Back in my TCRC heyday, when I was in my 30s and within the first several years of being a radio amateur, Field Day was always a club event. TCRC did 3A, plus a VHF bonus station, plus a GOTA bonus station. Now in the Days Of Covid, I am loathe to hang around in close proximity to others. Especially other hams, given how the right wing is a bit over-represented in our hobby, just like whites are over-represented, and old guys with waaaaaaay too much disposable income are over-represented. So, yeah, no thanks, I’ll keep my distance, and be acutely ashamed of who and what I am in a field by myself.
But anyway, I went out to a field for Field Day this year, instead of running 1-Delta – the Lazy Loser Class. I noticed that @smittyhalibut had posted about a Field Day related challenge, and asked “How’s your Field Day going?”
Never the sort to pass up a pun opportunity, I dashed outside to take a quick Pano-Selfie to prove I was really REALLY in a Field for Field Day.
Friday afternoon about 4pm, got up to the AirBnB camper & started unloading the truck.
It was about 6pm by the time I was done situating myself in the camper, and started into actual ham radio station setup. Compliant with The Rules, in case I were inclined to actually compete. But I’m not so inclined. Still, it feels right to comply with the spirit of the event.
That evening, verified that all 3 modes I’d intended to operate were working. I didn’t have my normal Win10 big desktop with me, with its easily-integrated-to-everything N1MM setup and RTS keying. Oh no. I was doing this with a Linux laptop that is able to see the USB audio in/out devices when plugged into the radio, but it can’t see the COM port(s). If it’s going to send through the radio, it has to be VOX. And all tuning is manual. This is like the OLD days, when I first was doing RTTY and PSK-31 with an old tube rig.
Now – I had verified during the June VHF contest that I could send CW from Fldigi, but the fastest I could get the VOX to work would turn a leading Dah into a Dit. Not good. So all my macros started with “e (space)”. It’s a kludge. Don’t like it.
But it’s OK. I don’t like calling CQ anyway, I generally run entirely Search & Pounce style. So I listen to a station work 2, 3, maybe even 4 stations (depending on how bad the fading is), to make sure that I already have ALL the other guy’s information before I throw my call out. So I only need to be able to hear a few things:
- Did they get my call right? If not, just send it again.
- Did they ask for anything again? If so, just send it again.
- Did they say either “TU” or “GL” or “73”? Good. Done. Log it and move on.
That first night was a hot, sticky night after a very hot, sticky day. My host’s generator was laboring like a pack-mule to keep the A/C going. The A/C compressor was doing at least a 90% duty cycle. It never completely shut off. The compressor would stop, and the fan would keep going to defrost the coils, but the temp never stayed below the set point of the thermostat long enough for the unit to completely stop. So even though I’d topped off the gas tank just before bed (about 10pm), it nonetheless stopped running at 12:35am. A power outage is a panic-inducing thing when you sleep with a CPAP. It’s like waking up to someone trying to smother you. Instant adrenaline.
Went out to fill and restart it.
It shut itself off after 10 minutes.
Go start it again. Shuts itself down in 30 seconds. Start it again… 10 seconds, shutdown.
OK, time to fire up my Honda generator (which is probably 1/3 as loud as his Coleman), so I can at least keep my CPAP going, and a fan. But that’s a LOT of exercise in the middle of the night, plus the aforementioned adrenaline from the murder attempt, plus all the heat and sweat just from how hot it is. Point being, it was a couple hours before I could get back to sleep. Saturday morning was ROUGH. Felt exhausted & lightly nauseated for half the day. Uff-da.
First thing that made me say “Oh dang, I forgot…” was microphone. Though I intended to use the Heil headset, I also knew it was going to be hot, and that I MIGHT not be operating in A/C. That might get too hot. I might want to switch to the hand mic. But I forgot to pack the hand mic. Derp.
The 2nd “Oh dang, I forgot…” thing was deez big ol’ nuts, which I tie to the end of a guy line, and throw over a branch, to hoist up the end of an antenna. Works on the first try every time. The heavy nut always comes sliding down to the round. I never lose one up in the tree because it gets tangled (like hell I don’t), so I really only need one. But I always bring 2 or 3 (no, I brought zero).
Anyway, I managed to figure out a way to get the antenna up even without deez nuts.
Very windy on Saturday night. Come Sunday morning, the EFHW was not as high, not as taught, and needed some adjustment.
Also, on Saturday night, the storm brought a cold front with it. I’d be able to open windows and vents, not use the host’s generator (for the A/C) at all, but instead just run mine. After running TEN HOURS at idle, which is all that’s necessary for the CPAP, or the power supplies for laptop and HF radio, the Honda generator had sipped a mere 1/3 of a tank of gas. It also doesn’t give me any significant noisy birdies on the HF bands. This spot out in the woods an hour North of home is the quietest noise floor I’ve ever seen on the HF bands. 160m (where I’ve yet to ever operate) was still dreadfully noisy, but that looks like it could’ve been from there being any household electrical power within the county. LOL! But 80m on up was all far better than at home in the outer-burbs.
Sunday morning, I enjoyed coffee while watching the deer graze. It was time to put together a 6m Inverted Vee, cut from what had been a Windom OCF for 40m.
I did that – I put up a 6m. Twice. First time, up in the trees. It was cut too long (on purpose). Was seeing only a few local stations. Got one or two to come back to me. Alright, let’s go fold back the ends further, and move it out to the mowed area, on the fiberglass mast, so as to orient it best IN CASE there’s a Sporadic-E opening to Florida, as has sometimes happened in the past few weeks.
Did that. Got the SWR dip to land spot-on 53.3MHz! Only dipped to 2:1, but the dip was a the right freq, and the match was dead-on 50 ohms. As perfect as it’s going to be. Easy enough for the FTdx3000’s internal tuner to manage. Alright. Bring it on.
And? And? Nope. That was it. 6m was not coming alive. Did not manage to work even one more station.
It was now 8:30am Sunday. I’d tried everything I’d intended to try. I’d proven 100% of the things I’d set out to prove. I can get it to work. Single handed. I can get CW to work 2 different ways, even without remembering to pack my Bencher paddle. I could’ve worked any of the other Fldigi modes (but didn’t bother). I could do FT8. I could do SSB. And I could do at least 2 different antennas out there, that weren’t there before I started.
The final somewhat-annual opportunity that Field Day provided is what’s going to happen today. I’m going to wipe the dust off the desk that’s usually hiding under my gear. I’m going to tidy up the cables. My station, once re-assembled, will be neater and cleaner than it was a couple weeks ago when I started taking it apart to move it out to the shed for the June VHF contest… which was my pre-Field-Day trial run.
