Posted: 4/15/2015 10:41:26 PM EDT
|
Okay guys, here is the deal:
I Just volunteered to help a local club I'm considering joining with field day this year. I have nooo idea what I just got myself into. The club officers and event coordinators seem really nice and really eager to have a greenhorn on board. What can I expect? AM I GONNA DIE? I hear it's contagious!  Can I expect my kids and wife to contract some form of it?!
|
|
Quoted:
Okay guys, here is the deal: I Just volunteered to help a local club I'm considering joining with field day this year. I have nooo idea what I just got myself into. The club officers and event coordinators seem really nice and really eager to have a greenhorn on board. What can I expect? AM I GONNA DIE? I hear it's contagious! Can I expect my kids and wife to contract some form of it?!Hope for the best - that your wife also gets the bug. And remember - if your kids get hooked on amateur radio they'll never have money for drugs.
I did field day last year with the Floyd Amateur Radio Society. We had folks running CW on battery and others running SSB. We also had a station just for the younger people and the HS club got a new person out of it. For most of the folks there the real highlight was shutting down the radios for an hour and enjoying a live person rag chew over home made pulled pork, tater salad, pies, corn on the cob, and basically all of the right fixings. I learned how to work an FT-900 as a contester would from a real pro. I mean really a pro. He teaches graduate level antenna theory. 
You'll learn and you'll get to know and get known. The biggest downsides I see for you is that you won't have the level of cooks we have. Which beats all the points for batteries and solar panels. 
|
|
Hope for the best - that your wife also gets the bug. And remember - if your kids get hooked on amateur radio they'll never have money for drugs.
I did field day last year with the Floyd Amateur Radio Society. We had folks running CW on battery and others running SSB. We also had a station just for the younger people and the HS club got a new person out of it. For most of the folks there the real highlight was shutting down the radios for an hour and enjoying a live person rag chew over home made pulled pork, tater salad, pies, corn on the cob, and basically all of the right fixings. I learned how to work an FT-900 as a contester would from a real pro. I mean really a pro. He teaches graduate level antenna theory.
You'll learn and you'll get to know and get known. The biggest downsides I see for you is that you won't have the level of cooks we have. Which beats all the points for batteries and solar panels.
I've always said get your kids into gun collecting and they'll never have the money for drugs. I'm quickly learning the same about ham radio! You said "tater salad" you must not be from VA. Did you tell them you had the barbecue shipped in from Lexington, NC? 
I'm hoping to gain some confidence and experience out of it. I'm new to radio, but I'm a maker at heart so hopefully it'll be a somewhat seamless learning experience. Unfortunately I missed my opportunity to buy HF gear due to an emergency I had to spend my radio fund on; so this will be my first (and probably my last for a while) chance to get my first contacts on the books for HF. I have no clue what they're going to have me doing... |
|
I joined Army MARS shortly after getting my ticket and we have twice yearly deployment exercises. I only went to one ham field day and it was really hit-or-miss in comparison. I've not been to another field day. These were one of the MARS deployment exercises from some years ago:   |
|
I have been to field day with at least a half dozen clubs over the years.
Most places consider this to be the highlight of the ham radio year. But, it depends on the club. Some clubs go all out with it. I saw a video of a club that put up like 9 full sized towers with an extensive computer network and like a dozen stations on the air at one time including microwave. They had people assigned to various functions in many cases based on their real jobs. Like they had a guy in charge of power distribution. Obviously they computer networking people....................................... At other clubs it is more like a picnic with very little to no actual ham radio activity. And there is everything in between. Who knows what your club does, but I would start out by asking how many stations they put on the air. What kind of antennas do they use ? How many people typically come and how many of them operate ? This will give you an idea of the scope of the operation. The first question I would have asked is, what am I supposed to do ? Am I helping to set up ? Am I actually planning the event ? Am I cooking ? My local club does a very half-assed field day. I have been on the committee but didn't volunteer this year. I would like to at least make a token effort at working the contest. I am not talking about hard-core contesting but I would like to keep one single station on the air, using whatever mode the operator wants to use, for the duration of the contest. However, what it really is, is we put up a station or two. Then a bunch of fat guys sit around on their asses and over-eat. Operating ham radio isn't even on their radio screen. A small group of people does all the work, just like every other club in the world......................................... So, I lost interest. I will show up and operate CW for a couple hours and that is it. Just for reference, I typically operate the CW station for about two hours. In that two hours I work roughly the same number of contacts (sometimes more contacts) than everybody else in the club combined which is at least a dozen people, possibly as many as 20 people. |
|
Last year was my first one and I had great expectations. As a new ham I was excited to contribute and participate. Well . . . I found out that the long-time club members had already decided who would do what because that's what they've done for the last fifteen years, and all suggestions were met with, "That's nice but WE'VE already decided that . . . " I was permitted to set up my solar panels and batteries to run the lights and coffee pot. I was not asked or permitted to operate because there were three people that ALWAYS did that.
