06/29/2008 | W4BRK Berkeley County South Carolina ARES/RACES operated ARRL 2008 Field Day as a Class 2F station from the newly renovated Berkeley County EOC.

Two sites were utilized. The first was located in a field adjacent to the EOC building and, operated from generator power, batteries and shore power at various times. The second was located in the EOC radio room and, operated from normal AC power sources. The building emergency generators were tested during Field Day and found capable of operating all attached emergency power circuits.

The outdoor station utlized an FT-100D transceiver for HF. The indoor station utilized an FT-857D for HF, VHF and Satellite operation. Our dedicated 2M FM repeater was used to coordinate operations at the two sites.

The indoor station utilized an existing G5RV set up for HF NVIS operation while the outdoor station used a trapped dipole and a full size 80M dipole (the flagpole at the front of the building came in handy for hanging that one). Also utilized was a 6M Horizontal Loop mounted on a portable tripod at 10' above ground.

Steve W4SLI and Angela KI4ZGPcoordinated the outdoor station activities while Dennis KG4RUL handled the inside station.

We had visitors from, Radio Communications of Charleston, Mike KM4ID (they provide all the County radios, maintain the 800MHz system repeater sites and supplied the Amateur gear for our radio room) and also from Michigan.

Operators who participated were:
Steve W4SLI
Angela KI4ZGP
Dennis KG4RUL
Tom NA4U

Contacts were made on SSB, FM and various digital modes. Digital operations used a TigerTronics Signalink USB and MixW software. The N3FJP Field Day Logger program was used.

We were unable to complete any 6M contacts but the occasional fragment of traffic was heard. The ARRL Field Day Bulletin was copied Sunday on 20M PSK with only a single character error.

Dennis KG4RUL utilized the kitchen facilities at the EOC and made homemade-to-order pizzas and salads for Saturday evening's dinner while Sunday's lunch was grilled hamburgers prepeared by Angela and Steve.

Pictures of the event can be seen on www.w4brk.org, click on the FIELD DAY button and also in the Field Day Soapbox pages on the ARRL website.

There were twenty Field Day sites listed on the ARRL Field Day Station Locator page.

Dennis R Zabawa KG4RUL

ARRL SC Section Public Information Coordinator

Berkeley County South Carolina ARES/RACES Public Information Officer

Member Trident Amateur Radio Club (TARC), Charleston, SC

Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), Berkeley County, SC, Instructor

SC Army MARS AAR4GC/T -- KG4RUL