The Boulder Amateur Radio Club field day event began as volunteers arrived at around 8:00 AM Saturday morning to begin setup of the field day site at the Betasso Preserve west of Boulder, CO  This year officials restricted the club from using a motor vehicle to place the mobile antenna tower up on the rise next to the radio stations.  Therefore, we needed everyone on the setup team to manually push the trailer into place which was an uphill effort that ended up moving the 2,400 pound trailer approximately 150 yards.

Following the successful placement of the tower, all efforts were then focused on assembly of the SteppIR antenna, assorted vertical antennas and a full length G5RV dipole antenna.  Once our antennas were raised into position, we began the assembly of two tents which would house our CW and SSB/Phone operations.  As the tents were being erected, another team began setting up the GOTA (Get On The Air) station as well as the 6 Meter and Satellite stations.

As the noon hour approached, we made our test calls and verified that the logging computers were operational.  At precisely 12:00 noon local, we were all on the air for the 2012 Annual ARRL Field Day exercise.

Immediately we established our SSB/Phone station presence on air and began what would hopefully be a record number of QSOs.  As it turned out we amassed about 2200 contacts in the allotted 24 hours of operation.

The BARC Field Day team garnered bonus points for Satellite contacts, GOTA station calls, VIP site visits, as well as other point opportunities in our 2A category.

To reward those who committed both the setup and operational period time, we served sandwiches for lunch, burgers and hot dogs for supper and an egg and sausage breakfast for those who endured the grueling Midnight to Sunrise shift.

Photos taken by: Ueli, KB9TTI