Panhandle Amateur Radio Club went inside this year. Last year about supper time we had a storm come that lasted over three hours, delivered 4 inches of rain with 65 mph winds that snapped off 4 power poles 1 mile away. Of course this year we had beautiful weather and no rain. We put W5WX on the air at Thompson Lake Boat House operating 4A with a GOTA station. There were a number of members with other engagement that were sorely missed. We had to close down at 2000 UTC with a raw score on contacts close to 940, if my memory serves me right.   We put Eddie Wood, N5SUJ’s “tower on a trailer” to good use with windoms and a beam. With other verticals and end-fed diapoles spread around. Joe Szczubelek, K9DMV, manned the CW station; Adair Winter, KD5DYP, and Raymond Winter, W5RAW, operated the two SSB units; James Lowe, KE5ZRU, ran the VHF radio and Matt Carpenter, KC5CGT, handled PSK31. Our head cook was Terra Seright, KE5ZRU, with help from husband Chris, KE5ZRT. Other members spelled these folks off to keep it fun not work. At home Matt’s PSK31 station is 100% battery power with solar charging and that is the way he did it for Field Day so we had our alternate power station going the entire time. He also did our education part because he explained that mode to many people and a number of Hams worked it for their first time.  

Thirty four folks signed in at the registration/information table and all of us enjoyed the event and learned new things over the weekend.