Can I tell you what I want?

What I really really want?

I want a handheld¹ dual band² transceiver³ that has bluetooth and an Android/iPhone control app so I can program it that way.

The problem with most amateur radios these days is that they have so many functions that programming them practically requires a computer science degree, not to mention a bewildering variety of ways to scroll through functions, depending on manufacturer and model. 

Using the cell phone to control it would also let you store a heckuva lot more repeater setups. (I.e, if the radio only stores 100 entries, well, there are more like 200 different repeaters in Western Washington on 2m alone, let alone 1.25m, 70cm, 6m...

If I could just download the databases for Western Washington, along with Eastern WA, OR, ID, etc., into the phone, I could select individual entries that I needed, and adjust as I moved.

Oh, and please make it for under two Benjamins, 'cuz I'm a cheapskate.


Footnotes for the non-radio active:
1. Handy-talkie, or HT to Amateur radio operators. In WWII, the handheld was a "Handy-Talkie", the "Walkie-Talky" was a backpack monstrosity.
2. 2m and 70cm, by preference.\
3. "Radio."

Oh, dear

Warning: Science and math, presented with a rather heavy Ukrainian accent. Mind you, she does a good job of making some pretty esoteric science understandable to the layperson, but some might be intimidated by the very concepts. (One might be tempted to turn on closed captioning, due to her accent. It might help, but I think they used a speech-to-text app, and it gets thrown off by homophones which aren't valid, due to... her accent.)

So that's an hour and a half of in-depth discussion of solar activity, including helioseismicity, sun spots, the corona, poloidal and toroidal magnetic fields...

... the gist of which is that Dr. Zharkova says that not only is the current (imminent, actually) sun spot cycle (25) going to be even lighter than the previous one (24, just ended), but she says that we are headed into a 30+ year Grand Minimum. (A sun spot cycle is usually about 11 years long, by the way.)

Can you say "Maunder"?

No solar activity means amateur radio continues to have poor propagation on the High Frequency bands, but, like the old George Carlin routine, it also means a mini-ice age, so I wouldn't sweat the propagation. As KB6NU points out in the blog post where I learned of this presentation, satellites are a workable alternative. (Yes, hams can and do use satellites. Yes they have their own issues.)

But, hey, at least that rig will be generating some heat...

...assuming there's power.


1. Solar minimum - Wikipedia. Political correctness leads Wikipedia to deny any correlation between solar minima and terrestrial climate.
2. I took a look at the effects of the Maunder Minimum in Quickie Book Review, The Global Crisis.
3. Homepage | NOAA / NWS Space Weather Prediction Center

“I Am An Adverb!”

So, there I was. 1980. Defense Language Institute, Presidio of Monterey, California. Basic Korean Course. (For “listeners”, AKA "geeks"; they had a separate course at the time for interrogators, AKA “rubber hosers.”)

Now, the recruiters had taken one look at my test scores and decided I should take the Defense Language Aptitude Battery, or DLAB. I had not done so well in Spanish classes in school, but they insisted, so I went ahead.

When I walked out of the room I felt like my brains were running out of my ears.

There were multiple portions to the test. One checked for general knowledge of foreign languages; I recall one where the sentence said “le poisson est sur la table”, and you had to select the correct drawing, which variously featured a fish and a bottle of poison on, under, and beside a table.

Another section used English vocabulary, but made-up grammar. As I recall, it actually was similar to what I would be learning in Korean: “The boy went to the store” might be rendered “’Boy-ga’ ‘store-ay’ ‘go-ed’”; The “ga” suffix attached to “boy” indicates the subject of the sentence, and the “ay” suffix on “store” indicates his destination. The verb comes at the end of the sentence, and instead of using “went” you use “go” with a past tense indicator. Both the test and the Korean language were/are a lot more complicated than that. As I recall, by the end of that section of the test we were reading paragraphs and answering (trying to answer) questions about who did what to whom.

Hammy Stuff

Procrastination -- it's been a month since I posted, and I haven't even been out of town! -- results in multiple posts, some of them short, being consolidated.

Part of the procrastination is due to disgust with The National Scene, ifyouknowwhatImeanandIthinkyoudo. Part of it is laziness and inertia, part waiting to see what will happen...

