No one told us that we would need an ark to complete this year's Field Day at Southeast Park in Amarillo! Everything, except for marginal band conditions, went fine-- until The Mother of All Wind and Horizontal Rain Storms attacked us from the south. Only tables that were held down by hams stayed under the shelter. Everything else was sent northward toward the shooting range. Our flag pole came down; everyone's clothing became totally soaked; solar panels went flying; the parking area and access road became lakes and rivers :-(
But it was jolly fun while it lasted. The following eleven photos are only a sample of the operations. I had delayed taking many pictures "until later", but "later" was not to be.
If you are on dial-up, have some family time or other nice activity while you wait for these to download!
Brad, N5LUL, sent out a call from the CW station. At left are John, K5WZF, and Jim, K5BZH.
The GOTA (Get On The Air) station was very popular this year. In the following two photos, Henry, N5HPJ, helped some of the boy scouts become familiar with calling proceedures and then they made their own calls:
The Bike Power Plant was also popular with the visiting boys. Dan, WA8YYE, one of its inventors, is on the right. The tire mechanism turns an ordinary hand drill in reverse-- generating current to keep a 12-volt battery charged:
A new physical addition this year was the Trailer Tower, built by Eddie, N5SUJ:
Here are close-ups of the unit in the following two photos:
By the way, Eddie can be confident about the Trailer Tower if he chooses to use it during the next Gulf hurricanes. The unexpected wind, rain and hail storm didn't bother it at all.
One of Amarillo's TV stations came out to interview Henry:
There was great food at Field Day, contributed by several hams and their wives!
Nothing like something hot from the grill of Chris, KE5ZRT, and Terra, KE5ZRU:
Among those who enjoyed the evening meal were Maury, W5UGQ, (left) and Mike, KE5CJ.
6-meter contacts were few and far between, but no fault of the station. Eddie had plenty of optimism:
