Got Technician ticket last September, got General back in April. So, still lots to learn, heard Field Day was a good way to condense the learning time.

AAR:

Went to club Field Day. (Club Facebook page here: W4CAR, normal web site here: http://w4car.org/)
Club Field day was at an out-of-the-way city park. Although the event was "open to the public", there weren't very many of the "public" there, probably owing to being a small park nobody knows about. (I hadn't heard of this place until now and I've lived here 20+ years if that tells you anything.)

On Saturday, I got up about 0630, got ready and packed up my Jeep. Not knowing exactly what to bring, I brought everything:
- Yaesu FT-991 with tuner and power supply
- Yaesu FT-857D with tuner, power supply, and SignalLink
- Yaesu VX-8DR
- Leixen 2m/440 25W radio with antenna
- Honda eu200i Companion Generator
- Screened in canopy
- Multiple antennas: "home-made" OCFD, ZS6BKW (home modified from G5RV), Comet UHV-6 multi-band vertical, Comet SBB-14, Tram 2m/440 mobile
- misc coax cables (LMR-400 ultra-flex)
- 2 laptops with CAT cables
- Tripp Lite Isobar 8-port power strip
- 1 35Ah 12v lead acid, 6 8Ah lead-acid, 1 15Ah LiFePo4 batteries
- 2 small fans
- 1 100ft. roll of 550 and 2 50ft. rolls of 1100 paracord
- 50Qt Coleman 5 day cooler
- Folding hand-truck
- Iris+ quadcopter drone with GoPro





Got out to the park about 0930. Things were still mostly disorganized. The club was setting up in a covered picnic-table pavilion area. I decided to take over one of the tables and set up my 991, 857, and the Leixen (because somebody thought somebody should be listening to the club repeater). Eventually the gang got a little more organized and we put up the OCFD in the trees which I hooked to the 991. For the 857d, I used my Jeep-top mobile vertical (UHV-6) with 40m and 20m coils attached. The Leixen got the Tram antenna, also mag-mounted to the Jeep. The club had 4 other radios and were running them with desktop computers and a LAN to use the Field Day Logging software on all the machines.

The club provided lunch which consisted of burgers, dogs, macaroni salad, and chips. After lunch the Mayor of Chesapeake came by, gave a short speech, and presented the club a proclamation that June 19-25th would officially be proclaimed "Amateur Radio Week" in the City. Dinner cost $15 and was a "catered" deal with pulled pork BBQ, baked beans, potato salad, cole slaw, and tea.

The club prez asked if I could set up to do digital since all the club radios were set up for phone. I started with the 991 trying to do JT-65 but got nowhere. One of the other club members came over and we started setting it up for PSK31 using DM780 (part of Ham Radio Deluxe). We tried both 40m and 20m and would receive a station or two but had trouble transmitting. Eventually we remembered to switch the mode on the 991 to Data-USB which evidently sets some parameters differently for digital data modes. We started making contacts a little after 1800. The 857D was set up for JT-65 and managed to make a couple of contacts, one in a state the club hadn't worked yet (Colorado). I hung out doing the digital thing till about 2200 and was pretty much toast so I went home and left the gear running for the folks who were spending the night. The high temperature was mid-90s here and the humidity was also mid-90s. It started raining about 2130.

Went back Sunday morning about 0900. There were only 4-5 folks there who had spent the night and they were pretty ragged out. The club was on the verge of getting to 300 contacts and suggested I start taking down my gear. So, that's what I did. I couldn't get my OCFD out of the trees since somebody was still using it at one of the club radios. I just told them I'd pick it up at the next club meeting. Left about 1030.