Anyway. The 98-Double-Ought-3 Amateur Radio Club celebrated its 20th Anniversary yesterday. Yay, us!🎆🎉 Yes, there was cake and ice cream. 🎂🍨

Now, there are bigger and older clubs out there; Western Washington is pretty "radio-active", so to speak. The Radio Club of Tacoma is over a hundred years old, and the club "radio shack" -- yes, hams really do use that term -- is an actual house that the club purchased 50 or 60 years ago. Which is pretty cool, and yes, there is a certain amount of envy there. But. It isn't our club, and it doesn't really serve our needs.

Speaking of which...

In Ham Radio News

Tomorrow is Amateur Radio Field Day.

In what may be a first, the 9-8-Double-Ought-3 Amateur Radio Club plans to operate for 24 hours. This is what happens when a member offers the facilities at his place of employment as the Field Day site; previously, it had been at a park or on school property, closed at dark and with no rest rooms, etc., available after hours, or on church property and we had to clear out before Sunday Services. We even got listed in the local fish wrap!

The fact that we'll be set up on the grounds of a funeral home is irrelevant.

It's actually a nice facility, shaded ground, and they'll leave what I call the "support room" open for rest rooms, hot and cold running water, refrigerators for the cook out. Our Emergency Communications team has been meeting in the "Share Life" center, which is larger than the training room we'd been meeting in at the local fire station, which we had to vacate as it is being renovated.  This also gives us access to a better Internet and multi-media suite, for training presentations.

I was told that, in addition to the local paper we were also listed in one of the Seattle news outlets, but I haven't been able to find it.

In other geek news:

From the "Be careful What You Wish For" Department, several years ago we entered a period of reduced solar activity. Hams have been kvetching about how reduced solar activity means reduced (or utterly crappy) propagation. So the news of a new solar storm should have them dacning in their shacks, right?

Not so much. eHam.net reports: Solar Storm Hits Earth: Four Times Size of Earth Disables Radio Technology:

Solar storm hits Earth - storm FOUR times size of Earth disables radio technology | Science | News | Express.co.uk

A HUGE solar flare which was released from a hole in the Sun’s atmosphere temporarily left some radio frequencies disabled, scientists have revealed, and the storm is only getting bigger....

According to the website Space Weather: “During the past 24 hours, sunspot AR2715 has almost quadrupled in size, growing two dark cores larger than Earth.

“The active region is now crackling with low-level solar flares.

“A pulse of extreme ultraviolet radiation from the flare briefly ionised the top of Earth's atmosphere above the Pacific Ocean, causing a shortwave radio brownout at frequencies below 10 MHz.

“People who might have noticed the disturbance include mariners and ham radio operators.”

eHam serves as a news aggregator for Amateur radio-related news items; it also links to this ARRL news release about coming updates to ARES:

06/21/2018
As part of upgrades to the ARES® program, ARRL will phase out traditional hard-copy report forms later this year in favor of an online system, ARES® Connect — a new volunteer management, communication, and reporting system. The system, in beta testing since March in four ARRL sections with large ARES organizations, will allow ARES members to log information for ARRL Field Organization handling but does not change how ARES serves partner organizations. ARES training also is due for enhancement.

Paperless reporting is good, assuming the system works. You know, like in a disaster where the Internet may be down...

About that "enhanced training..."

Changes would encompass additional mandatory training to include ARRL Emergency Communications courses and the now-standard FEMA NIMS/ICS courses IS-100, 200, 700, 800, with IS-300 and 400 for higher levels. Other specialty training could include SKYWARN and agency-specific programs.
Training levels attained would dovetail with three new levels of ARES participation: Level One would be comprised of all entering the program with no training, while progressing through the ARRL emergency communications training and the FEMA Independent Study courses 100, 200, 700, and 800. Level Two would be attained upon successful completion of these courses, and would be considered the “Standard” level for ARES participants. Level Three would be attained upon completion of the advanced FEMA courses IS 300 and 400, which would qualify candidates for ARES leadership positions.
Level One participants would be able to fulfill most ARES duties, with a target of attaining Level Two in 1 year. Level Two, the standard participant level, would permit participant access to most incident sites and emergency operations centers (EOCs). Level Three would convey full access as granted by the authority having jurisdiction, plus qualification for ARES leadership.

Okay, fine.

But.

