Talk it up...

OK, officially 1 month until Field Day. 4 weeks. It is time to start talking it up, time to get fired up and get everyone else you know going! There is no way just a handful of hams are gonna pull this off, EVERYONE needs to help.

Chuck WA1NBU has done a great job compiling the FD plan (as always), but there is much yet to be done. The best thing everyone can do is get on the radio, and start talking about it. You will be surprised who might be listening, scanners everywhere should be hopping with activity. You have access to a repeater, so USE IT! Of course I am speaking to the Ham Radio operators out there, you know who you are. I know the SOVARC crew, who were kind enough to extend their FD invitation to myself and Brad N1JIF have got things in gear, it is gonna be an exciting time!

Try and talk up this blog, mention it when you can and I will use it to keep everyone informed. I apologize for all the personal opinions, but then again this is MY blog, if you have something to say about a post, then leave a comment. Everyone can see the comments, no matter how rude and crude they might be. Use your computer for something besides searching the Internet for useless stuff...

The point here is, get off your ass and do something. No matter how trivial it might seem or how unimportant you may think it is, someone will appreciate what you do. One thing I have found useful, especially when you are preparing for FD or getting things ready for portable use, is to measure your coax runs. Put a string label with the length on the end of the coax, and you will be amazed at how useful a small little thing like that really is. Also, put your callsign on everything, because I have enough crap to haul around, I don't wanna haul your crap too.

The 40M station preparations are almost done, today I found the perfect microphone for recording the FD exchanges. Just so happens to be a discarded camcorder electret condenser microphone. It was being thrown away because it didn't work, turns out all it needed was a 2025 button battery. Thing works great, with full, rich fidelity (wide frequency range for all you audiophile types) and a high level of directionality. This weekend I should be able to find some quiet time to record all the exchanges I need, and at least write down the text so that other ops can get their voices recorded for their operating periods. Looks like it will be a pain in the ass to swap file configurations around within the N3FJP software, but we can give it a go, and let the author know about our wish list after the event is over.

I promise to get some photos of the setup, including jumper configurations inside the RigBlaster. Chances are I will have Brad shoot the macro stuff, he does pretty well hand-holding the Nikon and the 85mm macro setup he uses. You can see some of Brad's photos HERE , he wanted to attend FD but will be in Cape Cod on a school-sponsored summer trip. Bummer.

Brad sez I have a friggin' recording studio setup in the kitchen, I think he overstates things. It is only a Behringer mixing board and a few mics and cables. It was the only efficient way I could find to convert lo-z mics to a hi-z input such as a soundcard. I am certain there are others who have done this, maybe if you have a tip or suggestion you could leave a comment and let me know what you might have done successfully.

So far it is working out well, it is becoming apparent that we will have much more equipment than actually necessary. I personally think it will make sense to setup for 40/75 as well as VHF/UHF. We will have the gear for it, why not use it? But yet again that is a good subject for my next post...