Special Event Station – WØT
Flint Hills Amateur Radio Club returned to Beaumont, Kansas on October 23, 2021 with a special event station (WØT) in honor of the Beaumont Historic Hotel.
The city of Beaumont built a beautiful community center where we set up our base of operations. The community center represents an old Frisco Railroad depot that used to sit on the site several years ago.
Historic Beaumont Hotel Special Event October 23, 2021
Written by Wayne Schlueter, KDØWAT
Photography by Vic Bilson, KØVAB
(Note: All Photographs Clickable for Larger Image)
FHARC proved they could do portable operations as well as socialize together since it had been a long time since we were together in one place for the past two years. Why I remember getting together down at Braums in Andover for coffee and donuts or over at Ed’s rec hall for coffee and donuts. Those were good times and I still remember all the faces.
Well Dick Hammond, NØTGR was making calls and contacts from home remotely in his ham shack. Believe me, Dick made the day making seven contacts. As they say, not bad for an amateur! Thank you, Dick for your participation we all would like to thank you in person but for right now we will leave it at that.
Moving on, we had Steve Saner, KDØIJP working on a new radio a Yaesu FT-91. Steve was just trying out this new radio and had to learn to operate all the controls. What better way to learn and help us make contacts for our Special Event? Thank you, Steve for working with us during the Special Event.
We also enjoyed the story of Perri learning to back the truck with the gooseneck trailer attached. Steve, Perri’s instructor, had positioned props for his demonstration before the actual event. But Perri’s explanation of the event with the truck were truly amazing.
Well next we had John Lucas, KØJDL. John as you all know has a tower trailer that he brought with him to the Special Event. Its always great entertainment to watch him raise the tower with Steve, Dennis and Larry supporting the setup.
John also did a lot of trouble shooting from the hip as he worked on Dennis’s antennas and Wayne’s signal link by re-securing loose jumper wires in the signal link. Thank you John, we were happy you found the problem and made it better for the day.
Larry Hastings, ABØAH was there with his brand-new Scamp camping trailer. Larry came Friday night with John and gave us a tour of the spacious Scamp which Larry calls home when on the road.
Larry worked FT8 on a Yaesu FT857 with an antenna boot strapped to the caboose.
Larry was able to make great contacts after John re-secured loose jumper wires.
Wayne Schlueter, KDØWAT set up a homemade dipole antenna for 20 meters. He attached a 32-foot-tall fiberglass pole to his truck and extended the ends of the dipole wires out to two painter poles.
The setup allowed Wayne to make great phone contacts on a Yaesu FT-857. One of his contacts was with NL7V at North Pole, Alaska. Check it out, North Pole is just east of Fairbanks. Who knew?
Barb Schlueter, KDØWAU whom we all know set up two Yaesu FT857 stations. One for phone connected to Wayne’s dipole and the other FT857 for Larry’s FT8 contacts to an antenna boot strapped to the caboose.
Bern Meyer, KC4CRH and Shin-Ae, KCØNOI along with Coco their dog arrived later in the day. It was great visiting with them.
Shin-Ae got an introduction to the Yaesu FT-857 learning how the phone and digital FT8 worked. Barb was very helpful to show Shin-Ae these two methods of communication.
Bern helped by giving support for tearing down the antennas while Barb and Shin-Ae cleaned up the depot.
Dinner was at the Beaumont Hotel.
Zack and Jean Wilkerson drove in from El Dorado and joined us for dinner. Zack had an interesting week after cutting off a tip of his finger and Jean filled us in with the details.
So as the sun sets slowly in the west, the Special Event at the historic Beaumont Hotel ended without an issue and was another great and successful time for FHARC.
We received a total request for eight QSO cards and I believe everyone had a great time at dinner as well.
Dinner was with Steve and Perri, Zack and Jean, John Lucas, Bern and Shin-Ae, Dennis, Barb and Wayne and Vic Bilson.
We still have lots of QSO cards and hope to do this event again next year from Beaumont. It truly is a great place to work contacts from and the facilities are fantastic. So come out next year and join us for an enjoyable time.
And for those of who came, thank you all for coming!
