CQ FIELD DAY CQ

Day started much too early for me, as it does since I started my current work schedule: I have never really been a "morning" person (or an afternoon person, or a night person... Guess I'm just not a person person...) but 20+ years in the Army equipped me to function, more or less, at hours when roosters are saying "Are you outta your mind?! Do you know what $#%^#$#^ time it is?!"

Doesn't mean I gotta enjoy it.

Anyway, had to work, so no solid Field Day plans for me.

What?

Oh, well, for those of you who don't know, Field Day is held the last weekend of June every year, for two purposes: Get the hams out of their shacks, basements, garages, attics, etc, and out into the field (no kidding?) to practice operating under emergency conditions. You get points (literally) for operating off the grid: Generators, solar cells, batteries, etc. The other purpose is public "outreach" and education, with a little recruiting thrown in.

Anyway, work was grueling. By the time I got home the temperatures were in the low 90's, after a month we've taken to calling "Junuary": Record cold temps almost every day. And 90 is never comfortable in Western Washington! Anyhow, all I wanted was a shower, a nap, and a beer. Not necessarily in that order. After a half-hour or so lie-down (with tomcat company, although no cuddles, not in this weather!) and a shower, and then a Blue Dawg Brewing Blueberry Lager (maybe the best fruit or berry beer I've had, save maybe Sam Adams Cranberry Lambic) I decided to checkout the local club's setup. Mrs. Drang assured me that as hot as it was dinner would be a couple-to-a-few hours, so "Have fun." (She declined to go, saving her strength for tomorrow's gun show.) (!)

The Federal Way Amateur Radio Club was set up in Steele Lake Park, "next to the skate board track." There was three or four different rigs set up, I chatted with a couple of youngsters logging contacts, and the father of one of them who got Atlanta, GA on D-STAR! When I mentioned that I was studying for the Amateur General license, one of the younguns asked me what I was using, and I laughed and showed him my Yaesu FT-60R, and told him that it had so many functions I am almost afraid to turn it on, and I sometimes long for the days of a couple of toggle switched and a knob or two, a situation I first ran into in the Army years before he was born.

I wandered around for a bit, and stopped at a setup where Amateur Television--slow scan in this case--was being demonstrated to a pair of WA State Legislators. (Skip Priest and Mark something--I'm afraid I did not catch his full name.) If you have never seen SSTV, it is slow, all right: basically, one line is scanned at a time. They were receiving images from a station in Missouri. I almost laughed out loud, though, when the radio operator got that signal, he sat bolt upright and started punching buttons; it looked so much like a SIGINT operator getting a "hot one" it was funny.

As the politicians left--I overheard a comment that they had had several others, as well as on or more local fire chiefs and other "senior" emergency responders--it was obvious that, while Field Day is technically a 24 hour operation, folks were getting tired and also getting ready for supper, so I decided to head on home and have another beer, and maybe dinner.

I think I'll request Field Day weekend off as soon as I can next year.