2006 ARRL Field Day
06/27/2006 |
KD1D / WB1GOF
Wow, what a blast. What chaos.
The location of our FD site changed Friday, due to the wet wet wet weather forecasted for New England. All previous setup plans were now irrelevant. This was really a story of adapting to changing events, just like the real thing. Due to teamwork and "many hands making light work", we prevailed. We even figured out how to get the visitors to find the new site.
I took this year's FD opportunity to make some audio recordings, interviews, talking to both operators and guests at our Field Day event this year. This is the PART club, see http://www.wb1gof.org for our web site. As I played back the recordings, I stitched them all together and made a 15-minute podcast and put it on my site. See www.99hobbies.com for that.
Every time I listen to this particular audio piece, it brings a smile to my face, particularly when I hear the 8-year-old making two contacts in a row on the GOTA station (note to self: GOTA was a great idea; kudos to ARRL!). I talked to someone who has done 20 Field Days with this club, and with another guy who can't get on HF because of local housing restrictions. He looks forward to FD, because for him it is the only time he can get on HF.
Also on the GOTA station I sat next to a guy who has been a ham for some years, but has never tuned in an SSB signal before - NEVER! All the operation he had done was on 2m FM, where it is channelized. After about a half hour on 20 meters (and a dozen contacts), he had it down.
This year's Field Day for me was about discovery and Elmering. Oh, and I made a hundred QSOs myself when I wasn't goofing off with all of this other "PR" stuff (you know I'm kidding - ham radio is all about PR!)
All the best, and 73,
Dave -- KZ1O
The location of our FD site changed Friday, due to the wet wet wet weather forecasted for New England. All previous setup plans were now irrelevant. This was really a story of adapting to changing events, just like the real thing. Due to teamwork and "many hands making light work", we prevailed. We even figured out how to get the visitors to find the new site.
I took this year's FD opportunity to make some audio recordings, interviews, talking to both operators and guests at our Field Day event this year. This is the PART club, see http://www.wb1gof.org for our web site. As I played back the recordings, I stitched them all together and made a 15-minute podcast and put it on my site. See www.99hobbies.com for that.
Every time I listen to this particular audio piece, it brings a smile to my face, particularly when I hear the 8-year-old making two contacts in a row on the GOTA station (note to self: GOTA was a great idea; kudos to ARRL!). I talked to someone who has done 20 Field Days with this club, and with another guy who can't get on HF because of local housing restrictions. He looks forward to FD, because for him it is the only time he can get on HF.
Also on the GOTA station I sat next to a guy who has been a ham for some years, but has never tuned in an SSB signal before - NEVER! All the operation he had done was on 2m FM, where it is channelized. After about a half hour on 20 meters (and a dozen contacts), he had it down.
This year's Field Day for me was about discovery and Elmering. Oh, and I made a hundred QSOs myself when I wasn't goofing off with all of this other "PR" stuff (you know I'm kidding - ham radio is all about PR!)
All the best, and 73,
Dave -- KZ1O
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