07/28/2008 | W8SP When they said "Ride the Waves" for the Field Day 2008 theme, I didn't take it literally! It turned out to be quite an adventure.

We had a nice morning to deliver generators, tents, antennas, towers, and station equipment. The crew arrived, things got done, much as in past years. The dining pavilion went up. The CW tent went up. The Field Day two-section tower and beam were delivered and assembled and went up nicely. The dipoles were hung off the repeater tower with care, in hopes that MURPHY would NOT be there... Little did we know!

I had checked the weather forecast earlier: They said, "Chance of thunderstorms" as often is the case in June. What I've come to appreciate is that that phrase means there ARE thunderstorms, and there's a CHANCE they'll head your direction. In past years we've been really lucky. This year, not so much.

The appointed start time ticked over and we began our operations. Our phone station kicked into gear right away, and CW was up and running soon thereafter. Some of the "new guys" and I worked on putting together some special operations for VHF/UHF, image demo (I was planning to put the "newbies" to work!) and Satellite.

Later in the afternoon, someone looked to the southwest and commented on how dark the sky was getting. Here, some weeks after the fact, I still can't explain why we did not better heed that warning. The only thing I can reason out of it is that we've been so lucky with the weather the past several years, we've grown complacent. When the storm hit, it came in very quickly and very hard. Operations were brought to a complete halt, and we had some damage to the dining pavilion and some of the equipment that got exposed to heavy rain.

I am happy to report that there were no injuries.

After the two storm cells passed over we resumed operation and put things back together, wetter but wiser. I think our operators and support crew performed in true Amateur Radio spirit, and made the best of the remaining time.

My thanks to our regular crew, Joe WD8EOG, Alan W8OP and daughter Jenna KD8EBJ and her special friend Elliot, Paul WD8KOI, Jason KB8AVQ and Melissa KD8AHG and Trinity, Chuck K8UQY and Dawn KA8VHW and Harry, Tom N8QFQ and Sheila and Hailey, Tom K8TW, Steve WB8III and son Matt, who did a lot of logging for his Dad, and I hope he will have his license by next year.

Also to new-comers Jason KD8ILL and XYL Jennifer, Jeremy KD8HRY, XYL Christine and daughter Kenzie, Kevin KC7WKA and son Doug. This was their first Field Day, and I am sure they will be back next year with more fresh ideas and enthusiasm.

Thanks to Greg N8TJD, who had work that weekend but managed to come for a quick visit, and Marshall WG8T who also did some repeater repairs while he was on site.

My special thanks to Alan's XYL Joann, for permitting about a dozen water-soaked, frustrated people to move their covered dish dinner from the wrecked pavilion at the FD site into her kitchen and dining room. We sat there quite some time after dinner, just dripping and dreading to go back out into the weather. Joann was very gracious and understanding.

At the debriefing meeting in July we covered lessons learned. We'll be back next year, maybe not so complacent about our luck with the weather. From now until next June, we're looking forward to another Field Day.

73,
Bob West WA8YCD
President, Mountaineer Amateur Radio Association -- WA8YCD