This year I'll probably attend for a while, but I'm certainly not going out of my way to try to insert myself into the clique. My portable setup: 
|
|
I sent this to my local club board:
Good Morning Fellas
I have some Field Day Ideas: Send a FD Invitation to every Licensed Amateur, Non-SPARC member, in Spartanburg County to attend Field day event with times, location, call-in freqs etc... Mailed at least a month in advanced and signed by club president or other club officer. On-site BBQ (or other) Saturday Lunch served to members and the above mentioned invitees. Consider Venue Change to less polarizing location (sorry, the Mason scare some people). for ex: I think I could get us in the New XYZ FD Station 2 on Blak Rd. There'd be plenty of room (in and out) and we could showcase how Ham Radio could compliment the local Emer services in time of need. In addition to the CW, SSB and GOTA stations-add a digi station to show the youth 'Text Messaging without infrastructure' (RTTY, PSK31, etc...) consider fielding activities during the day for instruction-such as Build your own J-pole, learn to use an analyzer, build a 1/4 wave 2m antenna... Contact local schools with flyers to present to students in Science/Tech Clubs to promote the days events (flyers avail from ARRL) Local Churches and Scouts too have a club rep avail and assigned (in shifts) to welcome the new faces when they drop in-this takes a special kind of person :) Politician & Media Contacts too. Focus More on Interaction between the club and the community-not points. just some ideas-interested in your thoughts not long after, I was notified that I was appointed to the Field Day Group. I subsequently located a great New location (a FD, but not one mentioned above) just outside the city limits and convenient for everyone to attend. The Field Day board is excited about this years prospects and appear to like all of my other suggestions as well. We'll see! |
|
So what I'm taking from all this is that it's either going to kick ass or it's going to suck horribly... And hopefully it doesn't ruin my view of hams. They were asking for volunteers because apparently ONE man planned AND coordinated the entire event the last two years. He's actually excited to have help, Can't blame him. It sounds like a case of "everyone wants to attend but nobody wants to contribute".
JC10311: That's a kick ass solar panel setup you got! SCWolverine: Sounds like someone is gunning for president
Hell, If nothing else hopefully I'll get at least a log contact. I schmooze really well so hopefully a few acquaintances as well. |
|
Field day is what you make of field day. If you find a group that you like, stick with them. If you find a group you do not like, move on. There are thousands of FD locations and groups across the country. I did the whole stay at the site all weekend and sleep in my truck gig for years. A few years ago I helped start up a new club and RACES group in Indiana that is based at an EOC. Now no matter the weather or bugs FD is a breeze.
|
|
Quoted:
So what I'm taking from all this is that it's either going to kick ass or it's going to suck horribly... And hopefully it doesn't ruin my view of hams. They were asking for volunteers because apparently ONE man planned AND coordinated the entire event the last two years. He's actually excited to have help, Can't blame him. It sounds like a case of "everyone wants to attend but nobody wants to contribute". JC10311: That's a kick ass solar panel setup you got! SCWolverine: Sounds like someone is gunning for president
Hell, If nothing else hopefully I'll get at least a log contact. I schmooze really well so hopefully a few acquaintances as well. I can't imagine that it would suck horribly. Field day is a lot of fun everywhere I have ever gone. In my previous post I should have pointed out that my dissatisfaction with out local field day operation is that their goals and expectations are not the same as mine. That doesn't make it a bad club or them, bad guys. And it doesn't suck. It is still a lot of fun. But again, I would like to see everyone take part and keep the transmitter on the air for the duration of the contest and not just show up to sit in a lawn chair and eat. If everyone put in an hour, we would come very close to keeping the station on the air. But the reality of it is that 4-5 people spend a few hours on the air and nobody else gets up except to go home and sit in front of the TV. |
|
I have been to field days like JC10311 describes.
