Well another successful, WG4UM, Fun Expedition at the 10th annual Valdosta City Azalea Festival. Randy, AJ4RW; Nick, KJ4KLT; myself, AL7NS, setup our canopy in the rain on Friday. I learned that Nick is the master at setting up canopies. While Randy and I stared at all the pieces, waiting for the other to get the directions Nick connected and laid out all the pieces. Without Nick it would have taken Randy and I about two hours to set up this canopy, with Nick it took less than ten minutes in the pouring down rain.
Where it rains there is a rainbow. For us, our rainbow was Saturday morning. I woke early with the sun peaking over the South Georgia pines and the birds signing with a slight cool breeze in the air. I met Randy, Nick and Sherry at New Harvest UMC to pick up some supplies, for a safety briefing, and program meeting. We were blessed this morning to have our program manager, Sherry, KD4STW, overseeing our operations. Paul, N7SDQ, who was part of our clean up crew, later joined us.
We met at the site at 8:00 am and started unloading; we were making our first contact by 9:00 am. We were hoping to have room to set up a Hustler 4BVT vertical but by the time we got there someone was setting up riding ponies. However, Randy and I set up our Buddipole antennas. Randy set his up for 20 meters and I set mine up for 15 meters. Randy brought his Yaesu FT-897 and I brought my Icom IC-735. I was worried that we may pick up some interference from the generators and other stuff running in the park; however, interference wasn’t a problem. Both setups did well and we made some good DX and stateside contacts. We didn’t make a killing on contacts but that is never our purpose. Our whole purpose is to have fun, promote amateur radio, and to put one more war story in our vault of war stories. We accomplished our mission.
I would like to think all the people that stopped by our booth and showed interest in amateur radio. There were several hams that also stopped by, I do not remember all of the names or call signs but we appreciated you stopping by. Pictures on the web will be posted soon.
We now set our sites on Cedar Key, FL for the 44th Old Florida Celebration of the Arts April 24, 2010. Our mission planner and program director for this trip is again Sherry. She has already sent Randy, Rick and I down on a discovery trip and we have found a couple places to set up on the beach to sit and tune in those faint singles from around the globe. Again, the purpose of this trip is to have fun, promote amateur radio, and to add one more war story to our vault of stories. More to come on this trip please check back regularly or check us out on facebook.
Well 73’s and God Bless
Larry
