follow me if ur cool
i think im going to try and go to ARRL field day this year. im still nervous about going to like, event things, but it'll be outside and i'll be masked, so i think it'll be no less risky than the average farmer's market? and i can always bail
i've had my license for 2 years and i haven't really done anything with it, in part just bc i don't really know where to start. so it'd be nice to have an opportunity to connect with local people and see what i might be able to do
I went to field day last year having had my license for like, a month, and it was super nice honestly? I got logging experience, I got to try FT8/FT4, and they were all SO excited to have someone who was younger than 40 there, and now I'm on the org board of directors, so it's a good way to get in with a group
yeah this is my hope!! i was kinda hoping to go to a meeting with a local group but every one i look into is still mostly not doing in-person gatherings (thankfully, but it does make it hard to break in)
I participated in Field Day for the first time last summer and had a good time. We were at a hilltop site with a good breeze. I don't remember anybody wearing a mask. There was a small core group there the whole day, and then a bunch of people who stopped in for a bit, including kids and spouses.
One of my tasks was submitting our group to the locator website. During submission there is a step where you agree with something that essentially says "I understand the whole friggin point of posting on the website is so random members of the public can come join my group". So any group on the locator should be welcoming to newcomers.
Do you have an HT? The VHF contest is next weekend (and again in June and September). In most of the US there will be increased activity on 2m and 70cm FM simplex frequencies during the contest.
i have a baofeng with a nagoya antenna, both recommended to me by a friend who is into ham radio (who unfortunately no longer lives near me). sometimes i will listen on nets and think about checking in, i just get super nervous! so i think part of why field day will be useful for me is just meeting some ppl in person and getting over that initial hump
That setup should be plenty for checking into a net or doing simplex contacts, and is how most people start. At some point you may want to build/buy a rollup end-fed antenna (J-pole, Slim Jim, etc.). Both QST and On the Air have published plans in the past year, or you can find plans on many websites including Ed Fong at the very bottom of the page. Fong and N9TAX also sell them.
I did my first simplex contact ever during the contest using a handheld. I had a script, which helped with the mic fright, and I knew the contact would be short.
