The Boeing Employees Amateur Radio Society of Kansas sponsored the Greater Wichita Field Day and jointly hosted the 9A entry with co-hosts Wichita Amateur Radio Club (WARC) and the Wichita VFW Amateur Radio Club (W0VFW).  The local radio media provided notice of the event on the air - the Wichita Eagle provided a notice in the paper of the location at the Spirit Boeing Employee Association Lake.  A local TV station provided a 53 second video coverage on the 10 PM news.  Over 81 members and visitors attended. The local served agency (Salvation Army) attended and provided a lunch for everyone. Jim Skelton, the local elected county commissioner, attended and learned about amateur radio. Henry Monton hosted an amateur radio test session with four people taking their tests for their initial license or upgrades. A wonderful barbeque supper was cooked by Don Urban on Saturday night. Terry Gattis, K9TAG, provided a demonstration on his solar/battery array - with adequate batteries and sunlight, we could power our entire field day!   The Wichita Amateur Radio Club (WARC) provided a high wattage generator for all the Phone and CW stations.

Testing - VEs at the test session included:  Henry Monton W0IE, Les Pierce KC0DQ, Larry Grimes AC0RC, JB Scott KD0CSL, and Anna Monton W0AJM.  People who tested included:  Radeanna Brown KD0NSJ, Robert Bryant KC0TIL, James Copeland KD0ICP, Joseph Jones KD0HTG, and Benjamin Ruth.

GOTA Station - Harvey Jones, W0HGJ, was our dedicated Get On The Air (GOTA) Coach. Terry Gattis provided a solar/battery array which was used to complete over a dozen field day contacts! We were pleased to have the generators operate flawlessly throughout field day! 3 GOTA operators achieved the requisite 20 contacts each - Joe Jones, Michael Bibb, and David Munger. The GOTA stations was operated continuously throughout Field Day - a fine accomplishment!  Congratulations to Julie Palmer and Marlene Schmitt for making their very first amateur radio contacts! Other operators included Catherine French, Andrew Martin, Brandon Degrief, Mary Whitfield, and Elise Wing.

Digital Stations - The digital stations were a team effort - Captains included Roger Bailey, Deryk Ramsey, and Robin Ramsey.  Roger Bailey setup and used his 20m vertical antenna and powered all the digital stations with his generator.  His station is a thing of beauty that he crafted himself (see attached photo).  Deryk and Robin Ramsey setup the 15m and 40m digital stations with help from Roger Bailey.  Robin Ramsey operated 15m  digital.  Deryk operated 40m digital with help from youth Andrew Martin.  Overall, contacts were down from last year - propagation seemed consistent - but once the present field day stations were contacted, there just wasn't any others to work!  Teardown was accomplished by the entire team. 

6m Phone Station - Our station was setup by Captain Jim Enix, Randy Wing, Harvey Jones, and Ben Wing.  The antenna was a 6m loop at 20 ft.   Operators included:  Jim Enix and Nick Farlow.  The 6m loop performed marvelously with the coast to coast 6m opening!  242 6m contacts resulted!  The opening lasted until 10:33 PM Saturday night and recommenced at 8:30 AM the next morning!  Teardown was accomplished by Jim Enix, Randy Wing, and Harvey Jones.

10m / 15m Phone Station - Our station was setup by Captain David Rayson, James Whitfield, Jim Enix, Evert Hastie, John Van Wallegen, and Ben Wing.  (prior to the event, George Pinick, David Rayson, and James Whitfield considered using a beam, but it proved difficult to prepare in time for the event - perhaps next year!)  James Whitfield devised a 10 / 15m vertical but an as yet unidentified Gremlin resulted in a non-resonant SWR.  A debug team ensued of the setup team and Dennis Gaskill, Robert Bryant, and Brian Nicholas.  In the end, it was decided that an all-band inverted V oriented east to west was an adequate backup solution.  David Rayson, Evert Hastie, James Stafford, Lloyd Williams, and John Van Wallegen operated throughout field day (with a break at night as propagation gave up the ghost) with good results! 

