CCARC Field Day 2012

The Columbia County Amateur Radio Club held its annual ARRL Field Day (FD) event at Points West Army Resort on Lake Thurmond in Appling, Georgia again this year. The club operated two stations (2A GA) and a “Get On The Air” (GOTA) station all using commercial power with battery backup power. We had forty people sign in as operators or guests over the course of the June 22nd to 24th weekend. Four of those guest were active duty military. We started FD off with a Volunteer Examiner test session which resulted in one new Technician class license and one upgrade to General class. The VE session is always a great way to start FD and it seems to renew everyone's spirits when the candidates pass the test and use their new privileges during operations. The club set up a combination of wire antennas and “Buddipole” verticals that covered most of the ham frequencies. Band conditions were favorable during most of the operations. We operated using various modes such as SSB, FM Simplex, CW, D-STAR, PSK-31, and we were able to make a satellite contact. We held two education activities this year; one on JT-65HF digital mode and one on “field expedient” antennas. We had a special guest operator, Sami - KD0PEY, who is a PV2 in the Army help us this year. The club provided fried chicken and many of the ladies (and some of the guys) brought in the all the side dishes and desserts for our main FD event – the picnic! After we all ate too much we got down to the business of serious FD radio operations. Our County EMA Deputy Director, Rusty Welsh, KG4HIR, paid us a visit after he finished working with the County Dive Team that was supporting a local boat race at the lake. We raffled off a Dual Band HT and Brian Woolstrum, AB3BT, won it. Many thanks to all those who made our 2012 FD a huge success.