AB4UG Radioblog

Another Field Day has come and gone. I was able to get the laptops set up and networked just in time for the action to start.

This year, the 2PM start didn't sound quite as chaotic or noisy as it did the last couple of years. I'm either getting used to listening through the noise, or it just wasn't as busy this year, or both. I've seen other people mention that band conditions weren't all that great.

I spent the first couple hours logging and keeping tabs on the network connection between the two laptops. Got in a bit of operating before the skies broke open and the torrential rain started. It was bad enough that we had to break down both stations and get them inside out of the rain.

Rain kept us off the air for a couple hours as more rain passed on through, but later in the evening the rain cleared out and we were able to set up one of the stations again.

I headed back home around 8PM and got back to the ship the next day for the last couple hours of Field Day. Weather was much nicer, and band conditions seemed to be better. I got in an hour of operating and was able to make 10m and 15m contacts into the northeast and northwest.

Looking at the counts in N1MM, we made somewhere between 600-800 contacts. Because of the wifi dropping out and having to break everything down for the rain, the logs on the two laptops got out of sync. Some operators also didn't want to computer log, so there are some paper logs to add in as well. I think next year one of the things I'll have to do is send out some instructions on how to do the logging, and make a cheat sheet available at each station.

Had lots of fun again this year, and looking forward to next year's Field Day.