[FCARC] 2013 Year in Review

[Craig Szczublewski]

Happy New Year From the Fulton County Amateur Radio Club! We had a great year 
full of public service events, educational workshops, and radio contesting.

Club Officers:

Your 2013 officers remained unchanged from the previous year, with Bryan 
Patterson (kb8elg) as your club president, Craig Szczublewski (kd8kbu) as your 
club VP, Angela Infante (kb2avn) as secretary, and Lu Ann Kuney (kb2elh) as 
Treasurer.

Repeater:

We made improvements to the environmental controls of the primary repeater site, 
installing more efficient air conditioning and heating. The amplifier took a bit 
of damage, mostly from age and use, but we expect to have this repaired soon.

Our backup repeater was damaged in an early year lightning strike, and due to 
problems with our equipment insurance company, has remained off the air since. 
We are making strides to repair this equipment and expect the site to be online 
in the first quarter of 2014.

Education:

KB8ELG and K8LI conducted a Technician Class this past March at the Delta 
Masonic Lodge. We thank them and their team for their education efforts. The VE 
Team changed their regular testing location to the Delta Public Library in 2013, 
KC8UOM has provided the following report:

We had 9 testing sessions in 2013 with 2 each in March and June. We had 19 
candidate's total with 18 passing, ending the year with 10 new techs, 5 new 
generals, and 3 new extra's with one gentleman doing a clean sweep of all tests.

KD8KBU held a two day technical workshop in May covering digital mode 
operations. The workshop covered rig interfacing, review of software available, 
and usage and operation of popular modes like PSK31, RTTY, and MFSK.

Events and Community Support:

The 2013 Hamfest had a great turnout despite the heavy rains we had that 
morning. When it looked like it might be scrubbed, the skies cleared for us 
around 9:00am and we actually had better attendance then the previous. We 
covered our expenses and turned a bit of profit.

We participated for a fourth year in the Delta Chicken Festival, setting up our 
tri-band antenna and pneumatic mast as well as assisting the Delta Police with 
the Grand Parade on Sunday. We made quite a few contacts, operating as a special 
event station, and look forward to participating again in 2014.

Field Day for 2013 was a mix of weather issues and off-band conditions, but we 
certainly adapted and had a pretty good finish, we had a lower overall QSO count 
then the year before, mostly due weather conditions hampering station setup. We 
ran a 6A with 487 QSOs for a score of 2104. We placed 48 out of 121 in Ohio and 
35 out of 43 in the 6A category nationally.

We participated again at the Fulton County Fair in September and want to thank 
everyone who takes time out of their schedule to help out at this event.

The club participated again in the Ohio State Parks on the Air contest in 2013, 
activating Harrison Lake State Park. We placed 10th out of 17 participating 
multi-operator clubs. We contacted 43 state parks and look forward to joining 
the contest in 2014 where we are planning a club cook-out during the event.
We assisted at the Lockport 5k/10k this past October. We had 12 club members 
participating in slightly soggy weather conditions.

For a second year, we were asked to assist with the Kellen Kaiser memorial run 
in Fayette. Despite the larger course the Lockport, we had a great club member 
turnout and were able to provide useful information to race coordinators.
Last, we assisted with Archbold Festival of Lights Parade again this year. 
Thanks to all the club members who assisted.

Miscellaneous Notes and Accolades:

Thanks to WB8ZOI who took time to put a fresh coat of pain on the repeater shed 
before the winter weather set in.

Also a “thank-you” goes to N8EUY for the generous use of his generator during 
the OSPOTA event, as well as bringing in pizza for lunch.

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Craig Szczublewski - KD8KBU