[Elecraft] 4-pound Field Day, anyone?

[Fred Jensen]

On 4/28/2013 4:50 PM, Robert G Strickland wrote:
> I understand and support the idea of lighter weight, more fun. That
> said, do we want to establish the 4# figure as "it?" Seems that anything
> under 10# is in the spirit of lighter/funner.

Seems like "anything you're willing to carry as far as you have to," 
often on foot and maybe in snow if you're a die hard SOTA activator, 
should be fine.

  I don't know the weights,
> but suppose I take my K2, an external tuner ['cause I don't have the K2
> internal tuner], appropriate battery(ies), some sort of wire antenna,
> and a support [no trees where I'm going], I'm probably over 4# yet sit
> "light weight."

There are no FD "rewards" for how much you and/or your gear weigh.  [I 
say rewards because if you get "points" and they publish "scores" it 
would be a contest :-))].

It's sort of like the 5W QRP standard. Why not 10w and
> under? Why not 1W and under? Granted, it's unmanageable to have a
> "class" for every pound under some figure

Well, the QRP crowd, of which I'm one when doing a SOTA activations, 
seem to have made it work.  Other than that, I think you're right, it's 
just an arbitrary number most everyone recognizes now, sort of like "low 
power" in contests is usually 100W or less.

. That said, perhaps we could
> "weight" some "light" configurations and find the middle point, or some
> such figure, and then determine "classes" from there.

Try the Spartan Sprint.  First Monday of each month.  For tubby class 
you submit your total QSO's.  For skinny class, you divide that number 
by the weight of your radio [everything between you and the antenna 
connector] in pounds.  It's actually a lot of fun, tubby or skinny. 
Just haven't been able to get to it recently.

The vast majority of hams are male, and the vast majority of males have 
a "challenge gene" on their Y-chromosome.  "What?  You did it in five 
notes?, I can do it in four."

I gave up on FD a number of years ago, partly because one of my 
obligations usually conflicted with it, unless the last weekend of June 
wasn't the 4th weekend, but really because I was tired of the "old 
drill."  That's no longer an issue for me, two years ago Rich, NU6T, and 
I did a dual FD and SOTA activation of Leviathan Peak.  We had so much 
fun on the QRPTTF yesterday that I'm already thinking of a 4# challenge 
for FD.  I'll bet I can beat Wayne.

73,

Fred K6DGW
- Northern California Contest Club
- CU in the 2013 Cal QSO Party 5-6 Oct 2013
- www.cqp.org. :-))

73,

Fred K6DGW
- Northern California Contest Club
- CU in the 2013 Cal QSO Party 5-6 Oct 2013
- www.cqp.org