On Mon, 25 Jun 2001, Jim Lowman wrote:
>
> Ron Wetjen wrote:
> >
> > It didn't take long, before someone wrote
> >
> > > Field Day is NOT a contest but an EXERCISE in emergency communications.
>
> I think this distinction has been lost over the years. To many of us,
> FD is thought of as a contest these days. If points are awarded and
> scores are reported in QST, it's a contest in my book. If it walks
> like a duck, etc.
>
> As someone said, FD is what you make of it. For some, it's an all-out
> contest effort. For others, it's a picnic or a social occasion, with
> the operation as a secondary result. For me, it's always been an
> all-out competition, starting with my first FD in 1966.
>
> 73 de Jim - AD6CW
>
Field Day is the only operating event of its type that we have. It is the
only operating event that has a chance at broad publicity and public
visitation. In our club, it also got the general membership active and
interested. (A small miracle?) Most of them aren't contesters.
I had to keep reminding myself of that fact. We had many visitors to FD
this year, as we were set up in a city park. When I was operating
(during the day, anyway) the contester in me wanted to go for the QSO's,
but the sociable side of me made me set the rig aside for a few minutes
each time to explain to passers-by what it was all about. Hopefully some
of them got interested as a result. I'm sure if I'd just sat there and
operated without speaking to them, I would have come across as rude or
obnoxious. What kind of impression would that have made?
I say leave Field Day as it is. We can always dream up new contests. We
could have a new Field-Day type of "real" contest if we wanted one, on a
separate weekend from FD.
73, Zack W9SZ
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