[ARC5] Field Day musings...

[David Stinson]

----- Original Message ----- 
>But, when the Red Cross, Boy Scouts and all the officialdumb
> visitors from "th' city" came out, where did they congregate?  
>Where the REAL radios were. 
> They couldn't give a flyin' flip about that other stuff.  
>And, it was CW, not donald duck and digitalis, 
>that interested them the most....
>... SKILL is what it takes, folks.  
>All the "hy-tech" in the world is no substitute.  
>Without SKILL, you have nothing.

Hear Hear, Mike!  

I did some listening during this last Field Day.
and heard the general level of activity.  When people
complain about all the "activity and noise" from
"so many stations" today, it's amusing.
These guys give up, gripping about "hopeless QRM" 
if one or two other stations happen to be in their passband.  
Pathetic.
I'd chuckle but it makes me feel more sad than amused. 

Today's "plastic OPs" don't have the.... very... first... clue.
I wish to God I had some recordings of Field Day 
in, say, 1969 or 1973.   If a band was open it was a 
solid wall of signals from one end to the other.  
We didn't have computers.  We didn't have digital filters.
Most of us didn't even have passband tuning and 
I never once saw a CW OP using a narrow filter;
you'd miss too many calls doing that.
They used their skills and their brains and had
a great time.   I could tell you some really funny stories.
Like the time in Vegas when the ball park grounds
keepers told us the sprinklers had been turned-off
for the night.....

73 Dave AB5S