[CQ-Contest] Field Day is a Joke...

[Bill Aycock]

At 07:54 AM 6/30/97 -0400, you wrote:
>         snip
>        Here is where the sarcasm begins. 23 ham transceivers 
>are brought to an open field where 10 60 foot towers with 
>tribanders are installed. 5 15kw generators are driven to the 
>local gas station and their fuel tanks filled with fuel. 20 hams 
>get all the radios cabled and fired up while 5 data ops. get the 
>modems configured and on line to the I-net. The hams save the 
>day! NOT!!!  What's wrong with this picture? Basically the same 
>thing that's wrong with field day. 
snip
>        Field Day has strayed from its basic tenet of providing 
>an actual and real life emergency communications drill in 
>preparation for the real McCoy. Field Day should be limited to
>Batteries and small generators, 100 watt power levels, small, 
>portable antennas, and basic communications methods. 
>(voice,cw,packet) The idea is to set up portable emergency 
>communications in the fastest time possible after a disaster has 
>happened. 
snip 
>It has become a joke...
>            73 Ken n4uk
>      EM84xp South Carolina
>

Ken- looks like some of the "operators" you hang out with dont know the
rules or the purpose of the event.

I  attended the site of a long-standing, annual fun event this last
weekend.  Yes- there were towers, but they are dedicated, emergency towers,
always available, and were put up FAST.  Most of the antennas were wire,
inverted vees, except for one quad, one rotatable dipole and the VHF-UHF
stuff.
There were generators- already full, with cables and fire extinguishers,
also always ready for emergency use.  there were NO connections to ANY
existing wires at the site-phone or power. All transmitters were running
"barefoot".  All communications were SSB,  CW and packet, except for the
Guy who operated Satelite, with a station that arrived, complete, in a
station wagon, loaded from the home installation that morning.

The whole operation could have been put into play at any other spot , had
it been needed. The only part of the operation that was not quite the same
as an emergency operation, was that computers (also running off emergency
power) were used to keep records in contest fashion, rather than recording
traffic.

Yes- of course it rained- after all, it was field day,wasn't it?

Looks like you are in bad company-  look for another group that plays by
the letter AND THE SPIRIT of the rules-- it's lots more fun that way.

Bill
Bill Aycock   ---   Persimmon Hill  ---   Woodville, Alabama, US
 ---  (in the N.E. corner of the State)
also-- W4BSG -- Grid EM64vr               baycock at hiwaay.net    


--
CQ-Contest on WWW:        http://www.contesting.com/_cq-contest/
Administrative requests:  cq-contest-REQUEST at contesting.com