Off to Fielld Day

[W1GUH]

Radios checked out, everything's packed up, and I'm off to the wilds of NW CT, Macedonia Brook State Park, to be specific. Will be operating tonight hopping around between 15, 17, 20, 40, and 80 phone & CW, and tomorrow morning I'll be checking into ECARS "at the top of the hour". Would LOVE to contact islanders there. I'll do it at least at 9, 10, and 11 AM. C'mon Down!

No online activity, not even taking a computer with me. "Real hams log with pencil and paper!" ;) Not really, but I'm already schlepping too much, besides, I'm pretty sure there's no Wi-Fi at the campgrond. Heck, it's REAL camping..with real water pumps (Hope I don't find out that "The pump don't work 'cuz the vandals took the handle!" (Thanks, Mr. Zimmerman/Dylan)) :lol: And REAL outhouses. Hmmm...Wi-Fi could be a poetic contrast, tho.

Oh, yea, and I'll be mobilling up there....probably 40 between about 2:15 and about 4:00 EDT.

Hope y'all have a good weekend...and hope to hear you in the contest.

No, wait, I just remembered about tomorrow morning. I'm taking the '817 and there's a very scenic trail there -- and I'll be trying some battery power QRP up on the ridge. So...I'll at least be listening to ECARS. Don't know if they'll hear me, but if I hear any Islanders checking in on the x:00's I'll hustle back to the camp site and check in with the mobile.

Til Sunday...

[W2NAP]

idk if ill go to the local club FD event. im feeling pretty bad due to yesterday back is killin me

[NQ6U]

I'll be up at 6000' atop Laguna Mountain, mostly working PSK31 on 20m as KJ6SEE. Hope to get outta here within the hour; my little pickup is already packed to the windowsills with crap.

[KG4CGC]

Hey, how do you figure out your callsign, designator for FD? I'm sure I asked before but I never actually made one last year.

[W5RB]

http://www.arrl.org/files/file/Field-Day/2011/2011_Rules.pdf

Working from home , or a portable location ? Under 5w / up to 200w / higher power ?

Exchange is number of simultaneous TXs , Class , and ARRL Section . For instance , past club ops have used 3 simultaneous TXs , under 200 watts , generator power , our exchange is 3A Mississippi .

[KG4CGC]

Thank You.

[W3WN]

Hey, how do you figure out your callsign, designator for FD? I'm sure I asked before but I never actually made one last year.

Classes:

A -- Club or large non-club group operating portable
B -- 1 or 2 person team operating portable
C -- Mobile station
D -- Home station on main power
E -- Home station on emergency or backup power
F -- Emergency Operations Center

There are also "Battery" Only sub categories for A & B

This is combined with the number of primary transmitters that you have or plan to have on the air simultaneously, with some exclusions for the GOTA stations (Get On The Air, replaced the Novice station), satellite and VHF stations. The rules go into these in excruciatingly dull detail.

So... for example:

4A is a club or non club group, portable, running 4 transmitters simultaneously.
1C is a mobile
2B are two buddies operating together.
1 D is someone who just went down in the shack and turned the rig on. I'll be doing a little of that before I go to N3SH and after I get home, just for kicks.
24A is a club that has really outdone themselves, probably running a Phone, CW, and Digital station on each MW, HF, VHF & UHF band they could get equipment for, just to say they did it. Showoffs.

[W5RB]

If you're logging on a computer , do yourself a favor and get the software here : http://www.n3fjp.com/
For ten bucks , pop for the full network version , you'll want it sooner or later .Or you can skate for a mere $6 for the basic . Either way , it is a giant help , automatically checks dupes , fills in blanks if you've worked a station on another band , has maps and other cool stuff . Easy and intuitive , dandy stuff .

[KG4CGC]

If I sat in the yard but ran power from the mains I could be 1D but if I ran off the car battery with the hood up would that make me 1C?
Or would I be 1BD in case # one?

[N8YX]

I have to go to my old Field Day site (in-laws' place) and tear down a bunch of tools, a propane grill and whatnot...then pack them into our car for the trip back home. Afterwards I'm breaking the chain saw out and reducing a compost/planter box fence (10' x 80'; made with 2x12s) to its component parts then felling a couple dead trees. And sorting through a sh!tload of hand tools.

