Columbia County Amateur Radio Club K4KNS

2011 ARRL Field Day

Since 2004 the Columbia County Amateur Radio Club (CCARC) has participated in the ARRL Field Day fun using K4KNS as our call sign. This year we again operated from the Points West Army Recreation Area at Lake Thurmond in camper trailers #21 & #22. Setup began at 3 pm on Friday the 24th and break down was at 10 am on Sunday the 26th. This year we raised tuned antennas of opposite polarity on each station to cut down on interference and it worked out great. We held a VE session at 9:00 am on Saturday, June 25th at the Field Day site and had four candidates test with us. Our educational activity was a demonstration of D-Star by Pete LaPierre – K1OYQ, using a netbook, a 3G hot spot, and a DV-Dongle to make contacts on the local D-Star repeater and with England via reflector 001.

CCARC Field Day on the air operating time was from 2 pm EDT on June 25th until about 9 am EDT on June 26th. We operated class 2A (commercial power) with a station in each camper. One station was SSB and the other station was CW and Digital. James Richardson – AH6IW, and and Pete Dillon – N3NFE, made over 200 contacts on SSB. We were fortunate enough to have a visit by the Columbia County Sheriff's Office representatives, Chief Lou Ciamillo - N4LPC, Special Investigator Gary Harden – W4WGH, and Investigator Jim Leonard – KK4BEH, and the County Deputy EMA, Rusty Welsh – KG4HIR, to add a few more points to the tally. Our youth members of the club, Brandon – KJ4WHF, and Clinton - KK4CCT, along with Samantha (who will soon pass her Tech), set up and operated a dedicated VHF/UHF station this year and made some contacts on six meters. Dr. Rick McKnight - KJ4OHL, came out and set up a satellite station and made two contacts via AO-51. Steve Clayborn - KJ4FSX also operated one station from battery/solar power for a while to try and gain more points. JC Crawford – W4QK, worked a lot of CW contacts and managed to copy the ARRL Bulletin for a few more points.

We didn't have the big picnic dinner this year due to the small area in the campers, however, Jerry Miller – WA4NHJ, cooked plenty of hamburgers and hot dogs for members and visitors. We even had a couple of gaggle of geese join in the fun this year. Our East Central Georgia DEC, Dick Embry, KD4CK was making quite a few contacts with them via left over hot dog buns ;-)

A great deal of thanks goes to our Field Day Chairperson, Carmen LaPierre – K4EQQ, for all her hard work in organizing this very successful event. The CCARC always makes Field Day a family event, and many family members came out to see the setup and join in the activities. Thanks to everyone for coming out and helping make this another great experience.

Pete LaPierre K1OYQ

CCARC President