Our FD site was a joint 1F operation of Etowah Valley ARC/Bartow Co ARES. Our president , Greg KK4YLX, is also one of two AECs for ARES and most of our membership are members both of the club and the county ARES group.    We were hosted by Fire (& rescue) Station 13, 293 Wilderness Camp Road, White, GA,  which we appreciate.   Station 13 is part of the Bartow County Fire Department.

The club did not exist 2017 Field Day, but Bartow County ARES has existed many years.    The Etowah River forms most of the southern city limit of Cartersville, the county seat.     W4EVC is not a GOTA station, it is the vanity call we have applied for but did not get in time for FD.     Clubs must get a regular issue call (KN4MWT)  before applying for a vanity call.  

We had a 80/40 meter off-center fed dipole and 6 meter and 10 meter moxons made of Al tubing on a tower with upper mast on a trailer.  The OCF dipole was made of two inch wide stainless steel and plastic tape intended for electric livestock fence.    Though SS has about one sixth of the conductivity of Cu  it is very corrosion resistant, more so than bare Cu. The 2 inch (51 mm) width gave good bandwidth and many QSOs.    We had a 4 to 1 transformer balun at the feed point and 50 Ohm coax to the matchbox and FT-897D rig.     We used the OCF dipole for the majority of our contacts.

We have reserved the EOC in Cartersville already for 2019.    It should be easier for general public visitors to find than the very rural Fire Station13.  Our vanity call was issued June 30, so look for W4EVC now and next FD.  Submitted by Warren,  member.    We missed the July reporting deadline.

 June 2019 update.   We jointly decided with the EOC in downtown Cartersville that our FD might get in the way if the EOC got too busy with real emergency activities so we arranged to go back to Fire Station 13 for 2019.          Warren   assisting Alan VP and FD chair