Winter Field Day Yields Record Turn Out For PVARC

Clear, Sunny New Mexico skies and mild winter temperatures spurred on many Roswell and Artesia area hams to get out and enjoy this year's Winter Field Day. Enough Pecos Valley hams participated to earn the event's 7 Oscar designation. In all, approximately 10 licensed hams along with their families turned out to operate, help set up and tear down equipment, but mostly to enjoy fellowship, good company and excellent food. One ham, (Rix, W5RDL), even brought his off road vehicle to enjoy while at the event site, Mescalero Sands OHV located 40 miles east of Roswell. A variety of HF antennas could be seen at the camp including a Hex Beam, Comet CHA250B verticals and end feds. As of this writing, several operators remained at the venue to camp overnight. Winter Field Day is a 24 hour event which ends Sunday at noon MST.

In addition to the many amateur radio operators, several members of the Chaves County Off Road Search & Rescue were also present to conduct training and exercise missions. Incident Commander Rick Overmier said Winter Field Day was chosen because of the simulated environment which might be present during an actual search event where many members from several different agencies participating in the search might be present. SAR's deployed equipment included a backpack rigged with a dual band radio which served as a crossband repeater. It was placed on a high location along with an accompanying battery and solar panel to provide rescue teams with communications where line of sight simplex may not be feasible.

Comments from several participants referred to the event as a success and reported having a very good time.