06/30/2008 | WC4M The South Alabama Radio Club's 2008 Field Day Exercise was again located in the beautiful Frank Jackson State Park in Opp, AL. With simple dipoles and batteries, we were able to operate a few hours between the thunderstorms and meals.

The event started for our group on Friday by making several antennas during the day to be used for Field Day.

Friday evening meal was a fried bream and boiled shrimp along with some hush puppies, french fries, and all the fixings. Following the meal, we spent several hours sharing stories, listening to some hams pickin' and grinin' and just having a good time.

Saturday we started our operations in ernest with buttered biscuits and a complete breakfast made in dutch ovens on charcoal. After the meal, we used the the reel and rod method of mounting our dipoles. Although it was hot (96.5 at 3:00), we did have several visitors attend and we shared info on Amateur Radio.

Saturday evening was another good meal consisting of Grilled Chicken, Pork loins, hot dogs, sausage dogs, potato salad, baked beans,BBQ bread.

Desserts included pecan and lemon icebox cake. Operations went well Saturday night other than the (4) shutdowns due to severe lightning and the fact that it was hard to stay awake with a full stomach.

Take down on Sunday also went well, getting through before the rains started that afternoon.

In summary, I am sure that most Clubs had higher contest scores than our group this year but I doubt very seriously if any group anywhere ate any better or had more fun than the South Alabama Radio Club. -- KE4HIE