To all who made FD 2023 great this year:  THANK YOU!!  

From the antenna crew, headed up by Ron Burch and Dave Haring, to the CW OP recruiter, Mr. Knight Smiley NJ4Q, to the incredible Kay Brown and her niece Angela (and Jade and Rennie) who put together the most amazing Saturday evening dinner ever, to Dave KV4JK who brought the tower trailer over, to Buck K4IEE who got the generator maintained so it ran perfectly the entire time, to John Price N4QWF who got our first satellite contact and 100 point bonus in a number of years (and got our served agency bonus by chasing down a deputy in the parking lot…) to all who came and operated SSB, CW and digital, to Rick and Henry who kept the GOTA station going…

I could go on and on, and usually do.  Dave KD4EMU and I tried organizing this year, and despite our best efforts, the event came off well.  I don’t think we broke any records this year, but I think everyone had fun, we did make a lot of contacts on all modes, and Dave Haring’s N1MM display on the big monitor was a huge hit!  It showed we worked all states EXCEPT doggone Alaska.  Not sure how that happens.  We got many Canadian provinces as well, but not all of them.

But, of course, WAS is not what FD is all about, rather, how many contacts can be made.  We will see what the results are in November, when ARRl publishes its FD report. I’m quite sure that our intrepid group of pro CW ops will lead the point score, but the phone and digital folks contributed too.  And, in another highlight, Jan K3JAN made what I think was her first (and only…) HF contest contact with great style!

Thanks again everyone who helped.  It was fun. 

Geep Howell (WA4RTS)