07/02/2006 | KC2ONU The guys from RECWA and NYC ARES invade the mountains again. We didn't expect much out of the week end because of all the rain. Our main goal was to get at least one antenna up for each of the 2 HF radios and a VHF antenna to access the packet network; we did. The group was short handed by two hams because of ARES events and family events.

Saturday the antenna gods stoped the rain and all the wire antennas were raised. John N2NSA brought the food [This is FOOD Day right] and Gabe N2PQT and we were ready to go. I was able to convince my brother-in -law to do the cooking [helped alot]. The 2 stations were ready to go by 1400 and we set up the solar pannels to keep the back up batteries fully charged. John got the packet station on the network and got ready to sent the traffic. Joe [KB2JOE] was set to go on 20 with the R7. Gab [N2PQT] and myself were ready on 40 with my IC706MK2G and a GR5 and 2 diapoles on 20 and 40. John and Joe got on a role till 1700 when we stoped to put a dent in the food. After dark Joe and I took over on 20, 80, 15 and 10 meters

Sunday started out foggy and humid and John had to head back to work which ment we lost 2 operators. At 0800 Joe and I got a strange feeling we better stop and pull down the antennas. He was right. We had everything down by 1000 hrs and at 1100 the rains came big time. We only operated for 18hrs but had a great time. Next year more contacts and Food ;-) -- WA2GUG