My most memorable Field Day was my first as it hooked me on the excitement of amateur radio. I had studied for my Technician and General licenses primarily as a way to better understand wireless networking. After passing both tests within two weeks of one another in mid-May 2012, I actually had no intention of joining a club, but one of the VE's suggested the Tidelands group as I live out in Dickinson.
So I hung around the club a bit and got to know some of the members and showed up at my first Field Day that June, just 48 days after being first licensed. I had yet to ever operate HF; the only equipment I had was one of those Wouxon handhelds. I had several firsts that Field Day: oh, so that is what a yagi looks like; oh so this is an HF transceiver; ah, so that is how one operates an antenna tuner. I even got to hold my first PL-259 that day. But the biggest moment for me was when Joe Wileman, AA5OP, sat down at the rig and announced, "Well, let's try to contact someone!" I fully expected him to pick up the mic and call CQ. But he didn't. He moved his hand to this funny looking device with two, well, they looked like two thick guitar picks. Instantly the air was filled with this cacophony of beeps! I was absolutely mesmerized watching Joe operate the paddle. Of course, I knew what CW was, but I really hadn't heard it before and certainly had never seen it live. After a few iterations of calling CQ, a weak signal came back -- also full of seemingly random beeps. I watched in absolute disbelief as Joe responded, the other station came back again, and this exchange continued on for a few more times. Joe then turned around to me and said, "Well, how about that....here we are sweating to death in 90 degree heat and this club in California is up in the mountains in near 70 degree weather!" I was absolutely beside myself. How could these rapid pulses of sound mean *anything* to *anybody, *let alone carry on a conversation? Suddenly, ham radio had become a lot more interesting and a lot more exciting. Also that day I made my first HF contact, although it did take quite some time for the club members to get me over my mic fright. (I'm incredibly introverted.) I remember one them shrewdly remarking, "Don't worry, no one will know it's you. You're using the club call!" Made sense to me. :D Unfortunately, I haven't been able to attend many Field Days since, at BVARC or otherwise. I have an academic conference that I attend that moved itself to the second to last week in June, so I am either flying out or flying back in that Saturday. Still, I always try to get on and do a little 1D operation that Sunday while recovering from jet lag. 73, -- /*/-=[Michael / KT5MR]-=/*/
_______________________________________________ BVARC mailing list [email protected] http://mail.bvarc.org/mailman/listinfo/bvarc_bvarc.org Message delivered to [email protected]
