The first Upcountry Hamfest, in my opinion, went real well and I enjoyed attending it. This was a Fest in our area and its organizers worked to get our LOCAL clubs to participate. If the lines of parked cars was any indication, it was very well attended and promoted.

I also enjoyed the swap. There was a broad range of items for sale and it was very easy to get a place to sell my small collection of items. Even though I was prepared with table, chairs, and shade, I was able to get a half-table inside the shed in the center of activity.

I saw many familiar faces from all over the Motherlode as well as our members. In fact, there were many more of our members there than I saw, including a rare public siting of Ron Brown!

Dave, KB6PNT, had his hidden transmitter going. This was a No-Antenna hunt with the signal that was heard just about anywhere with no antenna. George, K6GTC, was first to find and Brittany, KI6CAR, and her friend Mitchel were next. There may have been others, but I didn't hear about them.

Here are a few pictures snapped around the area. The picture you'll see of the cooler is actually the location of the hidden transmitter, "chilling-out" by Ray's, ND6S, truck.

Over 25 members, friends, visitors and guests were involved in this years Field Day exercise. It was a great day to be out in the woods participating in the emergency preparedness part of our hobby. Oh, and did I miss mentioning eating - it was a great day for that as well. Profound thanks go to Greg KI6QLE and Dave KB6PNT for making the preparations, securing the location, and setting the stage for a great event. The day started out with the Sacramento Sierra Disaster Services of the Red Cross coming on site and making a great pancake breakfast. With everyone energized work commenced on putting up the antennas. Two wire antennas were put in place, with the help of Dave's compressed air tennis ball launcher (which worked really well). A little after noon the stations were on the air. We had three stations  in operation. Two were in the OES communications trailer and they worked VHF simplex (at 6,400 feet that works) and digital (BPKS31) on 40 meters. Chuck set up a station in a shady spot and that station worked voice on 20 meters. Final figures are not in but the stations were all busy in spite of some marginal conditions on 40 meters. Lunch was prepared, again by the wonderful volunteers from Red Cross, allowing everyone time to enjoy some socialization as well. Visitors included Sheriff Ryan, Lynne Olson, and Ron Murdock (SV Section Manager) as well as a couple of people who drove up just to find out about the hobby and get information on how to obtain a license. As the afternoon progressed, the smell of a bar-b-que was waifting through the trees signaling that the operating day was coming to a close. All in all it was a great day, with great weather, in a beautiful location.

Pictures from the day are below. You may also click here to watch a short video of Dave's Tennis Ball Launcher in action. The clip is rather large, so please give it a couple minutes to download to your computer.