SFTARC members helped make the Lanesfield School Museum a little more prominent on the national map on Saturday Oct 14. This one-room limestone schoolhouse that is located just NE of Edgerton is operated by the Johnson County (KS) Museum and sits on the historic Santa Fe Trail. The School house was built in 1869, and then rebuilt in 1904 after a fire.
Lanesfield School House
A number of club members participated in the setup, operation and tear-down of three stations under a shelter house just to the east of the Lanesfield Visitor’s Center. Operation on 20m phone yielded the best performance using the Chushcraft R5 vertical antenna and 100W.
20M Phone Station
Modest activity was seen on 30m CW using a Stepper vertical antenna. 40m and 17 m yielded only a limited number of QSO with a full-wave 40m horizontal loop. Fortunately, thunderstorms slipped to the north of the Lanesfield location, allowing our stations to remain on the air for the entire 5 hours. Thanks to all those who participated.
40M/17M Phone Station
During the Special Event, a number of SFTARC members took advantage of the opportunity and received a guided tour of the school and associated Lanesfield Visitors Center. Our tour guide, Regenia, was dressed up as a 1904 school teacher and explained the history of the school and the efforts that were put forth tuning it into a museum.
Miss Regenia
One unique aspect of the Lanesfield School Museum is that it is a living-history museum; it offers four-hour classes to grade school students with each classes taught using the materials, techniques and discipline of the early 1900s. Our youngest SFTARC member Jim, KE0GEY, participated in one such class a couple of years ago. And then after the Special Event Jim again got to sit in a front-row desk and practice penmanship using an ink-well pen, under the watchful eye of Miss Regenia.