23 in total showed up, 14 were visitors.
We had 3 solar powered stations setup this year and 1 that required no power (more on that later). We also had some mesh gear for show and tell. As always, no gensets and no commercial power. Jeff Power & Light (kg4cnm) brought a 10kw solar/lithium power setup.
For antennas we had a wire dipole, rigid dipole, and a vertical. The no power radio used a long wire antenna and a long ground wire.
On the mesh side, we did a little show and tell with a few curious folks and gave a unit away! Robert (w1clt) was going to raffle off a unit to raise funds for the next field day when someone stepped up and made a large donation to the club. No more need to raffle something off but we still drew numbers and Pedro (k4ykk) won a nice Meshatastic unit in a 3D printed case.
So what about this “no power radio”?
There were actually 3 different no power radios, a Steinite, a BBC model, and a Heathkit. The Steinite and BBC models were from about 1925 and the Heathkit from the 1950’s. The no power radios were crystal radios. It was how you listened to radio back in the days before all homes had electrical power. They are mere curiosities now but the radios still function as long as there are AM broadcast stations on the air.
A long wire antenna was run in the trees and a long ground wire laid on the ground. With this setup several AM broadcast stations came in surprisingly loud. Armando (kg4lyd) was surprised at how loud they came in on a 100 year old radio using a galena crystal and no electronics.
So, what about the food and beverage department?
Food was supplied by Jaime (sandwiches), Robert (meatballs in bbq suace), and Oscar (smoked ham). Beverage wise there was enough adult drink options to wreck an AA meeting. Yep, good times and FREE to all who visited.
Joseph from the North Alabama Tech Team showed up and did an on camera interview with us about the history of the 325 repeater. Love it, hate it, scorn it, it don’t matter, the 444.325 repeater in Miami will always be part of radio history. The interview can be seen here.
