Field Day 2018

Decided to operate this one remotely, as the shack gets extremely warm with the amp and other electronics firing away. Especially on a warm summer day with higher humidity levels. So much nicer sitting next to a window with a cool breeze!

On a scale of 1 to 10, conditions were a 6.5. There, I put a number on it.

“10” defined as, “Wow, this is amazing, everyone is loud and this is easy!”

“1” defined as, “Wow, why is everyone so weak, and why is there so much noise?”

10m started with a bang at the opening bell and lasted less than an hour, and that was it for Field Day, despite the band being open all week. Go figure. Now that the contest is over, I suppose the band can resume being open again.

As 10m disappeared, I moved to 15m and caught what little propagation remained there. 20m was okay, but unfortunately suffered from crazy static levels. I tried heroically to copy those stuck in the noise, and I think I got most, but just flat out couldn’t get everyone – sorry about that. QSB was pretty wicked at times too.

On some occasions, everyone in the pile up was about the same signal strength, so I’d only catch a letter or number. Add static crashes and QSB to the mix, and well…tough sledding. Thanks to those ops for your patience and repeats.

40m was good, but the long daylight hours aren’t number friendly for a night time band. On the bright side, 80m seemed much better than normal, especially in the morning.

In the end, I operated this one mostly for rate and less about score. When CW got slow, I moved to SSB and back. Definitely more fun.

Thanks to everyone for the Qs!

73, Mitch, K7RL

Post from 3830scores.com:

Call: K7RL
Operator(s): K7RL
Station: K7RL

Class: 1D HP
QTH: WWA
Operating Time (hrs): 13
Remote operation

Club: Western Washington DX Club