In article , Radio Amateur KC2HMZ
writes:

Oh, you mean like "disconnecting" antenna rotor control boxes with a
pair of dikes? Yes, indeed.

Is that how you highly technical CW ops handle it? Wow, I'll have to
suggest that to our ops next year...NOT!

John:

Actually, it's not as bad an idea as it sounds. We do it that way because
we leave the color-coded wire ends on the control box terminals, making
it easy to duplicate the setup the next time. Wiring charts tend to get
lost. Now, if only I could figure out a way to make my technically-
inclined fellow hams stop putting 3-element HF Yagi antennas together
with the director and reflector elements reversed! And don't suggest
that I number the elements and boom 1,2,3…that doesn't seem to cut
any ice with them!

12 hours to set up, 2 to tear down!

Amazing what you can do when gravity is working in your favor rather
than against you, isn't it? That wire that took six shots with a
slingshot to get over just the right tree branch comes down on the
*first* try when you cut the rope, almost as if by magic!

Yup, it sure does! And some idiot usually manages to get whacked by
the balun when it does -- which is why we pass out the hard hats!

Fortunately, I'm not that hard on my own equipment, just a bit
unmotivated to get the station set back up for at least a month after
Field Day.

Most of my FD stuff is still in my van. However, since that's where it
also spends most of the rest of the year, that's no problem. Still, I
could stand to do some tidying up in the rear cargo area.

Well, the living room of my apartment is my computer room/ham
shack. Trust me, even on my better days, I'll never be called to do a
photo spread for Better Homes and Gardens! Then again, I would
have a bit of a hard time competing for QST's "Messy ham shack"
contest!

Since I run the digital mode station for my club, I have
to take not only my radios, but my whole bloody computer system
as well.

Sorry to break it to you now rather than before Field Day, OM, but
there now exist these wonderful little devices called laptop
computers. For that matter you can do some digital stuff with a Palm
handheld computer. Want a quick hundred bonus points next year? Get
somebody to load the APRS software on a Palm and mate it to their HT,
and demo APRS. I think there's also PSK31 software for the Palm.

I've been using personal computers virtually since the day after they
were invented, and never owned a laptop! One of my fellow club
members brought some badly clapped-out used laptops to FD this year
for logging purposes, and out of four, we got one working! Last year,
our club President got his brand-new Dell laptop toasted, we don't
know if it was a power surge or stray RF, but the darn thing never
came back to life, and Dell couldn't fix it! For a lot of reasons, the
traditional desktop systems seem to work better and tolerate a lot
more rough handling than laptops. I made one concession, however,
and purchased a flat-panel monitor, which is much more easily
transported than my old 17" CRT monitor, which I gave away to my
YL friend when hers went South.

BTW, don't try it at night unless you're good with the Palm graffitti.
Typing on that little Palm "keyboard" at a FD station at 3:00 in the
morning is bound to make your eye doctor independently wealthy. Been
there, done that, bought the t-shirt, later burned the t-shirt. :-)

I prefer full-sized keyboards, since I'm something of an accomplished
typist. At home, I use the best keyboard available -- a Northgate
OmniKey Ultra, which I purchased in 1990 and is still going strong.
It has the same key size, placement, weight, and stroke as the old-
fashioned IBM Selectric typewriter keyboard. It has other features
like programmable function keys, and F-keys both across the top and
down the left side of the main keyboard. For FD, however, I just
bring the OEM cheapie that came with my computer. At FD sites,
things tend to get spilled.

Fortunately, that's the easiest thing to return to functional
normalcy at the home QTH. Can't be missing out on rrap now, can I?

Well, I managed to live without it for about four years, but then
again, here I am back again.

Hmmm. I don't seem to remember you from four years ago, but then
again, I don't remember what I had for lunch!

73 de Larry, K3LT