Field Day went well this past weekend. It was incredibly hot, but we all made it. We made nearly 600 contacts. We had contacts with virtually every state, including Alaska, at least half of the Canadian provinces, and a few foreign countries including Cyprus. While tuning around the bands I ran up on a guy from Bath, England with an incredible signal. He must have been running an amp. Unfortunately I never got a chance to talk to him because he was more interested in chit-chatting than making Field Day contacts.
I used my “antenna launcher” to put up about seven antennas Saturday morning. I don’t think I’ve ever done a post on my launcher. I’ll have to do that soon. It’s pretty neat.
I’ve determined that I enjoy setting up the Field Day site just as much or more than actually operating. I’m not sure why that is. I’ve already got several ideas for improvements next year.
I’ve been trying to learn Morse Code (CW) for several months now. I haven’t been spending enough time on it to actually learn anything, but watching the guys at Field Day got me excited about it again. Plus, I’ve got to learn it if I want to get much use out of the radio I’m building right now. More on that soon.