I agree. The great thing about Field Day is that it can be approached in
many ways. Some groups operate it as a high-pressure contest, like an
outdoor version of the ARRL Sweepstakes. Other groups treat it as an
emergency deployment exercise. The two approaches are very different.
One group may set up a day before and put up big beams and towers. For
EMCOMM purists, it's a grab and go setup. Some like to operate QRP on
batteries and solar panels. In my mind, the most fun is in the setting
up the equipment and sharing outdoor meals with friends. Making lots of
contacts is fun, but incidental.
My advice is to find a group with similar interests to your own. Or,
just get one or two friends together and do a low profile, low pressure
Field Day. Keep it simple and start simple.
73,
Bob WB2VUF
On 6/27/2012 12:46 PM, Kris Merschrod wrote:
Stephen,
Do not give up on field day - go with the family, do the BBQ, bring a
comfortable chair and just help out in the fresh air.
Or pick the odd band w/o much action and enjoy a rag chew. I took 160 one
year - not much action but we shot the breeze.
It is a chance for an outing with the crowd.
73,
Kris KM2KM
----- Original Message -----
From: "Stephen Roberts" <steverob@shoreham.net>
To: "Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment" <tentec@contesting.com>
Sent: Wednesday, June 27, 2012 8:46 AM
Subject: Re: [TenTec] Field Day Drill
Hi Folks,
I've been following this thread and thought I'd chime in. As a new ham (4
months now) and a 100% CW op, I didn't really know what to expect when I
went to my first field day this year. The old salts of our club had spent
the day before setting up stations and had everything ready to go when I
arrived at the site. It was all very organized and pretty impressive. The
3 CW ops (myself included) were set up in a member's RV which proved to be
a really excellent place to spend field day.
To backtrack a bit, before the event, I asked one of the guys just what
the purpose of fleid day was and he said "To test our emergency
communications system and train other hams to do the same". Well, I can
tell you that was NOT what happened. Like many have said, the whole event
was set up and run as a contest. The guys I worked CW with have been at it
for many decades...not just a couple of months, so it was pretty daunting
to sit down at a strange radio with a stranger's keyer and have them say
"Well, the rig is set at 26wpm if that's ok with you".
I wrote out the typical exchange on a cheat sheet and sat down and had a
go at it. I was a bit tentative at first, but since the exchanges weren't
conversational (too bad really) and stuck to a pretty strict format, I got
into the swing of things pretty quickly. The first hour I was op, I got 25
contacts, the second hour the band (40m) fell apart and I got about 15
contacts.
For me the actual ops were boring and pointless. I see it as a wasted
opportunity. For a new guy, it was clear that while folks were operating
you certainly didn't want to ask them a question or interrupt them for
fear of lowering the Q count.
I'm undecided whether I'll do it again next year. I might just get
together with a couple friends on a mountain top somewhere and have my own
field day.
I didn't get into ham radio to be a competitor and I'm not keen on the
idea of being a human memory keyer. It just doesn't fit into my idea of
what being a ham is all about.
Best 73,
Steve
-----------------------------------------------
Steve Roberts-W1SFR
Sudbury, VT
On Jun 27, 2012, at 8:28 AM, chacuff wrote:
Changed the Subject line...hope no one minds.
Funny that should come up. We had a visitor to our site that asked the
same
question of all of our radio gear...
And yes if there were an EMP event you could throw all your transceivers
in
the trash as well as the generators with solid state regulators and
engine
controls, your solar power system regulators, all your computers and
network
gear and the car you arrived in.
Only answer I had for him was I would get back to the house and pull out
my
R390A/SP-600 and my Johnson Ranger (not to mention my AR-15 and a side
arm)
and start stringing a bunch of batteries together in hopes of getting a
signal out to some far flung place that had not been effected.
I don't think anyone drills for a doomsday event. Probably should
though...
Would be a sad end to my Ten-Tec gear though...
Cecil
K5DL
----- Original Message -----
From: "Richards" <jruing@ameritech.net>
Stuart... a serious question here... Will all of that, especially the
MESH system, work after a big EMI pulse type incident? If not, what
would be the fallback plan?
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