Once again the Fox Cities Amateur Radio Clubs, Field Days was held at The Grange, a historical landmark in Greenville , WI .  The main tent was raised Friday afternoon but due to a violent 50 mph storm that night any other work was impossible to complete.  Early Saturday morning at about oh dark 30, construction began again.  This usually is not that big of a deal, to start setting up day of but with the high humidity after the storm it added challenges for us.  The antennas were finally put in place; the battery was connected at about noon . The computers where turned on and the sound of radios tuning up could be heard.

We started out as we always do with Andy, N1KSN, making QRP solar contacts.  Once the solar contacts were completed it was time to get down to business.  10M and 15M seemed very active thru the majority of the event.  6M was also very active; this was quite a change from years past.   Usually our best bands, in years past, have been 40M & 80M.  Both the CW and phone station were very active during the whole event.  The bands were definitely with us this year. 

As night fell on Saturday, the storm clouds once again moved in, bringing lightening and driving rain with wind but not as much as the night before. At 1:30 in the morning we decided to shut down for safety reasons. Some of the lightening could be seen striking the airport which is less than a ½ mile away from our site.  Once the storm passed, about 2 hours later, it was a mop job to clear the water out of the tents which held the stations so we could resume Field Day operations.

Sunday morning we finally had clear skies and Field Day operations were again in full force.  10M, 15M & 20M were all active Sunday morning, and it became a sprint to make contacts in order to make up for our lost air time due to the previous nights storm.  The humidity remained with us and by noon we were dealing with humidity levels of 90 % . 

For the Fox Cities Radio Club, Field Days is more of a social event than a contest.  We had roughly 30 operators operating 2 HF stations and a VHF/UHF station.  We also had several local visitors, including members of the Grange.  Despite the weather, which gave us some fits, we over came. Field Days 2010 at the Grange was a success.

Article By: Dan Vanevenhoven, N9LVS

Photos By: Jack Hill, KK0I and John Touzinsky, K9KI