Most of my operating activities in 2002 and the first half of 2003 have been focused on doing well at Field Day. For example, I worked hard on my CW skills (increasing my CW speed to well over 20 wpm) and participated in several contests (OK QSO Party, MI QSO Party, and two FISTS Sprints).
Well, now that Field Day has come and gone, I can happily say that all that work has paid off. I didn’t count them exactly, but I’d say that I made at least 150 QSOs during this year’s Field Day, mostly on 80m and 20m CW, but also about 50 on 40m CW.
One of the reasons I was so successful is that this year we used the NA contesting software, thanks to Dennis KT8X, who lent the club a couple of laptops loaded with the software. NA is a very cool program. Not only does it log contacts, but also keys the rig, and you can program the computer’s function keys to send the most common kinds of things so that your hands never have to leave the computer keyboard.
For example, we were using the call W8UM, so Dennis programmed F1 to send “CQ FD W8UM FD.” So, you hit F1 till someone comes back to you. Then, you type in the station’s call into the log, hit another function key and the computer sends the guy’s call and the exchange. So, if KZ1G responds to your CQ, you type in that call and the computer would send “KZ1G 2A MI.” When KZ1G replies with his info, you type that in as you receive it, hit the INSERT key, and the computer automagically logs the QSO and sends “TU de W8UM.” Other function keys were set up to send just the exchange info “2A MI”, our call “W8UM” to reply to CQs, and “?” to ask for repeats. As long as you can copy them, you can work stations as fast as you can hear them.
It has a whole bunch of other functions as well. For example, it checks what you input to make sure that it’s valid data. It won’t let you enter an incorrect category or ARRL section. It also displays a running point total and can display your contact rate per hour. It’s all very amusing.
I was at the site practically the whole time. I helped set up antennas on Friday evening, was there Saturday morning to complete the setup, and stayed throughout the day–with a four-hour break from 5 pm to 9 pm–operating, greeting visitors, and just BSing with other club members. At night, I did quite a bit of operation, staying up until nearly 3 am. At that point, I hopped into my truck and got about 4.5 hours sleep.
When I woke up, Tim KT8K was already hard at it. I ran out for a little breakfast, then got back on the air myself. When Dennis KT8X showed up, I decided to take a break, and then got back on a little later to give Dennis a break. I operated the last hour or so, giving up about ten minutes to 2 pm.
This was not only a great event for me, but for our club as well. We were category 2A, with two HF stations, a VHF station (6m and 2m) and a “Get on the Air” (GOTA) station. This setup gave most people a chance to do some operating, but I think that next year we might want to consider going to category 3A to give more people a chance to work an HF station.
Our scores were pretty good. Preliminary counts indicate that we almost doubled last year’s score. More important, though, is that at least 20 members participated actively, and I know of a couple of people who I believe are going to join or re-join the club. And, I think everyone had a great time.
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