Hi Jim,
Hmm...is this the sort of Field Day that I can look forward to if we
move to Volcano
in a few years?
Yes it is if you operate with BIARC and things don't change.
Maybe I should operate solo from the upper regions of
the island.
Might be the best way to enjoy FD if you think of it as primarily an
OPERATING event. I don't know if the upper regions would be better than
right on the water. Would make an interesting comparison.
How is it that you're not reaching at least the west coast with 100w,
when I'm sure
that the HI-QRP gang does so with 5w.
There is no problem reaching the west coast, or any part of NA with 100
watts or even 5 watts. The problem is being heard through the hoards of
other stations on the mainland who are also running 100 watts. Field day
is probably the weekend with the highest density of signals on every
band, in NA. Getting through on CW is much easier, because it is not
just a matter of being loud enough, you can also squeeze your CW signal
into an empty space that a good operator at the receiving end can pick
out. You can sort of do that on fone with frequency and timing, but it
will never be as effective as CW. An inexperienced operator can take
advantage of this by accident on CW. Not so much on fone.
Maybe there's a more dedicated group on the Kona side?
Yes maybe. They have a distinct disadvantage being on the wrong side of
two 14,000 foot mountains and a 6000 foot saddle between them.
Sorry, I don't mean to demean the efforts of the core group, but this
sounds all too
familiar, like what happened to the local club years later after a few
of the OTs
became SKs.
I will resist the temptation to go into a spiel about how we all used to
learn basic operating as Novices. The truth is that those skills are
more readily learned using CW and can then be carried over to fone
operation. These days those skills are often just never learned at all.
Some of the people trying to operate fone are really enthusiastic and
wanting to learn. Most of the OTs are also putting in an effort to help
them out. It is really, really hard to make it on fone though. Even
seasoned fone operators have a real hard time. Operators who can do fone
or CW don't even bother with fone, except to help those who haven't
learned CW.
DE N6KB
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