A lot has to do with how you come to know Field Day
over the years.
Except for the year that I ran the 40 phone station, the
club that I belonged to as a new ham had so many
participants that each was limited to a two-hour
operating block. And if you didn't get your bid in
early, likely your block of time would be something
like 0200-0400L.
I looked up the results in the QST database for the
years that I participated, 1966-1970. Here are our
standings, contest-wide, for each year in our
transmitter class:
1966 7th place 6A
1967 6th place 6A
1968 7th place 6A
1969 6th place 7A
1970 9th place 5A
Our typical number of contacts was between
1500-1600 each year.
When I moved to California and joined the local
club, I operated 10-15-20m with three seasoned
OTs. Again, a very intensive effort.
In 1995 I got back into ham radio after several
years' absence. By then, the local club's FD effort
was considerably less. By about 2000 it was more
of a picnic than an operating event. There would
be some guys who would show up for the meal
and not even wander around to the stations, much
less operate. At this point we were down to three
stations, one of which often was unmanned.
The XYL and I had visited the Zuni Loop QRP FD
site, and Cam, N6GA, invited me to become part
of their FD. In 2011, we took first place nationally
in the 4A-battery class with over 9,000 points,
which put us in the top 2-3% of all entries. Of
course, that 5x multiplier for QRP does help.
This is how I prefer to operate FD, although
I'm not saying that everyone should do so.
If a casual operating style fits your group, then
by all means have a good time. The point is to
get out there and participate, however you
enjoy.
Sorry for the long-winded rant and 73 de Jim - AD6CW
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