Club members met together in a grassy section of Ruth Johnston Park which still has all the large evergreens standing throughout it. This area is to the south -west of the main buildings in the park. Jim arrived early and was able to launch his G5RV high into the tall evergreens. The location enabled him to get his antenna to a decent height and he was able to work many stations across the U.S. Meanwhile other members were busy setting up a Buddy Pole on 20m and also a Crank IR vertical antenna system. Comparisons were made between the signal strength between the Buddy pole and Crank IR. The pole seemed to be about 2S units stronger in this setting. Fortunately both were quite quiet and contacts were made QRP on both antennas. Bill brought his home-built 2m Yagi and tried some contacts with this using his hand-held. Bill didn't have much luck reaching other stations with the antenna which led us to wonder about its SWR. Don had his graphing analyzer with him for tuning the Crank IR which gave us the tools to test the yagi. It was found to be a bit low in resonance and so Bill plans to do some more tuning on the driven element later in the week.

Overall we all had a good time trying out new antennas and enjoying the fresh air and sunshine. We should be in good shape for Field Day in June. Here are a few photos of the day.