Our thanks to the Upper Montgomery Volunteer Fire Department in Beallsville, MD, for allowing us to set up in the large field behind their station.

We set up W3TDH’s spacious tent inside a picnic pavilion, intending to use tarps around the pavilion as a wind break. Since the weather was mild, we didn’t need to do that. We did use a popup canopy as a vestibule for the tent to keep the wind from blowing all the warm air out of the tent every time we opened the door. A layer of foam insulation was used under the tent. Had we been set up on grass, we would have used a tarp as a ground cloth in addition to the foam squares.

Here’s K3MRI’s IC-7300 in mid-contest – one of two stations set up in the tent. The other station was W3NN’s FT-991A. We ended up not using that station because the built-in antenna tuner in the rig could not find a match for our 40m and 80m antennas fed with ladder line. Notice the electric radiator.

Setting up the 80m dipole. We also used a 20m dipole and a 3-element 40m wire beam designed by K3MRI.

Here is K3MRI working the (antenna) farm. Note the excellent ground conductivity. It rained over an in in the wee hours before we arrived on site on Saturday morning.

We used a commercial broadband dipole for the IC-918 in the van.

We didn’t make a lot of contacts, focusing instead on equipment, shelter, technique, and getting everyone who wanted to an opportunity to operate.

L-R:  N3RQV, KN3U, W3CID, W3TDH, W3NN, KB7YEL, K3MRI, WA3UHZ, KC3MIX, W3SCI

Not pictured: N3QYJ, NK3D, W4TG, WN3R, W3ADP, W4DOI