I set up a simple station at the Southside Baptist Church 4th of July Community Picnic and Fireworks Display over the weekend. Kind of a last minute idea but thought it might be fun to operate a little since I would be outdoors most of the day. I borrowed Mac-KF4LMTs battery and G5RV Jr. antenna and found a good spot to setup in right field of one of the ball parks over there at Paulsen Sports Complex where we were having the picnic. I put up a 12 x 12 canopy and setup my station on a small table that is perfect for events like this. I brought along my Yaesu FT-857D and my LDG Z-11 Pro tuner. In no time I had the radio and tuner connected to the battery thru my RigRunner power panel. Next step was to get the antenna up in the air. I solicited the help of Charles Cobb, one of my friends from church. We used the magic softball and a spool of chaulk line. Charles flung the ball up and was able to snag one of the foot pegs on the outfield light post. Did the same on the other side and tied everything off nicely. Got it up about 30 feet. Took just about 15 minutes. Hooked the feedline to the tuner and boom, I'm on the air. Operated for about an hour before my wife called me over to help with the picnic. My job was to cut up 30 watermelons! Dang, that's alot of watermelon. It took me about 3 hours till we ran out. Then I was able to clean up and get back over to the radio station. I operated right on thru the fireworks display and even had the opportunity to explain HAM radio to a bunch of my friends and my daughters friends. After the fireworks ended I broke down the station and headed to the house. Sure was fun. The simpler the better when operating an event like that.
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