06/29/2002 | N7JI At some point B.H. (before Hannah, born 5/21/02), I probably thought to myself, "Field Day is coming up sometime, isn't it?"

Then, on May 21, everything changed. New baby, no sleep, etc.

One month A.H. (after Hannah), dad-in-law says to me, "I saw something in the paper about ham radio this weekend - are you involved?"

Was it a simulated emergency drill? A hamfest? Hmmm...I drew a blank. Then, suddenly, it hit me - FIELD DAY!

How could it have snuck up on me so quickly??? I now had 18 hours to prepare.

I threw together a QRP station - my THP-750, Sierra, and a battery that I managed to charge for four hours - with a dipole and set up a station on my back porch. In 4 hours of operation, I/we made 70 QSOs and half of them were made with a 1-month old baby in my lap...and
boy was my left arm tired.

Even though the sun didn't come out until we were at a wedding on Sunday morning, we still had a good time (or at least I did).

Next year, she'll be 13 months old and able to help! (yeah, right!) -- N7JI