Wayne, Great stories!
During some of my beach portable contest operations, I can relate directly to the insects, wind (instead of tent it was a hexbeam), strangers wanting to know if I was talking to extraterrestrials (hexbeam looks like dish pointed straight up), and sickness. 73, Henry - K4TMC On Wed, May 20, 2026 at 12:28 PM Wayne Burdick via Elecraft < [email protected]> wrote: > Field Day is known for its challenges. As promised, here are a few of my > own recollections of FD, from humorous to disastrous, in no particular > order. > > * * * > > The Insects > > Many parts of the country have far worse problems with mosquitos, gnats and > no-seeums than we do in coastal California. But my son and I unwittingly > discovered where all of our own insects were hiding: under trees. On one > especially hot FD weekend, the intense sun compelled us to find shade. We > unfolded our chairs and table beneath a huge old oak, noting (as an aside) > how our shoes were half-buried in soft brown leaves. Half an hour later we > hastily backed out, our legs now covered with bites from ants, spiders, and > who knows what else. > > The Wind > > One FD eve after the high bands had closed down I returned to my tent to > nap. After a few minutes I was awoken by high winds. Worried about tree > branches above, I left the tent, which I had neglected to stake down. The > wind then picked up the tent and rolled it some hundred feet across a > parking lot. It took three of us to recapture what had now become a > billowing spinnaker and wrestle it back to the ground. > > Debut of the KX1 > > The first year I took a KX1 to FD, I drove to the top of 6000' Mt. > Hamilton. I was operating at a picnic table, with a nearly invisible wire > antenna deployed in a tree above, when two strangers showed up. They sat > across the table from me, eyeing the radio. Now, the KX1 is about 3.5 x 1 x > 6" -- pretty small for a transceiver. So after a few minutes one guy sets > down his Coke and says with a drawl (I'm not making this up): "Where's the > rig?" He thought it was a keyer. A few minutes later his companion asked, > in all sincerity, "Where's the mic?" > > Code Speed Challenge > > When my son and a friend of his joined me at a club FD outing east of the > Bay Area, they were excited about a new toy they'd brought -- a > code-practice text generator. The unit had a speed control with a range of > 5 to 70 WPM. They were both just starting to learn code and were thrilled > to be copying some characters at 13 WPM. Then they got the idea of testing > *me*. I said "set it to 30" and copied enough to prove I wasn't faking it. > But they wanted to see how high I could go. So did I. I waited until I'd > caught my limit of cold Coronas (2), knowing this would put me in The Zone, > then had them start bumping the speed up in 5 WPM increments. With the > other ops as witnesses I managed to copy 15 letters in a row at 65 WPM, > surprising myself as much as anyone else. To this day, Corona is my beer of > choice for Field Day. > > Yagi Burnout > > I participated in a club gathering outside San Jose for several years in a > row that featured a portable three-element triband yagi at about 30 feet, a > couple of 100 W rigs, an elaborate logging setup using networked laptops, > and a frightening array of snacks that could raise your cholesterol levels > whether or not you ate them. The ops had a good time but they weren't a > competitive bunch, so that after several hours we'd logged maybe 50 QSOs. > In the afternoon a carload of visitors showed up to ask what we were doing. > They got the full tour. But since I'm really a QRP guy at heart, I backed > away from the operating position, grabbed my KX2 and an AX1 whip, and took > a few of them out to the parking lot. I attached the whip and a 13' > counterpoise and started tuning around on 20 m. They were baffled. "Don't > you need a big antenna, like that one?" someone asked, pointing at the > yagi. "No," I said. They watched as I made first an SSB contact, then one > on CW, then one on RTTY, using the KX2's keyer paddle and display. Mind > you, I was standing the entire time, with just the rig, no computer or > phone. Our highest QSOs-per minute rate for the weekend were those three on > the KX2. > > The Flu > > Last year my son and I were determined to do FD on the high mesa above > Point San Pedro, a spectacular spot accessed via a steep dirt trail at > Devil's Slide. Problem, though: I started feeling sick on the drive there. > After we parked I rallied a bit, so we started up the trail, though at > about a tenth of my normal speed. Before we even got to the first ocean > overlook, a wave of nausea hit me, so we found some hard soil, sans leaves > or insects, where I could recline. I looked up at patches of sunlight > through the waving branches of cedar trees and decided I wasn't going to > skip FD just because of a little flu. So I had Griffin unpack my KH1, set > it up, and hand it to me. This was the first time I'd logged while prone, > something we'd anticipated by including detent in the KH1's log tray so it > can't flop down. I managed a few QSOs, then we packed up. On the way back I > had to stop three times, sitting on the trail with my head dipped, to keep > from passing out. Needless to say, Griffin got to drive us back to Belmont. > Much later he showed me a photo he'd snapped, surreptitiously, of me on the > ground, battling the forces of Murphy's army. > > * * * > > 73, > Wayne > N6KR > > > -- > Elecraft, Inc. > ______________________________________________________________ > Elecraft mailing list > Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft > Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm > Post: mailto:[email protected] > > This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net > Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html > Message delivered to [email protected] > ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[email protected] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to [email protected]
