Instead of having Field Day be a typical “race for the numbers” effort that only die-hard contesters enjoy, we made the decision early on to have this year’s Field Day event be one of Socializing, Having Fun and Learning about Ham Radio. This made for a very successful and pleasant “picnic radio” event for 22-or-so club members and family who joined us for a gorgeous, sunny and hot afternoon on June 22nd.
With George N2APB taking the lead on orchestrating tech aspects (setting up stations and antennas), and Yvette AJ4YJ for coordinating “everything food” (setup, prep, teardown, etc), the Pavilion #1 at Lenoir City Park quickly came alive at the prescribed hour of 1pm that day. But this could also only be done with the handful of members who had volunteered to bring equipment and food stuffs.
We thank you guys so much for the effort that helped make us successful!
Chuck, N4CSF (Dogs, Burgers, Buns, Condiments, Grill Tools)
David, N1ESK (Charcoal, Lighter Fluid, Sodas, Water, Ice)
Bob, ND4P (Chips, Aluminum Foil, Garbage Bags)
Bill, KQ4NNU (Lettuce, Tomato, Onion, Sauerkraut)
George, N2APB (Paper Plates & stuff)
Joyce, K1JAT (Baked Beans, Cookies)
Okay, so now you probably want to take a look at the PHOTO GALLERY shown below. The captions tell the story details so we’re only going to touch on some additional things here now.
The pavilion’s shelter was right on the lake with lots of passersby and the day was hot at 94-ish with little breeze. We were on 15- and 20-meters as those seemed the most active, and SSB was our primary mode for members to step in, make a few casual contacts, then pass the mic.
Again, our theme was ”simplify, socialize, learn” and we did just that while sitting around and watching some put the stations together, asking questions about grounding, tuning, the exchanges, etc, in a low-pressure environment. We had lots of burgers and sodas and just hung out, talking about “when did you become a ham and why”. We learned a lot about each other that we don’t often get a chance to pursue during the time-cramped monthly meetings.
We also had a couple of visitors that our roving reporter neglected to get in the photos. Ivan AI0IA and wife Nancy AG0AU were visiting Tellico Village in hopes of finding a place during their relocation process from Austin TX, and we learned a bit about some of their past operating experiences and what they were hoping to get into here in TN. Hope you guys make it to our next in-person meeting at the Firehouse in the village!
So that’s it for 2024’s Field Day. We had “a handful” of contacts in omni-directional patterns (thanks to the ND4P vertical antenna), and surprising to more than a couple of us we had a contact up into Vancouver, Canada!
The point totals were low … but as those who were with us on Saturday can attest to, the numbers don’t describe at all how much of a success it was for TLARC as a whole and how much fun we had!
PHOTO GALLERY
(Right-click photo to view a larger image.)
Yvette, AJ4YJ (upper left) yelling:
“K1AT found the cookies!!”
Clockwise from lower-left: Dwayne N5XUL, Bill KQ4NNU, Mary, Alan K1AT, Joyce K1JAT, George N2APB, Jim KQ4FTN
