Hi there Guys and Gals!

Well, another Field Day has come and gone.  I hope your group
had a great event.  Jim Schideler, W5JCS, the Section 
Affilioated Club Coordinator and myself made a tour of 
Southeastern Oklahoma.  

We dropped by the Muskogee operation at the USS Batfish.
Everyone seemed to be having a good time.  They did, however,
loose an 80mloop antenna in a storm on Friday night.

From there we traveled to LeFlore County down on Lake Wister
to the site of N5CST, the Leflore County Emergency 
Communication Team.  They were located at a group camp in the
state park.  It was a great facility and all the families
were in attendance as well.

Then it was on to McAlester to check on the Pittsburg Co. ARC.
They were set up in a pavillion in Hutchinson Park adjacent 
to a community swimming pool.  Section Traffic Manager Chris
Bradley, KG5JUP was in attendance.  They were making contacts
and having a great time.

I must admit, I find it a bit ironic that a number of clubs
opted not to participate in Field Day because of the heat....
and we have one of the coolest Field Days I can ever remember.
It was a lot of fun to meet these folks out having a lot of
fun with Amateur Radio.

Wilma, W5WRO and I went to Ham-Com in Irving, TX for the
West Gulf Division hamfest which was well attended.  The
flea market is now all indoors as they are buildiong a new 
hotel right across the street. As the largest hamfest in
Texas, it's worth your time.

Speaking of hamfests, Ham Holiday is coming up on July 21-22
in OKC.  The venue is the Tower hotel (old Marriott) just
across the street from Integris Baptist Hospital on 
Northwest Expressway.  This is really a nice clean facility
and they will have food trucks available.  We will Joel
Hallas, W1ZR from "The Doctor Is In" to speak to us in the
League forum via Skyp.  The guest speaker at the banquet is
Scheduled to be Don Willbanks, AE5DW of Amateur Radio 
Newsline and Ham Nation. I'm looking forward to seeing all of
you in OKC.

With any luck, I should be back on the air sometime this fall.
The shop is coming along and I should be running power and
coax sometime in the next couple of months (when it gets a
little cooler).

If you get a chance, send any photos of your Field Day
operations to me.  We'll post a few of them here.

Until then, 73's

Kevin O'Dell, N0IRW
Oklahoma Section Manager