This site and server is owned by Anthony, WM3T. Opinions expressed here are his. If you don't like what I have to say, Kiss My Ass.

According to Ray, AB4YZ, I am an ass. Why you may ask? He found, or someone pointed out to him, my remarks about Field Day. I have made attempts to make amends, even admitted that I was wrong. He wants to hear none of it apparently, since he has not responded to my emails.

Well, Ray, I don't really give a shit what you or the cliche' in the RVARC think. I have reposted my thoughts on Field Day. If you can't grasp the concept of someone having a differing opinion, then read my Disclaimer.

Sorry to have this rant here, but I am sure there is someone who will point this out to Ray.

I decided that I needed a little more power so I could run during contests. After discussions with the wife, I ordered an AL-1200 for the shack. Received it on Friday June 30th. After a brief setup process, I was going to chat with some guys on 75m. Well, the higher power gave new light to a station limitation, I smoked the 80M dipole because of water in the feedline. I was sure suprised when I looked at it Saturday morning. I replaced the feedline on the dipole and didn't have a problem after that, even with 1500 watts.

Friday night, I did get one of the guys on 20 and we had a chat while working the dx that dropped by the frequency. I had to go upstairs and do the family bedtime ritual, but returned later. When I returned, I decided to play around a little with the RAC Canada Contest. I was on about an hour and a half and worked 120 stations with the rate meter steadily increasing. That was really fun! On Saturday, I did more testing of the amp with the other antennas at the station and didn't find any other problems.

The old amp, the AL-811, is going to be installed on the second radio for obvious reasons. I will probably have to get some bandpass filters if I want to run SO2R HP. Right now, I think I can get by until the fall contest season without them.

I am hoping that after the IARU contest to disassemble the shack and start building walls and getting it a little more complete. As it stands right now, there are no walls or ceiling around the shack. The ceiling is going to be a huge improvement, especially since the shack is right under the master bedroom. My wife did say she could hear me running on 20 SSB Friday night.

Why does it seem that the shack is never complete?

I decided that doing Field Day this year with the local clubs was a bad idea. I did operate some from here at my station, but got really frustrated. I think the contester in me came out and got frustrated with the noncontesters.

I realize that Field Day is an exibition of Amateur Radio\'s capabilities, but give me a break. If we are called on in an emergency, how much of a fool will we look like if we can\'t copy a simple exchange? There was multiple situations where the station calling me couldn\'t copy the simple FD exchange!! I realize that the only time some folks get on the air is during FD, but give me a break. Band conditions etc could be the blame for their poor skills, but I had 2 elements on 40 with 700 watts output and they still had problems, even when they were 20 over!

The biggest reason I decided not to participate with the local club is ego, not my ego, but the organizing party. When the only activity they have is county hunting, how can they know anything about operating a contest?? OK, they do go to PA for the PAQSO Party, but that is not a DX contest or Sweepstakes!!! I gave them contact information et al for the top FD operation in the country and their comment was \"They don\'t know anything.\" My frustration started there. I attended some of the meetings for FD and they didn\'t want to listen to my concerns, so I backed out of going. If I have the contacts to get you all the information you would ever need concerning a successful FD, you should at least make contact and realize your pipe dreams are totally false. I was not going to subject my rig or myself to the horror!

Field Day next year for WM3T?? I think I am going to take the family to the zoo. Seems that would be a better use of my abilities!!!

I had an interesting find tonight when I came down to listen to 75M, no receive on the 80M Dipole! I wasn\\\'t sure what had caused an antenna that was working perfectly last night, to be dead tonight. Well, I found the problem!



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Anthony