Wedixie ARC  met at Bartow (County) Gatewood Park near Cartersville, GA  on Saturday June 26 for our third consecutive FD at this location.    Six  members Larry KB4LWT, Dave WA4PUB, Warren WD4NIT  Jack KC4I,  Charles AC4PQ, and Oliver KE4HMN   were there, at a day use only picnic shelter.     The location is on Lake Allatoona, very near the dam.     Warren brought his wife and two grandchildren.     Unfortunately the kids declined to modulate the radio, preferring swimming.     A  dual band wire antenna was suspended from the   nearby trees using a dowel   shot with an 80 pound compound bow.  A  reel equipped slingshot was available as a backup.    A backup rig was also available but not needed..

We also put up a two meter J pole  suspended from a tree for a talk in station, but that did not get much use and did not bring us any visitors.   We  did have one radio amateur visitor who lives nearby and found us   on the ARRL FD Locator on line map.    We  succeeded in getting an article  published in a Cartersville newspaper.    We made 17 CW and       30 SSB QSOs,   class 1A,   power multiplier 2.

We have more than six members.    At least one met with another group for  FD  and at least two reside too far away from our FD site.     The  Wedixie ARC  was founded in 1968 as an employer sponsored club for  Western Electric's  Southern Regional Center in Atlanta.     In 2002  the club lost   company sponsorship (by Western Electric successor Lucent Technologies) and became an independent retiree's  club.   All but two members had retired by 2002 so ceasing sponsorship was not  unreasonable.   At one time we had 30 to 40 members, mostly employed. The Wedixie ARC has been a long time regular participant in Field Day.

The club had to vacate their picnic shelter before sundown Saturday. WD4NIT went home and made 22  SSB  class 1D contacts.      I have a 13HP 6800 Watt generator but it is a bit noisy for sleeping hours.   Dave has a quiet 2000 W generator that we used for WB4MZO.

73,  Warren

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