[ARC5] Field Day musings...

[Tim]

Hi Mark - Yep, Electric Radio used to sponsor a Vintage Field Day in the
past.  It think it was usually in June (maybe always) and a different
weekend than the ARRL Field Day.  A bunch of us on the Left Coast morphed
it into vintage *Military* field day.  I operated it a bunch of times and
had a lot of fun but the turnout of vintage stations was pretty small.  I
talked with Ray at ER a year or two ago and he thought the low turnout made
it non-worthwhile, at least from his perspective to "sponsor".
Understandable.
So we do our own, including the Usual Suspects.  Military gear, typically
GRC9, 109, RS-6, PRC47, some 6 meter PRC set, even ARC Type 12 AM sets on 2
meters.  Lots of fun, but contacts are mostly with garden variety Hams.
That's OK, especially on CW - those Ops are good to begin with and will
pull out a crystal-controlled GRC-109 etc from the noise.  AM voice
contacts are generally rare outside our group unless pre-arranged.  We had
worked some of the Mil Pack USB guys during those events as well.
I think using my Mil gear on ARRL field day is generally not worthwhile
because I don't enjoy competing for points, QSO's per minute, rat races
etc.  Also those GRC-9/GRC-109/RS-6 receivers have a hard time with massive
band crowding, crystal control TX is pretty much out during those
conditions.  But I can get all the fun out of our own field day without all
that "competition".  More relaxed, smell the MFP!  I think of it as a
"deployment" - only with much better food!   LOL
So some of us set up informal Military Field Day ops (and an excuse to go
camping) on agreeable weekends, and often during the Military Vehicle
rally's; The next one in CA is in 20-22 Sept 2013, located in Lodi CA..
A few example sites:
http://www.n6cc.com/wp-content/uploads/P1010036.jpg
http://www.n6cc.com/wp-content/uploads/Pigout-May-2009-056.jpg
http://www.n6cc.com/wp-content/uploads/P9090509.jpg
My $0.02
Tim N6CC


On Mon, Jun 24, 2013 at 4:08 PM, Mark K3MSB <mark.k3msb at gmail.com> wrote:

> Didn't ER Magazine sponsor a Vintage Field Day?
>
> Mark K3MSB
>
> Sent from my Android phone
> On Jun 24, 2013 6:28 PM, "Jason W6IEE" <w6iee.73 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > 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
> >
> >
> > --
> > w6iee.blogspot.com
> > AMI, Cactus Intertie, CVRC, GQRP, QRP ARCI, SBMS, SKCC.
> > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junk_box
> > http://www.flickr.com/photos/kf6pqt/
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