Event Summary

There was some sunny weather forecast for Saturday June 22nd, 2024, and the weatherman was accurate! What a great weekend for Field Day!

This year brought 32 logged visitors, 28 of which were licensed, and were able to get 13 of those operators on the air, doing everything from CW to SSB to FT8!

The start was around 8:30am at the Randolph Park back shelter once again. The use of a generator was used again for this operation, but there are rumors that there will be power available at the shelters for 2025!

We were able to set up the laptops, radio stations, and feedlines making use of our Triplexers to share the DX Commander. We did the same last year, but were able to swap between higher and lower bands depending on what was working better for the conditions.

Our Radio Rummage this year was blessed with many items from donations from club members (thank you!!!), as well as a large assortment of equipment from the estate of Max, WB8FLE (SK). There were many items to exchange hands, and many great deals to be made.

Stations this year were set up with our new Yaesu FT-710 Field, the Yaesu FT-710 AESS, and the Yaesu FT-991A. The FT-710s gave us the added ability to project the radio display onto a larger field of view to assist in mentoring other hams. It’s also a flashy way to entertain visitors to the event!

Lunch was served at 1pm from the grill of Christopher, K4HZ and Patrick, KN4PDL. Items from the club as well as individual members were appreciated. It’s always a wonderful time to be able to sit and enjoy food with the club.

Transmissions were started at 2pm. We were again joined by our CW scorer Randal, WB4BBF and his camper setup.

Roy, W4DFD, brought the Pulaski County Mobile Command Center trailer that allowed for those needing to beat the heat, to hit some air conditioning. If you haven’t been able to see this trailer, you should hunt down Roy for a tour!

At 4pm, an education activity to give an introduction to FT8 was given by Cam, W4XXV. Handouts were given (also available HERE) of information covered. The basics of theory of operation, setup, and making contacts was conducted for illustration. Special modes were shown for the Field Day event as well.

40 meters was again the winner of the most contacts with 61% of our earnings. This was followed by 80 (16%) and 20 (15%).

Morning brought a few more operators and some more to scrounge around the Radio Rummage. Teardown and packing up was completed around 12pm, and the event was drawn to a close.

Everyone had a great time hanging with each other, making contacts, and building friendships. I hope that others will be able to join us for this and other events in the future.