On Jun 28, 9:10 am, "Howard Lester"
wrote:

otherwise "dead" bands. Later in the day I went out to the club's FD site
and listened to a member operating on 20 in a very crowded band. I'm at a
loss understanding what some the other posters never heard.

We made about 3000 Contacts from the middle of Pennsylvania.

The bands weren't exceptional, but weren't too bad either.

We get this every once in a while, I don't know each individual case,
but from dealing with individuals at Field day and contests, when I'm
asked to take a look at a radio that "isn't working", I've found that
people tend to tune too fast, I can find stations and work them while
they hear mostly blips. Other times there can be antenna problems.
I've also seen the occasional case where the Op is not used to working
a particular band. We had a fellow come over to our 20 meter station
after working 40 meters. Propagation differences can be an issue on
different bands re how to operate.
Also on the Field Day subject, we usually run a full legal limit, and
directional antenna setup for 10 through 40 meters (40 meter beams are
fun and you WILL be heard at that level. But I'm kind of conflicted
about this. We get new guys to set at the radio, they call and other
people answer with the big gun, and all's okay. But if you put them at
a lower power station, they tend to think that "it doesn't work". They
have serious trouble making any contacts. Then they really scratch
their heads when I hop on and do a quick 50 QSO run. Some get
embarrassed, but I'm just trying to verify the radio working.

I just don't think it is all that great an idea to start the new folks
on a system that is a monster. When we used to use a GOTA station,
they referred to it as the toy station, and lined up to use high
power, and some wouldn't bother to put up a station at home afterwards
because they were discouraged by how much work it was to be heard. And
yet it wasn't. They were just developing bad habits with the big gun
station. They didn't have to worry about being heard. But they weren't
developing skills.