Special Event Station W4S
from
Steve Batton W4XQ
Website:
http://www.vbarc.com
on
June 24, 2008
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Special Event Station W4S Pungo Strawberry Festival 25th Anniversary  The Special Event Station W4S, operating from the Pungo Strawberry Festival on Saturday, May 24th & Sunday the 25th was a huge success. The station operated 10 AM to 6 PM both days. We had a total of 542 contacts for the two-day period. A number of Festival attendees expressed an interest in ham radio, and quite a few actually got on the air.
 The station setup was a Yaesu FT-900 into a Ameritron AL-811 amp, feeding a Buckmaster 7-band OCF (Off Center Fed) Dipole. The antenna apex was up at about 35 feet and fed with RG-8X. The operators used a Heil headset with the HC-5 element. A separate headset was supplied for the logger. N3FJP logging software was employed to log the numerous contacts. Each headset had its own volume control through a commercial headphone splitter, with one “spare” set available should on observer wish to listen on the headphones. The fourth volume control supported a set of amplified computer speakers, allowing everyone else to hear the QSO exchanges between operators. The power supply for the operation was a Dewalt 7 KW generator.
 The station was located on the grounds of the 4-H Livestock Show and Sale, right next to the footbridge entrance. Across the street was the military/public service area. This made for some lively audio coming from W4S throughout the operation. Lots of sirens, kids and animals could be heard in the background. The parade could easily be heard on Saturday morning. On Sunday afternoon Nightingale landed across the street, coming directly over our tent. This all made the event sound “live” (and fun!) on the air.
 The best thing about our location was that it got a lot of traffic, but was never too crowded for folks to comfortably stop and take it all in. A lot of young people got their first exposure to ham radio at the event. You’ll hear more about this in the coming weeks.
 Thanks to all who made the station a success: Rich N2XQM for the antenna and generator. Rich and Ron W8RJL for helping with setup and teardown. Joe KI4RKB, David KF4NMK and Ed KN4KL for the use of their antenna supports. Ed also supplied the coax. Al WA4TCJ supplied us with some food coupons for the operators. The operators/loggers were:  Ed KC4UFN, John WB4AXY, Stew K4STW, Joe KI4RKB, Bethany KJ4CVP, John WT4M, Rich N2XQM, Marshall AI4CM, David KF4NMK, Don AI4ME, Sydney KJ4CVQ, Ron W8RJL and Steve W4XQ.
To view more pictures and for details on how to QSL, please visit the VBARC website.
Article written by: Steve Batton W4XQ
Edited and submitted (with permission) by: John Ficke WT4M
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Special Event Station W4S
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by N7YA on June 24, 2008
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Hehe, Baby Haley looks like a seasoned contester on sunday afternoon working a run of JA's on 20 before the clock runs out...great pic.
And strawberries are great, it would be cool to have all kinds of strawberries everywhere. Looks like you guys had fun.
73...Adam, N7YA
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RE: Special Event Station W4S
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by W3LK on June 24, 2008
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Thanks for identifying the folks in the photos. Looks like it was a great weekend.
Congratulations.
73,
Lon - W3LK
Naugatuck, Connecticut
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Special Event Station W4S
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by AI2IA on June 24, 2008
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Special event stations are one of the best features of ham radio. They are held under fun condtions and attract the curious as well as draw in the amateur contacts.
My first contact with actual hams operating ham radios was many years ago when I spotted a tent and a table at a town picnic with people coming and going and some folks with headphones on. I walked over there and continued speaking with the operators until my wife and children found me and dragged me back to the barbecue area. I knew about ham radio before, but the experience of seeing these guys in operation was what got me started. To this day the memory is quite vivid.
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Special Event Station W4S
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by KI4WAF on June 24, 2008
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Oh, I thought this was a story about Santa Claus. I seem to remember him using that callsign last December :-)
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RE: Special Event Station W4S
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by W4LGH on June 24, 2008
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I always enjoyed running a Special Event Station. We used to get K4L and activate the Lighthouse here in St Augustine. We actually operated from the Oil room of the Lighthouse, so we were actually in the Lighthouse. I always wanted to shunt feed the 300' ground wire going up the backside of it, so we could say we were actually using the Lighthouse as our antenna. But to many others wanted to argue about it really working or not. Personally I think it would have worked very well. Still may try it someday.
The neat thing about a Special Event Station is that you can find an Event to use just about anytime, and you don't need a big a group of people to do it either. Here in the St Augustine Florida area, there are lot's of Event that one can go setup a portable station and make it a Special Event, not to mention that Daytona is less than an hour away, and plenty more there.
This article caught my eye ,as being originally from the Richmond Va area, I knew a lot of guys from the Va Beach area, but that was years ago, but still a touch of home.
Enjoy your radios, and enjoy playing radio. You can always make an Event Special. Just go do it!
73 de W4LGH - Alan
http://www.w4lgh.com
...Where Amateur Radio IS a Contact Sport!
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RE: Special Event Station W4S
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by N2UGB on June 25, 2008
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I'm not a contester...never was, but have always enjoyed working special event stations. Especially special event or club stations from USN ships or the navies of other nations.
Not always successful but always make the effort.
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RE: Special Event Station W4S
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by W4LGH on June 25, 2008
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Hey, I am NOT a contestor either. I don't consider a Special Event a Contest. I don't keep scores, just have fun operating the radio. Like I said, you don't really need a Special Event, to have a Special Event Station. Just go out and operate portable and have fun.
73 de W4LGH - Alan
http://www.w4lgh.com
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RE: Special Event Station W4S
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by KG4YMC on June 26, 2008
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just curious, sci fi channel had a series on ghostbusters about that lightghouse being haunted . did anything happen during your special event time ? hi hi kg4ymc
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RE: Special Event Station W4S
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by W4LGH on June 26, 2008
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I think peoples imaginations can run away with itself.
Don't believe in Ghosts, so I didn't see any. People "say" a lot of things, but that doesn't make it so.
73 de W4LGH - Alan
http://www.w4lgh.com
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Special Event Station W4S
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by W3WW on June 26, 2008
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Great write up!!
Also, I enjoyed working and listening to the excellent operators during the event.
Don W3WW
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