The "ARRL Emergency Communications courses" as they currently exist are a joke. They are online-only. As are the FEMA ICS classes required, and these are commonly acknowledged to be less than ideal as far as actually inculcating the knowledge. (Online training generally doesn't. Train, I mean, although it is handy for checking a block.)

As for the ARRL classes, you have to request to access them. (Fine.) Then they assign you a mentor -- and this is, notoriously, where the wheels come off. I have heard so many complaints about mentors being unavailable, unresponsive, or dismissive of attempts by their "mentees"* that I have concluded that, in this case at least, there's enough smoke to indicate that there's a three alarm dumpster fire and I won't bother.

 Which reminds me, I still need to post about the class I took last month, mentioned in my post I did not know that.


*Really a word: "Mentee." Merriam-Webster.com. Accessed June 22, 2018. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mentee.

And Now For Your Field Day Wx...

Today being Amateur Radio Field Day, I thought I'd check the weather. Last year we about got drowned.

No chance of that this year...

***

 Warnings for Seattle and Vicinity, Washington | Weather Underground

Excessive Heat Warning
Statement as of 5:19 AM PDT on June 27, 2015

... Excessive heat warning remains in effect until 5 am PDT Sunday...

* timing... this afternoon through Saturday night.

* Locations... the greater Puget Sound region from Snohomish   County southward and the southwest interior. This includes
  Everett...  Seattle... Bellevue... Bremerton... Tacoma...    Puyallup...  Enumclaw... Olympia... and Chehalis.

* Temperatures... high temperatures this afternoon will reach the  mid 80s to mid 90s... and then will not drop below 80 in many
  areas until after 9 PM tonight. Today is expected to be the hottest day in this stretch of warm weather. Mid and high level
  clouds will move over the area later today which would slow the rate of cooling tonight. Temperatures in some areas may not
  drop below 70 until nearly 3 am Sunday morning.

* Impacts... during hot weather it is important to stay hydrated by drinking plenty of water. If you are more susceptible to
  the heat... stay inside in air conditioned areas. Avoid leaving children and pets unattended in cars... as temperatures inside
  parked cars can rise very quickly to deadly levels. Remember to apply sunscreen if you are outdoors.

Precautionary/preparedness actions...

An excessive heat warning means that a prolonged period of dangerously hot temperatures will occur. The combination of hot temperatures and high humidity will combine to create a dangerous situation in which heat illnesses are likely.

Take extra precaution if you work or spend time outside. When possible... reschedule strenuous activities to early morning or evening. Know the signs and symptoms of heat exhaustion and heat stroke. Wear light weight and loose fitting clothing when possible and drink plenty of water.

To reduce risk during outdoor work... the occupational safety and health administration recommends scheduling frequent rest breaks in shaded or air conditioned environments. Anyone overcome by heat should be moved to a cool and shaded location. Heat stroke is an emergency. Call 9 1 1.

***
(But wait! There's more after the jump!)

Earworm (and News), Sneaky Pete Edition

When I hear a song with this title, on a satellite radio channel dedicated to the 1940s, I think of guys with burnt cork on their faces and blue steel or parkerized daggers, not walking in the park with my sweetie...

Then fact that the song is from 1953, not a decade earlier, doesn't really change much..

Plus, it showed up during my drive to work the same day this showed up in my in-box:

Ham Among Devil’s Brigade Members to Receive Medal
02/02/2015
A 90-year-old California radio amateur — Stan McEtchin, WB6KDZ, of Paradise — will be among the surviving members of the First Special Service Force (FSSF) known as “The Devil’s Brigade” to receive the Congressional Gold Medal on February 3. The medal recognizes the unit’s extraordinary heroism and service during World War II.

“We used to go behind the lines at night and sit out there, and we could hear the Germans talking,” McEtchin told The Paradise Post. “Our guy would write it down, so we would find out where their guns were and that kind of thing.”

Montana US Senators Jon Tester and Max Baucus worked for 5 years to honor the unit. “The Devil’s Brigade represented the very best of our Greatest Generation that defeated tyranny around the world,” Tester said. “The Medal is the highest honor Congress can bestow, and yet, while a small token of this nation’s gratitude, it is an everlasting reminder of the sacrifices these men made for all of us.” Remarked Baucus, “Without these brave volunteers, there would be no Special Forces today.”

