07/11/2007 | W5AUY Once again, the SWDCARC (http://www.swdcarc.org) turned out in force at Valley Ridge Park in Cedar Hill, TX for our annual Field Day event. Now in our 5th. year at the park, the club began our ambitious setup early by raising some of the more complicated antennas Friday night before the event. With most of the heavy work completed, Saturday morning's activities were completed at a leisurely pace...a welcome relief to prior Field Days.

There's no substitute for good antennas, and most of the ones we used from 2006 were deployed again this year, including Gary's massive 40m. quad wire beam and Johnny's crank-up tower with a Hygain tribander, both used by the SSB station to great effect. For the CW stations, a 2 element 80m. phased vertical array was strung up on the far side of the field for use at night. Also, the CW operators decided this year to remove themselves from the noisy din of the SSB station (go figure). Therefore, a portable car canopy was set up just a little north of the main pavillion. Although their tent was illuminated by an eerie light reminiscent of some Friday the 13th. film, it seemed to work very well for them. In fact, their tireless efforts probably set a club record for sheer number of QSOs...period!

None of these improvements over last year's Field Day would matter, however, if we didn't have operators to fill those seats...and this year saw the largest turnout ever, with an estimated 106 participants. Every station was manned for all 24 hours again, and the GOTA station remained on the air the entire time as well...we still haven't reached that 500 QSO ceiling yet, but we get closer every year. It never ceases to amaze me how more and more operators from other parts of the NTX area come to share their talents with our organization as each year passes. And thanks to these newcomers, we had plenty of CW and SSB operators to let some of us old folks take a breather for a change.

While only a token group of Cedar Hill firefighters showed up this year, we did have Duncanville City Councilman Bob Weaver come out to visit again. We also had the great pleasure of seeing our ARRL NTX Section Mgr., Tom Blackwell N5GAR, come and visit our Field Day operations on Sunday morning. He even got to enjoy a plate of Bill Beal's WD5HHH Field Day Hotcakes, known throughout the realm for their uncanny ability to rejuvenate our operators after a tiresome night of calling CQ FD.

Best of all, we were fortunate enough to have Boy Scout Troop 524 come out to the park on very short notice and participate while they were working on their radio communications merit badge. As the GOTA station coach, I'm proud to say that all 15 members that came to Field Day made at least 1 or more contacts on the GOTA station. Some even took a stab at SSB and CW as they toured the other stations! For years, we've tried to get a boy scout troop to come visit, only to have a hard time finding willing groups to come participate since most scouts are off at summer camp in June. But this year, we got one to finally show up and see the magic that ham radio has to offer...which for me makes this the best Field Day ever.

Our club is known for having leaders and doers, not followers. Everyone played a very critical role in Field Day this year, but a few of those folks deserve special recognition:

- Richard Baker N5KXA, our dedicated Field Day Chairman from 2006, who so loved his club that he volunteered to organize this madness again for 2007. Tnx. much Richard, you have gone above and beyond.

- Gary Pannell WA5FWC and Rick Davis KD5UVA for setting up the 40m. quad, and for finding us more operators to cover all of the stations.

- Johnny Roberson KJ5LB, our "Tower of Power" man, who set up the tower in record time.

- Larry McFarland KY5S, Mike Harang K5MMH, and club president John Langridge KB5NJD for getting both CW stations running and on the air.

- Jerry Keltner KB6OJE for helping me setup and keep the GOTA station running.

- Danny Cromaz W5WB for overseeing the SSB station (yes, they set a record this year as well), and for handling logging and point tally duties

- Floyd Rodgers KC5QBC for running the VHF/UHF and APRS station setup

- Bob Best KA4JSQ for being the safety boss

- Paul Dryer KD5IVP for being the site boss

- Todd Huovinen KB5TMD for being the set-up boss

- Chuck Poindexter KE5HGQ for being the strike boss

- Ben Barber K5NEB, Bill Beal WD5HHH, Mike Doyle N5NXN, and Richard again for help feed us morning, noon, and night...and morning again

As for honorable mentions, I'd like to say that Chuck Poindexter KE5HGQ, club VP, should receive the CW "Dash-Dot-Dash-Dot Dash-Dash-Dot-Dash" Award. In the span of just 12 months, he went from being a GOTA operator to a full-fledged fist-pounding CW op., running with the big boys at the CW station this year. It takes a great deal of dedication (and maybe some level insanity, from an SSBer's perspective) to make such an improvement so quickly. This is an incredible achievement, and Chuck deserves our admiration and praise...even if it was on CW (just kidding...)

Also, as SSB "Mouth of the Year" Award, I think we can all agree that Ruben Gonzales KE5KVB has earned that title, hands-down! It was pure joy for me to see him working the pile-ups, and gave me enough gumption to try operating again on SSB for just an hour, having not done so in over 10 years. Thanks for reminding us why our eyes light up when we hear a pile-up on the air...well, an SSB pileup, at least...

And finally, thanks to everyone else who came out to Field Day this year to make it a success. This event always brings out the best our club has to offer, and it showed in every one of you that came out to participate. Thanks again folks, and we look forward to seeing you at Field Day in 2008! -- N5UV