Field Day 2024

Field Day in Review

It was a typical FD.   Our CW station had a generator that was failing  He was hung up on and off all weekend.   The Digital logging computer died . The Winlink struggled.     We expected and planned to feed people at breakfast and dinner.  All of the people were hungry at lunch.  So, we shifted breakfast and dinner to lunch both days.    We didn’t have a cook, so, someone from the public stepped in and cooked burgers through the mid day…. They even went to the nearby Safeway to buy more food.  When we figure out who they were, we’ll thank them.    We didn’t know about KSBW until an hour before they showed.   Fortunately, one of our lesser-known hams stepped to the plate and spoke with them… He knew the news crew from other events.    When we needed a tractor, one of our absolutely new hams brought one.

So, it was a very typical FD.   Looked like a big, fun, shiny public event on the outside, on the inside, experienced FD ops were struggling.  (Normal).

 The big problem for the Santa Cruz/SLV club is we are having problems finding locations to set up.   The field we were at may have a sub division on it next year.   We may need to shift to Monterey county or find a place up the coast.

Craig N6SBN