[SCCC] [sddxcnews] RE: Field Day

[Marty Woll]

I can appreciate both points of view.  In fact, Field Day is what you make it, and not every entrant shares the same goals.  There's no requirement that you try to maximize a score, but many entrants do consider the earned points to be an indicator of how well one or more aspects of their operation went.  For some, Field Day is a chance to see how fast they can deploy a simple station.  For others, it's about experimenting with antennas, training new operators, testing power self-sufficiency, bringing Amateur Radio to the public's attention, or learning what comm paths are possible on bands or modes they don't normally use.

Preplanning for Field Day can become the basis for preplanning  a disaster response.  Field Day pack lists can morph into go-kit lists.  Finding out what does or doesn't work in the field can lead to hardware improvements, changes in seleciton of equipment and development of more efficient deployment strategies.  As for "running rate", whiich one would not do in an actual incident, it is a great way for newer operators to build their copying skills (hearing, understanding and recording accurately and quickly), which are essential for any Emcomm operator.  I have learned a lot from helping run many "competitive" Field Day operations, and my ability to set up effective emergency-response stations has improved as a result.

I drove about 500 miles last weekend visiting FD stations in three counties.  The types of activity were, like the locations themselves, all over the map.  That's OK; at least people were out there doing something and, most likely, learning something in the process.

73,

Marty

Marty Woll N6VI
Vice-Director, ARRL Southwestern Division
Ass't DEC, ARESLAX
BCUL 15, LAFD ACS
CERT III
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: John Graf 
  To: sccc at contesting.com 
  Sent: Wednesday, July 01, 2009 7:52 AM
  Subject: Re: [SCCC] [sddxcnews] RE: Field Day


  Ha!  That is pretty funny.

  Let's see.  You have scores, multipliers, entry categories, score
  submissions, bonus points and posted results.  But it is not a contest.

  I guess I enter about a dozen "not contests" every year.

  John, WA6L

  On Tue, Jun 30, 2009 at 6:10 PM, <pushed66705 at mypacks.net> wrote:

  > Field Day is NOT a CONTEST, why everyone operates it as one baffles me.  It
  > is an emergency exercise,,,,,,,,, when you preplan, use towers, food cooks,
  > vans, mobile cities, towers on trailers, assemble schedules, prequalify
  > operators, use computers, etc it is not indicitiave of a real/simulated
  > emergency.  See what happens in a real emergency, I doubt any of that.
  >
  > my 2 cents
  >
  > Joe, w6vnr