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Author Topic: Toughest Hours Of Field Day  (Read 824 times)

WA9AFM

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Toughest Hours Of Field Day
« on: May 30, 2022, 09:10:18 AM »

A couple of years ago, I read an article on Field Day which identified the midnight and final few hours of Field Day with unique titles.  Anyone aware of them?
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WA9AFM

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Re: Toughest Hours Of Field Day
« Reply #1 on: May 30, 2022, 10:23:20 AM »

Found them......on Sunday, 1-3 AM, aka "The Vampire Hours";  11 AM - 1 PM, aka "The Grind".
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K6SDW

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Re: Toughest Hours Of Field Day
« Reply #2 on: May 30, 2022, 02:33:40 PM »

Toughest hours? That be after Field Day has ended and all the antennas and rigs and batteries and laptops need to be taken down and repacked....and everyone just wants to go home and take their naps they lost....HI HI

GL/73
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G8FXC

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Re: Toughest Hours Of Field Day
« Reply #3 on: May 31, 2022, 12:56:33 AM »

It's a very long time since I've done it, but I do recall 3am on a wet and chilly morning being quite difficult... It rather required large quantities of whisky stirred into very large mugs of hot, sweet tea - trouble is that after a couple of them, you fall asleep!

Martin (G8FXC)
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KD8IWZ

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Re: Toughest Hours Of Field Day
« Reply #4 on: May 31, 2022, 08:27:33 AM »

I recall back in the late 80's another fellow and myself were the ops of the clubs cw tent. About 2:30 am I needed a well deserved break and headed up to the barn where the 30 cup coffee maker was and all I could hear was the worst code I had ever heard. Turned out it was the bug zapper!
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W4FID

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Re: Toughest Hours Of Field Day
« Reply #5 on: June 01, 2022, 04:23:08 AM »

Several years I had my teenage daughter and a friend or two of hers get on the air in the wee hours and do the talking while I logged. I had to bribe them some -- but basically teens stay up all night and sleep all day anyway so it was OK. The mostly quiet bands came alive and we kicked our score up nicely.
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K3TN

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Re: Toughest Hours Of Field Day
« Reply #6 on: June 02, 2022, 04:18:30 AM »

I used to have a regular group of 3 or 4 of us who would go somewhere for FD and throw up an antenna and take turns on 1 rig.

The longest hours were when this one op took his turn, and we couldn't convince him there were no multipliers in FD. Once he worked OH, he wouldn't work any more - he'd spin the dial looking for new "mults" on his scratchpad dupe sheet. We finally convinced to include the exchange, so he would work a 1A OH after that 3A OH, but still only one of each.

73 John K3TN
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John K3TN

KE4KY

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Re: Toughest Hours Of Field Day
« Reply #7 on: June 04, 2022, 09:46:25 AM »

Toughest hours? That be after Field Day has ended and all the antennas and rigs and batteries and laptops need to be taken down and repacked....and everyone just wants to go home and take their naps they lost....HI HI

GL/73

Truth!
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Glenn KE4KY - Amateur Radio since 1975; Definitely, one of the deserving...

N8AUC

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Re: Toughest Hours Of Field Day
« Reply #8 on: June 22, 2022, 06:02:46 PM »

Several years I had my teenage daughter and a friend or two of hers get on the air in the wee hours and do the talking while I logged. I had to bribe them some -- but basically teens stay up all night and sleep all day anyway so it was OK. The mostly quiet bands came alive and we kicked our score up nicely.

A female voice on Field Day will literally create a pile up. Especially a young one.
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N8AUC

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Re: Toughest Hours Of Field Day
« Reply #9 on: June 22, 2022, 06:07:23 PM »

It's a very long time since I've done it, but I do recall 3am on a wet and chilly morning being quite difficult... It rather required large quantities of whisky stirred into very large mugs of hot, sweet tea - trouble is that after a couple of them, you fall asleep!

Martin (G8FXC)

When I was younger, I could pull all nighters working CW at Field Day.
Can't do that anymore. 1AM and I'm zonked, and no amount of coffee will change that.
So a relief operator takes over and I go to bed.

What I find particularly interesting, is when the sun comes up on Sunday morning and the
station batteries begin recharging off the solar panel. For some reason, seeing that just makes me grin.

73 de N8AUC
Eric
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G8FXC

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Re: Toughest Hours Of Field Day
« Reply #10 on: June 22, 2022, 11:39:11 PM »

Several years I had my teenage daughter and a friend or two of hers get on the air in the wee hours and do the talking while I logged. I had to bribe them some -- but basically teens stay up all night and sleep all day anyway so it was OK. The mostly quiet bands came alive and we kicked our score up nicely.

A female voice on Field Day will literally create a pile up. Especially a young one.

Indeed... There are a couple of Balkan contest groups who regularly deploy cute female teenagers as their secret weapons!

Martin (G8FXC)
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G8FXC

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Re: Toughest Hours Of Field Day
« Reply #11 on: June 22, 2022, 11:47:21 PM »

Thinking back, the toughest hour I remember was a Field Day that I took part in when I was something like 14 or 15. The sun came up and we were all getting hungry when it became clear that, due to a serious administrative cock-up, we had nothing to eat! We were miles from anywhere and it was Sunday morning - very few shops open even in large towns. One of our number drove a large 4x4 (SUV) and he and I set off across the fields to find a farm house where we could buy some basic supplies!

Martin (G8FXC)
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WA9AFM

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Re: Toughest Hours Of Field Day
« Reply #12 on: August 09, 2022, 10:33:25 AM »

The bands went dead as Hogan's goat around 2:00 AM.  We did use the time for some great roundtable discussion on improving our club meetings and operations.  The generous supply of Jimmy John's picnic box lunches made for a nice midnight snack.
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ZL1BBW

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Re: Toughest Hours Of Field Day
« Reply #13 on: August 09, 2022, 08:50:53 PM »

The end of our weekly shifts used to be a 0800 - 1340 then back at 2300 until 0800.

IF it wasn't too busy at night, used to be able to get 1 hr of sleep on a chair or something around 0200 - 0400 for everybody on duty, then it was all on from then, just after 0500 was rough going, the PG would start to open up on 12 and then 16Mhz and it was really tough going until 0720 or so, when you knew that the end was in sight at 0800.

So for me, that bit 0500 - 0700 is the worst.

ETA,  Gold bars would not get me to do a night shift nowadays, either amateur or professionally.
« Last Edit: August 09, 2022, 09:03:58 PM by ZL1BBW »
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ex MN Radio Officer, Portishead Radio GKA, BT Radio Amateur Morse Tester.  Licensed as G3YCP ZL1DAB, now taken over my father (sk) call as ZL1BBW.

K0IZ

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Re: Toughest Hours Of Field Day
« Reply #14 on: August 25, 2022, 09:33:05 AM »

I offer a different perspective.  For our club the toughest hours (for operating) are from mid afternoon Sat until early evening.  Lots of socializing and our club dinner make it difficult to round up enough operators.  Later is ok, and Sunday is best.  Your mileage may vary.
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