[tcrc-fd] Field Day

[artj]

Hi everyone,

This is my personal THANK YOU to all of the volunteers, for giving their time, treasure, sleep, sanity, equipment and sore muscles to the cause of a very successful TCRC Field Day, 2014.
Points were logged, lessons learned, friendships rekindled, and new ones created.  

Since I did not take notes on all that transpired, I will touch base on much of it.  

Bravo and Kudos and Bouquets to the Field Day Chair, Susan Keith, for coordinating the whole effort.  There was enough food and coffee for the entire weekend.  Thanks to Caribou Coffee for their generous contribution.  Thanks Susan for calling the members and making the number of "Stop Bys" greater, (it seems) than ever before.  Banana bread was great too.  Please, join  me in thanking her for making the effort successful and the membership feel appreciated.

Dave ran the talk in station and had some demo equipment for display.  Also did some First Aid activities and was very inviting and helpful to the new hams and others who stopped by.  He cooked breakfast for the die-hard operators on Sunday Morning.  

Thanks to the Digital and CW operators Brett and Doug for their efforts in point collection and showing "how its done."  Brett's BBQ and generator were appreciated as well.  (I used his "hotspot" to upgrade the firmware on my TS-590S.  An activity I put off long enough and had a midnight opportunity to perform.)  Even though I had thought that I might try my fist at CW, Doug performed with such alacrity that I was intimidated (Not intimidated, so much as amazed!)  Thanks for the use and damage to the fiberglass tower from Brett.  Apparently they cannot take much lateral force when setting up.  Thanks to Ken for his use of the off center fed dipole the Carolina Windom that performed swell on the CW-Digital station.

Thanks to Mark for setting up the voice station in my camper.  This worked out again this year.  The camper is in the process of having its roof re-sealed and so had half the old paint an sealer removed and was in really bad shape.  A tarp served as a primary water repellant, and of coarse was need, and did its job well.  Mark had to leave early, but hopefully we got everything back to him.  Some RF lessons learned from last year, (Like ground rods) helped to keep stations from interfering with each other (mostly...)

It was good to see John and Terry again.  They offered support for both setup and take down.  Many other long time members, old time members, showed up.  Kelvin showed up and was impressed.  

Thanks to Josh for his efforts from setup to take down.  Operating SSB, Transferring manual log to the N1MM software,  operating the BBQ, filling the generators with Gas, and generally being there when needed.
Thanks to Walt, who truly showed he was a key person in making the effort successful.  (I trust you returned the key to City Hall, as well!).  Pop, water, food, and coolers.
Thanks to Rod for his help.  Your experience, help and pocket knife were appreciated.
There are so many people I lost count....
I am sure I missed some important individuals but my brain can't remember and my fingers cannot type fast enough.

Only one G.O.T.A. station contact was logged, and it was a very important contact from Sue to a W1AW station portable 9, 100 year ARRL commemorative station.  
Many others stopped by and learned a lot.  

There are a lot of people who brought various things that added to the effort.  Some had car-full's and others just some chips or cookies.  All are welcome and greatly appreciated.  We had plenty of water from Mike and Walt, and lots of soda and beverages.

I could type this all day, but suffice it to say
EVERYONE CONTRIBUTED IN SOME WAY TO MAKE THIS EFFORT SUCCESSFUL.

THANKS AGAIN, 
Arthur C. "Artie" Johnson, WBØJMG President, Twin Cities Repeater Club, Inc.
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