07/28/2005 | W4ZA This year the Richmond (Virginia) Amateur Radio Club (W4ZA) decided that our Field Day event should focus on having FUN and not so much on points. Well, we succeeded! We had a great time and made a few points too!

Field Day was kicked off by a wonderful picnic lunch served by the ladies of the Club and included favorite dishes from our members. Luckily, there was enough left over for the evening meal which was equally delicious! Thanks to Barbara-WA4VUO, Helen-KC4KHH, Janet-N4ZOK, and Carolyn-KI4HWR who coordinated and served the meals.

Our antenna systems were also greatly simplified this year. A HamCall 80-10 dipole, stretched across the roofs of the church, worked great. We used an army surplus rocket launcher tower as a sky hook for our 80 meter dipole. Putting that up was a very interesting project. Notice the discarded air conditioner carcasses we used as ballast!

In keeping with our focus on fun, members brought in some of their classic rigs. Freds (K4LJF) Heathkit HW-12 really got a workout and was lots of fun to operate especially since it was powered by Freds homemade power supply. We sat up a GOTA station - K4RKO, but had no takers this year. We had three HF rigs running most of the time. One running SSB, one CW, and one running the Small Wonder Labs PSK-31 rig with a duct tape and bailing wire 25 watt afterburner. We also had 2-Meter SSB, packet, and tried unsuccessfully to contact the ISS. Jason, AA4AS, even threw some SSTV into the ether. RickyAB4FJ demonstrated packet DX cluster operation.

Luther-KG4USK, AnthonyKG4YXP, BarbaraWA4VUO, and RonKD4XA burnt the midnight oil to rack up points all night long. Sleep deprivation really does funny stuff to a person.

Don, W4ZYT ran CW for us on 40 meters. Man, can that guy do CW! His new paddles were the envy of all.

What a great time we had! Fun, food, and fellowship with some of the nicest folks in town. Cant wait till next year!

Drop by and visit us on the web at www.rarclub.net.

73, -- KD4XA