Out of all the years I’ve been involved in amateur radio, and all of the years I was interested but not licensed, I’d always heard about Field Day, but until this year had never actually attended.  Most years I had weddings I was photographing, or other schedule conflicts that prevented me from joining in, but this year worked out perfectly.

I took Daria with me (7-months old) and she did very well the whole time we were there. We toured around a little, saw the various stations operating and shared some conversation in the shade. I think what caught my attention most was the satellite station, but I didn’t stick around long enough to really watch them try to make any contacts.

Things that I really wish could change at the event was our power sources… we’re in a field of very dry grass, and behind each tent or trailer is a noisy gas powered generator. It’s true that I wasn’t operating myself, and I don’t know the true power requirements of the individual stations, but I would sure love to see more solar and battery power running at future field days. Sure would be more enjoyable without the constant drone of those little generators… not to mention the fire danger!

Following our visit to the site, I headed down the hill, was able to drop Daria off at home, then headed for the airport to get a few aerial shots.  On my way to the Bonny Doon field day site, I made radio contact with some of the radio operators working the Banana Slug Trail Trials at the Graham Hill Showgrounds and surrounding area. Then I made radio contact and was logged by our field day station.  I headed down to the station set up at UCSC on their field, shot some aerials of their location but was unable to make radio contact.  While trying, K6LY in Monterey caught me and logged me as a contact from the plane as well.

Additional images can be found by visiting my 2010 Field Day Gallery on Flickr.