07/25/2004 | W8DGN Field Day 2004 marked the Belllbrook [Ohio] Amateur Radio Clubs 29th consecutive Field Day.

The W8DGN Field Day operation was centered around Shelter #1 of Bellbrook/Sugarcreek Park Districts Sackett-Wright Park. This year we had three stations in simultaneous operation on CW, SSB, and RTTY/PSK-31 plus a VHF station.






It was an outstanding year for BARCs Field Day, with great turnout, great weather, and reasonable cooperation from the bands. The largest contributor to BARCs contact total was John Ackerman, N8UR, operating entirely on CW. (John also happens to be president of TAPR-but then, CW is a digital mode!)






We had beautiful weather, clear and sunny with highs only in the 70s and very few mosquitoes. In fact, the night was surprisingly cool for Ohio in June, with temperatures dipping down into the mid-50s. Art Aronson, WA8BXM, operated 75 meter SSB from his mummy bag on the graveyard shift. Art was one of the first members at the site Saturday morning to help set up, then drove to Toledo to attend a wedding. After the wedding and a round trip of nearly 400 miles, he operated from midnight to five oclock Sunday morning. Now thats a dedicated ham!







Old Field Day hands know that sunrise Field Day Sunday is really where its at. The umpteenth pot of fresh coffee is brewing. Eyes are bleary, ears are numb, and Whisky Eight Delta Golf November, Three Alpha, Ohio seems permanently etched into the brain. And yet the operators soldier on. The site takes on a surreal air in the early morning ground fog. In the picture at left, John Ferguson, N8FJ works 40 meter SSB in the first light of Field Day Sunday. In a few hours, dawn will go down to day, the generators will go silent, and Field Day 2004 will pass into history.

Field Day 2004 was a great one! See you next year!

-- W8QEO