Thanks for the encouragement! Actually, I feel this is a valuable
learning experience:
(1) Bring your own gear and be familiar with its use in the field
through practice, that way you'll always have a rig to plop yourself
down in front of and operate - yours.
(2) Bring salt and pepper for the burgers, and mayo too, sriracha
perhaps too, just to see if anyone tries it (super hot sauce found in
all vietnamese noodle shops)
(3) Be good at code - If I were more up to speed on code, I'd have
felt confident to just wait in the very short line to get on the CW
station. Problem is, while I've been putting in work on it and
getting better, I just wasn't "there" yet.
(4) Nice simple antennas work great, think long hunks of wire + tall
trees = happiness.
(5) Computers are NOT your friends!! I signed up to do the digital
station (psk31) because I can type better than most in the group and
at least it's one thing I can do. Computers crapped out both for
logging and I think when the one guy who set up the PSK31 station
went home, the station went with him, at sundown. At the SSB station,
same story, computer problems and unreliability. The GOTA station
started humming right along once their computer died and they started
a proper paper log. Learn to write well, quickly and cleanly, look up
"directed script" or whatever it's called that the old time CW ops
used. It can be transferred into a logging program that checks for
dupes etc later, but in the 24-hour time window of FD, computers only
slow ya down.
Now, I actually don't have any Elecraft rigs right now. It's a long
story. if I build yet ANOTHER KX1 I'll prolly just get the stock one
and the internal tuner, and not mess with additional bands. I could
always add them later, but keep it really simple at first. And I'll
probably just use my own paddle - I have one of the little American
Morse jobs and it's neat. Also, a Vibroplex Code-Mite straight key
which looks like a toy but isn't, it's a very nice, sturdy, good-
feeling little key.
Oh, and I have an IC-7000 I just got.
73 de Alex NS6Y.
On Jun 25, 2006, at 4:05 PM, Joseph Trombino Jr wrote:
Howdy Alex:
I gave up on participating in club Field Day efforts many years ago
precisely because of the points you raised.
But don't give up on Field Day altogether.....you are a QRP'er
which makes you a special breed....take your QRP gear out to the
field and have fun.
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