[FLARES] Sarasota County Fair - March 15 - 24

[Ron Wetjen]

Members of the Sarasota Emergency Radio Club and Sarasota County ARES,
helped man an Amateur Radio display, at the Sarasota County Fair.

The display consisted of a Communications Trailer, which contained
Amateur (2 M, 440, HF, ATV), Division of Forestry, Emergency Management,
and Sarasota County 800 MHz equipment.  A portable tower was also set up
and erected to 45 feet.  It held a 5 element HF triband yagi, and a
dual-band vertical.

Amateurs answered questions from the public about Amateur Radio and the
club.  We also had a sign up sheet for upcoming Amateur Radio classes.

The "highlight" of our display, was ATV.  We were set-up across from a
Pig Race attraction.  We "televised" the Pig Races, via ATV, to a second
monitor set up at the Sarasota County Emergency Management booth,
located inside an arena on the Fairgrounds.  West Central Florida
Section Manager, Dave Armbrust, AE4MR, built a miniature ATV
camera/transmitter, which was dubbed "Ham Cam".  During the evening Pig
Races, we strapped the "Ham Cam" to the back of one of the large Pot
Belly Pigs, and had a live "pigs eye view" ATV broadcast during the
race.  We recorded the video, and after the race, spectators stopped by
our display to watch the replay.  A local television station also gave
us an Amateur Radio plug, and showed footage of our "Ham Cam" during one
of their broadcasts.

25 Amateurs helped set-up and man the display over the 10 days of the
Fair, putting in 342.5 man hours.

73, Ron  WD4AHZ
EC Sarasota County