Falmouth ARA once again held its annual FD operation at the Barnstable County Fairgrounds here on Cape Cod.   Setup commenced on Friday afternoon with assembly of antennas and erection of the club's 5 military surplus AB-577 towers as well as a shorter surplus tower loaned by the Barnstable County sheriff's office.  Our 2A operation uses tri-banders, 40m yagis, and 80m dipoles for the CW and SSB positions, as well as a tribander on the short tower and wire antennas for GOTA, plus 6m & 2m yagis for VHF.  Many hands made quick work of Friday's setup. 

Setup was completed on Saturday morning, with CW and SSB stations in 2 rented office trailers and the VHF station installed in the Barnstable County emergency comms vehicle.  This year we positioned our GOTA station (operating under W1HQH) at one end of our "food and ragchew shelter".  One of our club members also brings a complete satellite station with az-el antennas and automated control.  

Power was provided by 3 propane-powered generators that ran without a hiccup all weekend - if you haven't converted you generators to propane, check it out.  Very safe, with no mid-event refueling and its associated hazards!   K1RK (and W1HQH) commenced operation on schedule at 2PM and ran for 24 hours.  Operating conditions & propagation were reasonably good for all stations this year.  The weather was great for setup on Friday (clear, cool and dry in the low 70s).   And pretty good all weekend and only a little warmer by Sunday teardown.      

Highlights included a great cookout on Saturday suppertime - I think we had at least 60 people for good food and fellowship.  And, yum! -  sausage, eggs, and English muffins for Sunday breakfast!   At the VHF station, our best contacts were New Mexico, Minnesota, and Mississippi on 6M.   CW and SSB worked all over the US and Canada.  And the satellite station had 2 contacts on 2 birds in the first few minutes on Saturday, followed by quite a few more in the course of the weekend.  

All in all, a great weekend - good weather, good conditions, and plenty of members on-hand for setup and teardown of the antennas and towers.  

Thanks to all who came out this year!