ARRL Field Day this Weekend

erco

Whether by coincidence or divine providence, I'm taking the girls camping this weekend in the local hilltop park where hams are meeting up for Field Day. Not that I'm currently active... Maybe this will energize me and get me back in the fray.

If the Corvair club also had their local meet and "Fanbelt Toss" there this weekend, it would be perfect.

RS_Jim

AAh field day! fond memories of lugging an 85 pound 110V alternator up 600 feet of a 30 degree slope. We could get to our site by jeep except for the last 600 feet!. Every thing we had was back packable!. Can't remember how many jerry can of gas and water I lugged up that trail.
Jim

Cluso99

And the fox hunts

Stopping in the middle of the road, jumping out of the back of the Landrover with a yaggi, swinging thru 360 degrees, then back off again.

Couldn't do that these days - too much traffic

ceptimus

The radio club I used to belong to had one keen member who was a farmer. For field day we used one of his fields and put up a big vertical antenna next to a caravan to house the electronics and operators. I forget exactly how tall the vertical was, but it took about twenty of us lugging on ropes with A frames and such to get it erected - it was a multi-stage process where we first had to erect a temporary mast that was then rotated down to the ground as it pulled up the main mast. Then there was much hammering in of spikes - some of which were to secure the guy ropes to and others just to try and get the best possible ground plane.

I always found the actual operating part of contests pretty boring - but putting up and dismantling the station was good fun.

Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)

Field Day is kind of a big deal around here. Even the local Food Co-op is getting in on the action!



Huge display, just inside the entrance.

-Phil

erco

The Hughes Ham Radio Club was at the park where we camped this weekend. Mainly retired guys on VHF, using 2 meters, lots of laptops. Only one guy was working HF, 10 meters. No CW, only voice! Some serious antennas there. It was very low-key and non-competitive compared to the field day contests I remember from my youth: lots of kids staying up all night, frantically making as many CW contacts as we could, improvising wire antennas thrown over tree branches and adjusting for low SWR. Those were the days!

Leon

The RSGB has their CW Field Day Contest on the 2nd/3rd September. The SSB Field Day Contest was on the 3rd/4th June:

http://www.rsgbcc.org/hf/rules/2017/fds2017.shtml

erco

Girls at Field Day, who knew? Some smart cookies!