Field Day, 2007 dawned cloudy and damp for the members of the White Rock ARC who made their way down to Blackie’s Spit near Crescent Beach that Saturday morning. As planned, the group began setting up a 10x10 day pavilion, operating positions and antennae in a protected area right beside the ocean where the Buddipole™ antennas would be most effective. First up was a 2m beam on a 20 foot pole tied to a wooden fence that enclosed the area we were operating out of. Next was Ralph’s Buddipole and then Stuart’s Buddistick which we secured to the same fence.

Our goal for this year was to provide a time of fun setting up remotely for the members and a demonstration to the general public who would come by. Ralph Webb, VE7OM; Ross Wilmot, VA7NRW; Eric Kehler, VE7EGK; Lloyd Hobbs, VE7DLH; Deme Panaioti, VE7CRT; Stuart Lyster, VA7CRH; Ken Norman, VE7KBN; Karl Cremer, VE7KHC and Geoff Kehler, VA7GLK came out and participated in this year’s Field Day event. The radios were powered by battery only and with the simple antennas we replicated a station that might be set up in an emergency situation. Hardly a ‘contest’ station, but the operators were able to contact 87 other Field Day stations between our 11AM start and the 3PM close – 17 on 2m, 21 on 40m and 49 on 20m.

We had arranged for a notice to be posted in the local newspaper, the Peach Arch News, advertising the fact that the club would be setting up an ‘emergency’ style installation at the Spit and invited all to drop around. A number of visitors came by including some local Amateurs and their families. We also had the reporter from the Peace Arch News drop in at the start, so hopefully we will see a nice article in the local paper about Amateur Radio.

The weather did co-operate and the sun came out after a few showers during the set-up phase. The seaside Field Day site contributed to a glorious outing by our club and our thoughts are turning to next year, when we could repeat our experience and perhaps stay a little longer.