Trip Report: Field Day at US-3033
My First Field Day
Skipping Field Day
Many hams look forward to ARRL Field Day every year. It’s their chance to get outside and operate. Some local radio clubs sponsor group events where they get together, eat, socialize and sometimes do a little bit of radio.
Being an introvert, I’ve always skipped field day. I do a lot of POTA activating, which is pretty much the same thing. I figured I wasn’t missing much.
Hays-Caldwell ARC
I spend a lot of time activating Lockhart State Park US-3033. Over the last year or so, I’ve run into a number of hams there. They are usually getting to the park about the same time I’m leaving. It’s been fun to stop and chat with them. They all belong to the Hays-Caldwell ARC.
Side story: For a long time I was the POTA park leader there. I was a little bit like a ghost because none of them had ever seen me.
Anyway, they had plans to hold a field day event at Lockhart State Park. Even better, they were planning to use the Recreation Hall (built by the CCC) and the right introductions had been made so that they could use a portable tower being brought in by the TP&W Emergency Management folks.
So I decided I could suck it up and try to have some fun [not by myself, but with other people].
Camping
My son and I have been experimenting with camping in our Subaru Outback. I thought it would be fun to bring it out to the park and do a little radio the night before field day and just spend the night.
Bad Idea.
We really only camp during the cooler seasons. In South Texas, this usually means mid-to-late fall, early spring, etc. It turns out the Subaru is not a good place to spend the night at the end of June. I ended up spending the night in a Best Western, but only after drenching myself with sweat getting the sleeping area inside the car set up.
Lesson learned.
The Actual Field Day
I wish that field day started earlier in the day. I only planned to participate on Saturday. Waiting until 1 was kind of a pain in the neck. I did get to help the club up with setup though.
The tower was impressive. We didn’t end up putting it up all the way. I spent some time operating the station on 40 meters, getting about 15 contacts or so (all in Texas, except one from Louisiana).
When I do POTA, I log straight to paper. I use N3FJP for logging at home. I’d never done any contesting, so getting used to the field day exchange and using N3FJP in contest mode took a bit of work. It was fun though.
The Introvert Curse
Unfortunately I ran out of social energy about two hours in. I packed it in.
The takeaway for me is that I will need to start later next year. Either that means help less with set up, or just show up at 1 or 3—I dunno.
Still, it’s the most fun I’ve had with any club. (I’ve participated with three clubs at this point.) I’ve been joining their Tuesday night nets via my Allstar node (probably the subject of a future post).
Also, it was pretty cool finally getting to see the inside of the recreation hall. I’ve done a lot of reading about the CCC involvement with Texas State Parks, and find the history fascinating.