I spent part of last night trying to determine my route for next weekend's Field Day.
My plan is to spend about an hour at each stop. The problem I face is at that rate, I can't afford to have a lot of drive time between sites. Right now I'm looking at hitting the Bluegrass region, where there are a cluster of 7 or 8 sites in one area.
I'm figuring on going to the most distant site and then working our way back toward home. There's just a lot of sites, and too little time … we want to be home by midnight Saturday, and then out again early Sunday. We'll probably try to hit the closer ones on Sunday morning, and the call it a day.
I've got an HF rig in my SUV, but no antenna on the hitch right now. I could probably throw a hamstick on the back and operate HF mobile, but which band? Probably 6, 10 or 15, I doubt that my peanut whistle mobile signal would cut through the din on 40 or 20.
Some of my most enjoyable operating on FD was during the overnight/early morning hours on 75 meters. One year I actually had a pileup running … great fun!
KENWOOD BOOGIE. Ack! I caught myself looking online for filters for the TS-430S on my operating desk … like its a keeper or something?? The more I listen to it the more I enjoy it. I'm considering the AM filter and the narrow SSB filter, both of which are fairly cheap and easy installs. The CW filter works well. I probably should first shed myself of surplus rigs and decide which to keep. I'm leaning on the Kenwood as a keeper; if I do, I might invest in the filters. Keyword: Might.
CONTROL OPERATOR ISSUE REDUX I received a copy of the newsletter from a radio club elsewhere in the state, and I was a little surprised to see that they put the W3BE's World Radio column on the front page, jumping it inside. There was no commentary about it in the newsletter, so one can only assume that the club/editor felt it was pertinent and important to publish. It would be a sad commentary to find that it limited others enjoyment of Field Day by curtailing longstanding practices that have allowed the licensed and unlicensed to enjoy ham radio under appropriate supervision.
Still not done anything with the FT-890. Hopefully later.
dit … dit