Field Day and Beyond July 2019
We successfully concluded another terrific Field Day. We had decent weather, great production crews to set up tents and antennas, just the right number of serious operators and lots of food. The only real disappointment was that very few people other than the production staff! What happened? I had a tough time luring my scout friends to the site and I was not able to call on some of our regulars, but very few families came. This has been a troubling trend for a couple of years now and I think we will need to discuss what to do. Last year, I was ready to stop doing the picnic in favor of another more social event. I realize that the bugs, the heat and sometimes the food can be factors that keep people from coming. If you have a minute, let me know what you think…should we continue to have the picnic of try for some other idea and just focus on Field Day? Thanks to the more than 60 people who worked on this project in one form or another.
As luck would have it, it rained at the very last hour of Field day. That translated into a ton for work for the cleanup crew and me later. We had to dry every bin, rope and tent before storing. Thanks to a couple volunteers, we got the post field day work done in just two day. We appreciate the hot weather gods and little rain.
Once Field Day was behind me, I had to get back to work trying to rebuild our web site. Our old site is no longer serviced by the provider and we needed to upgrade. We are about to launch and expect there will be issues to resolve but the new site should be a more friendly cross platform service. You will see it adapt better to your phone or desktop computer. We will have many of the old features, but some things might be in new locations (Propagation is now on a tab in the upper navigational panel). We will have more pictures. The most important current information will continue to be on the main screen that you can access by scrolling down the page. We keep testing ideas but eventually we must go live to work out the kinks. So, by the time you read this, our site should be live.
This month is our annual Fox Hunt. I encourage all to come even if you don’t have the gear. It is a great walk in the park around Glenview and it is usually a great social event after the event. Information is on our web site. Essentially, we start at the Starbucks in the Glen Town Center, Glenview around 6:30 p.m. The hunt itself starts at 7:00 p.m. Use our 2-meter machine on FM to communicate with the teams. We have never had a weather delay or had to stop because of storms…clearly, if the WX is bad, we will move this even indoors to one of the local watering holes. (Use the radio to find us!)
Finally, this club runs its business through a very active Board of Directors. We are just beginning to look for folks who would like to help run this club. If you have an interest in helping in any capacity, please let me know. (rob@roborrproductions.com) We have a strong, loyal board with several who have served for many years, in many capacities (including me) and while that is great, it is always healthier to encourage new faces with fresh ideas.
So, the blog is short this month so I can get back to the web site. See you at the Fox Hunt…remember, we will be in Glenview and not at Heller!
73’s
Rob – K9RST