Hopefully you have had some responses to your invitations to Field Day and are getting ready to greet the new hams that come to operate. As you know, this is a great opportunity to introduce new hams to the various operating modes and also the many pieces of equipment that are out there. We hope that these tips help make your Field Day a successful one and that you turn your new hams into new friends and active club members.

In addition to the standard SSB and CW stations, some of your FD stations may include a satellite station or a packet station or HF digital station. You should be prepared to answer questions on these operating modes and it may even be beneficial to have a short description prepared to hand out to the new hams or even the interested public. Make these descriptions non-technical and use diagrams or pictures to make it easy to understand.

Example:

"For communications via satellite we transmit a signal on one frequency, this is called the uplink, and we receive the satellite's signal on another frequency called the downlink.

We use two separate antennas to do this. Sometimes we even use two separate radios but today's modern radios have the ability to operate both the transmit and the receive frequencies."

The point is to make things simple and to entice the person to want to pursue that activity if they wish. Notice that we didn't mention UHF, VHF, baud rate, Doppler effect, flux capacitor, etc. Be prepared to answer some questions but more so, be prepared to direct the new ham to a mentor and other sources of information. An old proverb says that a smart person does not know all the answers but knows where to find them.

Here are some other suggestions to make your Field Day event a fun and successful one.

• Have some "Y" plugs for headphones so that an experienced operator can copy along with the new ham. This is a good idea for both CW and SSB operating.

• Don't be afraid to ask the sending stations to slow down. Field Day is not a contest.

• Make it a point to show that a simple wire antenna can allow you to communicate all over the world.

• What the heck are all these knobs? Good question. How about a simplified chart that shows the BASIC controls on the radio and what they do? I'm glad you asked. We have one for download (95,920 bytes, PDF file).

• If you are running a large multi station Field Day event you may want to give a tour around the site to visitors. Make sure that give recognition to your support staff.

• Have plenty of food and drinks on hand and offer some to your guests. Showcase your club's hospitality.

• Have a prepared information pack that explains what you are doing. Keep it simple. Include club meeting and contact information and an application for membership.

• Give a Field Day pin to anyone that operates your GOTA station.

Field Day is an excellent way to provide hands on Elmering with guaranteed QSOs. Your club could use the GOTA (Get On The Air) station for new hams to sit with an experienced op and make some QSOs. Keep this station simple as far as controls are concerned and put it on an active band.

Remember that Field Day is not a contest in that there are no winners or losers, but an operating event designed to sharpen our communicating skills. Go out and have FUN.

73