Field Day 2026 (Or Not)

My first Field Day as an active operator!

What a dud.

Not because of ionospheric conditions or local weather or malfunctioning equipment.

No, none of that, but rather because I spent the weekend out of state, and was scheduled to the gills with activities that did not allow for breaking away and operating, let alone hauling any gear on the plane. We knocked out my youngest’s first college campus visit. We attended a wonderful wedding. We spent some time with family. No radio at all.

Sunday evening, after returning home and re-connecting the antenna, I was pleasantly surprised to find 20 in decent shape. I made a couple POTA contacts. Several Russian operators were working decent pileups I did not want to brave with my raspy, post-wedding reception voice. And apparently the summer WWA event has begun. I got CS2WWA in the logbook on my initial call. Believe it or not, this was my first European voice contact since the new callsign arrived in March. That doesn’t seem possible.

Travel often messes with my sleep rhythms and this weekend was no exception. Maddeningly, despite arriving home exhausted, I could not sleep Sunday evening. I blame the Indiana humidity, which had been tolerable-to-non-existent for most of June but arrived with a vengeance while we were away.

After several hours of tossing, turning, and sweating, I came downstairs around 2:00 AM to read and reset my brain. I figured I should check the radio, too. There were at least five ATNO’s banging away at FT8. I called many, but was only able to log Mozambique of the bunch. First new DXCC entry in some time.

I suppose it was a function of this being Field Day weekend, but I also decoded four different Alaskan stations. Sadly I could not get a reply from any of them. While I have a couple Alaska FT8 contacts logged, none of them are verified, and it remains the final state I need to complete my FT8 WAS.

I am hoping the thunder stays away and conditions remain good enough to chase some more WWA stations this week.