Team effort

TALARC Vice President Bill Sloan made the following report in the club's latest newsletter on how the 100th birthday of The American Legion was celebrated over the airwaves:

"As we continue to sort through the many logs and reports from our sister stations participating in the American Legion 100th Birthday Special Event held on March 9, we’re pleased to report a successful event highlighted further by a record number of TALARC stations that made successful QSOs, and even helped out by acting as K9TAL net control stations at various times throughout the day. Band conditions were not unfavorable, but with a series of thunderstorms racing across the continent both 20M and 40M were quite noisy.

"Despite the QRN, Bill (KI0CW) in South Dakota, and Everett (WA3DVO), Kenny (KB3IIE) and other members of Maryland Post 275 (N3TAL) gathered in dozens of contacts coast to coast on 20M. K9TAL operators at National Headquarters in Indianapolis also swapped K9TAL SE net control duties on the 40M band with K3EMD, the Easton Amateur Radio Society in Easton, Md., throughout the day, with superb coordination and results. And special thanks as well to Shannon (W6SPY), George (KM4QOY/W4CDA), Don (KA5DON/K5TAL), and several other TALARC members and many of our 38 American Legion post amateur radio clubs, who relayed contacts from far corners of the country.

"As a result, American Legion National Headquarters has so far mailed 73 special Event Certificates and QSLs to interested ham radio operators, as well as a dozen or so emails and letters of appreciation. We also added about 30 new members since the day of the special event – always a great result of getting K9TAL on the air. If you QSO’d with any of the SE stations on any frequency or by any mode, National Headquarters has a commemorative certificate for you. To get yours, send a self-addressed 9x12, stamped envelope to The American Legion Amateur Radio Club, c/o The American Legion, 700 N. Pennsylvania St., Indianapolis, IN 46204. Please include your approximate contact time, frequency and mode – HF, IRLP or EchoLink. We collect QSL cards as well, and will return our own in exchange."