'DSG is coming down with something so she's not going to be much help. Don't know how tired we'll be when we roll back in around this time tomorrow but if I feel like it I'll get on and add a few points to various people's logs.

[W3WN]

If I sat in the yard but ran power from the mains I could be 1D but if I ran off the car battery with the hood up would that make me 1C?
Or would I be 1BD in case # one?1B. You're using the car battery, but you're not mobile, as in moving.

[KG4CGC]

Looks like I'll be spending the first half of Saturday trying to sell crap at the flea market. Last weekend I did a yard sale and grossed $26.
I think a flea market will get me a wider audience.

[rot]

I'll be doing FD2011 FD-SWL. 40 ft of wire chunked off the front porch clipped to a Rad Shack DX-392.
Kind of puny, no tx, but an incredibly easy set up.(may plug up for data..not sure yet..pretty much cw and phone).
Anyhoo If I hear any Islander exchange, will report in swl fashion...may even send a card for hoots.

w4rot/rx

[KB2SFH]

I put out an open invite to non hams on my facebook page just a few minutes ago to take them to a site if they are interested in seeing ham radio in action. If I get any interest I will take them to the Split Rock club site in Morris County just off RT 10. They have the nicest, most organized FD and very well attended I have ever seen complete with presentations of all aspects on ham radio on computer and plenty of pamphlet handouts to the public. They operate in a beautiful public park behind a community center in huge pavilions and gazebos and a lake nearby and the scenery is just so pleasant.

[N8YX]

... Split Rock club site in Morris County just off RT 10. They have the nicest, most organized FD and very well attended I have ever seen complete with presentations of all aspects on ham radio on computer and plenty of pamphlet handouts to the public. They operate in a beautiful public park behind a community center in huge pavilions and gazebos and a lake nearby and the scenery is just so pleasant.
I was watching the local weather channel last evening and the all-time high for FD weekend (in '88, during the drought) was 100. Our club's site was adjacent to a big parking lot in a state park and there was no breeze at all. To say the air was stifling is a mild understatement - a thermometer on-site registered 106 in the shade.

Managed to get a good run going on 40M SSB that Saturday afternoon and put 700 QSOs in the log in 2 1/2 hours. Tied up two loggers and a duper all by my lonesome, and the crew was having so much fun that none of us cared about the temperatures. I'm surprised there weren't a lot of heat-related illnesses amongst the club members as a result, but when things fall apart for real it's usually not on a mild, party cloudy day. Thus, you drill in whatever you're given.

[WV6Z]

I'm thinking that a trip to the local FD site here is in order today. Posting photos of fat sweaty men with radios both here and on FB gives me wood.

Oh and I see Susan has returned. Hi ya Susan! How's my old AOL forum pal doing?

[KB2SFH]

I'm thinking that a trip to the local FD site here is in order today. Posting photos of fat sweaty men with radios both here and on FB gives me wood.

Oh and I see Susan has returned. Hi ya Susan! How's my old AOL forum pal doing?

Hi, I'm doing. And be careful of all that wood before you get splinters!

[n2ize]

I was watching the local weather channel last evening and the all-time high for FD weekend (in '88, during the drought) was 100. Our club's site was adjacent to a big parking lot in a state park and there was no breeze at all. To say the air was stifling is a mild understatement - a thermometer on-site registered 106 in the shade.

Managed to get a good run going on 40M SSB that Saturday afternoon and put 700 QSOs in the log in 2 1/2 hours. Tied up two loggers and a duper all by my lonesome, and the crew was having so much fun that none of us cared about the temperatures. I'm surprised there weren't a lot of heat-related illnesses amongst the club members as a result, but when things fall apart for real it's usually not on a mild, party cloudy day. Thus, you drill in whatever you're given.

Nice and cool here. Most of last week we barely hit 70. This week is starting a little warmer but still very mild days and cool nights forecast for the rest of the week. I guess were protected by the jet stream or the new ice age ;)

[KB2SFH]

I was watching the local weather channel last evening and the all-time high for FD weekend (in '88, during the drought) was 100. Our club's site was adjacent to a big parking lot in a state park and there was no breeze at all. To say the air was stifling is a mild understatement - a thermometer on-site registered 106 in the shade.

Managed to get a good run going on 40M SSB that Saturday afternoon and put 700 QSOs in the log in 2 1/2 hours. Tied up two loggers and a duper all by my lonesome, and the crew was having so much fun that none of us cared about the temperatures. I'm surprised there weren't a lot of heat-related illnesses amongst the club members as a result, but when things fall apart for real it's usually not on a mild, party cloudy day. Thus, you drill in whatever you're given.

