Had a great time yesterday as members of our amateur radio club set up a radio station at Lake Mayer in conjunction with the "Take a Soldier Fishing Tournament". Combining two things I love.....military and radio! There were members of all branches of the service competing in the event with some local pro fishermen. Sure was a beautiful day and lots of military/veteran related groups in attendance. It's great to see groups like the Bass Angler, Plus doing things like this for our troops.
It was a very good day to set up our radio stations in the outdoors. Kevin-KW4B and Peter-KJ4FAW set up stations using a ground plane antenna on a 12 foot mast for VHF/UHF, a BuddiPole clone for HF, and a Cushcraft vertical for HF. Power was delivered by Kevin's 1KW Honda generator and Peter's 12V deep cycle battery. So we had a nice "off the grid" operation.
We were only on the air for a few hours but Kevin was able to make contacts as far away as New Mexico and points in between. I love any opportunity to set up and operate outdoors like this. What great fun. Mac-KF4LMT, Lester-KF4JBQ, and Bill-AK4PI showed up toward the end and helped with the tear down of the stations.
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| Antenna Farm |
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| Peter-KJ4FAW setting up his "go kit" |
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| Another view of the setup |
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| Kevin-KW4B operating one of the Candler Hospital "go kits" |
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| Kevin and Peter |
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| Yours truly-K4GTM, Peter-KJ4FAW, and Kevin-KW4B |
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| Kevin-KW4B on the air |
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| Trophies for the soldiers |
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| One of the soldier fishermen with his tournament shirt |
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| Part of the crowd at the awards ceremony |
