Tuesday, June 3, 2014

It's Summer Time And Maybe There's A Field Day Coming Up

   Now that the weather is getting warmer and nicer maybe you have a field day coming up. Most items are really Camping Gear. What made me think of this was that we went to the park for Memorial Day and we thought about bringing our tent and some tarps to sit under. I know that when I would go to the Hamfest here in Rochester New York I would see the various Ham Radio Operators set up under their tent or some just had a tarp set to sit under with their various Ham Radio Equipment. This was generally good enough unless the weather got nasty.
   Obviously you are going to need a table of some sort to sit your Ham Radio Equipment on. I think the easiest table would be just a folding table, because it is sturdier than just a card table. The card tables seem to be too weak. I would not want my thousands of dollars of Ham Radio Equipment crashing to the ground. The other thing you will need is some sort of chair to sit in. You could just use a folding chair, but may not be too comfortable. I think I would prefer some kind of a computer desk chair. That would be comfortable and give you some back support.
  Now if you are just going to the park then I would keep it as simple as possible. I would just get a cheap folding chair or a folding camping chair. The folding camping chair would be much easier to carry. As far as a table goes there are some simple folding tables usually somewhere. There may be something in the camping area or just find a picnic table. There are some simple tarp type tents that are easy to carry.
   The next item you may want to have is an extendable fiberglass mast that is light to carry. There are some made by jackite that do pretty good in the reviews. If it is close to you vehicle then you could go with one of the Rohn Push Up Masts. I would just make sure you have some guy rope anchor mounts and some of the Dacron Polyester Rope to guy your mast. I have seen some fiberglass that may be a military type mast that you can find through Ebay. The easiest antenna to work with may be a dipole antenna of some sort or a folded antenna. Some of these are multiband and may cover more frequencies.
   You may want to have some general tools with you. I would recommend a good hammer to pound in any guy anchor stakes. I would suggest to have some work gloves to wear. You can get some good mechanics gloves to wear to protect your hands from handling the fiberglass mast or the Rohn Push Up Mast. I would also have a good pocket knife to cut guy rope. If you are spending the day or night in the field then I would invest in some camping and cooking equipment. I would also recommend a good tent to sleep in. Also and most important bring a First Aid Kit.
  Well that's all I can think of for know. Thank You for reading and have a nice day from Dan KC2YTI 73s.