All,
To me Field Day 2024 was the best one that I have been to. Hands down. Lots of people, hot but with a nice breeze. Kathy and I just could not be more pleased with the participation level. Notably, we had several people show up on Sunday and help take the event down. Club President Mark Johnson (W5PTX) highlighted them in the email we sent yesterday, but a special thank you to Randy Holland (N5DDS), Dan Beard (KB7JZI), Charles “Cookie” Ferguson (KJ5BLH), Johnny Thomas (WB5JT) and Don Heetderks (KJ5EQS). Don also donated ground beef from one of his own herd. That was a meat choice with our meal on Saturday evening. Really good stuff. Mark did a fantastic job of meal planning and preparation. What a talent! Is there anything this guy cannot do? Between the hard work of Mark and Charles Penry (WA5VHU), this year was a resounding success. Thank you both for all that you do in general, and specifically thank you for all that you did to make Field Day such a success. Few know just how much you two both put in for all of us. Thank you.
Mark also mentioned that Ronnie Rumsey (KA5LEK), Charles (WA5VHU) and Cindy (KD5CCB) Penry did the all-nighter. Impressive stuff. The bands were bad, really bad, so their extra effort scored us some points that we otherwise would not have secured. Kathy and I are neither one night owls, but we wound up visiting with Steven Lott (KG5VK) and Zogail (KB5KBE) Smith in our RV until midnight Saturday. They are both interesting and we are so very blessed to have the ARRL North TX Section Manager as a member of our Club.
How cool is this? I re-signed a former member, Thomas Sorensen (AF5WO) and signed up FOUR new members! We will be taking applications from Kevin Sao (KK7BZE), Barry Bryant (KJ5AXI) – “Barry in Hugo” from our Monday night nets, Audie Earley (KJ5GSN) and Martin Struss (KD7QZA) to next months meeting so that we can vote them in! More work for Phillip, I am going to get them all signed up for website access and on the next “Unofficial” Call Sign list, but I am delighted at this growth.
Speaking of growth, one newer Club member was candid in telling me why he comes to our meetings instead of one closer to home, an hour and twenty-five minutes away from us. He said that our group has interesting presentations, people that were warm and welcoming, people that were knowledgeable and willing to share that knowledge and that we do FUN STUFF. LOL Five people signed up for the Club over the weekend and his comments tell me we are doing things right. HOORAY! Dare I say it? Fun broke out! A few years ago I thought fun was illegal or something. Nope, our ham radio club can demonstrably have FUN! 😉
Official Club photographer Geoffrey “Lance” Brooks (N5GHO) took lots of pictures. He sent them to the officers and for at least now I am hosting them on Kathy and my Dropbox account. The link is here. You can view and/or download any that you wish. Do you have any pictures? In particular we are looking for some of the various antenna setups. Did you happen to take any? If so please post them here or send them to me so that I can. Thank you!
Wasn’t Cindy’s outfit spectacular?!!!! LOL Great job Cindy!
That is it for now. Please watch for the new applicants to start joining us in the forums and talking on the repeaters.
73
Phillip Beall (W5EBC)
