SLSRC Field Day - Recap

Another wonderful SLSRC Field Day is now in the books. 2009 FD was a challenge in terms of weather and heat and a pleasure and exciting time for all that participated. Saturday saw temperatures near 100F with humid-temps over 110F, but a breeze made it bearable and the "cooling" station was a life saver.

As with most FDs in recent years, many members and friends met for breakfast at Denny's and then off to MacDonnell Park for setup. By about noon on Saturday several of the station were already on the air testing the propagation and having fun.

One of the new additions to FD-09 for SLSRC this year was the addition of the O&M Learning Station. This was a station that ran the callsign KD0EPN & W0AKI and was not part of the FD scoring but was a place where those new to the hobby or new to HF could come and receive some mentoring and assistance as they got on the HF bands for the first time.

In addition, St. Louis County ARES was present with a messaging station and information for the public about ARES and its mission.

SLSRC provided two educational activities. One was a 2-meter J-pole antenna build in which anyone could come and learn to build a J-pole antenna including the cutting and soldering techniques. The antennas built are then donated to locations such as hospitals and other facilities as an alternative communications source in times of need. The second educational activity was spearheaded by the O&M committee and was an HF dipole build. Participants registered to be apart of this activity and the club provided the materials to build a basic mono-band HF dipole which the participants then took for there own shack.

Field Day Chairperson Don, KD0JBN, determined that this year we had enough participation that we would operate 3A with 2 HF phone station, 1 HF CW station, 1 6-meter SSB station and a GOTA station. The main FD stations operated as W0SRC and the GOTA operated as W0DCW - both club callsigns.

As always there was lots of food, lots of operating opportunities and lots of friends, new and old.

The SLSRC Board and Officers would like to say a special thanks to Don, KD0JBN, SLSRC FD Chairperson and to Lori, KD0EPN, SLSRC O&M Committee Chairperson for creating such a wonderful and diverse Field Day experience.

Here are a few images from SLSRC FD-2009:

• Helen, WØAKI, makes here first HF QSOs.
• Cliff, KCØSDV, helps a young enthusiast build a J-pole antenna.
• Jon, KB9ATR, works with a group learning to build HF dipoles and connectors.
• Field Day Chair Don, KDØJBN, works the phone bands with logging help from Cynthia, KCØYAS.
• Lori O&M Chair, KDØEPN, Elmers David, KDØIEP, as he makes his first HF QSOs.
• Viktor, KCØBYE, say ... "In Belarus we build our dipoles out of a wide variety of materials, this one is really broad banded 146 - 440 MHz capable!