The weather was perfect and the bands were crowded for the third annual Audie Murphy Special Event which was held on Brush Mountain approximately one-half mile from the 1971 plane crash that took Audie Murphy’s life. This year we moved the event date from Memorial Day weekend to Saturday, June 4, 2022, which coincided with the Museum Ships weekend (https://nj2bb.org/museum/).
Once we found open frequencies and got a couple of spots, the contacts started coming and soon we had pileups. The setup was a G5RV and the new club DX Commander. Cam’s throwing skills with his arborist line and weight bag made quick work of getting the G5RV strung about 35’ up between some trees. The DX Commander was quickly deployed. Radios used were the Club’s Yaesu 991A and Cam’s Yaesu 891 which he has nicely configured in a backpack for field operations.
We made 293 contacts in the 5 hours we were on the air. Contacts included the USS Razorback, a WW II submarine now on display in Little Rock, Arkansas operating as N5R (https://aimm.museum/), the USS Wisconsin, a battleship operating as N4WIS in Norfolk, Virginia (http://n4wis.org/), and the USS Indianapolis, a cruiser operating as WW2IND out of the National Memorial in Indianapolis, Indiana (https://www.facebook.com/ussindyradio.org/).
Club members participating were Cam Coble W4XXV, Chris Peters K4HZ, Steve Allen WD4JIX, Jason Perdue N4JHP, Mike Herring KE4RGY, Eric Marshall KM4KAQ, and Danny Wylam AI4RC. Two of Mike’s buddies, Dale Porterfield KJ4ZYB and Roger Brown KO4TXR, also attended. Tim Boyd AA4SS, President of the Franklin County Amateur Radio Club, came up and activated a POTA station for a couple of hours and then made contacts on one of our stations for the Audie Murphy Special Event. Jim Hassell W4BEA helped with this year’s QSL card design.
Author – Danny, AI4RC