Field Day June 25, 2005

Participating in Field Day as a club for the second time in LWRA history was simply awesome. Good weather brought out nearly thirty people this year to our event held at the Lake Wales Kiwanis Park. Our stay at the park went from 10AM to 7PM. Lunch was served at noon and the contest began at 2PM. Even though we did not have as much media coverage as we did in 2004, a number of visitors (some unforgettable) showed up curious about Amateur Radio.

The picnic portion of the event consisted of ham (of course!), hotdog's, and 'sloppy joes' along with plenty of side dishes, deserts, and sodas to satisfy everyone all day long. The Kiwanis Park turned out to be an excellent choice in location with plenty of covered table spaces, for food, hungry members, family, friends, and equipment.

For door prizes this year there were three 'ARRL Field Day 2005' T-shirts donated by Shirley and Sam W4KUM. Winners were determined by passing out raffle tickets to those attended and a drawing was held.

This year our field day setup consisted of two stations. The 40 Meter station was made up of an Astron power supply, Icom IC-730 HF, external speaker, MFJ Versa Tuner, and a 40 Meter wire dipole suspended from a telescopic pole. For our 20 Meter station we used a Yaesu FT-757GX with matching power supply with built in speaker, and a MFJ Tuner on standby. For an antenna on 20 Meters we used a driven element from a multi-band beam mounted atop a tower.

Last Year we made the mistake of attempting to start the contest one hour too early, only we could not convince other stations abroad to do the same. We had our act together much better this time. To remind us of what to say on the air, laminated sheets were placed next to both transceivers that read: "KF4YEA 2 ALPHA WCF". Trying say our clubs callsign over and over in phonetics as we discovered is a real tongue twister! Next year we'll heed our Field Day experts advice on obtaining a special event call that is easier to say, and easier on the ears of other stations. We heard some great phonetics come from other stations through our speakers this year.

There were a total of seven operators lined up and waiting to get behind one of the two transceivers, operating on 20 and 40 Meter bands. You only got your turn at the controls when someone stepped away from a transceiver to get another plate of great food! With zero sunspots on this day, line noise, and pileup type conditions it was rough on the operators. We worked hard for each contact made, two points at a time. Having such a good time, we ended up staying an hour longer (until dark) at the park than expected.

Ithink that says it all about your great group of folks we are fortunate to have in the LWRA in just a few paragraphs. Again, thank you all who participated and contributed in many ways to make this a fun, laid back event.

Hope to see you at Field Day 2006!
John - KC4KLM