CQ, CQ, CQ, Calling all hams!
The very first priority of mine is to thank all of those hams who volunteered their time, talent and strength to get involved in the June ARRL Summer Field Day this past June. It has taken us some time to recover from being in Covid Isolation and our previous attempts at large public gatherings were understandably impacted. 2024 proved to be encouraging with about 70 visitors and volunteers who attended, visited, learned, operated and enjoyed our twenty-four hour emergency practice Field Day. This was a 50% improvement over last Summer Field Day. Thank you. Hopefully this will be a trend toward higher attendance in the future.
We have learned valuable tips and have improved our set up and planning techniques. I want to thank some particular people, instrumental in this Field Day exercise in 2024.
First, the architect of the Plan, Joe McGee NX4T, who faithfully drew people together, creatively anticipated the technical needs and found interesting ways to entice people to come. He and Tom Savoca K9TJS, our PIO, worked tirelessly to advertise, invite people and we learned new ways to attract hams and keep order among the communicators.
Our co-chairmen in the event were Joe McGee NX4T and our loyal Repeater Trustee, Ricky Eaton KD4HGR. They were assisted by Jeff Stahl K4BH and Dan Vasilca AI4WW in the technical arena. Thank you gentlemen for all of your time and consideration and doing what it takes to provide a successful event. Dan, thank you for collecting all of our FD information and submitting our points to the ARRL. Thanks to you and your new friend with CW, and all the rest who operated, we did remarkably better than the previous year. That’s fantastic.
Thanks to the PIO Tom Savoca K9TJS and his partner, Carol Sjursen KJ4AWB, who helped meet and greet and get officials to come, making it effortless to extend out hospitality to those friends we had not met yet. They get better every year and they are a big blessing to GCARA. This year Tom arranged for a drone pilot to record our event and to get a picture of our group who were present at that time. Thanks Tom and Carol, for all of your work and sharing of talents.
We were assisted by volunteers Mark Blanchard KQ4RRG, Bill Mercer KE8TPU, Mike Meeks WA4VEF, Matt Foran K4VMF, Mark Filla N4DES, Half Moon AJ4JG, Ed Grumet KE2EF, and a few others that I know I am forgetting. Thank you gentlemen for all the lifting, antenna placement, radio assembly, and acting as gophers when we needed more supplies.
In the cooking arena, the chefs de jour were Melanie Fernandez KJ4VCT, Carol Sjursen KJ4AWB, Ricki Witte KJ4FSJ, and Mike Wolf KD4OVP. We were told that the chili was the best ever tasted (Ricki made it). The Brazilian Chicken Wings and Brazilian steak was complimented throughout the evening as had been our Burgers, dogs and Kielbasa at lunch. The Hospitality Crew with Jerry Deitch W4LST, our procurement specialist, and Kenny Hollenbeck KE4NC, our grill keeper and transport, worked tirelessly to get everything done in an orderly manner. Breakdown this year was done at record speed and order was established for our inventory with Carol’s help. New clear view plastic bins were provided by the club so we can see what we have as well as store it in a cleanlier fashion. Two new coolers were purchased to help in keeping perishables at safe temperatures and to hold and to replace a broken one that is kept to hold drinks.
Almost to the person, everyone I spoke with had a positive comment and many who had not previously participated in an outdoor Field Day were very impressed at our efforts and encouraged to do this again next year.
I am happy to report that we added six new members to our rolls as a result of the experience at Field Day.
If I missed naming you, it was an oversight, and not intentional. I thank everyone who came, helped, learned and enjoyed this Field Day.
As to the future of Field Day, we are letting people know that we need a replacement for Jerry Deitch W4LST, as procurement specialist and for storage of our coolers, and inventory. This faithful ham has been by my side through the last 6 years, helping me shop for food the Friday preceding the Field Day event, store the inventory, transport the food for Field Day, and packing all up at the end of Field Day. He has a Ford Explorer that has been so, so helpful for our needs. If you think you would like to help us in Hospitality to shop, store and transport food and drinks for our events, kindly let Melanie know. Jerry will not be available after Winter Field Day. Thank you Jerry for the advance notice and all of your help.
We also need younger hams to learn how to put on a Field Day next year. We want the hams to be able to be self sufficient and have an idea of how to throw such a large event. While all of us spend a lot of time planning, talking, and calling others, we do not feel this is an impossible task or one that is not fun. It is just that the leaders of Field Day now are much older and prone to health insults as a result of life and this causes some difficulty in execution of duties. We would love to mentor anyone interested in learning and helping us. We will be ready to assist, too. We just “need a little help from our friends”. By all means, please contact Melanie to volunteer for January and June 2025 Field Days or our November 9, 2024 Picnic. God bless us all and keep us well throughout the coming year.
Submitted by Melanie Fernandez, KJ4VCT