Yesterday, my daughter Kaylee and I drove up to Park County, Colorado to take part in Rocky Mountain Ham Radio’s expedition for ARRL Field Day! Despite hanging out with RMHAM for a few years now, this is the first time I’ve made the pilgrimage. The site is an empty mountain residential lot about 2 hours from metro Denver where I live, so it’s a bit of a trek. However, it was definitely worth it!

Field Day site

Kaylee and I were greeted by a small city of about 10 RVs plus several comm vans and trailers. All told, about 30 folks were running 3 “official” transmitters plus a few accessory ones, running voice, CW and FT8 over many bands.

Wayne `N0POH` and Kaylee running FT8

Kaylee isn’t licensed yet, but she got to try out a few HF contacts at the Get-On-The-Air station!

Lisa `K0LMH` and Kaylee at GOTA

Despite all the awesomeness happening, I think Kaylee’s favorite part of the trip was dinner! I got to have some eyeball QSOs (contacts) with some of my favorite folks in the community, and the food was fantastic!

Field Day Dinner

Kaylee and I only stayed for a few hours, but I think I have a partner in crime to convince the rest of the family to come make a camping/RV trip next year! I’ll have to start working with Kaylee on getting her own callsign, too.