So, lessons learned:
- It's stupid hot and humid here in the summer. Not at all conducive to intelligent thought.
- Don't hunker over a laptop for several hours straight. Your back will NOT appreciate it.
- Software I already had (HRD) was able to help me do a digital mode I'd never used before (PSK-31). Also learned the specific freqs for PSK-31 on 20m & 40m.
- Got my first actual JT-65 contact on what is essentially the same rig (radio and antenna) that I carry in my Jeep (FT-857D).
- The club doesn't trim the trees at the entrance to the park so my antenna would drag through a couple the lower small branches.
- Having a 5-day cooler with lots of blue-ice blocks can make your drinks really cold. One of my Dr. Pepper bottles had a spot of ice in it when I took it out to drink.
- Make sure you have ALL the various cables you need. The USB cable for the 991 got left out somehow in my packing. Luckily, the club had a USB cable I could use.
- I need to get more coax cable couplers. The OCFD I made had 100ft. of LMR-400UF but that wasn't nearly long enough. The club had a small number of them and a bunch of coax cables.
- Hanging antennas in the trees is difficult. Luckily one of the club members had a pneumatic launcher with a weight and fishing line to shoot over the branches.
- You can never have enough paracord. The club had a bunch and still ended up using some of mine.
- My EU-2000i cranked up about 1030 in the morning and was still running at 2200 when I left. Running 2 rigs, 2 fans, 2 laptops, and a 2m radio listening, one tank of gas lasted almost 12 hours. That's very nice.
- Didn't help the club make as many contacts as I should have. I was thinking I'd be doing phone but ended up doing digital. Getting up and running to do that took too long. Be prepared to do whatever mode somebody needs when you show up.
- Field "Day" is a 24-hour time period, not an actual day.
- I was completely exhausted and had to go home Saturday night. Sleeping was hard because both my lower back and shoulder hurt. I need to get in better shape, not do stupid things, and bring muscle relaxers for when I do.
- Label all my stuff so everybody knows what belongs to me vs. the club.
- Club presidents make lousy/scary drone drivers. Luckily my drone is fairly easy to fly.

I'm not sure whether I'm going to go to the club Field Day again next year, or just hang out in the yard and do stuff from here. I learned a lot from the club members so that's a big plus. I obviously over-brought thinking I needed to. I need to do more digital work and also learn WinLink since that evidently would have gotten the club bonus points had I been able to send/receive a WinLink message.

I had a lot of fun for my first Field Day. It was a LOT more work than I was expecting though, probably because some of it was self-inflicted. Knowledge acquisition for the outing was a big, big plus.

FD really does reinforce the idea that preparedness means everything.

Operating with a club is a bit different than doing it all yourself, but still it hammers home the understanding that something as small as missing the proper connector or adapter or patch cable can make the difference between success and failure. Also, that understanding the quirks of a specific rig is best done ahead of time rather than when you need to make things work (again, a bit different when you're sitting in front of a radio that you've never worked with before, but it applies to your own equipment when it comes to bands or modes that you don't regularly use).

I just got licensed in Feb and only have a Tech Certificate. Went to the local field day and it was not what I was expecting. I thought Field Day was like a drill to see if you could comunicate with the outside world during a emergency like we had here on the coast in 2005 with Katrina

The group I watched had all these laptops were inside a building commercial power and air conditioning. I guess it was like a contest to see who made the most contacts.

I am glad I went. Learned a few things about Ham Radio in its present form. If  their is a real Disaster with death and destruction I just can't visulize how this kind of operation would work.

Its been twelve years since Katrina, I think we are getting close to another storm.

That's what contesting is. Field day is just a contest with a weird set of rules (take everything out of your home station and set it up somewhere else). Field Day isn't really a practice for the end of the world, although a lot of people like to look at it that way. While the ARRL says it practices "emergency preparedness", nothing in FD really prepares you for an emergency. The format of the contest is nowhere close to how message passing works, nor does it teach you to establish relay links, C&C, schedules, or anything else that would be necessary in a real emergency.

Field Day is a lot of fun and one of my favorite contests, and I'm quite content to just think of it as an outdoor contest with a LeMans start.

Although I'm sure someone will be along shortly to tell me that I'm wrong and FD is great training for the grid going down.

It's funny, the ARRL says that field Day is not a contest.  But, that the objective is to work as many stations as possible, and learn to operate in abnormal situations, in less than optimal conditions.  There are a lot of different categories to participate in, and a lot of clubs do operate out of their local EOC (the club here does), and a lot of people do operate from home.

I don't think it has anything to do with emergency operating procedures, but it is (or can be) a good  exercise in learning to setup and use backup power, antennas, etc.  It can also be a good way to introduce  people to amateur radio.

Mostly, I just try to have fun with it.  

