[SMCARA] Countdown to our SMCARA participation in the ARRL Field Day Operating Event - 23/24 June 2007

[Peter Butt]

Hi Folks,

 Yep, it's just about time for our annual St. Mary's County Amateur Radio
Association (SMCARA) FIELD DAY operating event.  Field Day operations will
be held on Saturday, 23 June and continuing through the night until Sunday
morning, 24 June.  This year's event will once again be held (in the field,
of course) at the Hollywood, Maryland Volunteer Fire Station in the rear of
the parking lot.  Please reserve time to come out and participate with your
fellow club members in this, our largest club-sponsored event of the year.
Everyone is invited, especially children, and there will be a lot of
activities to share in.  Take a few minutes to re-learn how to put up
antennas, how to log contacts, how to fight the mass of stations to catch
those 'rare' ones, and lastly, partake in the large quantity of food and
drinks that will be available on-site.

  We begin our setup at 10 AM sharp on Saturday morning (23 June).  It
should only take a few hours to get all the antennas up and tested and then
we will get the rest of the site prepared for the main event...
communications begin at 2 PM.  We expect to be operating 3A (emergency power
and three main stations) and hope to have a formidable presence in the areas
of HF, satellite operations, VHF emergency operations, and digital (WinLink,
etc.).

  Your club officers have gone the extra mile and have made all the
arrangements for shelter (large tent), clean restrooms, acres of paved
parking, food and all the other essentials you will need to survive 24 hours
outside.  You need to bring yourself (and your family, friends or other
folks interested in radio) and any special gear you would like to play with.
We need support for the night shift too so plan on staying up with the other
stalwarts through the night!  Perhaps we can convince A.J. to bring his
trailer to the site so you can always catch a few zzzz's in relative, air
conditioned comfort!

  As I said before, Field Day is our largest operating event all year and we
really want to do it up this year.  Don't forget the annual picnic on
Saturday evening at 6 PM.  Although the club will provide the main dishes
(hamburgers, hot dogs, fried chicken, etc.), we really could use some side
dishes from you to flesh out the picnic offerings.  If you can, please
consider bringing a salad (slaw, potato salad, fruit salad, macaroni salad,
etc.) or a desert.

  I hope to see all of you next week!

Vr, Pete (WA3UMY)
    President, SMCARA