20m Phone Station - Our station was setup by a large team of people in 105 degree heat: Randy Wing, Ben Wing, Ron Wing, Mary Whitfield, Earl McIntyre, Steve Canfield, Andrew Martin, Alan Bruster, Jim Enix, James Whitfield, Harvey Jones, Ron Wing, and Brian Nicholas. Operators included Charlie Harris, Brian Nicholas, Randy Wing, Ron Wing, Jimmy Macionski, Jeff Francke, James Stafford, Andrew Martin, and Robert Bryant. Tear Down was accomplished by many of the operators. We used the BEARS ICOM 756 PRO III, an autotuner, a 20m filter, and a 3 element tri-bander up 30 ft. for an antenna. Memorable moments included: 1- trying to work Hawaii and then turning the beam right on him and working them first call! 2 - being able to run a frequency multiple times and run up our score instead of just searching and pouncing. 3 - the fact that we NEVER had to beg people to get on the air! They were right there ASKING to be operating!
 

CW Station - Dennis Gaskill setup two large CW antennas this year - a 20m half square and a 40m dipole. Dennis brought his venerable ICOM 706 MK IIG, an autotuner. Randy Wing and his brother made an emergency run, Saturday afternoon, to pick up the BEARS Yaesu FT-990. Dennis was assisted during seting up by Robert Bryant, Jim Enix, Steve Canfield Jim Williams, and others. Operators included , Dennis Gaskill, Bill Benton, Bob Harder, and Jimmy Williams - with assistance logging on 20m CW by Robert Bryant. Tear down was accomplished by Dennis Gaskill, Robert Bryant, Don Urban and Jim Enix. Bill Benton operated Saturday afternoon and into the evening. Without Bill we wouldn't have had many Q's for Saturday. Jimmy Williams who wasn't feeling well, operated Saturday Night. On Sunday, Bob Harder demonstrated his high speed CW sending and receiving skills and his homebrew "CW Macro" box. We got the two CW antennas too close together and experienced crosstalk on 20 and 40 meters. Need to separate them at least 70 ft apart . Thanks to Robert Bryant, who stayed with me through out all of the Setup and Tear down. He sweat, way more than I did. We need a couple more CW operators for full use of the equipment next year.

40m Phone Station - Setup was accomplished by captain Brad Cooley, Marsha Meilli, Robert Johnstone, Brian Nicholas, Jeff Franck, Randy Wing, Ben Wing, Ron Wing, Earl McIntyre, and James Whitfield. Many thanks to KC0YJI for sacrificing his armpit to scale the backstop for the 40m antenna!The initial antenna was poised about 15 feet over the top of a 20 foot backstop. Few contacts were made - reception was strong, but transmission was problematic. Debugging ensued by James Whitfield and Car Engdahl. The team decided a drastic remedy was required - a group consisting of Ron Cowan, Harvey Jones, James Whitfield, Ron Wing and others raised a 30 ft tall 100 ft long dipole with excellence results following! We had a strong field day - but we missed out on about 7 hours of voice contacts due to the antenna problems.  Operators included:  Brad Cooley, Robert Johnstone, Marsha Meili, Randy Wing, Nick Farlow, Robert Bryant, Carl Engdahl, and George Pinick.  Teardown was accomplished by Brad Cooley, Robert Johnstone, Laurie Farlow, and Marlene Schmitt.

80m Phone Station - Captain Larry Macionski,  Jimmy Macionski, and Ben Wing setup the antennas.  Larry operated his Kenwood radio from his camper (with air conditioning and a generator) during the 80m openings.  The antenna was an 80m dipole at 30 ft stretching 100 ft between the north tree line at our site and the 30 ft mast.   The operation was marred by some electrical interference at 3:30 AM that was never located and stopped about 7 AM.  Teardown was accomplished by Terri Heimerman, Larry Macionski, Ben Wing, Robert Bryant, Randy Wing, Joe Jones, Michael Bibb, and David Munger.

Teardown - Among the most beloved field day supporters are those that stay when they are tired from staying up most of the night and operating for 24 hours!  Thanks to the following people (picture included) who helped straighten up and supported the joint tear down:  James and Mary Whitfield, Marlene Schmitt, Laurie Farlow, Ben Wing, Harvey Jones, David Rayson, Roger Bailey, Dennis Gaskill, Robert Bryant, Randy Wing, Jim Enix, Jimmy Williams, Marsha Meilli, Brad Cooley, Robert Johnstone, Nick Farlow, Debbie Hahn, and Joey Jones!