Foundations of Amateur Radio
Last weekend was memorable for all the right reasons. Filled with 24 hours of amateur radio, spent with friends, in a park, making noise and having fun, marking the first time I recall setting up in a park for that length of time with so few extra resources. Normally we'd be decked out with tents, or in my case a swag, we'd have camping stoves, perhaps even a caravan or two, tables, cutlery, the whole shebang.
This time we brought none of that. Just radios, antennas, batteries, water with a few snacks and folding chairs.
This was like nothing I've experienced before and it has me asking myself: Why did I wait so long to operate like this?
It was wonderful.
We spent it being on-air and making noise during a 24 hour contest which is specifically intended to celebrate and reward portable operation. In case you're wondering, the John Moyle Memorial Field Day is to encourage portable field day operation and provide training for emergency situations. It was created in memory of John Moyle, the long term editor of Wireless Weekly, who served in the RAAF with distinction. He's said to be responsible for a number of innovative solutions to keeping radio and radar equipment working under difficult wartime conditions.
I've participated in this contest plenty of times before. This was the first time I did it in a park, in the city, and as experiences went it was fabulous and recommended.
As you might know, I like operating portable. I've been operating from my car for years, from camp-sites in remote locations for just as long and I've activated several parks and peaks in Summits On The Air, or SOTA, and World Wide Flora and Fauna, or WWFF activities. I've also set-up during field days in local parks and I regularly drive to a local park to get on-air and make noise. With that as background, you might ask yourself, what is different?
Let's start with setting the scene.
The park that we used is located in a suburb about 10 km out from the city centre. It has a river running through it and on the banks there are plenty of trees with lawn. Dotted throughout are picnic tables with wooden gazebos. All very civilised.
From a radio perspective, it was RF quiet, that is, no local electrical noise, away from cars, from a footpath, close enough to parking where we could get our gear out of the car and walk it to the site.
All that alone would have made for a great experience, but this went beyond that.
For example, dinner consisted of ordering from the local fish and chips shop five minutes away and picking up some amazing seafood. While there collecting some extra water and most importantly dessert from the supermarket next door.
During our activities we had visits from local amateurs. Over the 24 hours we had a steady stream of interested hams coming out and having a chat. Some took the opportunity to bring food, dips and crackers, thermos flasks of tea, even ice cold beer. One amateur came along at the end of our activation and helped pack-up. All this made for a very enjoyable social experience.
Another thing that was different was that the operator could wear headphones without stopping anyone else from hearing what was going on. We achieved that by connecting a headphone splitter to the radio, piping the audio to some external speakers for local monitoring whilst the operator wearing headphones would not be affected by conversations taking place around them.
We did have some challenges.
Our logging tool of choice was, for reasons we don't yet understand, switching bands which meant that sometimes the numbers we were giving out were not sequential. Generally in a contest situation you exchange a piece of information in addition to a signal report. In this case it's supposed to be a sequential number and because there were multiple operators, the sequence is supposed to be per band.
The trees provided shade, but were not quite up to the task of being sky-hooks able to hold up wire antennas, fortunately we brought squid poles for that purpose.
It was hot. 38 degrees Celsius. It turns out that even though wearing a black long-sleeve T-shirt is not a suitable fashion choice from a temperature perspective, it was perfect in preventing sunburn and for that I was immensely grateful.
As you might know, we track what we bring in a spreadsheet, one row per item. A column for each time we go out. Over time we learn what's used and what's not. Our list is getting better and better.
I'll admit that I felt some trepidation in relation to this location, but I'm so glad that I took a leap of faith and went with the experience.
What a blast!
What kind of activities have you been up to that gave you a blast?
I'm Onno VK6FLAB