Yeah, FD is a great introduction for a lot of people. We were listed on the ARRL website and several people stopped to see what we were up to when they saw our signs (and antennas). Our club may end up with a few more members as a result.

I think they reason they call it "not a contest" is to avoid scaring off people who are averse to or are afraid of contests (I know when I got started, contests made me really nervous due to the speed, intensity, and let's be honest - total assholes some hams can be).

The objective is to talk to as many stations as possible within a certain amount of time with certain constraints and exchange a piece of information which you log... sounds like a contest to me.

OP: glad you had a great first experience.  Except for hot/humid.  
But then you are down in the tidewater area.  Said with a smile from the Blue Ridge Mtns due west of you.

Each year we have someone in the club say that we should operate from our EOC.
And each year we go back to the beautiful campgrounds just outside of town.
Better view.  A nice shack there with porch to retreat to if the weather calls for it.
And there is not a propane tank farm across the street.  Like we have at our EOC.

To quote the ARRL FD PDF:
"Field Day is a picnic, a campout, practice for emergencies, an informal contest and, most of all, FUN!"

I like the fact that some people activate their EOC.  
I like the fact that some people operate so remote that the IRS couldn't find them.
I like the fact that some people group together at club locations.
I like the fact that some people operate from their homes & yards.

Because it's all a part of field day.
Our small club had a total of 5 people involved.
And we spent as much time talking to people that wandered by as we did on the radio.
We operated from a little after 2pm EDT on Sat to a little after 8pm.  
With a one hour break for dinner when we spent more time talking.  With the radios OFF.
I had 6 radio goals for us this weekend.  I accomplished 4 of them.
I operated my K2/100 for the first time other than functional tests.
I operated entirely off of generator power.
I operated entirely outside.
I did not get the winlink system up.  I left a necessary roll of coax sitting on the porch.
I did not operate my NUE-PSK interface for digital contacts.
I did demonstrate what we were doing and why to multiple people that did not know and were curious.

And most importantly my wife & I had a good time playing radio.

PSK-31 seems much more popular for FD, that's the only digital mode we made any contacts on other than CW. The skimmer function on fldigi makes it really handy. It's a lot nicer than listening to static crashes all night on 80m phone.

If you're going to use wire antennas, get some smaller/lighter coax (a flexible RG58 or RG8X type) to at least get from the feedpoint down to ground level, instead of trying to suspend large heavy cable like LMR400UF. If you're making such a jumper just for this kind of setup, give thought to making it with a female connector on the ground end so that you don't need a barrel connector. That would also be a reasonable place to put a couple ferrites as a line isolator... lots of RF floating around at field day.

Actually having a few big ferrites is not a bad idea at FD, in case you run into an RF issue with headphones, USB cables, or something like that.


It's better to start setting up friday afternoon/evening, less work saturday morning and more energy to do radio instead of setup. Also allows you to do the more physical parts of antenna setup and such, then get cooled off at home friday night. Do less physically strenuous stuff saturday morning, then your heat load isn't as much for the long day.
Someone in the club should have been better organized, but really all stations should be capable of digital or phone if at all possible. It's generally impractical due to mutual interference to operate phone and digital on the same band at the same time, so we generally work an active band by alternating between phone and digital. Work one mode until it seems like it's all dupes, then change modes, repeat. When the band dies, change bands and start over again.

Then again we generally only run two stations since that's all we can consistently keep active. Some people like to have several stations, but then they sit idle most of the time. Sometimes that's a result of different individuals wanting to have their own radio & antenna setup.
That makes no sense. People who show up fresh on Sunday morning need to start banging out contacts and let the overnight zombies decompress, eat/drink and maybe snooze.
Contest runs until noon Eastern, but all depends on how seriously people want to take it.
There is a ton of stuff to do and likely more that could be done that isn't because there isn't enough help or time to do it.

For anyone who wants to endear themselves on Field Day, stay until it's all torn down and packed up.

You have a ton of gear for 2 month general and less than a year total HAM...

Glad you had fun, and yeah lots of lessons learned at these things.

I admit I cheat every year. I go to the EOC that I help support and we operate from inside. Weather is usually not a factor at all. The EOC is the hub for when everything collapses and setting up alternative antennas and teaching how to repair an antenna is part of the day.