Willy W1LY and Paul AC1DW gathered material for the event early, avoiding the rain on Thursday, and setup mostly avoided rain on Friday afternoon.  By late Saturday morning generators were humming quietly (very quietly, the birds were louder), tents were up, and people were making RF to stake out their spots before the 2 PM starting bell.

That starting bell was short-lived as a Thunder/Lightning/Hail storm passed over Glen Park at 2:30, followed by two more storms (another with hail).  Operation resumed around 5:30 PM . So it was a slow start for sure.  Nevertheless things got rolling after an excellent early meal supplied by Ed and Brian, and cheers were often heard coming from the GOTA tent as visitors made their first HF contacts.

Weather was much nicer after the storms passed early Saturday evening, bringing cool temps and low humidity overnight.  By 2 PM Sunday, when the final bell rang, it was up to the mid-80s with gentle breezes and low humidity — perfect take down weather.  By 4:30 the final tower (VHF/UHF) was coming down, and all the others had been loaded on top of Willy’s van.  Expectation is it will be a ghost town (the park) by 5 PM.

CW Beam on left with Moxon and the GOTA beam on the right

Left tower supports GOTA 80/40 dipole and moxon to the middle tower with SSB beam. Rightmost tower is VHF/UHF station (6m/2m beam)

Satellite station (Icom 910H for RF, SatPC32 controlling Doppler and Az/El rotor)

Satellite Antenna after setup at 11 — Note clear skies

Same view out onto the field as first storm hail storm approaches about 2:30 PM on Saturday

Hand model Rob KA1ZZU shows melting hail from first hail storm.

Newly licensed ham Ryan KC1KUF, doing great in the GOTA tent (3 Qs a minute rate). Can’t wait for Ryan to get his General. (John K1JSM logging to his right, and Paul, K1YBE coaching to his left)