ARRL FIELD DAY -- 1997
Call: K1TTT Section: WMA
Category: 0D
BAND CW QSO CW QSO PTS SSB QSO SSB QSO PTS
PKT 68 114
--------------------------------------------
68 = 68 Total QSO
(114 CW QSO PTS) X 2 POWER MULTIPLIER = 228
Operator List: K1TTT
Equipment Description: Pentium 100MHZ, 28.8k modem
Comments:
Well, Field Day 97 is now history. Now if I can just get the ARRL to
accept
it and put it in the record books.
This year I entered as class 0D just to prove that the rules for packet
radio on
FD have outlived their usefulness. I was attempting to probe new
heights of
absurdity, but instead I had a good time. I only had two of the
expected arguments
about 0D not being a valid class, I had expected many more. I did have
a few
who asked for repeats, or told me they couldn't log 0D (they must have
been using
CT). But over all it was a good weekend. Much more fun than sitting
in a tent with
bugs(the flying type, not CW ones, although those aren't that nice
either!) and I got
lots of firewood cut, split, and stacked in between contacts.
I worked 25 sections without even putting a radio on the air, including
a nice chat
with a station from Belgium and another one from Italy (with absolutely
NO QRM!).
I also saw spots from KP2, KP4, and a couple other countries. There
probably would
have been more DX participation but I think the DX node links were cut
off for
the weekend. It was great seeing KH2D from the PAC section cq'ing on the
PacketCluster network. How many stations on the east coast never have
worked
PAC before on FD and did this weekend? His appearence was a product of
the
Internet accessability of the cluster and the Internet connection of the
different
PacketCluster networks. Many contacts were made via this internet link
from W1/W2
into W8, W9, W4, and even a few into W5.
It was also nice being able to help a few stations get the ARRL FD
Bulletin. Some
didn't realize all they had to do was ask their node for it, another one
needed it
forwarded to their node. This is the way to do it, just ask the node,
download it, and
you have the bonus points. No more waiting for broadcasts, trying to
get it relayed or
wasting time hunting around.
Before this weekend I had supported one of the following:
1. Remove the repeater exemption for packet radio. This would put it on
par with the
other digital modes. Since packet is now as common as many of the other
modes its
prefered treatment should probably end.
2. Allow use of digipeaters or relay nodes, but only if the repeating
node was on
emergency power and did not use commercial communication channels (phone
lines, internet, spare channel wormholes, etc). This would make the use
of packet
much more like it is in real emergencies. It would make it much more
challenging
since everyone would essentially have to build a temporary packet
network for the
weekend.
If you still like one of those proposals NOW is the time to contact your
ARRL
representative and let them know you want the rules changed. If the
rules don't
change I am planning a multi-op effort for 0D next year. I can probably
even have
software ready by then to connect to each of the available cluster and
chat gateways
and log contacts automatically. That way I could get lots more wood
stacked during FD!
I wonder how it would count if I had multiple computers on the
Internet? Maybe add
something to designate the number of computers or phone lines like 0D2.
Or should it
be sorted by bandwidth like 0D28k? Anyone want to join the radio-less
Field Day
competition??? How about an operator-less catagory competition? My
software
against yours!
73, dave
--
David Robbins K1TTT (ex KY1H)
k1ttt@berkshire.net or robbins@berkshire.net
http://www.berkshire.net/~robbins/k1ttt.html
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