Bill Horne wrote:
Steve Bonine wrote:

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.

I guess I'll disagree, mildly, because I'm concerned that some readers
might take the inference that the contest aspect of field day is an
_objective_ evaluation of emergency-preparedness. To be sure, it's an
evaluation of the hardware and antennas and operator skill, but being
prepared to contribute in a disaster takes more than having a radio and
antenna.

When I chose the word "objective", I realized it was a stretch. I was
trying to say that the contest aspect helps to evaluate success in how
well the radios and antennas work. It's "objective" only in the sense
of being slightly better than "seems like things worked better this year
than last year." And it's just an indication of how well the hardware
works, not of the overall effectiveness of the group that's running it.

Field day is, and should be, a reminder that hams who are preparing to
help in disasters must plan every detail _before_ they need to be
effective, and must put that planning into practice several times
_before_ it's needed. It's important to be a competent operator, but I
don't feel that contest scores, per se, show who'll be the most
organized beforehand, or who will be best-able to multi-task, tolerate a
lot of ambiguity, juggle priorities, and suffer abuse from public
officials and the served agencies, without losing their cool or making
too many mistakes.

I agree that FD scores don't correlate with success in an actual
disaster. In fact, setting up an HF station and operating it using
emergency power is unlikely to be an actual part of disaster operations
these days. On the other hand, Field Day does provide training in
multitasking, ambiguity, priorities, dealing with media, and general
problem solving. Many skills that are useful in an actual disaster are
exercised in a FD operation; the most important being the ability of the
local group to work together to get things done.

Field Day, by itself, won't prepare a group for disasters. But a group
that is doing things right -- ongoing training, drills, and planning --
will benefit by participating in the FD operation.

Contesting is about scoring. Disaster preparedness is about putting your
ego on a shelf and being willing to deal with boredom, long waits, and
assignments that are far from the TV cameras, very far from the flush
toilets, and nowhere even close to the hot food or the TV lights or the
glory.

The point I was trying to make is that Field Day is more than a contest.
There is a contest aspect, and it draws people who are avid contesters
and treat it as nothing more than a contest; you can work FD from home
in exactly the same way that you work SS or any other contest. It's
also a training event, and draws people who are interested in emergency
preparedness. And it's a social event and draws people who want to sit
and chat with their buddies, but have no interest in getting on the air.

Field Day provides an opportunity for the insular groups to mix. The CW
bigot might pick up a microphone. The VHF-only ham gets exposed to HF.
The new ham who has never been in a contest learns how to operate one.
The guy who only came to gab with his friends and hasn't been on the
air for years gets on the air. The friend/relative who is visiting is
exposed to ham radio. And everyone has a good time.

Emergency preparedness has many aspects. Building the general expertise
and camaraderie of the local ham radio group makes it more effective if
it's ever called upon in a real disaster situation.

73, Steve KB9X