[GCARC] Follow up on Field Day email

[Herb]

It's been a rough year for everyone.

Now on to the good stuff.....


When I got my tech ticket in Jan 2017, I bought a inexpensive HT and I 
thought: what next? I got an invite to a GCARC club meeting by then Prez 
Harry, and took him up on the offer.
After the meeting, I plunked down my dues and joined the club if only to 
have the opportunity to figure out what in the heck they were talking 
about. (I come from IT, not electronics).
Seemed like a nice enough bunch but they surely were talking a different 
language.

After the slow drip of radio info for several months online, it was not 
until June 2017 where this dry sponge got caught in front of a fire hose 
of Ham tech, i.e. Field Day. My other hobby is motorcycle camping, I got 
the idea of
turning FD into a camping trip at the clubhouse. Put up my tent, cot, 
sun shade, lanterns, and other camping goodies on Friday evening and 
helped with setup, grass maintenance, antennas. Some antennas that last saw
paid duty in the deserts of Iraq!  "Hey, over here! Grab this rope, hold 
tight"" Um.  yes sir!

On Saturday morning, I awoke in my tent at 5AM, turned on my HT to the 
club repeater, and got a brutal education in another then unknown Ham 
Tech, SKYWARN. The announcement for a severe weather alert for the county
and to *IMMEDIATELY TAKE SHELTER!*  I'm in a tent in an open field, 
WTF?! I forgot to wear my brown pants! I got out of my tent as the wind 
howled, rain started, and looked north, and saw a black cloud line 
worthy of a sci-fi
invasion movie on top of me. I swear I heard it growl. I weighed 350 lbs 
then, and it my first terrified sprint in decades years as I raced for 
the clubhouse as all heck broke loose. It was 20 minutes of weather 
mayhem and the tents set up the night before got guy line testing above 
and beyond the manufacturer's published guidance. (Some tents didn't 
pass the test.)

The emergency passed, the sun came out, and we put stuff back together, 
and plowed on with a fantastic weekend. I learned more about this hobby 
that weekend than I did in a dozen QST magazines.
Want to learn digital modes? Want to see ninja CW in action? Curious how 
to track satellites? Want to know what fighting through a pileup looks 
like? Want to get trapped in one yourself? Want to see every type of 
antenna and what it's capable of? It's all packed into 1 weekend onslaught.

Another aspect is that an opportunity to get to know the club members 
outside of the radio, and the meetings. (and the reflector hi hi).  My 
sun shade turned into a cigar toting rag chew, where I was getting 
stories of field days gone past, club history, silent key's sorely 
missed, and a lot of other well embellished stories.. (On subsequent 
fields days it was proven these were embellished, as the same stories 
where retold with much better endings, increased heroics, as the 
nobility of the storyteller reached new heights.). It is a 100% radio 
weekend and the info being passed about made me upset I was not taking 
better notes. Information overwhelm.

When the event was over I was mentally and physically exhausted and 
never felt so great. I realized driving home after that first FD, these 
curmudgeons are not knitting sweaters, but engaging in tool kits that 
SAVE LIVES! (When
the news of Hurricane Maria came out of Puerto Rico a few years later, 
and the ARRL sent 50 hams to the island to help, I KNEW EXACTLY what 
they were doing, what they were carrying on the planes, (and could have 
joined them if required), because I attended Field Day!

I eventually bought a off the grid solar power camping kit for backup 
power for devices, and was at a meeting talking about how I got my 2M 
mobile unit running off it with a ladder antenna over a tree. Camping 
ham radio was
the goal. Little did I know that FD has a solar powered radio category, 
and our solar powered VHF/UHF simplex station was born. With a tape 
measure beam antenna, a human rotor (complete with sound effects) this 
25W radio does simplex for 50 miles with a beam. How many 2m rigs are in 
a 50 mile radius? Those contacts are worth as many points as the ones on 
HF.  (the first 5 get 100 points) We flipped that antenna horizontal 
last year, and we got a 1C contact, an airplane flying over Blue Bell 
PA, this mediocre ham's most awesome contact.  Those with freshly minted 
tech licenses have a seat waiting for them at FD, and can rack up 
points. I have a plan of attack this year to use the repeater networks 
leading up to FD to get a every VHF/UHF rig in the area monitoring 
simplex that day, and scoop up the contacts.

One of the myths of Field Day is that it requires full weekend 
commitment from everyone involved. While this could be true for the band 
chairs, there are plenty of opportunities for 4 or 6 hour shifts to help 
out all weekend. Aside from antenna construction early Sat, and 
disassembly later Sunday: Do you suffer from insomnia? Find yourself 
sleepwalking at 3AM with a HT calling CQ? We can put your ailment to 
good use! The west coast opens up often after midnight on Saturday 
night, and the day operators are too bushed to scoop up those west coast 
stations. An overnight shift from well napped members after midnight 
could be gold for the club point totals, and does not require an all 
weekend commitment. If you have a free hours over that weekend, please 
don't shy away under the myth a full weekend commitment is required. 
Reach out! The training on the logging software takes 5 minutes! Even 
the daytime operators would love a water/snack break in the daytime.

The event comes once a year, and it's an incredible opportunity to take 
your ham game to the next level.


Thanks for reading my tripe,

Herb KT2Y (band chair solar 2M/70cm)
(ps: can you tell I am already excited for field day?)