07/01/2008 | W5WX Field Day 2008 is now history. The Panhandle Amateur Radio Club (Amarillo), W5WX, missed its goals by a lot. Won't go into a lot of excuses but we had terrible band conditions plus a lot of self generated RFI problems that we need to resolve.

Adair Winter, KD5DYP, (Field Day Captain) and Daniel Blount, KC5HQY, (First Shirt) exhibited great leadership. A lot of subtle, but rather important things can easily get missed when trying to give credit for accomplishments. Our successes were based on the efforts of the entire PARC Field Day Team (class 4A). The chemistry existed, our members worked very well together. Like other FD groups, we learned a few things that we need to handle differently next year.

W5WX made 596 contacts (not counting a few GOTA QSOs), 106 on PSK31, 163 on CW, and 327 on SSB. The GOTA Station made a few more contacts. To meet our goal of being the top scoring Field Day Station in the West Texas Section we projected that over 3000 contacts would be needed.

Perhaps our biggest disappointment was not having a turnout of Scouts and the Boys Ranch residents. We really wanted to see a bunch of kids. A different approach needs taken in 2009.

Even though we missed our goals, we still had a fantastic Field Day. From watching the way folks worked together as a team, if we were called upon to provide communications for a real disaster, I feel Amarillo would be proud of us. Hopefully we never get the chance to find out. -- K5BZH