I got my original Novice license in 1990 I think (age 12). I was SO excited to participate in my local club’s Field Day outing - but it was a nail biter for my physical license to arrive in the mail in time.
I’d somehow gotten the word from the FCC that my license was issued and I got my call sign (KB2NDR) but I was so worried it wouldn’t get to my house in time for the weekend (and it didn’t!) - but the club president was super chill and said “I trust ya” so he let me participate and I still remember every minute of that weekend to this day.
It was my first full-fledged ham event (my first all-nighter too), sitting in the tents working on HF rigs I could only dream of affording at 3am with guys chain smoking cigars. They were probably chuffed at this nerdy 12 y/o who wanted to play along (minus the smoking bit).
“…CQ Field Day CQ Field Day this is K2-Zed-O, K2-Zulu-Oscar…”
(That weekend launched my short intensity but long lived ham life. Leveled up to Extra and I still have K2KD active today but haven’t touched a radio in years)
I did end up getting a vanity 1x3 along the way, because my original call was awful, both over phonetics and spoken.
They found out that I had an Oscar 10/13 satellite station and begged me and my buddy to operate with them (there's bonus points for a satellite contact). So my buddy and I were "hired guns". We had never attended San Jose State and were not members of the club.
These guys were definitely serious. We operated from a huge ranch in the Sunol hills and they erected wire beams for 80 and 40 meters. They did finish in the top 10 the two years my buddy and I participated.
Personally, or you had access to one? I am a hobbyist and amateur, so I don’t know how significant this is, but I want to learn!
Oscar 10 and 13 were amateur satellites in HEO (Molniya) orbit. They were super fun to operate since the passes lasted for hours.
That’s literally a contest. If the scoring was private maybe I’d agree.
Field Day may serve other purposes too, but it’s a contest, if not purely so.
When we participated with W6YL, we had our own tent, food, and mass quantities of beer. Aside from folks stopping by the tent out of curiosity, it was not a social event at all.
One guy who was a master CW operator wanted to see how the satellite worked. We hooked his keyer up to the 70cm transmitter and let him go at it. At first, hearing his own signal after a 250 millisecond delay confused him a little but I turned the receive audio down to help him out.
As always most of the fun is closer to the noise.
I agree that actually operating during field day is less fun than at any other time of the year, unless you're in "competitive mode" and are trying to win the most contacts in your class. During these three days, the conversations are very short and mostly all the same, so there's not much "rag chewing" going on.
Field Day can also be fun in the sense that you may get permission to do things that you ordinarily could not do, such as operate a station in a public park, and camp there with it for two nights. Another "fun" element is improvising with what you have, such as setting up a station on the top floor of a parking structure in a metropolitan area.
Actually it's not. It's just wall to wall QRM. You can't exactly setup on a single frequency and call CQ without some asshat setting up right on frequency. I abhor Field Day because it's chaos. POTA, state QSO parties, 13 Colonies, Museum Ship Weekend, those are my speed.
Most every ham club that sets up for Field Day talk like they're doing "public service" and "outreach", but then they post up at some obscure location quite a way away where most any 'public' would be. The scant visitors they get are either ignored or greeted in an overly excited way and then every old timer wants a chance to impress upon the visitor their view of radio which invariably runs off all but the most determined visitors who can see past all that. I've been to over a dozen different club field day events across the country and most of them are pretty cringy.
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The best was Tucson almost 20 years ago because my wife and I happened to be tent camping on the same mountain peak where they were setup. She retired to the tent early, I played radio well into the night after the daytime RF pandemonium died down. In the morning one of the club members who also runs a restraunt made everyone omelettes to order on his catering flat top.
One of the worst was Palm Springs RATS. Their setup was at their EOC and closed to the public. I had to essentially "prove" I was a ham to even be allowed in with them. (I told them my callsign but that wasn't enough. "Hi. I'm <callsign> in town for work and thought I'd drop in to do Field Day with you guys." "Do you know anyone here?" "No, I'm just in town for work." "Well, this is a ham radio event." "Yeah, it's Field Day. I'm just here for the week ahead and thought I'd come play radio with you guys." "...and you're not a member?")
Some club in DC/Arlington was pretty awful too. Again, there for work. Two old timers took turns mansplaining ham radio to me most of my time there. Nevermind I was a 30-something dude and with-code Extra. I was on their "get on the air" station doing CW and they kept talking at me while I had headphones on copying callsigns and listening for a break in the pileup.
These days I just don't even both going out because I've been disappointed so many times. Maybe I'll give it a go this evening to yet another new club's setup and see what new form of disappointment awaits.
That said, I can understand how it would be difficult to have fun if you were operating solo.
[1] - https://we1spn.org/
(I already have my license)
Even if you don't have access to an attic, there are antenna constructions that can work for apartments. Have a look at "ARRL's Small Antennas for Small Spaces" and RSGB's "Stealth Antennas" as starting points.
Alternatively, you could consider a portable solution where you carry a small HF rig and some wire in a backpack. The Yaesu FT-857D is very popular for this as it's small, all bands, all modes and does 100W. If you search for "Yaesu FT-857D backpack" you will find many suggestions. It's not in production anymore but you might find it second hand. For Yaesu, other options include the FT-891 (no VHF/UHF) and the more bulky FT-991A. Icom has the IC-7100, which is also a little more bulky than the FT-857D.
HF in small apartment is very difficult.
