Art Harris wrote:
Jim wrote:
How did folks do on Field Day this year?

Any good stories?

Ain't it amazing how 10 and 15 meters are "open" when people get on
the air? I was working lots of short skip (sporadic E?) on both bands.

Yes, I noticed that. Somehow I don't think it's all the RF that causes
the ionization that makes the bands open.

I missed my club's FD operation for the second year in a row because I
was deployed by the Red Cross on a disaster operation. This year I was
assigned to a communications vehicle and used FD as the opportunity to
run my personal test of its ham radio capabilities. My goal was to make
at least one contact on each HF band, and I managed to hit 10, 20, 40,
and 80 but missed 15 (and in retrospect I wish I had tried the mobile
whip on 160). I didn't have much time but enjoyed the effort.

By the way, my answer to the question of whether FD is a contest, an
emergency-preparedness training activity, or a party is "yes". It's a
unique event with all of those attributes. Each is important. The
contest aspect provides an objective evaluation of the success of the
setup that is used, and the social aspect of the event builds important
relationships and motivates people to participate. There's no reason
that FD has to be one thing; it can fulfill several objectives at the
same time.

73,
Steve KB9X