Gaithersburg Olde Towne Day was September 21 this year. The weather cooperated nicely--slightly cool with just a hint of breeze.
MARC had a booth at the back of City Hall, next to the playground. We operated a special event station with two HF transmitters and 2M packet (which was on the DXCluster most of the time), using the club callsign, KV3B. 36 contacts were logged, primarily on 40M.
One of the problems this year was the city's decision to place the Moonbounce in the City Hall parking lot, which put the generators about 40 feet away for the MARC table. These generators were noisy, both in the acoustical and RF range, drowning out our reception. We were told via a relay from another member that there were stations in Europe attempting to answer our CQs--who we could not hear due to the RFI.
Despite all the difficulties, we still were able to make several overseas contacts, in England and Germany.
Jason Foster, N3PRZ, designed this year's QSL cards for Olde Towne Day, which feature the Gaithersburg City Hall decorated for a historic celebration, as seen from Summit Avenue.
I would also like to thank Ken Nichols, KD3VK, for providing antennas, Jeff Poretsky, N3TOP, Jason Foster, N3PRZ, Komkit Listisard, W3KIT, and Howard Gorden, W3CQH for providing radios, Stan Staten, W3INK, Jay Lubliner, KA3ZMW, and Farrel Becker, N3PPR for providing batteries and all those who volunteered their time to man the booth, operate, and answer the public's questions. Thank you, all!
Hope to see you all again next year at Olde Towne Day.