Seems like 6 meters is open when I'm out of the shack. I did work a few stations the other day, but I missed the big daylong opening a few days back.
Due to my NCS duties on the weekly state ARES net, I was unable to attend the radio club meeting Monday night. I guess with Field Day in the offing — and the ongoing controversy about “what constitutes the control point?” — I wanted to attend this meeting.
I've gotten two accounts from individuals who were at the meeting, and both conveyed generally the same story about it.
But before I get the meeting, I should mention that earlier that same day, the club's vice-president — a newly minted (1 year w/ticket) ham who has loads of enthusiasm — sent an e-mail out to the members regarding the Field Day control operator issue that originaled in W3BE's column in the May issue of World Radio.
The VP wrote that the link he was sending should answer everyone's question regarding the control operator issue — the link was to a page on the ARRL Web site that covers this topic, and it was the same link that my brother Bennie had sent in reply to the first e-mail about the topic — and the same link I also sent out in response to the ongoing control op discussion.
I replied to everyone on the membership e-mail list simply that I agreed wholeheartedly with his conclusion.
From what I understand, Field Day was only briefly discussed at the meeting; any planning was pushed off to the ARES meeting this coming Saturday morning. It will be an ARES-style Field Day, so apparently if you want to take part in the effort, you better be at the Saturday meeting. This is a break from the past several years, where the club did the planning (along with a Field Day Dictator or two).
With the decent membership turnout at Monday's club meeting, it seems like it was a great time to do some planning, i.e., try to pull those members at the meeting into Field Day planning without making them commit to yet another meeting on a Saturday morning. That makes sense to me, but that's the ramblings of an exiled Field Day dictator, so don't mind me …
It's probably just as well I had other duties to take care of and missed the meeting. I would have probably spoken up about the control operator issue. Near the meeting's end, the control operator discussion surface. The “wrongness” of operating Field Day “as usual” was explained in depth, beginning with a list of the speaker's previous experience in dealing with the FCC.
And yes, the League is wrong, wrong, wrong on its interpretation of the control operator issue. From what I heard from my witnesses, no one else at the meeting had any comment on the issue. I guess there's no point debating it if the other side has branded you a heretic.
I have Field Day plans of my own, so I won't be attending the local drama — er, I mean Field Day — unless there's time. My wife and I tentatively plan on making this a 2008 Field Day Tour. She and I will try to hit as many FD sites as we can across the state. I'm fairly centrally located, and it will be fun to visit other clubs and see how they do FD (perhaps I should ask them if they believe the League's stance on control ops is right or wrong). It should be fun.
OTHER RADIO RELATED STUFF. I've not done a lot on eBay other than watch others buy stuff. Due to other expenses popping up, I decided to delay spending a great deal of money unless something too good to pass up comes along.
I was surprised to see that a Yaesu FT-757GX sold on eBay for $430. Yeah it was fairly clean and had the original box, but it is still a 25 year old rig. The rig likely wasn't quite as mint as indicated. I noticed the rubber grip that goes on the VFO knob was stretched and didn't fit the knob properly (I suspect the rubber grip had been removed and reinstalled backwards). The rubber grip usually is removed if you're also removing the VFO knob, which is usually done only if the encoder bushing has lost its lubricant. My guess is that the rig at least needed the encoder bushing lubricated.
For just about the same money, you could pick up an original IC-706 and other rigs of similar vintage and price range. I like playing with my FT-757GX, but I wouldn't plunk down that kind of money for one for nostalgia's sake (Note to Self: Yeah, that's why I have THREE of them???)
And speaking of FT-757GX's, I have No. 2 ready to box. I hope to get it shipped this week for alignment and so forth.
6 METER CW. During a recent eSkip opening, I was hearing some CW ops going at it. My rig of choice for 6 is my IC-706, but I've never operated it on CW. So while the two or three ops I hear are working stations fast and furiously, I'm trying to figure out how to hook up my bug to the 706.
It's got a 1/4-inch phone jack, right? How tough can it be?? I plug in my bug and I get a string of dits. ARGH! I need a stereo phone plug! After scrounging around for 20 minutes, I give up looking. I next decide to pull out an iambic key to try on the 706. ARGGH! The paddles are wired wrong, the dit paddle is sending dahs, and versa-vice. Damn! I began trying every iambic key I have to see if any of them are wired correctly.
Wait a minute .. doesn't this thing has some menus?? TA-DAH! ARGGH! I now find that I could have turned the internal keyer off and used my bug without an wiring mods. And naturally it also has a “reverse” menu setting to reverse the paddles of am iambic key. Son of a gun!! Guess I should have pulled out a manual, huh?
I get my McElroy bug all set to run … and the band is ….. DEAD! ARRRRGGGHHH!
Like RF through the Coax, so are the Days of Our Wireless Lives …
dit dit …