Monday morning – Well, Field Day 2013 is in the books.
My plan originally was to travel to the far end of Kentucky and work my way home making stops at Field Day sites along the way. My wife was sick Friday, and it really didn’t make sense to ask her to travel 3-1/2 hours when she was really feeling bad. I canceled our reservation and decided to spend Saturday alternating between chores and operating here at home for Field Day.
I worked mostly phone on Saturday, switching to PSK31 for a stint in the afternoon. I later moved to 20 and then 40, working both phone and digital. My favorite Field Day operating is the midnight-to-8 a.m. shift, and in years past I spent the night working 75 phone. This year I cruised 75 meter phone until about 3:30 a.m., and crashed. I decided I needed sleep!
FIELD DAY OBSERVATIONS. I enjoy Field Day, and the fact it is a lower-key contest. I also enjoy contesting, but Field Day isn’t a hardcore contest, and its always good to hear folks who are decidedly NOT contesters working FD, including youngsters and XYLs. Its amazing the pileup a woman can achieve on Field Day.
BAND EDGES. I think hams need to understand how a SSB signal has width, and why you have to be aware. I heard several guys working not just near the band edge, but right ON it. There was a Field Day station operating right on 7.125 MHz yesterday, and several other bands had stations operating way too close to the edge. I skipped calling them, I figured if I knowingly made a contact with my signal out of band, I would be more guilty than the guys who were unaware of their own out-of-band operating.
POINT & CLICK CONTESTING? I worked quite a few PSK31 contacts, the first time I’ve operated a digital mode in a contest (beyond RTTY many years ago on a Commodore 64). It was … interesting … but not nearly as exciting as phone or CW contesting. It wasn’t that I didn’t enjoy it, but it was a little … underwhelming.
Once tuned to the right part of the band, you watch the monitor and click on the station you want to call. The most excitement was Alt-Tabbing to the logging program to enter the station and exchange. Maybe I’m wrong, but there just wasn’t much operating skill with clicking the mouse and waiting for the exchange to scroll across the screen. Log it. Done. Yawn.
I probably would have been better served had I operated CW … I can’t copy the 30-plus guys, but I can listen to their exchange a couple of times and then call them and make my exchange. It would have been more of a challenge, that’s for sure.
I’m not complaining, mind you. Just reflecting on this year’s Field Day operation.
Probably the best change this year or any Field Day I’ve operated was the no-brainer — staying home in the comfort of my air-conditioned shack. That’s right — no need to drag all my stuff out of the house, no club members shooting arrows over trees, no mosquitos, flys, bug bites, or bad food. I got to go to bed when I wanted and get up when I wanted, and didn’t break a sweat tearing anything down.
I have more to write about — more bug-related — later. I have a busy week ahead … and a new bug on the way.
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