CQ CQ de W9CEQ Special Event Station......

 

On Saturday, October 6th the club operated W9CEQ, a special event station commemorating the 22nd Annual Scarecrow Festival held in St. Charles, IL (view the 2007 pictures, here).  41 club members and many family members met at Kermit W9XA and Caron W9QLT's QTH.

 

The morning started out by setting up one of our clubs' new tents which provided shade from the unusually hot sun and record high temperatures. At 10 am, two stations were put on the air. Both the 40 and 20 meter bands were not in very good shape, but contacts were made by the persistent operators.

 

Becky KB9UBU grilled hamburgers and hotdogs for us to enjoy at lunch time. She provided us with a very nice spread of various salads and chips.  Tamie KC9LWX brought us a special treat, her famous German Potato Salad! Keith N9YA provided a chocolate chip cookie desert which his sister put together for us. We all enjoyed the food, thanks to Becky and Tamie and Keith.

 

Kermit had a 10 GHz duplex radio set up as a demonstration. One unit was located out at the patio area, and the other was in the hamshack pointed out the window. It was fun to transmit on both units in full duplex.

 

Dick AH6EZ brought along his laptop and demonstrated CQ100 using his Q phone as the internet link. Also, Harry K9DXA set up a QRP CW rig and hooked it to a Buddy Pole antenna. Several club members took a seat at his station and made contacts.

 

Jim N9XP and his son Jimmy took the opportunity to carve a few pumpkins.

 

We set up a sign at the entrance to Kermit's driveway which announced our "ham radio demonstration" event. We had several people stop by and ask us about what we were doing. One person even got on our repeater and made a short 3rd party contact! Who knows, these folks might be future ham radio operators and FRRL members?!

 

Thanks again to all who helped make this event a success. A special operating certificate will be issued to those who participated, and a special QSL card will be sent to those who made contact with us.