I never did get to the Split Rock site to visit their field day, I had no takers on my offer and I really need the break from life this weekend and have just holed myself up in the house. I wish I had more weekends like this to cut myself off from the world.

[W1GUH]

1B. You're using the car battery, but you're not mobile, as in moving.
Don't have to be moving....just running a mobile rig that CAN move.

Back after my date with Mr. Murphy! There were no disasters, but Murphy sure was a PITA yesterday...so many little things that kept me busy when I just wanted to relax. Things like...when we had a brief shower, I took the radio off the picnic table to operate from inside the car and in the process managed to touch the +12 connector to the chassis, so of course I wondered why the radio wasn't getting any power. Took a while to check all the wires before I checked the fuse. Argh! And of course there were all the damn times wires tangled themselves up just sitting there & needed to be sorted out. Then there were the bad jumpers I had (how the heck does a coax jumper just "go bad?" Told me who and who not to buy 'em from at a hamfest.

But when I did operate it was pretty damn nice. Spent most of the time on CW. It seems like CW is like riding a bike, you never forget how. Had no problem just jumping in and operating. I DID miss a memory keyer -- saves a lot of time and effort -- but the ops were patient with me when I sent "GUS" GU5". (Don't chose a call with "H" at the end. Both my calls have had that & it sucks!).

Had a 500 cycle CW filter. That's a good BW for normal times, but I wished I had the 300 cycle filter. The bands were crowded. And that's a good thing. I'd rather the bands be crowded than dead. 15 and 20 were just plain wierd. I started on 15 and my first QSO as San Diego. Wow.....great....I'll get lots of West Coast. But the band was open long AND short & I worked lots and lots of NE stations on 15. WTF? Never heard that before. Same on 20....sounded more like 40 than 20. But...sections aren't multipliers & in FD it's Quantity over Quality, so no big deal, really.

Mother nature cooperated -- NO MOSQUITOES! In fact, very few bugs. Could operat on the picnic table or with the car window open without being "bugged" to death.

And, my usual contest rant.

Where the F are all those ops normally? Do people really need the incentive of seeing their call in QST or maybe winning to actually operate? Cheesh! Don't people operate just because it's FUN to play with radio?

Rant over.

Conclusion -- now that I've done a solo Class C, IMHO, it's a LOT more fun to do it with a group, which I will next year.

How'd you all do? Oh...only 80 contacts (two log sheets). This OF just doesn't have it to stay up all night anymore. Haven't totaled the time I was on, but it's maybe 2-3 hours. The good thing was there were no long periods of "aren't I getting out of the campground"? I copied the W1AW message on SSB last night. Wished I'd had a recorder with me. Writing that down was muy dificil. He either spoke too fast or I wrote too slow. OTOH, I'm not going to be sending in my log so no big deal.

Also, the dupe sheet I downloaded from the ARRL was impossible to use neatly. Should blown it up.

[W3WN]

Murphy hit me around 1 in the morning. Not at Field Day, on my way.

By the time we got home from the ballgame, and a few things that had to be done, I didn't get on the road until 12:30. But that's OK, I was supposed to be one of the overnight ops anyway.

Missed the turn off of State Route 88. Went another 10 miles before I turned around... found it, then missed the next turn. Finally found that one, too, after some more driving around rural Washington County in the wee hours.

Why did I miss the turns? There are usually signs on EACH side of the road pointing towards Mingo Creek Park. They're missing on one side, but not the other.

So, I finally roll into FD. Two cars parked there, and I see lights on, so I walk up to the tent. Not a soul around. My first thought, of course, is WTF? Turned out the other ops were down at the other tent, which I didn't see right away. (The N3SH site was the AAAP observatory, one tent up on the hilltop, the other out of site behind the observatory building.)

Computer was on, turned on the rig, worked a bunch on 20 Phone. After a contact or two, one of the other guys walked up; he'd seen my initials in the log (we run N3FJP networked version) and figured out what was going on.

Had a blast until about, oh, 5 AM EDT. Next thing I know, it's 6... conked out in the chair. At least the rig wasn't running VOX, so I didn't snore on the air!

Short time, but fun while it lasted. Once I got there!