On August 31st & September 1, 2007 , the Heart of Texas Ham Operators Group (HOT-HOG) operated a Special Event station under our club's call sign WA5HOT from the World Championship Barbeque Goat Cook-off and Arts & Crafts Fair. This was the 34th consecutive year that the Cookoff has been held in Brady, Texas on the Labor Day weekend.

Operating frequencies were on or near 21.360MHz, 14.250MHz, 7.295MHz and 3.875MHz. The station operated from about 2100Z Fri through about 2100Z Sat.

QSL Certificates are available from HOT-HOG, c/o Rick Melcer N5KAO, PO Box 1021, Brady, TX 76825. Please enclose a 9"x12" SASE.

For you "county hunters," grid square seekers and directional antenna users, we are located in McCulloch County, Maidenhead Grid Square EM01hd. Our latitude and longitude is 31-07N, 99-20W.

Brady and McCulloch County are known as the "Heart of Texas" because Brady is the County Seat, and the geographic center of the State is located on a ranch in the northern part of the county. The usual population here is approximately 6,000 in the City of Brady, with another 2,000 in the remainder of the County. However, each Labor Day weekend the population of Richards Park, where the cook-off is held, swells to some 150 cooking teams and 120 arts & craft vendors, as well as up to 15,000 spectators.

There were games and visiting on Friday, as well as a dance for the cook-off participants on Friday evening. Saturday activities included the cook-off and arts & crafts fair, more games, a catered barbequed goat meal, and lots of outdoor fun. All of this was capped off with a Saturday night street dance on the courthouse square in downtown Brady, which is open to the public.

There were several contests for cash and trophy prizes. For the teams who have never before won the Goat Cook-off, there are 1st, 2nd and 3rd place awards. For the past winners, there's a Super Bowl award at stake. Also up for grabs are the trophies for best designed cooking rig (some are quite elaborate) and the best dressed campsite (maybe an old west saloon, or a "Mexican standoff")

HOT-HOG is an A.R.R.L. Affiliated Club. For more information on "hamming" in this part of Texas, go to our club's website, www.hothog.org. For more information on Brady, McCulloch County and the World Championship Barbeque Goat Cookoff and Arts & Crafts Fair, go to our Chamber of Commerce's web site www.bradytx.com.