The Devil’s Brigade was based at Fort Harrison in Helena, Montana. It was a top-secret combat unit comprising 1800 volunteers from 49 states, the District of Columbia, and Canada. Their training was the first of its kind, specializing in high alpine combat, covert amphibious landings, parachuting, mountain climbing, among other tactics. By the time the war ended, the Force had suffered 2314 casualties, equating to an astounding 134 percent of its original combat strength. It had captured more than 30,000 prisoners, won five US campaign stars and eight Canadian battle honors. The Force never failed a mission.

You may have seen the movie The Devils Brigade, which was Hollywood's take on the First Special Service Forces, and like most Hollywood productions, was less than accurate. Sometimes the inaccuracies are due to an agenda, sometimes because of difficulty filming the truth, and sometimes they are because no one would believe it was true. In this case, maybe a bit of all three...

Officially, the Army's Special Forces trace their lineage to the FSSF, even though there is no actual connection other than the patch ("shoulder sleeve insignia") being similar. The problem is, when the Special Forces were established, the existence of the Office of Strategic Services' (et. al) "Jedburgh Teams" was still highly classified, so rather than just make up a new unit out of whole cloth, the Army decided to pretend that the new unconventional warfare unit with a new mission traced it's existence back to a new-ish unit that had an old mission...

...Which caused complications when the Ranger Regiment was formed, and the obvious regimental-sized basis for it was taken. (Merrill's Marauders, having been a provisional unit, should not have counted for lineage under normal Army rules. Granted we're talking "unconventional" stuff here....)(And Roger's Rangers were British, in case you were wondering.)

While we're on the subject of snoopin' and poopin', this link showed up in my Facebook feed this morning, too: The KA-BAR and the Fairbairn-Sykes: two fighting children of different philosophies | HROARR
(I can see many days being spent clicking links on that site...)

Field Day report, Part 2

A couple of more photos from Field Day.

Screen shot of the logging program, showing
the entry for the contact in the Southern Cook Islands

This is what the "electric fence tape" looks like. 
You can see that it has 5 strands of electrical wire.
The yellow and black portion is strands of nylon, for strength.

Something I left out was that this was probably the most successful Field Day I've been to from the "public outreach" point of view. There was a community BBQ at the LDS Church we were set up at, and many of the participants came over to see what we were doing. Plus, it being an LDS Church, the young folks on mission were in and out all afternoon.  Oddly, the young ladies seemed more interested in ham radio than the men.

(And, no, in case you were wondering, they did not press their message on us until invited -- encouraged, really -- to do so by one of the club members who was also a member of the church.  He had a point, they were supposed to be on mission, not geeking out...)

Dry at last! (Field Day Report)

We should have registered to operate "marine mobile".

The view from one of the shelters we used for Field Day. The device to the left is a bicycle repair stand used to support a vertical antenna, made of a 35' kite pole and wire.  It worked pretty well for our Get On The Air Station, but eventually the wind kicked up and knocked it into the fence.  The pole was cracked, but the antenna was still usable.

To the right is a Blue Sky Antenna the club bought with grant money for  the city for emergency communications support.  It's pretty nifty.  Too bad they discontinued the model after we ordered this one...

It rained while we were setting up.  The  it stopped.  Then it rained some more.  Then it deluged.  Then it let up for a but, then it really got serious and tried to drown us.  Since we were local, when we got set up some of us went home to change.

We ran "2A", which means two radios, operating off mains, plus the GOTA station I mentioned above. I think we logged maybe 60 contacts, plus 10 or so for the GOTA.  A few Northwest, including Canada, a few California, one or two from Nevada, Montana.  One or two in the Midwest.  Bunches in Florida, Georgia, North and South Carolina.  Quite a few in Hawaii, a couple of Americans operating "DX" from Mexico...

And one from the Southern Cook Islands. 

The operator who logged that last gets teased because he's a Tech who is too busy building neat gadgets to test for General or Amateur Extra.  (Need I point out that he had a Control Operator?)

Among "nifty gadgets" he brought out today, was a dipole antenna he built from electric fence tape (like this) used for horse pastures.

Worked great.  I snapped a pic, I'll post it, eventually...

After the  potluck dinner we tore down and packed up and I came home to a hot shower and a cold beer.

Field Day

A phrase to strike fear (well, dread)  in the hearts of the staunchest Marine, Amateur Radio Field Day is a much more pleasant experience*. Held the last weekend of June every year, technically Field Day runs from Saturday morning through to Sunday morning, but many, if not most, clubs only operate on Saturday.

