McKean County Amateur Radio Club

An ARRL Special Service Club

This year, our club worked at Marshburg (about 8 miles from Bradford) at the Klondike Gift Shop on Route 59 about 1 mile east of the Route 59 and Route 321 intersection.  We decided to use Kevin Hritz's call sign for our club, W3QD.  Or as Tony changed it around to, "Whiskey Three Quacking Duck".

We operated 2A after setting up a G5RV dipole and a Hexbeam 5 band antenna.  Tony and Kevin talked to the local Dodge dealer in town to borrow a helium balloon they have with their dealership name on the side.  That was used for a 160 meter vertical antenna, that for a time was a 160 meter horizontal antenna.

We used N3FJP's networked Field Day software and it worked like a champ.  We had two laptops connected via wi-fi cards doing the logging.  Check out Scott's website:  www.n3fjp.com

We couldn't have set up as easily as we did without the help from several hams who stopped up to help out:  Don Pistner N3ELI, Sandee Pistner N3HPL, Bob Trask KD3JD and Dottie Trask KA3RAG.  We deeply appreciated their help.

Several people/organizations contributed to our success this year:  Bauschard Dodge lent us their balloon for a 160 meter vertical antenna; Control Chief lent several tables; Jackie Gregg and family let us use part of the property for our Field Day site and listed our event on their sign out front and Tom Urban KB3LAF lent us a dining fly and generator.

Operators this year were:  Bill Edgar N3LLR; Tony Habovstak WA7KKN; David Higgs K3WL; Kevin Hritz W3QD; Roger Keifer NJ7T; Chris Mincemoyer KA3GGP and Kevin Waid KB3GGR.

We have some pictures below taken at the Field Day site.  Simply click on the thumbnail picture and you'll see a larger version of the picture on your browser.

Oh yes, one other thing...  We ate well.  Master-chef, Kevin, made sure the food was hot, edible and very tasty.

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