Sterling Park Amateur Radio Club (SPARC)
2024 Field Day

Field Day at Loudoun County Sheriff's Office in Sterling
We held Field Day at the Sheriff's Substation in Sterling, VA. We decided to hold our Field Day for the second year in a building with air conditioning and nearby facilities. This was a fortunate decision as it was very hot on the first day of the event. Due to the proximity of houses, we were unable to run on emergency power, i.e, our club generator.	We had four radio stations. One was a CW/SSB station, one was a digital station and one was the SSB station. In addition we had a Get-On-The-Air (GOTA) station.	We also has four antennas. One fan dipole for 80/40M, one G5RV for 10/20M, one vertical for 10-40M and one buddy pole, usually operating on 10M. We counted 17 operators and participants and 6 visitors. A good turnout.
Site Set-Up started at 1000 on Saturday, 22 June 2024.
The early arrivers at the Field Day site.	Chris, N2CLW.	Charlie, K3SR.
Paul, KK4AIA, was there to open the facility.	The club banner just to the right of the entrance to the community room where the radio stations were set up.	A truck load of equipment belonging to Gordon, NQ4K.
Charlie, K3SR untangling an antenna rope.	Joe, WB2SAI, Chris, , setting up hte tripod base of the 80/40M fan dipole antenna mast.	Steve, KN4BGW, arriving.
Bud, W4KSN, is setting up his 10/20M antenna.	Evan, KM4SK, is helping Bud set up the antenna.	The antenna is going up.
The balun for the antenna.	Gordon, NQ4K, is trying to protext his neck from the sun.	Steve, KN4BGW, helping with the antenna.
Angel, NR3N, arrives to ensure that the CW station is set up.	Henry, K4BFY, checks in.	Kevin, W4KLS, arrives with his camera to take pictures.
Eric, AJ4LN, arrives around noon with the logging computers and several radios.	The publicity table with and extra computer logging monitor.	Kevin, W4KLS, talks to Jack Smith, KE4LWT, the Virginia Section Manager, and Brendan O'Neill, KM4HRR, Virginia Section Assistant Section manager.
	The sheriff substation in Sterling. The door to the community room where our radios were positioned is on the left.
The 80/40M Fan dipole hanging from two masts in front of the building on the left.	The middle of the sheriff station with the buddy pole and vertical antenna in front.	The 10/20M antenna on the right side of the building.
The group after setup and before operations began. Bud, W4KSN, Angle, NR3N; Chris, N2CLW; UNK; Evan, KM4SK; Conrad, N4ZQA; Daniel, W5DJV; Eric, AJ4LN, Kevin, W4KLS; UNK/ Steve, KN4BGW; and Gordon, NQ4K.
Operations started at 1400 on Saturday.
Rhett, WW4RL, and Steve, KN4BGW, trying to understand the digital station.	John, KK4AHY.	Jeff, KB4IWD.
Gordon, NQ4K, and XYL, Carol.	Eric, AJ4LN (standing) and Bud, W4KSN, at the SSB station.	Angel, NR3N, at the CW station.
Another view of Angel, NR3N, at the CW station.	Gordon, NQ4K, and Chris, N2CLW, at the GOTA. Chris made his first contacts at this station.	Steve, KN4BGW, at the SSB station.
Paul, KK4AIA, waiting for his turn.	Daniel, W5DJV, at the digital station. He was the high scorer at our event.	Chris, N2CLW, and Conrad, N4ZQA. Conrad is wearing one of the hats that he made with the SPARC logo on them.
Gordon, NQ4K; with Brandon, KM4HRR; and Jack, KF4LWT.	Brandon, KM4HRR; and Jack, KF4LWT.	Daniel, W5DJV. in front of the monitor at the digital station.
Bud, W4KSN.	Angel, NR3N.	Eric, AJ4LN, at the computer monitoring station.
Gordon, NQ4K, with Andrienne, K3MAF, and daughter.Linda.	The radio room. CW station of the left. The digital station in the middle of the back wall, The SSB station on the right. The GOTA station is on the left out of range of the camera.	Conrad, N4ZQA, and Henry, K2BFY talking.
Angel, NR3N; Bud, W4KSN; and Joe, WB2SAI, talking.	Angel, NR3N, with visitor at the CW station.	Joe, WB2SAI,
Eric, AJ4LN, monitoring the logging activity.	Trevor, WT0RJ, a visitor from Colorado, working the SSB station	The visitor log.
We stopped at 1400 noon. Twenty four hours after starting. We were all tired. It was time to tear down and go home.
Bud, W4KSN, feeling hot as breakdown begins.	Gordon, NQ4K.	Eric, AJ4LN, and Daniel, W5DJV, packing equipment.
Taking down the 80/40M fan dipole provided by Larry, W8ANT.	The 10/20M antenna is almost down.	The vertical antenna is down.
The pickup truck is full		Bud's, W4KSN, car is full.
The group at the end of Field Day just before departing the site. Danile, W5WJV; Bud, W4KSN; Angel, NR3N; Evan, KM4SK; Eric, AJ4LN; Steve, KN4BGW; paul, KK4AIA; UNK, and Gordon, NQ4K.
Field Day is Over and we leave.

Photos by Kevin, W4KSL, and Gordon, NQ4K.