From the American Radio Relay League's press release:

ARRL Field Day is the single most popular on-the-air event held annually in the US and Canada. On the fourth weekend of June of each year, more than 35,000 radio amateurs gather with their clubs, groups or simply with friends to operate from remote locations.
Field Day is a picnic, a campout, practice for emergencies, an informal contest and, most of all, FUN!

It is a time where many aspects of Amateur Radio come together to highlight our many roles. While some will treat it as a contest, other groups use the opportunity to practice their emergency response capabilities. It is an excellent opportunity to demonstrate Amateur Radio to the organizations that Amateur Radio might serve in an emergency, as well as the general public. For many clubs, ARRL Field Day is one of the highlights of their annual calendar.

The contest part is simply to contact as many other stations as possible and to learn to operate our radio gear in abnormal situations and less than optimal conditions.
We use these same skills when we help with events such as marathons and bike-a-thons; fund-raisers such as walka-thons; celebrations such as parades; and exhibits at fairs, malls and museums — these are all large, preplanned, non-emergency activities.
But despite the development of very complex, modern communications systems — or maybe because they ARE so complex — ham radio has been called into action again and again to provide communications in crises when it really matters. Amateur Radio people (also called “hams”) are well known for our communications support in real disaster and post-disaster situations.

I sometimes call it the "no-contest contest" because the only prizes are braggin' rights for getting a large amount of points for your category. And, perhaps, because everyone who plays wins. One (or one's club) gets extra points for operating "off mains", outside, for public contacts -- especially for having the press and/or elected officials show up -- and for running a "Get On The Air", or GOTA, station, where new or non-hams can use a radio to communicate with someone.

From a general public viewpoint, the fact that everything we practice on Field Day is directly applicable to the public service aspects of ham radio is probably paramount. (Well, except maybe the BBQ/potluck...)

Despite being a curmudgeonly introvert, I rather enjoy the day.  This will be the first Field Day I've been to in two years; two years ago I was not able to get the day off, and last year our the Drang Clan Alaska Cruise and Reunion sailed on Field Day.  (I suppose I could have tried my handheld for a few Marine Mobile contacts, but I wasn't sure there would have been a point...)

If you'd like to check it out, the ARRL has a Field Day Station Locator at the link; if you're in South King County, WA, my own club is going to be at 

841 S 308th
Federal Way, WA

There are 51 stations listed on the ARRL's map for Washington State, most of them west of the Cascades.  There are probably some that are not listed. There are a 1383 stations listed for the US and Canada, so there is probably one not too far from you.  (Unless you're surfing the net via satellite from the International Space Station, in which case there's a good chance you're a ham and planning to operate from orbit.  How many points for Moon Bounce...?)

Links to some related stories:

• This is the Centenial of the ARRL. The ARRL is the largest Amateru Radio organization in the world, although Japan has more licensed hams than the USA, and the Radio Society of Great Britain is older.
• Ham radio Field Day is natural disaster preparedness drill - The Reporter. But oh, so much more.
• Sending out an SOS - Thegardenisland.com: Local  When visiting Hawaii it is common to see houses right next to the beach with huge antenna arrays.  The joke is that hams move to Hawaii to take advantage of the fact that a large body of salt water will help boost radio wave propagation. Hmm, maybe next year I can hit a Field Location on Kauai or The Big Island...
• ‘Ham' radio operators were called on to put skills to use | HeraldNet.com - Local news. From the Oso landslide.  I think I have other links from this disaster, I'll have to dig them out of my in-box, though.

***
*Added military pun, seen at Bill Quick's emergency preps forum: "It's a party, but not a GI Party!"

A Good Idea

Rules Change Sought to Permit Encryption of Emergency Communications:

The FCC is inviting public comments on a proposal from a Massachusetts ham to amend the Part 97 Amateur Service rules to permit the encryption of certain amateur communications during emergency operations or related training exercises. On June 7 the FCC accepted for filing a Petition for Rulemaking http://apps.fcc.gov/ecfs/document/view?id=7022424684 (RM-11699) from Don Rolph, AB1PH, and put it on public notice. It will remain open for comment until July 8. Rolph petitioned the Commission in March to suggest an additional exception to §97.113, which currently prohibits "messages encoded for the purpose of obscuring their meaning."

