[WARC] W0NE Field Day - A Good Station and a Good Day

[Len Litvan]

Thanks to all who made Field Day 2009 a very good outing for local 
hams.  The station went up well.  We ran two HF rigs and one VHF rig.  
Antennas included two vertical HF Butternuts, the new club G5RV up 35 
feet on the club mast, and Matt's VHF 6-meter/2-meter beam.  Power cords 
went more smoothly this year with the benefit of Power Poles being 
observed in at least one case.  Three PCs were networked for real-time 
logging.

We gave the Winona County Emergency Communications trailer a good 
workout.  The new generator is QUIET!  Thanks to Russ also for the use 
of the camper trailer which was used as the base of the VHF beams in 
addition to being available as an operating point.

There was a 10 GHz contact of over 100 miles Saturday evening.  That was 
cool.  We had at least one QSO to Alaska with the G5RV (although some 
felt that the antenna had mixed reviews).

While I haven't heard a QSO count yet, it appears that we had fifteen 
ops including three who gained their General Class licenses only last 
autumn.  They all reported that they had a blast.  We had a number of 
guests--mostly family of ops.  The hot pancake breakfast provided by 
Lance on Sunday morning tasted especially good.

Thanks to everyone who helped--both at the site and off-site--for making 
this year's field day a fun and educational event.

I hope to post some pics to the club website soon.

Sincerely & 73,
Len KC0RSX