07/04/2009 | W4GZX The Field Day committee began planning for the event months in advance and formulated a plan. Lists were made, people and local companies were contacted for donations, and equipment was made and gathered at the club house. A group began loading a trailer Friday morning with some equipment and necessities then went shopping for some of the food that would be needed to sustain us for the long hard task ahead. On Saturday morning at 7:30 AM we began loading another trailer with equipment, tables, chairs, and all the other supplies we would need.

Then we all caravanned to the Field Day Site at Red Clay Historic State Park . Unloading of the trailers began immediately upon arrival. Tables, chairs, and generators were among the first items setup. Then antennas and radios were setup. Antennas were strung high in the tree tops using a home-made compressed air cannon made by Bob Giese AJ4ON from an article out of QST magazine. This was a sight to behold all in itself. Everything was setup and ready to go a full hour and a half before the contesting started at 2:00 PM EST (1800 UTC). There was plenty of time to make a sandwich and get ready for the contest.

When the contest started operators were at their stations with loggers at their sides ready to make contact. During the contest, the field day site was visited by amateur radio operators, non-amateurs, served agencies, and elected officials. All were shown the importance of amateur radio communications for emergencies.

We experienced a few torrential downpours, which is normal for Field Day in Tennesee, and covered radio equipment quickly to avoid exposure to the rain. After the weather subsided we cooked hamburgers (donated by the Rebel) and hot dogs on the grill and served dinner.

After a good meal we were ready to get back to making contacts. Operators tirelessly worked 80-Meter SSB, 40-Meter CW, and 20-Meter SSB throughout the night.

A breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, biscuits, and gravy was served Sunday morning. And then operators diligently continued on making contacts.

When it was all said and done we had a total of 43 people sign the check in sheet and there may have been a few that came and did not sign in. While our digital station did not have much success, we made up for it on the other 3 stations scoring 500 more QSO points than last years total.

Bonus points were received for using emergency power, media publicity, being setup in a public place, having an information table, having the site visited by officials, send & passing NTS traffic, holding educational activities, having youth involvement in making QSOs, and submitting our results on the web.

I would like to thank the Field Day committee, club officers, and Red Clay Historical State Park that made this event possible. I would also like to thank all of you that came out for the event and spent long hard hours setting up equipment, making contacts, and logging contacts into the wee hours of the morning. And lastly I would like to thank all people and companies that made donations of food and supplies. Everyone working together made this event a huge success.

Derek Wooley -- KD5UBL