AF6AY wrote in
oups.com:

Mike Coslo wrote on Tues 19 Jun 2007 03:03:

AF6AY wrote in news:1182223631.882670.254980
:

If "Field Day" were an ACTUAL Readiness Exercise I would consider
joining in once I had some portable equipment. Since I don't and
since it isn't, I'll just stay in my air conditioned home and "work
on my code."

Our club alternates between a low power, and a high power
Field
Day. While I personally like the low power FD better, some of the
other guys really like to run legal limit into a 40 meter beam on a
portable tower. So we compromise and alternate. We'll be running 3A,
with a dedicated CW station, a dedicated 40 meter station, and a Other
frequency/80 meter evening station. We'll have a recieve antenna at
the perimiter of what is allowed to eliminate the interference you get
when you have a lot of high power stations operating in close
proximity.

So, it's been a Contest all along, hasn't it? Not really a "Readiness
Exercise" for "emergency communications" as has been rationalized
(seemingly forever) by lots of old-timers and the ARRL. Why don't
they come out and admit the truth of what it IS and has always been?

Not sure that I understand. We come out and get on the air, with
different styles of operation from year to year. Certainly if it
were done in contest fashion, our approach would be different.



I see nothing wrong with having an Outing At A Park for ham radio,
particularly on a nice day in June which is ideal for northern-climate
folks (I grew up in northern Illinois and know what it is like). It's
an ideal club "togetherness" activity away from the usual clubhouse
atmosphere. I think it would be better for all to stop the pretense
of a "readiness exercise" and just call it what it IS, a Contest From
Field Locations.

Field Day is designed to get people on the air. For some, this is
the only weekend that they do get on the air. In our club, they work
and learn how to put a station together, and how to operate. We
encourage the newbies or less experienced folk to do some operation.
If it were a contest, there would only be about three of us
operating the whole time. The new guys and gals can only operate at
about 25 percent the rate that our more experienced Ops can.

Field day was how I was enticed to go for my General license. A
patient and more experienced amateur had me log for him for a couple
hours, then turned the mic over to me. I am a quick study, but my
operation in that first Field Day cost the club quite a few points.
Now I run Field Day for them...



It's always a little interesting trying to talk the local pizza places
into delivering to a field outside of town. Sometimes they do, and
sometimes they won't.

In real emergencies one could not expect pizza places to be open
and running. Even during a fine day in June. No male-oriented club
has members with a roll-away barbecue grill? There was a whole
page of Field Day Recipes in the last QST.

I've had these conversations often with local Hams about the very
subject. While it is very true that the conditions do mot emulate
the likely reality of an emergency, the basics of what is needed is
the ability to erect a portable station that operates off of the
mains, operate the station and gain or practice proficiency in that
operation, and then tear down and pack up when it is over.

After all, in a real emergency the operators might be freezing,
injured, starving, suffering from malaria or radiation poisoning or
even worse.

Probably would be hard to get many volunteers if we insisted on
literal accuracy of conditions! ;^)


- 73 de Mike KB3EIA -