[ARC5] Field Day musings...

[Jason W6IEE]

After this past FD, my observations are such:

I boycotted it last year, and almost did this year again.  Being the
youngest member of my local club, (turning 40 is gonna happen all too soon)
I seem to wind up being the one doing all the grunt work, and having to
remember to bring an inordinate amount of hand tools with me. Therefore,
there is an un-fun amount of prep work in the days preceding.

This club likes to do FD in a gully within a ravine within a canyon. I like
to also tinker with VHF/UHF and microwave, these two aren't so compatible.
Once everything is set up, they like to sit around and talk, instead of
operate.

So I skipped out on them this year, saying I had family obligations,
despite their protests that I try and reschedule.

I figured it would be a good day to try out the 2M yagi I had just built.
Made 2 QSO's on 2M SSB, then brushed off my dormant CW skills and slugged
out about 5 CW QSO's QRP on 40. Those 7 contacts seemed to reinforce what I
already thought: That FD is for the hams who do nothing all year, try and
get serious about operating for a day, then head back home and do nothing
again. In other words, LOTS of sloppy operating, even when trying to make
those SSB contacts. So, I got some CW practice, but the event was sorta
ho-hum.

I really like the idea of dragging a Viking II out to FD. ;) I've often
thought of the idea of trying to do a vintage/military FD, and I think it
needs to occur next year.

What needs to occur is that we need to start immediately pestering the heck
out of the stick-in-the-muds in Newington to create a "Vintage" class for
FD. Maybe even allow for "grid power" since we would have all those
filaments to light. ;)

Heck, the league used an old Gil cartoon of a kid operating an ARC-5 tx/rx
pair in their promotional run-up this year for crying out loud!

How much fun would it be to use a FD setup like that, even if you didn't
make a single stinking contact? Plenty!

Thanks,
Jason W6IEE


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