[NLRS] Field Day comments

Tue Apr 17 23:01:10 EDT 2007

Matt,

Your query about FD touches on a passion I've come to thoroughly enjoy.  For
several years now, I have hosted a FD site at my farm in Central MN.  I've
been doing FD for a few decades.  There are many different approaches to FD.
I've done them all.  

I remember a FD where there was more beer consumed than QSOs.  And FDs where
the focus was on emergency comms.  Then there are the FDs where we try an
put on a good face for the community--working in a public place.  There is
always the minimalist approach--QRP into low slung inverted Vs.  The
MicroLite FD site can be an interesting motif as well.  There are club
activities, where beer and brats is the fare of choice, and everybody has to
work at least 1 QSO.  In there own way each has been fun.  Some were more
fun than others.  During those formative years, there was always something
lacking.  We never did it the same way two years in a row either.  Then
there is the passion I was talking about.  The last few years has been a
different approach.  I'd like to call it "high performance" FD.

FD is an unusual contest in that you don't get the luxury of spending the
whole summer building your station.  You get 24 hours.  Anybody who has sat
at the helm of a world class HF station, like W0AIH and several others in
the neighborhood, knows that rate is king.  And the key to rate is being
LOUD.  Being LOUD does not come by accident.  Careful design and equipment
procurement can take years to perfect.  Going through all the work of
building a decent HF station in 24 hours for just a few hundred QSOs is WAY
too much work.  Several years ago, several MWAers got together and
formulated a strategy that forces the group to focus.  The goal is to win.
Yes, WIN the 2A LP category on FD.  2A is the most competitive category.
The difference between being 50th on the list and 10th on the list of 650 2A
stations is no accident--and no small feat.

By formulating a common goal of beating our last year's 'best' score--to
dominate the Dakota Division--to edge ever closer to that ellusive #1
spot--forces the entire group to focus on squeezing another 0.1dB out of the
equipment and ourselves.  Some people run marathons, others race cars, I
play radio.  And FD is like no other contest!

FD is not a contest.  Yet we keep score.  There is no log checking.  It's a
gentleman's contest.  In any other "contest" on HF, there are maybe as many
as several thousand worldwide participants.  Sweepstakes is probably king
when it comes to rate and numbers.  Unless you factor in FD.  There are
about 20,000 participants.  That is a factor of 10 more than any other
contest.

Last year, we landed (if memory serves me correctly) 2984 QSOs and placed
9th.  We took Dakota Division again.  The competition was fierce.  W0AA
(Ron-N0AT, Al-K0AD, Vlad-N0STL, Eugene-K0IEX) ran the lion's share of their
2274 QSOs on CW (2 pointers).  We were split about 55%/45% CW/SSB.  They had
24% fewer Qs and placed 12 on a list of 448 2A stations.

Strategy, careful design, an aggressive build, talented Ops, it's our
formula for fun on FD.  Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the beer and brats style
FD efforts.  But I find the focus of the High Performance FD to be the most
interesting and challenging of all.  Meanwhile, local law enforcement and
Emergency Management personnel have been impressed beyond our wildest
expectations.  We even made page one--above the fold--in the local paper 2
years ago.  A full color spread with more pictures and story on page 3.
It's been great fun.

Check out our ARRL soapbox from last year's effort:

http://www.arrl.org/contests/soapbox/?con_id=106&call=N0FP

And from 2 years ago:

http://www.arrl.org/contests/soapbox/index.html?con_id=90&call=w0aa

Look for us again this year.  We need the Qs!

Ford-N0FP
ford at highmarks.com

-----Original Message-----
From: nlrs-bounces at mailman.qth.net [mailto:nlrs-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On
Behalf Of Matt Burt
Sent: Tuesday, April 17, 2007 2:27 PM
To: nlrs at mailman.qth.net
Cc: BadgerContesters at mailman.qth.net
Subject: [NLRS] Field Day comments

As FD quickly approaches our local club has started a discussion about FD
and the subject of the Incident Command System was brought up in concert
with the event.  Some folks think it makes sense to utilize this type of
stucture in a "drill" such as Field Day.

I just wanted to take a quick poll of how other clubs/groups handle their FD
with respect to the organization side.  You may fire back comments directly
to
me or share thoughts on this list if you wish. (KF0Q at hbci dot com)   I
just
didn't want to tie up more bandwidth on this list about this subject.  I am
happy however that our local group does appreciate the place VHF and up has
at any FD setup.  If I get a whole bunch of great ideas I may summarize them
here later.
73
Matt
KF0Q
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