07/23/2009 | W4ZA Field Day 2009 @ Richmond Amateur Radio Club, Richmond, VA W4ZA

Saturday morning, the clubs technical committee and friends got together to celebrate the Field Day Kickoff with the "Raising of the Tower". The tower is a military surplus radio tower nicknamed "the rocket launcher". Just getting the thing to the church where we set up is sure to raise some eyebrows. As you sit at the light and the folks in the next car do a "unified threat profiling" stare - you just look back and say "rocket launcher", and wink!

Assembly of the tower and attaching the antennas is a real team effort and galvanizes the group for the rest of the event. In just a few hours we had a Cushcraft MA5V vertical on top of the 40 mast along with a Buckmaster OCF dipole. A B&W-90, an OCF Zepp, and a 20 Meter dipole were also installed. Four HF stations, including our W4FJ GOTA station were quickly put together and we were ready for Field Day!

After a great lunch, the rigs were fired up and the fun began. We operated as W4ZA 3A-VA and had W4FJ as our GOTA station call. The rigs stayed busy and at times there were folks lined up to take a turn operating.

Representatives of VDEM (Virginia Department of Emergency Management), and ARES were on hand to add to our overall points as well as show off the new Emergency Communications vehicle to members and visitors.

No, we didnt finish in the top 10%, but we all had a great time and enjoyed each others company. We are already looking forward to next years event.

RARC meets the second Friday of each month. We would love for you to join us. You can find out lots more about the club at www.rarclub.net.

Rob Thomas -- KC4NYK