07/01/2003 | W5MRC/K5EEN This was the second year that the McKinney club operated from the Melissa Municipal Building, and the weather was great for Field Day in Texas. This has turned out to be a great site, with more public visibility than our previous Field Day site at Erwin Park.

Although the bands were lousy, we managed to come within 900 points from last year's score. We put up four towers this year, with monoband 3 element beams on 6 through 20, a dipole for 40 and an inverted-V for 80. We probably could have left the 6 meter and 10 meter beams on the ground and still come within 100 points of our final score. Still everyone had fun, and that was our main goal.

We received a visit from some of the members of the North Texas Contest Club during Field Day on Saturday. These guys didn't just come to operate, but really came to give a helping hand. Jim, K5RX, manned the GOTA station most of his time there at the site. Thanks Jim.

The GOTA station was very popular this year. The club decided to offer GOTA pins to anyone who made 5 QSOs on the GOTA station, and the kids lined up. Our youngest operator was 7 year old Ruth. The kids even started their own competition to see who could work the most QSOs on the GOTA station, the boys or the girls. Thanks to everybody for their patience while working K5EEN during the contest. -- W5KAU