At this time, ham radio operators are only allowed the use of encryption in satellite uplinks or to control remote devices. As noted above, "encoding" ham transmissions to "obscur{e} their meaning" are prohibited. This has caused problem during emergency and disaster response when hams could not transmit, for example, patient medical data, due to HIPAA requirements.   I would imagine that, following something like the Boston Marathon bombing, there may have been a point when law enforcement might be in a position where hams would be the quickest way to get critical intel out, but the fact that anyone with half a C-note can go to Radio Shack and get a scanner that would let them play Junior NSA would cause them to reconsider.

Lots of nay-saying in the comments to this post on eHam. "Slippery Slope"!  And, from a Commonwealth ham, "International Agreements!"

Look, the ham radio community in the USA has been largely self-policing for years. It should not be a complicated matter to write a small change to the rules that would allow this.  And maybe we'll never need it, but would you rather Gramma die because the only people available to transmit critical information in the aftermath of an emergency or disaster were hams, and no one asked them?

Silent Key

Just learned that friend and "Elmer" Jerry, KC7NA, passed away in his sleep  last night.

NOT out, standing in a Field, Day

So, today is Amateur Radio Field Day.  It's always the last full weekend of the month.  The idea is for hams to go out and set up in the field someplace and out into practice not only radio communications skills, but also skills which may be necessary for emergency/disaster response.  Also, there's a strong public outreach/educational component, teaching the general public about amateur radio--"They still do that?!"--and, hopefully, recruiting new people to the hobby.

This year, the club was planning on going back to the same park we had been at the last two, which is adjacent to the athletic fields of the middle school Mrs. Drang attended.  We were all happy to hear that a couple of obstructions that limited us to the space we could use were being demolished.

We were dismayed in April to learn that said demolition was in preparation to expand the softball fields, pretty much ruling out using that park for Field Day.

The scramble began to find an alternate venue.  By the May meeting, things were getting desperate.  Then it was discovered at the board/business meeting that most of the club officers and trustees were going to be out of town this weekend.  A poll was taken at the general meeting, following, at which it turned out that there were going to be insufficient club members available to plan and run a club Field Day site.  (I had planned to take the day off; at this point, I changed my mind.)

*s*i*g*h*  (This is what happens when you have a small, but very active, club.  People are active...)

The offer was made that any members who wished to use club equipment, especially if they were willing to host other club members, was welcome to do so; to the best of my knowledge, no one took the club up on the offer.

Based on comments seen on Facespace, the fact that it was raining buckets for most of the day kind of reconciled most members who are in the area to the idea of NOT being outside putting up antennas and operating generators, I think.   (Certainly solar power was not a viable alternative...)

I suspect that the club is going to start verifying the where, not to mention the who and how, etc., earlier next year.  We may also see more active participation by the general membership in planning for events, which would be a plus.

Overheard At Work

"Gee, Drang, you got some sun!"

"It's Amateur Radio Field Day, not Amateur Radio Couch Potato Day."

Field Day SitRep

First QSL, 1810Z. (ADDED: 1110 Pacific Daylight Time.  Ten minutes into Field Day.)  Not me, I was with the antenna clown show...

Later, we had to change the antenna because the Guy In Charge--again, not me-- got disoriented and ran the dipole so we were radiating north-south, not east-west, thus ensuring that we will get plenty of contacts fro Oregon, California, and British Columbia (which we have no trouble getting anyway) but none "back east."

New antenna, so chalk it up to learning stuff.

Later still, we were only running maybe half the contacts we made last year, as of dinner time.  Pretty much shut down for chow, bought it back up afterward, and the bands were opening up.  Unfortunately, the Least Coast stations were coming in, but not hearing us on 20 meters, where I was operating.  Gave up and started to shut down and pack up, turned out our 80 meter station was kicking ass.

While everyone else was packing up.  "Just one more QSL!"

I'm thinking that maybe next year we should consider running 24 hours, if we can get folks interested.

And the club has a new trophy, which used to be a grounding rod, but is now a 4 foot length of copper rod with a 90 degree bend in the middle...

Some Field Day 2011 Resources

ARRL Field Day page
Field Day Site Locator
W1AW Schedule  (W1AW is the ARRL's station.  This schedule includes station K6KPH, the Maritime Radio Historical Society's station at Point Reyes National Seashore in California.)
QSO ISS?
A Google News search for "amateur radio field day".   Long Beach, WA, shows up on the first page!

