Field day for me....

[KD8TUT]

This is my field day... what about yours?

So my field day has been different this year. Usually I spend the day with one of my favorite clubs the 220Mhz Guys and Gals out of Chicago. Sadly, getting back to Chicago is starting to be a real problem for me. For years I would return to Chicago for various things- but now that I'm divested from that community- going back seems painful.

Which is sad because I've got dear ham-friends there. At the same time- the thought of making the drive makes my skin crawl.

So this year I decided to visit a couple of local clubs and see what they are all about. Time to get back into the swing of things.

The names have been changed to protect the innocent.

The first club we visited was a smallish club that had been given a strong recommendation, but was a longer distance from our house. We shot out there, found the location and hopped out of the car.

It was 6 guys, a YL, and a fairly nice antenna setup. We walked up and introduced ourselves. A friend had asked us to say "hi" to these guys for him... so we did. And they commenced complaining about how our friend wasn't there. And did so in a pretty negative fashion. So we soldiered on making small talk as all the people in the club one by one walked away from us. I mentioned that the bands had been challenging lately- the one remaining guy whipped out his cell phone and read me DX spots for a full two minutes. When he was done- he walked away as well.

We got the impression... these guys didn't want new people.

My wife (also a ham) rolled her eyes in my direction. This was not going to work. So we sat down for 5 minutes hoping someone would offer a tour or maybe tell us about the club. None of that happened... so we tried to find someone to say goodbye to... no one was around. We hopped in the car and took off.

Now that visit is going to be problematic. The club was recommended by someone who is becoming a good friend of mine. And I'd hate to report to him how they reacted to his greetings. But I'm not going to be dishonest either. It was... discouraging.

The second club we visited was a different situation. We parked and were *greeted* by the club secretary as we approached. We were escorted to the sign in table. We signed in, and we were handed off to the the vice president (who I've met before) and were given a tour.

This was a field day operation!

They had two air conditioned campers setup, one for SSB and one for CW. Numerous antennas, a portable tower, an impressive UHF/VHF system for sat, a nice little QRP setup, and a GOTA station. Everyone was friendly, everyone said hello, and we eventually blended into the group and just hung out for a while.

This was a really good experience. Which reminded me of my club in Chicago. I'm going to head back and hang out about 8am.

So it's been an interesting field day so far.

[N8YX]

Option 3:

Ditch the club bit and do your own thing. Contacts with VHF rovers and QRP mobiles/portables count for more points than a contact with your average fixed multi-multi operation does.

Most people eventually find that clubs - like certain religious sects - are their own worst enemies. An organization cannot be cloistered if it wants to thrive and grow.

[KC2UGV]

Option 3:

Ditch the club bit and do your own thing. Contacts with VHF rovers and QRP mobiles/portables count for more points than a contact with your average fixed multi-multi operation does.

Most people eventually find that clubs - like certain religious sects - are their own worst enemies. An organization cannot be cloistered if it wants to thrive and grow.

I think next year, I'm going to try my hand at VHF roving. HF was disappointing this year.

[KD8TUT]

Option 3:

Ditch the club bit and do your own thing. Contacts with VHF rovers and QRP mobiles/portables count for more points than a contact with your average fixed multi-multi operation does.

Most people eventually find that clubs - like certain religious sects - are their own worst enemies. An organization cannot be cloistered if it wants to thrive and grow.

In principle I agree with you.

However, for me, it's nice to have a social group of hams to hang out with and do things with. So finding a decent club is a good start for me.

[N8YX]

I think next year, I'm going to try my hand at VHF roving. HF was disappointing this year.

Ain't that the truth.

My homemade chili, chicken noodle soup and the fire in the fire pit garnered more attention by my FD crew than the bands did. Was hoping to put a prospective ham on the air, but this first-time experience was less than stellar.

[W3WN]

Band conditions were not kind this year. No two ways about it, but it is the bottom (or near enough to) of the cycle.

My club's efforts this year were, well, they've been better. We were hampered from the get-go by the absences of two of the club leaders... one (past FD chair) was out of town for a wedding, the other (current FD co-chair) busted an ankle and was stuck at home. So the other co-chair took over... he has a habit of being a "my way or the highway" type of guy when it comes to running things, and that disenchanted a few people. (Telling everyone that FD was going to shut down at noon and be completely dismantled by 1, because of HIS schedule, didn't help things either)

We did have some old friends stop by, and a few prospective hams or hams who are prospective members. But that happened, for the most part, after setup and after I had to head back home for some family matters.

When I came back at midnight... the only rig available was on 20, and 20, well.. I've seen better propagation, we'll just leave it at that.

The only rig available to use was an IC-718. No CW filter, so it proved to be useless on CW.

And they didn't have it on the Butternut. I was told that the SWR on 20 was "way off". Sure enough, the 75 ohm matching section hadn't been put on, and was nowhere to be found (at least, not in the dark with a flashlight)... well, I know who assembled the antenna this year, and who was told (by me) to make sure that the matching stub was on (since I donated it), so I AM going to have a word or three for him... since he insisted we didn't need it. Right.

Overall, from the social aspect, a good FD. From the operating aspect, well, we've had better.

[WX7P]

I'm in CA now, so I operated KU6S (SBARA) on 40 m between 8PM and Midnight pacific. The condx were really spotty. I wasn't able to put together very good runs at all.

These guys had K3 with the 500w Elecraft amp hooked up to a phased 40 array. Still not much NE and absolutely NO maritimes. Bummer

[KG4NEL]

I think next year, I'm going to try my hand at VHF roving. HF was disappointing this year.

I'm thinking a trailer-hitch mounted mast and horizontal loop kind of thing.

[N8YX]

I'm thinking a trailer-hitch mounted mast and horizontal loop kind of thing.

With the right setup you can get three bands on one mast.

I'm eventually going to do similar when I get my IC-7000 installed in the car.

[K0RGR]

Our Field Day efforts seem to be shrinking, but this year, we got quite a few doses of 'new blood' in the mix, and in a few years, I expect we'll be back up to full speed again. This year, we went down from class 3A to class 2A. We usually have a dedicated CW station, a phone station, GOTA and VHF, and a second CW/Digital station networked with the main CW station to avoid dupes. This year, we went down to two main stations - phone and CW/Digital. Until right before the contest, it looked like I would be the only CW op, so that was what we decided to do.

I'm sorry to say we didn't make many digital contacts this year. I think it was because some big clod (me) hogged the rig on CW most of the time. I had two other CW guys this year, so that was a big improvement over last year. One of the guys was good at doing 'runs' and the other one did 'hunt and pounce'. My only real regrets are that we didn't get on 80 at all and didn't get on 10 until too late on Sunday morning.

We were well set with gear. We had the local ARES team's IC9100 and I had my IC7410, and there was an IC718 for GOTA.

The oddest thing we did was the Special Event call we had. We are in Minnesota, but we got the last call available - K7Z. So, we would send 'MN' as our section, and people would come back "MT?". I got a lot of that. But the special call helped a lot, I think, particularly on phone.