First, the fairly remote location of the church meant there was almost NO electrical noise on the bands. The church is located in the middle of a large section of land recently reclaimed after the closing of a large surface mine. The mine when right around the church and its cemetery. Second, the building (which is no longer used by any church congregation) is still furnished with tables and chairs and even has air conditioning! And third, there are plenty of very tall trees just waiting to hold up the ends of antennas!
Unfortunately, the Field Day crew was a little smaller than normal, mostly due to the severe weather that rolled through the area the night before leaving thousands of people in the area without power. But the crowd the did show up was treated to a couple of surprises including a visit from Steven Lott (KG5VK) the Section Manager for North Texas. Steven was making the rounds of East Texas Field Day sites and squeezed us in between Tyler and Nacogdoches. Also, Luke (a soon-to-be ham!) brought dinner including grilled hamburgers with all the fixin's on top of homemade sourdough buns made by his wife! Delicious!
Keith took the whole group on a sunset tour of the cemetery, noting some very interesting graves. Marty and Kitch kept the bands hot all night long with Kitch alone making dozens of CW contacts. All in all, it was a great event and we look forward to the next time we can light up the bands!
