07/22/2009 | N9XH This is the Polk County Amateur Radio Association located in Balsam Lake, WI. Our Field Day started up wet. We were setting up in the rain which usually is never fun. The rain subsided around start time and then the fun began. Kathy Poirier from the Polk County, WI Emergency Management was kind enough to assist in our obtaining permission to utilize the Polk County Emergency Command Center. This Center is a pretty new Winnebago motorhome which is equipped with several police radios and other commo devices for which the county sherriff's department uses. Our club, Polk County Amateur Radio Association, was authorized by the county to install a Yaesu FT-8800 as an ARES/RACES function. The vehicle also has a 25' telescopic mast which we mounted a rotor and tri-band antenna for the event. We also used wire antenna for 40M, 20M, and 80M. All worked fine. We used two IC-706 MKIIG's and a Kenwood on the digital setup. W9WS and K0KFC were in charge of the antenna setup and I gathered pretty much the rest of the show other than KC9NVV contacted and arranged for a local reporter to come out and do some interviews. We had a few very new hams operate and assist with setup and tear down. One of the new guys, KC9PJG, made his first contact to Alaska. KC9JIK ran the majority of our digital contacts and we had three contacts made by people under the age of 18. Food was bountiful and anyone that left hungry had no one to blame but theirselves. I also thank AB9LV, KC9IRT, KC9GHQ, KC9PJJ, KB9RLE, KC9GYH, KB9YZY, and all visitors for helping make this Field Day better than last year.
73
-- KB9OBF