erecting a 40 meter center-fed dipole up @ 25 ft for our Turkish visitor. The NG was active all day up till close to dark and inter operated with SRARC greatly. Several folks came thru during the day and some visitors operated on W4IV station as well as several people operating on GOTA station. Rutherford County E.C. Jim Goffos WB8ZGM and KJ4GQO Pat came by for a brief visit to observe. Doug was treated for heat related issue. An NG wife was a nurse of some kind and worked with him for about an hour. He seemed to be much better later and rested early evening. Operated as 2 alpha Tn. W4IV erected a 40 meter dipole, Dave Wilson erected a vertical hf, along with a 20 meter center-fed dipole for the GOTA station. KQ4M had his RV set up and participated in keeping generators up and going. Had much difficulty with two generators, and had to ciphon fuel from the ones that went down to help run the others. Food was great, plenty. Participation from all. Excellent site location after all. Host Gary Shearer was helpful in every way. I have nothing but good to say about the overall Field Day. Will finish up tomorrow and leave the site better than it was on our arrival.

KI4NDN

This was what I'd say was one of the most pleasurable Field Day experiences that I have personally had. It seemed to just flow and everyone did whatever had to be done to make it happen. Missed a lot of club members due to illness and other unforeseen reasons. There were three stations set up originally and a fourth added late Saturday evening. The GOTA station was operated by several people and logged some 90 + contacts, some first time operators that had never been on the air before. It was neat to see the reactions of the first contact when someone answered their call.

A great big ole Southern Hell Yeah to all those that participated an made this SRARC Field Day experience happen.

David / KI4NDN