[FCARC] 2014 Annual Review

[Craig Szczublewski]

Happy New Year From the Fulton County Amateur Radio Club! 2014 was filled with 
many service events, club social activities and a brand new winter Hamfest.

Club Officers:
- Your 2014 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.

Repeaters:
- The club authorized the purchase of a used Kenwood TKR-750 repeater to get the 
backup site on-line from the lightning hit in 2013. The site is working as of 
July with the new radio and our spare CAT DX300 controller. At the same time we 
powered up KB8GOM's 440 repeater, which can be found at 442.075+ with 103.5 PL.

- We performed several maintenance checks on the main repeater site, as we 
continue to make adjustments to improve performance and converge.

Education:
- The V.E. Team reported 9 testing sessions in 2014. They served 20 candidates 
total, with 18 new and upgrade licenses.

Events and Community Support:
- We started off with the year assisting with a 5K race on February 15 in Delta, 
OH. The race was a benefit for The Open Door in Delta.

- The 2014 Summer Hamfest continues to grow, with improved numbers in attendance 
and trunk sales. We changed up the layout at the woodlot which resulted in 
better organization. The club took in $264 after expenses.

- We participated for a fifth 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. Thanks to all the club members who helped with the 
parade.

- Field Day for 2014 was a great success. The weather cooperated much better 
than the previous year. We ran a 6A+GOTA with 799 QSOs for a score of 3,846. We 
placed 28 out of 132 in Ohio and 15 out of 29 in the 6A category nationally.

- The club participated again in the Ohio State Parks on the Air contest in 
2014, activating Harrison Lake State Park. We placed 11 out of 15 participating 
multi-operator clubs, and 25 out of 89 overall participants. We contacted 48 
state parks and look forward to joining the contest in 2015. We combined the 
contest with and end of summer club cookout. We had great attendance from the 
club and will do a repeat of the event this year.

- The club assisted at another new 5K event for Evergreen Schools on September 
7. Despite being the same day as the Findlay hamfest, we had a good turnout with 
enough people to cover the course. Thanks to Kb2AVN for organizing the crew to 
work the event.

- We assisted again at the Lockport 5k/10k this past October. This was the first 
year we were a little shorthanded, but were able to make it work. Thanks to 
KB8GOM for covering the start/finish as well as being net control.

- The Kellen Kaiser memorial run in Fayette took place for a third year. The 
course was reduced to a 5K and the rain held off long enough for the event to 
complete. Ask KB8ELG about his 440 contact during the event.

- We were asked to assist with Archbold Festival of Lights Parade again this 
year. Thanks to all the club members who assisted, and thanks to AB8RC for 
opening his home to the club after the event.

- Last, we held our first ever Winter Hamfest on December 6 in Delta. It was 
wildly successful, so much that we are moving the venue to the Legion hall south 
of Delta on St Rt 109 for 2015. This will allow us to increase our table 
capacity, provide better parking, and an option of full food service. Thanks to 
KB8ELG for organizing this event.

Silent Key:
- Kenny Alvord (KD8ERB) passed away at the end of November this past year. Kenny 
was a regular at Saturday breakfasts, and was always integral in helping at the 
OSPOTA event at Harrison Lake, as well as many other service events the club 
participated in. We all will miss Kenny and offer his family our condolences.

http://k8bxq.org/sites/default/files/Annual%20Report%202014.pdf

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Craig Szczublewski