[Milsurplus] Field Day musings

[David Stinson]

I don't remember the equipment from my "club centered" 
Field Days.  I remember the people and the fun.
Some time about 1974 or 75,  with the Alexandria, Louisiana 
club at a park with two stations, each under a pavilion.
Stations were about 75 yards apart.  It was black dark.   
Two old Navy guys used flashlights and semaphore
to communicate between the two stations.

Another time with the Las Vegas club, probably 1984
or 1985, since it was before I got so deeply into Longwave.
We were on a grassy ball field at a large city park.
Late that night I noticed the big, industrial sprinklers- t
he kind that are hidden, then pop-up and throw 
an inch-wide stream about 15 yards- 
come on way across the field.
"Uhhh... Guys??"  
"Don't worry- the grounds keepers assured us 
they turned this zone off for the night."
Another zone came on, a little closer....
Then another.... 
Can you guess where this is going?

Yep.   
The first one popped-up out of the ground
right under the seat of one of the ops-
PANDEMONIUM!
We were running every which way,  throwing boxes
and covers and even a spare table-
whatever we could find over these sprinkler heads.
The op on the chair was NOT going to see his gear 
get soaked and just sat straight down on the sprinkler head.
He looked like a drowned cat and about as mad :-D
Just as one set was finished soaking us, another
set would come on and off we'd go with boxes,
tarps and dripping bodies. 
I wish to goodness we'd had video cameras back then.
It would have been a "side splitter" for YouTube ;-).

We were very lucky, since none of the equipment got 
damaged, probably because the genny was the first thing
to get drown and quit.  Once we got it restarted
and everyone wrung themselves out, we got right back
to contacts again.  You gotta love "Ham Spirit."

73 DE Dave AB5S