What did you do on Field Day?

My club, the Pahrump (NV) Amateur Radio Repeater Association (PARRA),
held its Field Day (FD) at the QTH of one of our members.

Pahrump is in the desert of southern Nevada about 60 miles west of Las
Vegas. The normal summer day-time temperature is 105 degrees F. The
last couple of years we set up in the desert outside of town. But
this year we decided that we were getting too old to stay out in all
that sun all day. So this year we operated as a class D station at
the member's QTH. His home station already had a tower with a
multi-band beam, plus a couple more towers between which we strung
wire antennas.

Our sole consession to FD conditions was to operate from the covered
patio behind the house instead of in his air-conditioned shack. One
member brought an evaporative cooler to cool the patio a bit.

Our host brought his HF rig from his indoor shack to the patio.
Another member brought his HF rig from his QTH. One rig was run
exclusively on SSB, while the other was used for both SSB abd CW,
We operated as class 2D.

About ten club members showed up during the event. We also had about
5 visitors who learned about the event from notices in our two local
newspapers and two local TV stations. The TV stations also aired
interviews with our host and me describing the event and inviting
visitors. Pahrump is a small town, about 35,000 population. The
local media really helps to publicize all kinds of local events. I
cannot imagine that we would get that kind of publicity in a large
city such as nearby Las Vegas.

Our FD's are laid-back affairs. We are there to have fun, chat and
joke with each other, and occassionally operate a radio. When the
hamburgers and franks were finished cooking, all operating ceased as
we ate dinner. I don't know what our final score is, and really I
don't care. I was there just to have fun with my friends.


What did you do on Field Day?


Dick Grady, AC7EL
To respond to me privately, email to:
My Call at My Call dot org

On 6/27/2012 1:06 AM, wrote:
What did you do on Field Day?

I spent the weekend cutting cement so that I can replace the pipes
around my pool, trying to get some "UF" electrical cable without having
to mortgage my home, and getting ready to take on a new job that's 2,500
miles away.

Sometimes, you just have to say "Maybe next year". :-(

73,

Bill, W1AC

--
Bill Horne
(Remove QRM from my address to write to me directly)

On Wed, 27 Jun 2012 08:40:29 EDT, Bill Horne
wrote:

On 6/27/2012 1:06 AM, wrote:
What did you do on Field Day?

I spent the weekend cutting cement so that I can replace the pipes
around my pool, trying to get some "UF" electrical cable without having
to mortgage my home, and getting ready to take on a new job that's 2,500
miles away.

Sometimes, you just have to say "Maybe next year". :-(

73,

Bill, W1AC

I know what you mean, Bill. Ham radio is a great hobby, but sometimes
real life intrudes.
Field day weekend five years ago, my wife and I travelled from Nevada
to Michigan for her mother's funeral.

Dick Grady, AC7EL

On Wed, 27 Jun 2012 01:06:44 EDT, wrote:

What did you do on Field Day?

My club, the Pahrump (NV) Amateur Radio Repeater Association (PARRA),
held its Field Day (FD) at the QTH of one of our members.

Final results:

Hours of operation 11 AM to 7 PM Sat., 8 AM to 11 AM Sun.

Phone: 99 contacts
CW; 55 contacts

100 extra points for publicity.

Not a big total, but we weren't trying to win our category.
We accomplished our main goal: We had FUN!!

Dick Grady, AC7EL
To respond to me privately, email to:
My Call at My Call dot org

On Wed, 27 Jun 2012 01:06:44 EDT, wrote:

Our FD's are laid-back affairs. We are there to have fun, chat and
joke with each other, and occassionally operate a radio. When the
hamburgers and franks were finished cooking, all operating ceased as
we ate dinner. I don't know what our final score is, and really I
don't care. I was there just to have fun with my friends.


What did you do on Field Day?

Just about the same on the "ranch" of our Esteemed Leader of the
Skyline Tower A.R.C., the ham radio incarnation of the Portland (OR)
chapter of the Society of Broadcast Engineers. One of our cohorts is
a prime BBQ chef so we dined in style - no burgers and franks for us!
---

73 de K2ASP - Phil Kane

From a Clearing in the Silicon Forest
Beaverton (Washington County) Oregon

e-mail: k2asp [at] arrl [dot] net

Sounds like you had a really nice Field Days

I came to the conclusiion, after operating at my second year of Field Days that the purpose of Field Days is not to contest.

The purpose of Field Days is to expose the public to Amateur Radio.

The purpose of Field Days is also to teach new hams how to operate in field conditions and how to log and dupe.

The purpose of Field Days is also to put non hams on the air - hence make new hams out of regular old people.

And the purpose of Field Days is to bring people together, especially clubs, where people learns, that if we work together, we can accomplish something, and if we all go our own seperate ways and do not help each other, we are not effective communicators.

Most clubs uses Field Days as a excuse to have a party or their club picnic.

Those activities needs to be held at other times.

We end up attracting club members, who by nature of having a license and call sign, but doesn't operate, doesn't even own a HF radio or antenna's - just got a license to be a part of a gang. Only comes to eat and to hang out. It makes it hard to operate when you have people standing around that only wants to talk to each other and doesn't want to help or operate.

Field Days is unique - it gives points to people who operates a information booth, for people who puts on extra curricular activities such as a fox hunt or a antenna building class. It gives points for having a information officer and advertising in the local newspaper and for getting the media to attend the event and for getting public officials to attend and for getting local law enforcement to attend.

I had the unique opportunity to explain how Amateur Radio works one day when I called the Dog Warden and had him come to my house because the neighbors dogs were doing property damage to my vegetable garden.

When the Dog Warden asked, how far can you talk on your antenna's?
I replied - half way around the world.

When he asked how much power am I allowed to use - I said up to 1500 WATTS

When he asked how much power do I use - I said 100 watts or less...

When he asked how far have I talked - I showed him my electronic log and my many contacts to places such as Australia, Neatherlands, Germany, Brazil, Alaska, Hawaii, Spain etc...

The next question is - how can you talk to so many different people?
He was talking about the language barrier.

My reply was - most of those people are educated and that they can speak better English then most people living in the USA today.

When he asked which channel I talked on, I explained to him how we use bands - such as 10 / 20 / 40 / 80 and 160 meters...

His reply was that he didn't need to know how his radio worked, all he needed to know is how to press the push to talk button and talk - the repeaters does all the work.

Its hard to sell someone on Amateur Radio when they already have a radio that works - such as Cell Phones, Public Service frequencies etc...

But when those modes refuse to work - such as the storms that hit Virginia the other day - those very same people can easily be convinced that they could really benefit by alternate sources of communications.

You blow down the states or the counties tower and they can switch to another tower. You blow down all of the towers and you have no communications, especially when the back up batteries dies and the generator runs out of fuel.

Amateur Radio - by nature - usually is not sponsored by the government, most hams uses their own time, talents, equipment and towers to build their own repeaters, and it is easier for a couple of people or a club to restore services of one repeater - then a government agency to restore services to a half dozen towers - when the roads are blocked by trees and debris and they have their own issues to take care of before they can even leave their homes to go fix what is broke - especially after a tornado or hurricaine or a “Derecho,”