ARRL Field Day: Season to Taste

The 2011 Field Day is over. I have to admit that I am a bit ambivalent about Field Day…I can take it or leave it. But I have always thought that one of the great things about Field Day is that it can be tuned to whatever interests you or your club. It can be a serious radio contest (well, almost); it can be an EmComm Drill, it can be a Radio Campout;  it can be a food fest, it can be a beer-drinking party. Insert your idea here.

Here’s how my Field Day played out this weekend. The plan was to escape to our cabin in the mountains and set up a temporary HF + VHF station powered by a gasoline generator (1 transmitter, Class B). I used a basic trap dipole on 40M/20M/15M, a 6M5X Yagi on 6 Meters and a 2M9 Yagi on 2 Meters. I was hoping for some decent propagation on 20 Meters and 15 Meters, if 6 Meters opened up that would be awesome.

An urgent matter popped up on Saturday which took priority for most of the day. I finally got on the air Saturday evening and was pleasantly surprised to find 15 Meters still open. I worked quite a few stations on 15 M SSB until the band faded, then I slipped over to 20 Meters. Later, I noticed that 6 Meters had some life in it, so I turned my attention to that band, working back into the southeast.

The next morning, I checked 6 Meters and it was open again to the east. I was cranking out the contacts on 6 Meters but occasionally flipped around to the other bands. It was interesting to compare the 6 Meter activity on Field Day to the June VHF QSO Party. The propagation and number of stations on the air were similar. The skill level of the Field Day crowd was noticeably lower, with more dupes and sloppy operating. (That would be Field Day as a training event.)

Band  Mode  QSOs    Pts
 7    LSB      6      6
 14   USB     37     37
 21   USB     92     92
 28   USB      1      1
 50   USB    273    273
 144  USB      3      3
 Total       412    412

As you can see from the score, Field Day turned into a second June VHF contest for me, with 273 QSOs on 6 Meters.

A great time was had by me. How was your Field Day?

73, Bob K0NR    1B CO

2 Replies to “ARRL Field Day: Season to Taste”

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