2015 Field Day a great success!

This weekend, the Rusk County Amateur Radio Club hosted a local Field Day station as it participated in the nation-wide emergency preparedness event. This year's station was again at the Rusk County Office of Emergency Management's Emergency Operations Center, located at the rear of the county courthouse, 115 North Main Street in Henderson, TX.

Several club members helped out this year, from 1pm Saturday through 1pm Sunday. The club's special event callsign, K5R, even drew several pile-ups that sent the adrenaline pumping for whoever was operating at the time. And special kudos to Tom, who logged like a mad-man for throughout several pile-ups. Also thanks to Richard, K5RRB, for providing the perfectly cooked rib dinner Saturday night!

This year's Field Day operation netted more than 700 contacts on several bands thanks to a new vertical antenna installed, at least temporarily, on the roof of the OEM building. The final score is still being tallied thanks to several opportunities for bonus points.

Each year thousands of amateur radio operators take part in a two-day emergency communications drill which often feels like more of a contest. Each station attempts to contact as many other statinos as possible while operating from remote or unique locations.

Survey flight over the OEM roof

Jon, NU5G, brought out his remote-controlled helicopter Monday to perform a fly-over of the OEM building. The club is planning on placing an HF antenna on the building for use in emergency communications but access to the roof is extremely limited. in order to avoid using costly equipment to climb to the top and get a peak for planning purposes, Jon took to the air and got a great shot of the roof.

The roof was surprisingly sparse. But that actually makes sense, considering it was built as a jail and would have been designed to prevent easy access from inside the building.

The next step it to look closely at the video footage and decide exactly where and how an antenna can be secured to the roof.