07/23/2002 | AI4K Clearwater Amateur Radio Society / Pinellas County 4-H Club

Largo, FL

Operating as AI4K 5A WCF

In the spring of 2001, past Clearwater Amateur Radio Society (CARS) president Phil Hanna, KJ4HI, approached the club looking for assistance with a ham radio club at the Pinellas County 4-H Club. His interest was stirred in the spring of 2000 by his fiancwho works for the Cooperative Extension Service. Phil and Paul Bryant, N5PB (current second vice-president of CARS) held a class in late summer and early fall 2000 which was attended by about six 4-H club members. The class ended with a VE test session in October 2000 where three of the students passed their Technician exam, and even one passed her code!

At the March CARS meeting Phil approached the club with the idea of holding our Field Day at the 4-H grounds in Largo. After discussion the members of the club decided to hold our Field Day in conjunction with the 4-H club on their grounds. It would be a good opportunity to expose the 4-H club members to many aspects of ham radio. The 4-H grounds are approximately ten acres located in SW Largo on Hamlin Blvd, with a large open field and flat grounds along with kitchen and restroom facilities in the clubhouse.

We escaped severe weather. It didn't even rain all that much. Other areas, notably to our northeast about 50 miles weren't so lucky. We had a number of young people, including 4-H members participating! Band conditions were not too bad overall. Six meters opened up on Sunday morning and 40m was the band to be on overnight! Our antennas consisted of all wires (except on 6m and 2m.) We put up a full-wave 160m loop at 65' supported by four guyed telescoping masts. Also we use several dipoles, and a vertical. We used no towers.

The planning for the setup of the four masts was done by Dan Hawthorne, AI4ET. He spent well over $100 out of his own pocket to purchase the supplies needed to support the masts properally. The masts were guyed in six places (18 guys per mast.)

The Big Weekend:

On Friday afternoon, Dan Hawthorne and Mike Murdock, K4NW (CARS first Vice-President) arrived in the early afternoon to dig holes for the masts, and begin raising the first of four masts. By late afternoon additional club members arrived. Between afternoon and evening rain showers, Dan and Mike had raised and guyed one of the four masts. Mike and Paul Bryant stayed onsite over night to provide security, Mike in his camper, and Paul in a RV.

By mid-morning a number of people arrived. With many more hands, it was much easier and faster to raise the remaining three masts, and raise the antennas. The only beam installed was a six-meter yagi. Our antennas included the 160m loop, two G5RVs, a 160M inverted Vee and a R5 vertical. We were fortunate to have very little rain interruption so setup went smoothly.

Around 11:30 A.M. a truck from Channel 8 arrived to setup in preparation for a live spot to be done on their noon news. The live spot had Channel 8 weekend anchor Yolanda Fernandez interview Phil Hanna. The Channel 8 photographer also took a considerable amount of footage which was used in a spot shown on the 11PM news.

One HF station was operational by 2PM as the others were setting up their rigs. By 2:30 PM we had all of our stations setup. The sounds of CQ FIELD DAY CQ FIELD DAY filled the air!

That afternoon, several of the 4-H club members including the Sarah (KG4KHV), Tegan (KG4KHW) and Katrina (KG4KHX) spent quite a bit of time operating. Nathan and Crystal, two of Mike Kellys (KG4MXE) children also spent time operating.

Dan Johnson, W4BNC setup his grill and handled most of the cooking over the weekend. We kept it simple, burgers, dogs, brats and munchies

We used the callsign of longtime CARS member Alice King, AI4K.

Summary: CW QSOs = 248, SSB QSOs = 553, Digital QSOs = 25, total QSOs = 826.

At maximum we did operate 5 transmitters simultaneously but more often we had 3 or 4 going.

With a number of QSOs made by 4-H club members as well as childern several club members we know the rate wasn't high at times.

We all had a great time and learned a few things about setting up and guying telescoping masts, using batteries to power some of our radios, and that you can do field day without any towers! Thanks to the spots on Channel 8 we had several visitors who stopped by to see what ham radio was all about. The logs show that 20 hams operated, with four additional non-hams spending time on the radio.

For more information on the Clearwater Amateur Amateur Radio Society visit our web page at http://www.carshamradio.org
-- N4PK