They ran it like a military operation. They had a bunch of stations on the air, and they had people assigned to operate them. If you hadn't been to any meetings to get on the list, odds are that you couldn't operate because again, they had a schedule and the schedule was full. It wasn't because they were dicks. It was because they planned ahead. And that field day operation wasn't a picnic. They did fix ONE meal, but the rest of it was operating radios. So again, if you showed up to just hang out, there wasn't really anybody to talk to, because everyone was operating. Because they had a schedule made up ahead of time, people just showed up when it was their turn in the seat instead of just sitting there all day. But, it was fun. Just a different focus than what my local group does here. I prefer the one I was just talking about over the one I go to now where people don't want to operate. FWIW: I was never on the list to operate, but because I am a CW operator, I never had trouble getting a seat. Either as the operator, or a logger. I usually logged. I just sat there with headphones in front of a laptop, the other guy just worked people as fast as he could and didn't have to worry about logging the contacts. |
|
Quoted:
I say hold Field Day at your house. I will bring beer and Makers Mark. If that's aimed at me, I'm hoping to be long gone before field day. The house is on the market and getting a fair amount of interest. IF I do field day this year, it'll probably be somewhere in CA. No, I'm not planning on permanently moving there, but that's where my wife is buried and a lot of my friends are. After that, who knows. OP, probably my greatest frustration last year was that the clubs (two working together) were far more interested in points than in community. There was a GOTA tent set up just long enough to get the points. One kid was asked to make one contact, so we could get the points. After that there was NO interest in interacting with the public. I spent most of Saturday and Sunday morning letting people use my pirate radio to make contacts and promoting the hobby. One "old guy" came over on Sunday morning with a confused look and said, "You're sure spending a lot of time with them." Three weeks later I heard from two of the kids I worked with that they passed their Technician test. |
|
I'm not looking for ANY office, I don't even attend the club meetings (family life makes it impossible). I pay my dues and talk on the repeaters.
The podcast really got me thinking about FD, and up until I sent them my ideas, I had planned to have my own, here on the farm with some like minded hams. I wanna see the hobby grow, so I'm giving it one more chance-we'll see.... |
|
If your table had more MacDonald's bags on it they might let you operate.
|
|
Quoted:
I sent this to my local club board: not long after, I was notified that I was appointed to the Field Day Group. I subsequently located a great New location (a FD, but not one mentioned above) just outside the city limits and convenient for everyone to attend. The Field Day board is excited about this years prospects and appear to like all of my other suggestions as well. We'll see! Quoted:
I sent this to my local club board: Good Morning Fellas
I have some Field Day Ideas: Send a FD Invitation to every Licensed Amateur, Non-SPARC member, in Spartanburg County to attend Field day event with times, location, call-in freqs etc... Mailed at least a month in advanced and signed by club president or other club officer. On-site BBQ (or other) Saturday Lunch served to members and the above mentioned invitees. Consider Venue Change to less polarizing location (sorry, the Mason scare some people). for ex: I think I could get us in the New XYZ FD Station 2 on Blak Rd. There'd be plenty of room (in and out) and we could showcase how Ham Radio could compliment the local Emer services in time of need. In addition to the CW, SSB and GOTA stations-add a digi station to show the youth 'Text Messaging without infrastructure' (RTTY, PSK31, etc...) consider fielding activities during the day for instruction-such as Build your own J-pole, learn to use an analyzer, build a 1/4 wave 2m antenna... Contact local schools with flyers to present to students in Science/Tech Clubs to promote the days events (flyers avail from ARRL) Local Churches and Scouts too have a club rep avail and assigned (in shifts) to welcome the new faces when they drop in-this takes a special kind of person :) Politician & Media Contacts too. Focus More on Interaction between the club and the community-not points. just some ideas-interested in your thoughts not long after, I was notified that I was appointed to the Field Day Group. I subsequently located a great New location (a FD, but not one mentioned above) just outside the city limits and convenient for everyone to attend. The Field Day board is excited about this years prospects and appear to like all of my other suggestions as well. We'll see! Holy bandwidth, Batman! A guy with a plan that doesn't suck...quick! Put him in charge! |
|
I saw that video before. We used the KX3 with the Powerfilm 20 watt panel for winter field day. Notice it on the ground next to the tent.  |
