Falmouth ARA once again held its annual FD operation at the Barnstable County Fairgrounds here on Cape Cod.   Setup commenced on Friday afternoon with assembly of antennas and erection of the club's 5 military surplus AB-577 towers as well as a shorter surplus tower loaned by the Barnstable County Sheriff's Office.  Our 2A operation uses tri-banders, 40m yagis, and 80m dipoles for the CW and SSB positions, as well as a tribander on the short tower and wire antennas for GOTA, plus 6m & 2m yagis for VHF.  Many hands made quick work of Friday's setup.

New this year was our setup in a single, large 40 x 40 tent from the Barnstable County Sheriff's Office, which brought all the operating positions close to one another, along with the info table, food, and ragchew/sitting area.  Antennas for the main CW and SSB positions were separated about 500 feet with low-loss cable, and interference issues were minimal.  Setup was completed Saturday morning, with installation of 4 screen tents underneath the main 40 x 40 tent to keep nighttime mosquitoes at bay!  One of our club members also brings a complete satellite station with az-el antennas and automated control, and his operating tent also fit neatly under the main tent. 

Power was provided by a single 5 KW propane-powered generator that ran the entire operation without a hiccup all weekend - if you haven't converted your generators to propane, check it out. Very safe, with no mid-event refueling and its associated hazards!   K1RK and W1HQH commenced operation on schedule at 2PM and ran for 24 hours.  Operating conditions & propagation were great for all stations this year, with 15M and 10M hot, and 6M just fantastic - over 400 contacts on the VHF station alone!  The weather was great for setup on Friday (cloudy and cool in the low 70s).   And, in spite of the threat of thundershowers (which never materialized) pretty good all weekend and only a little warmer by Sunday teardown.     

Other highlights included a nice cookout on Saturday at suppertime.  And, yum! - sausage, eggs, and English muffins for Sunday breakfast!   As mentioned, the VHF station made over 400 contacts on 6M, including almost 60 on CW.   The main CW and SSB stations worked all over the US and Canada.   A highlight for  me was helping my 8 year old granddaughter make her first 4 contacts in ham radio at the GOTA station!  Big smiles after the first contact with W0UK, a club group in Lawrence, Kansas, followed in short order by contacts with hams in Utah, Iowa, and Illinois.

All in all, a great weekend - good weather, great conditions, and plenty of members on-hand for setup and teardown of the antennas and towers.
 
Thanks to all who came out this year!