"Ryan, KC8PMX" wrote in message ...
"N2EY" wrote in message
...
In article , Mike Coslo
writes:


But you guys have training sessions, right?

Twice a month as required by law, and also sometimes more than that.

Well, there you go. For a lot of hams, Field Day is their only and/or
first training.

You can't simulate all of them by any means, but FD simulates some of
them.

I wasn't saying that we can simulate all but I do think we should be
simulating in more realistic locations. That is provided that we can get
permission to set up there, as it is not actually during an emergency.

The question is, what constitutes a "realistic" location? Depending on
the type of emergency, all sorts of sites are realistic.

For example, look at the search for shuttle parts. People were spread
out over a large area, and needed communications over relatively short
paths but in many directions - in rural areas, mostly.

One of the biggest challenges of FD has become finding a site.
Consider what we want to do:

- Make noise all night long

- Put wires and tubing high in the air during a time of year when
thunderstorms are common

- Pound things into the ground, set up tents, cook food, etc.

- Be away from noise generators like power lines.

Plus there's the whole liability question...

Here's a scenario for ya:

Months in advance, everyone who wants to participate is required to fill
out a
form listing what equipment, time, and skills they can volunteer for FD.
Everyone is responsible for keeping their FD forms updated of changes
(equipment /schedule changes, license upgrades, etc.)

The forms are collected and the FD committee of no more than 3 people puts
together a Field Day master plan.

48-72 hours before FD, everyone who is signed up gets their "sealed
orders"
which detail where they are to go, what they are expected to bring with
them
and what they are expected to do for FD. It could be as simple as "show up
at X
on or before time T and operate station S" or as complex as "head the team
running station S, bring a this list of equipment..."

Included could be things bringing like foul-weather gear even though the
forecast is perfect. You don't have to wear it but you have to have it
with
you. Could also simulate equipment breakdowns and unavailability -
although
that sort of thing often happens anyway.

Except for the FD committee, nobody knows what they're going to be doing
until
shortly before FD. To more realistically simulate, some very good
resources
(rigs, antennas, generators, etc.) might be left completely unused while
less
than perfect substitutes are pressed into service.

You'd probably love a Field Day like that, Ryan. Would be a great learning
experience for all. But I can guarantee you that more than half (probably
more
than 3/4) of the FD regulars in your club would walk away if the club
tried
such a plan cold turkey.

Actually, with a little bit of fine tuning, I believe that would be even
better than my idea.

Thanks!

My idea was that we WILL know which weekend, but the
location won't be announced till either that morning OR the night before,
and we have to adapt.

That's in my idea too. The date would be about the only thing known in
advance outside of the planning committee.

And that location being decided (where possible) by
the county EC/RO. Actually in our specific case, we hold a regular net on
Thursdays, so that would be the best I would imagine......

There ya go. And the committee could toss in all sorts of surprises:
Somebody brings a nice new rig, makes 100 contacts, and then a
committee person suddenly slaps a red post-it on the thing. Which
means it's busted and cannot be used for X hours. Team has to
improvise another rig and get back on the air ASAP.

Or maybe the announcement is made on Thursday night that *all*
antennas have to be homebrewed at the site, starting no earlier than
24 hours before FD. Bring all the coax, wire, rope, connectors, line,
insulators, tubing and PVC you want, but everything in the antennas
has to be built from-scratch.

As I said before, if you drop something like this on most people
cold-turkey they'll rebel or simply vote with their feet. But if
they're brought to it gradually...

73 de Jim, N2EY