My Field Day 2009 Report
I participated in field day with the Foothills Amateur Radio Society this year. I was the GOTA captain. GOTA, Get On The Air. The site is great. It is at the Maryknoll seminary, which is very scenic. The GOTA tent is in the best location. It gets the most shade.
The GOTA station is fun. Watching someone get hooked on HF or contesting is great. Some just getting to jump into HF might connvince them to get their general or extra. Others, they get an understating of using something other than a HT. It is all good.
But if you work a GOTA station it can be boring. Unless someone is operating the station, you can just listen. Only those visiting can operate.
Next year I think I just us my own equipment. By then I hope the rotator for the buddipole exists. I think we could have done better with a rotating antenna. The filtering and the preamp on the ft857 might have made it an easier station to operate.
We had four folks use the station. One of the retired priests that live at Maryknoll. A buddy of mine who I got into the hobby. A kid out of college that just became relicensed. Also some one who like me managed to just get her 3 licenses one after the other. She worked hard and got 13 contacts. I hope I get to see her again. She is cute, single, smart, has a technical background, is a ham and I saw no ring.
I will say the teardown Sunday was miserable. It was really hot. We started tearing down the site at 10AM to get out of there ASAP. We just kept the HF station going until 11AM.
Next year I need to make sure I get a sift on the ssb hf station. I had fun with that last year.
PSK31 during a contest is bad. People are just rude. They did not leave space between signals. Put out too much power. Stomp on your signal. Clear a space by just sending a carrier. It might be a contents, but in the end we are supposed to be practicing for when it all hits the fan. As a ham we are here to have fun and to help the public. Doing the equivilent of elbowing everyone is just wrong and not what we are about.
Ow well. I am already looking forward to field day next year.
The GOTA station is fun. Watching someone get hooked on HF or contesting is great. Some just getting to jump into HF might connvince them to get their general or extra. Others, they get an understating of using something other than a HT. It is all good.
But if you work a GOTA station it can be boring. Unless someone is operating the station, you can just listen. Only those visiting can operate.
Next year I think I just us my own equipment. By then I hope the rotator for the buddipole exists. I think we could have done better with a rotating antenna. The filtering and the preamp on the ft857 might have made it an easier station to operate.
We had four folks use the station. One of the retired priests that live at Maryknoll. A buddy of mine who I got into the hobby. A kid out of college that just became relicensed. Also some one who like me managed to just get her 3 licenses one after the other. She worked hard and got 13 contacts. I hope I get to see her again. She is cute, single, smart, has a technical background, is a ham and I saw no ring.
I will say the teardown Sunday was miserable. It was really hot. We started tearing down the site at 10AM to get out of there ASAP. We just kept the HF station going until 11AM.
Next year I need to make sure I get a sift on the ssb hf station. I had fun with that last year.
PSK31 during a contest is bad. People are just rude. They did not leave space between signals. Put out too much power. Stomp on your signal. Clear a space by just sending a carrier. It might be a contents, but in the end we are supposed to be practicing for when it all hits the fan. As a ham we are here to have fun and to help the public. Doing the equivilent of elbowing everyone is just wrong and not what we are about.
Ow well. I am already looking forward to field day next year.
posted by Mike at
5:17 PM
1 Comments:
I'm an old Cynic Mike. Think Ham Radio convo's are mostly drivel. And Field Day more akin to Boy Scouts.
That said, I admire your enthusiasm and positive energy you bring to the hobby.
One suggestion. Next year pop up a dozen pictures on an online album to share with us where that buddipole was and who was there! Hell you might have had some good looking babes there and I'd never have known!
Cheers,
mike/wa4d
By
mewcomm, at 3:33 PM
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