Field Day 2010

I was a good boy and stayed at home for most of the day with the grand kids. I dashed out to answer some questions about the batteries at Sam's Club when my son Chris and I started discussing the brands and Amp Hours.

But it was dragon breath hot, when I got into the Camry and started the dash air conditioner.  It drove me back out of the car into the 95 degree sun, which felt cool by comparison.

But late in the afternoon, I went back out to the Radio Club's Field Day site.  We are again in a little city park about 2 miles North of downtown Olathe.  It is on Kansas City Road, so named as it went to KC years ago before this was all one giant community.  Now you never leave the city for 30 miles or more along I 35.

Things were in good form, as the main radios were manned by operators and loggers on the networked computer system.  The computers keep track of all the contacts that we make, and more importantly warn us when we make a duplicate contact that was made earlier in the day.  Since there are several stations running at once and operators  change every hour or so, there is no way to know what is on the list of contacts already made.

We had a most scrumptious barbecue of pork dinner put on by our fellow ham that has the big kitchen trailer.  Thanks John!  He even had the suffix of his call sign changed to BBQ. And we all think it is very fitting.

His pork roast had turned pink like it was ham, and it was rubbed with just the right seasoning.  And no he won't tell.  It really did not need any sugar tomato based sauce, and those of us that pride ourselves as connoisseurs didn't ask for any.  But he had sauce if you really had to have it.

I got my turn at the radio as the logger computer operator.  You work just as hard listening to get the call sign of the other operator and his verbal exchange typed into the computer as if you had the mic.  Actually we both have mics on our headsets, but the fellow in the operators chair does the talking.

Saying CQ Field Day over and over serves to make you hoarse, and requires a break every so often or you get tongue tied.

It was still 96 out there when I decided to leave.  I had been there for four hours, and that was about all the heat I thought I could take.  In previous years I stayed all day, but would then suffer from heat exhaustion for most of the night.  Perhaps I am wiser now.

Tomorrow they will tear it all down and return the park to its normal usage.  It will need to be cleaned up like we were never there.  So perhaps I will go help with that in the afternoon.  That will depend if the grandkids are gone by then.

The heat goes on here in KC.

Retired Rod