4 days 'til Field Day!

Some technical errors corrected in-line.

Amateur Radio Field Day is held the last full weekend in June every year.  while it technically starts Saturday morning and runs through Sunday morning, many (if not most) hams will only run Saturday.

The ARRL runs it as a contest, and a lot of hams are big on contests.  There are all kinds of contests held, for just about every mode of operation there is, and with an incredible variety of themes, especially geographic ones, such as Washington state's "Salmon Run", in which you endeavor to make a contact, or "QSL", in each country.  (Technically, the ARRL says it's not a contest contest, because it's "non-adjudicated" and there are no prizes other than braggin' rights.)

In a contest, you get points for... well, it depends on the contest.

Field Day is very popular, partly because the rules of the "contest" aren't as rigorous as in others, but also because, being held when it is, the weather is pretty nice most of the time, most places, and the rules encourage group participation outdoors.  You get extra points for multiple radios, and for operating off of "non-traditional" power sources--one of the reasons for Field Day is to practice operating under emergency conditions.  (The Field Day Summary Sheet lists the "points multipliers" used; it may seem complicated, but compared to some contests, it's simple!)

Another reason is "public outreach"--a club gets extra points for operating a "Get On The Air" station and allowing non-hams (or new hams, licensed less than a year) to make a contact.  Get your club's Field Day in the paper invite elected officials and/or reps from "served agencies"--who might be from the local Emergency Management department, or a non-profit agency with an emergency response function, i.e., the Red Cross, etc.--and you get points for that, too.

Obviously, drumming up interest in the hobby is a goal.

I sometimes find myself wondering what an asocial curmudgeon like me is doing in a hobby that is pretty much inherently a social activity.  Well, the overall "geek factor" helps  a lot.  The fact is, just because the hobby revolves around making contact with and talking to strangers  doesn't preclude participation by members of the social awkward squad.

Or, you can think of it as challenging your phobias.  That works, too...

***

Previous Field Day posts:
2008
2009
2010a
2010b

Field Day 2010

I thought I'd reproduce this bit from KION News, (via eham), about Amateur Radio Field Day 2010 at my old alma mater:
Get To Know The 'Hams' Of Monterey County::

MONTEREY, Calif.- They're known as 'hams,' but not because they're cute or tasty.
These 'hams' are life-savers and volunteers.
In Monterey County, the Naval Postgraduate School Amateur Radio Club will join thousands of Amateur Radio operators across the country in showing off their emergency capabilities.
In Monterey, Saturday June 26-27, just below the Sloat Monument of the Presidio of Monterey (DLI) area, these students will be demonstrating Amateur Radio. The public is invited to see them at work on Corporal Ewing Road, between Pvt. Bolio Road and Artillery Street. The event starts at 11:00 a.m. and will continue through Sunday until 11:00 a.m.
The public will have a chance to meet and talk with Monterey County's ham radio operators and see for themselves what the Amateur Radio Service is about. The public will be able to check out the newest digital and satellite capabilities, voice communications and even historical Morse code, as hams from across the USA will hold demonstrations of their emergency communications abilities.
This annual twenty-four hour event, called 'Field Day' is the climax of the week long 'Amateur Radio Week' sponsored by the ARRL, the national association for Amateur Radio. Using only emergency power supplies, ham operators will construct emergency stations in parks, shopping malls, schools and backyards around the country. Their slogan, 'When All Else Fails, Ham Radio Works' is more than just words to the hams as they prove they can send messages in many forms without the use of phone systems, internet or any other infrastructure that can be compromised in a crisis.
More than 35,000 amateur radio operators across the country participated in last year's event.

The Naval Postgrad School is one of the few institutions of higher learning that Military Intelligence and Signal Corps officers are sent to for their post-graduate education. My understanding is that, depending on what you are there studying, you are strongly encouraged to get your ham ticket and join that club...

(OTOH, I recall nary a mention of amateur radio either time I was a student at the Defense Language Institute, Presidio of Monterey.)

Counting Down

51 days until Field Day.

Encouraging new amateur radio operators (Addition)

Guy in the club sent this out:

Don't know what it would do for clarity...

FCC Note: I have received nothing in return from Schlitz for this ad.
ADDED: Check this one out., Same artist.