The AERO Club used to be mainly involved in operating VHF/UHF ARRL contests but in the last few years there hasn't been a suitable location since the VHF bands require a preferably higher altitude. As far as Field Day the club did find an ideal place with suitable shelter and only 30 minutes from Baltimore called "Camp Genyara" with plenty of room for any type of antennas and vehicle parking. The AERO Club first setup at Camp Genyaya in 1972 to work a VHF contest but soon found it difficult to work stations especially in New England and beyond. The first Field Day event at that location was in 1996 with a great turnout and in fact we had Channel 45 Fox News there to tape a short clip for the evening news. There were a few years in between before we returned but since club membership increased somewhat, we had people to help with antennas and operating. Over the years the club used a 40 foot tower which had to be hauled to the site in 10 foot sections along with supporting guy wires etc. In 2005 instead of erecting a large tower just for the full size 20 meter beam, one of the members found a military surplus portable tower which originally was used as a lighting tower the military used in the field. They crank up to about 25 feet and are ideal for mounting any type of rotator. The club now has access to 3 of these all aluminum crankup units and they have been used in a few VHF contests in WV.
If it hadn't been for some severe electrical storms that Saturday evening, the club would have had a higher score. Recently we have had some help from the BRATS Club in Baltimore as far as operators and also with Ed, N3GXH letting the club use his diesel generator onboard his motor home. Last year Frank AC3P noticed a vanity call sign available with the letters AE3RO. That call was ideal to compliment the club's regular call W3PGA and soon AL K3ROJ applied to change the Kenwood High School call from K3KHS to AE3RO.
The club concentrated on using CW as much as possible since it counts as 2 points on Field Day. One of our best CW operators Bob ND3D operated again all night (also in 2005) to really boost the total score. Enjoy the many photos on the other pages that show how the club works as a team for this annual event.
