[FCARC] 2015 Annual Review

[Craig Szczublewski]

The following text can be found in PDF form at our website:
http://k8bxq.org/sites/default/files/images/Annual%20Report%202015.pdf

Happy New Year From the Fulton County Amateur Radio Club! It was another great 
year for Amateur Radio, even with the unexpected Monsoon that was Field Day.

Club Officers:
Your 2015 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 new Yaesu Fusion repeater system, under 
the special Club promotional pricing from the manufacturer. We are ready to 
deploy the system as a standalone UHF repeater using a donated frequency pair 
from KB8GOM. We conducted several regular maintenance visits on the primary site 
and removed the old building as well.

Education:
The V.E. Team reported 10 testing sessions in 2015. They served 21 candidates 
total, with 19 new and upgrade licenses. VE testing will move to the Wauseon 
Public Library for the 2016 calendar year.

Events and Community Support:
The 2015 Summer Hamfest had great weather and a good turnout this year. We had a 
lot of great feedback on the event and were also able to have our regional ARRL 
officials attend the event. A bit of a decline in attendance, combined with door 
prize expenses gave us a slight operating loss, but also some valuable insight 
for better managing the summer Hamfest going forward. Mark your calendars for 
June 4, 2016 for the return of this event.

We participated for a sixth year in the Delta Chicken Festival, with the 
expanded role of managing the PA system for the event. As before we were glad to 
assist the Delta Police with the Grand Parade on Sunday. Thanks to all the club 
members who helped during this event.

I am sure no one could have predicted the weather we had for Field Day 2015. 
With torrential rain and wind, and severe flooding all over the county, we were 
still able to run for the duration of the event. We ran a 6A with 475 QSOs for a 
score of 2,414. We placed 42 out of 119 in Ohio and 35 out of 42 in the 6A 
category nationally. It was a wild ride on Saturday, and an event that we wont 
soon forget! Field Day returns June 25-26, 2016.

The club participated again in the Ohio State Parks on the Air contest in 2015, 
activating Harrison Lake State Park. We placed 14 out of 20 participating 
multi-operator clubs, with 72 QSO's. We contacted 34 state parks and look 
forward to joining the contest in 2016. We combined the contest with and end of 
summer club cookout again. We had great attendance from the club and will do a 
repeat of the event this year on September 10, 2016.

We assisted again at the Lockport 5k/10k this past October. We had an 
outstanding turnout from the club and really do appreciate the support from all 
of our members.

The club participated again with Archbold Festival of Lights Parade. Thanks to 
all the club members who came out for a soggy event, and thanks again to AB8RC 
and his XYL for opening his home to the club after the event.

Last, we expanded the 2nd annual Winter Hamfest in December by relocating it to 
the Legion Hall on St Rt 109. Despite some vendors not able to make the show, we 
had great attendance, and reports from many vendors that they moved a lot of 
equipment during the event. We will be staying with the Legion Hall for the 
coming year. They handled all of the concessions and setup and tear-down, saving 
is a huge amount of time and effort. Thanks to KB8ELG for organizing this event. 
Look forward to December 3, 2016 for the return of this event.

Silent Keys:
We wanted to recognize the passing of Club members this past year, Marlene 
Burkert (KA8SX) passed away in May, and Howard Slemp (N8VHX) in June.


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Craig Szczublewski - KD8KBU