07/23/2006 | W5AUY The Southwest Dallas County Amateur Radio Club (http://www.swdcarc.org) has always had fun, exciting, and competitive Field Day events throughout our history, and 2006 was no exception. This year we held our event at Valley Ridge Park in Cedar Hill, TX, which had an immense amount of space and the proper facilities to help us get the best performance we can as a 3A club station. This was our 4th year at the park, so a lot of our preparation time was spent building upon what weve learned over the years. In addition to our 3 element Hygain tribander beam on our mobile 45 foot crank-up tower that weve been using since 2004, we added 2 more Delta Loops up 75ft. (1-80m, 1-40m, both vertically polarized), a 2-element 40m quad up 50ft., a 2-element 20m phased vertical array, a 40m wave vertical w/32 wave radials, a K9AY loop for low band RX, and a 3-element 6m beam up 20ft.

But our antenna setup pales in comparison to our biggest secret weaponour dedicated Field Day operators. We were on the air for all 24 hours, with each station fully staffed. Everybody got a turn to get on the air. Even our GOTA station remained active for the entire time, as we had a stream of visitors and new/inactive hams come and help out for Field Day operations. Our unstated goal this year was to break the 10,000 point barrierand thanks to our perseverance, post-event calculations show that we unofficially surpassed that mark!

Field Day 2006 also saw the greatest participation yet from local police/fire depts. and city government officials. We had Councilman Bob Weaver from Duncanville and Councilman Greg Patton W5ECH from Cedar Hill show up at our site, along with fire chiefs from Cedar Hill, Grand Prairie and Desoto as well. We even had a special treat this year when we saw the Dallas County Fire/Rescue Tactical Command Post pull up next to our Field Day site. Although we didnt use the post in our Field Day operations, all club members and visitors got to take a tour of the command post trailer while she was there. Hmmmaybe we can do an F class station next year?

A very special thanks goes to Richard Baker N5KXA, our Field Day Chairman for 2006. He wanted this to be the best Field Day Ever, and we definitely accomplished that. To that end, we also want to thank the following people for making Field Day a success. On antennas: Gary Pannell WA5FWC and Rick Davis KD5UVA for the 40m quad; Johnny Roberson KJ5LB, the Tower of Power man; Larry McFarland KY5S for overall antenna setup. On the CW station: John Langridge KB5NJD for the primary CW station setup; Mike Harang K5MMH for secondary CW station setup. On GOTA: Jerry Keltner KB6OJE and David Lusk N5UV for the PSK31 setup; Steve Palsky K5SLP for SSB; Ben Barber K5NEB as the overall station boss; On the SSB station: Danny Cromaz W5WB and Rick Ellis KJ5UY for overall station operation; On VHF/UHF: Floyd Rodgers KC5QBC for APRS and voice; Larry again for digital/packet ops. On the Satellite Station: Bob Best KA4JSQ (we worked em this year!). On the Food Station: Bill Beal WD5HHH for the pancakes; Mike Doyle N5NXN for the wonderful BBQ; Ben again for overall food planning.

And finally, SWDCARC wants to thank the remaining hams and participants for showing up and truly making this Field Day the best one ever! Your contributions helped us make club history this yearand we look forward to seeing all of you again in 2007! -- N5UV