We tried!  We really did!  We even improved a bit!

The 2011 Field Day results are out.  The December QST magazine has them, and you can also find them on the ARRL website.

Our club station, W4ATD, recorded 842 contacts, submitting a score of 2,792 points (including the bonus points).  How did we do?

• W4ATD was #636 out of 2,632 total entries received.
• W4ATD was #137 out of 387 total entries in class 2A
• W4ATD was #44 out of 203 total entries from the Southeast Division
• W4ATD was #9 out of 26 entries in class 2A from the Southeastern Division
• W4ATD was #9 out of 36 total entries from Alabama
• W4ATD was #3 out of 7 entries in class 2A from Alabama.

Still not quite as good as other years, but better than last year!

Oh, apparently someone gave us double credit for the GOTA contacts (BTW, thanks Shawn KK4CLF!), because our listed result score is higher than our submitted score by that amount.  It wouldn’t change our position much by calling it to their attention, so we’ll watch out for it next year.

Next year.  June 23rd and 24th, 2012.  Plan to be there!  Plan to participate!  Plan to SCORE!

Lloyd Barnette – W4RFZ is certainly getting a lot of publicity!  First he showed up in CQ Magazine last year after Field Day.  Then he appeared in the CQ 2011 calendar.  Then he got his photo on the cover of the July 2011 CQ Magazine with mention in an article inside.

Today (September 22, 2011) he appeared in a feature article in the Decatur Daily.

See for yourself:  http://www.decaturdaily.com/stories/Decatur-man-gets-a-king-to-ham-it-up,85345

There’s a good photo in the paper of the QSL card he received from JY1, the late King Hussein of Jordan.  There are also photos of his “Tuna Tin” transmitter and his sardine can receiver.  And don’t forget the intriguing photo of his “telegraph key”.  Unfortunately those photos don’t appear in the online article.

The radio club gets a mention, too.  We’re always glad for free publicity!

Field Day 2011 came and went, as always.  The Decatur club had a reasonable result for its 58th effort.

All told, we had 218 CW contacts and 635 phone contacts.  The GOTA station, using the call of new ham Shawn Borden – KK4CLF, got 19 contacts on 10 meters.  Jon Matthews, son of Richard – KB4CAY, got 14 of those in his first effort at ham radio.

We were privileged to have a site visit from ARRL Southeastern Division Director Greg Sarratt – W4OZK and his wife Blanche – N4LUV.  We were also visited by Alabama Section Manager Dave Drummond – W4MD, and Alabama Assistant Section Manager Tommy Howell – KG4MPU.  We were actually mentioned in an article in the local “newspaper”, which generated a couple of visitors to the site.

The submitted point total for this year is 2,792.  That’s a bit higher than last year, but significantly less than our best effort ever from a couple of years ago.

Undoubtedly we would have had a higher score if more operators had shown up.  The stations were mostly silent overnight, which is when we would normally rack up a good CW total.  But we maintained the continuity of consecutive events, and we plan to continue for the foreseeable future.

We’ll find out the final results of the contest in November or December.

And we’ll do it again next year!!!

For all you CQ Magazine subscribers and readers out there:

The cover of the July, 2011, issue has a full color shot of . . .

Lloyd Barnette – W4RFZ

There’s also a photo in the June issue from our Field Day photoshoot last year.  It’s the same as a photo in the 2011 calendar with club president Bob McKenzie – K4MLR and vice-resident Lester Christophe – W5GSU.

One again, we’re famous!!!

Field Day is almost here!  June 25th and 26th are just a few short weeks away.  Please come see us at Point Mallard Park in Decatur.  We will be at the picnic shelter behind the main stage.

We can use a lot of help!  Come join in the fun!

See you there!

The club re-elected last year’s officers for 2011.  They are:

President – Bob McKenzie K4MLR

Vice-President – J. Lester Christophe W5GSU

Secretary – Richard Matthews KB4CAY

Treasurer – Ray Frederick KD4VCW

Not us, I’m afraid.

The 2010 Field Day results are out.  The December QST magazine has them, and you can also find them on the ARRL website.

Our club station, W4ATD, recorded 753 contacts, scoring 2,276 points with the bonus points.  How bad was it?

• W4ATD was #793 out of 2,617 total entries received.
• W4ATD was #163 out of total entries in class 2A
• W4ATD was #74 out of 200 total entries from the Southeast Division
• W4ATD was #19 out of 38 entries in class 2A from the Southeastern Division
• W4ATD was #14 out of 40 total entries from Alabama
• W4ATD was # 4 out of 7 entries in class 2A from Alabama.

Quite a difference from last year!

Well, as those eternally-hopeful Cubs fans always say, “Wait ’til next year!”

June 25th and 26th, 2011.  Make your plans NOW!

Check out the November 2010 issue of CQ Magazine.   Our Field Day operation is on the cover!

Rick Ruhl W4PC was visiting with his daughter and her friend and operated the station for a while.  He tells the story in the accompanying article.

And that’s not all!  The 2011 CQ calendar is for sale.  Another picture of the girls appears on one of the months.  There is also a picture of Lloyd Barnette W4RFZ with part of his station!

Now all we need to do is line up for autographs!

This year’s Field Day activity is over.

We didn’t do so well.

Last year we scored over 9,900 total points.  This year’s score looks like it will be a bit under 2,300.

There was a notable lack of operators this year.  Some who normally help us were unavailable.  Those of us who were there did the best we could with what we had.  We even had a visitor come by and make some contacts for us!  Thanks Rick – W4PC!

So now we regroup, go on with normal activities, and dream about a day next June when we can once again brave storms, bugs, malfunctions, and heat to participate in our 58th Field Day.

And we must hope that we do not get called out for a REAL emergency.  We are ready, but no one wants a catastrophe!

Wait till next year!!!

It’s Field Day time again!

The DARC will operate from Point Mallard Park in Decatur again this year. We will be in the picnic shelter behind the main stage. If you need directions, check out the Field Day Locator on the ARRL website. Setup starts at 9:00 on Saturday morning.

We desperately need operators!!  If you want to run a station for a few minutes (or a few hours!) please come by and we will work you in.  The overnight shift is one that is usually productive in contacts but sparse in operators.  Come help us out!

See you Saturday!