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Our vision for this event was to spark an interest in ham radio among the long term care Veterans at the Charlie Norwood Medical Center in Augusta, Georgia. We saw an opportunity to provide a form of therapy and fun through Amateur Radio for Veterans during extended stays at the VA Hospital. Our second goal was to honor our Veterans and active duty Service Members across the country.

Dr. Rick McKnight, KJ4OHL, was the originator and coordinator of this special event. We secured the special event call sign W4V (Working for Veterans) for the event and placed it on the American Radio Relay League's calendar in their monthly magazine. We also advertised it on QRZ.com and on our local clubs websites. When we heard that Barrett Communications had donated an antenna for the event we were very excited about how much it would improve our ability to make contacts all over the world.

During the event we made contacts with many veterans throughout the USA and other parts of the world. We had an on- line logging program setup by Steve Schmitz, of the St. Louis and Suburban Radio Club, that allowed each confirmed contact to print out an instant QSL certificate commemorating the special event. We demonstrated Amateur Radio using a video presentation, and had personnel on hand to answer any questions the patients may have had on how to obtain a license. We had quite a few spectators and visitors view the station setup and inquire about our equipment and ask other questions. Several of them took licensing brochures and showed an interest in becoming hams. The W4V Special Event was very successful in honoring our Veterans.

The CCARC will support the Veterans Day Special Event in 2011 with call sign W4V.