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Every year, the ARRL sponsors Field Day, a 24-hour contest to accumulate as many points as possible. Points are awarded based on the number of contacts a station has with other stations throughout the country, along with bonuses for overcoming various challenges, such as operating on low power or with emergency power. The competition tests the ability of a group to organize an efficient communications operation. This event takes place on the fourth weekend in June.

This year’s event was on the 25th and 26th. Our local club had a gathering at a local business, and I spent a few minutes there. After dinner, I made my way up to Huron County’s event, as I had been invited by some folks I had worked with from Skywarn. The folks up there were very gracious to an interloper in their midst. Over the course of the night, I worked at two projects. I attempted my first few contacts on HF bands, 7MHz, to be specific. The experience was a rewarding challenge, attempting to call to distant stations through a crowd of other stations trying to reach one another. My other project was to attempt a contact with the Internation Space Station. The two astronauts were scheduled to be working their radios as much as possible during the Field Day events. While I was unsuccessful at making a contact with the ISS, I spent some time with some good people and had fun. I also received some information that would allow me to keep monitoring for the station and perhaps get another opportunity in the future.

The last week has been an interesting one for my ham radio hobby. A month ago, I announced to the local club that I would run for the position of Secretary. The elections occured Friday night, where only one of the old officers was removed from their office. The president, Jack Weeks (K8RT) was replaced by John Young (N8JY). My competiton has been in office for a couple of years now, and I thought it would be a nice change to get fresh blood into the group’s leadership. I found out from one of the individuals involved in counting the votes, after the fact, that out of 56 votes submitted, I actually had 12. Now, that seems abyssmal, but I have only been attending club meetings for less than a year, and many of the members have no idea who I am. So, I did not win, but I did get my name out there, as well as my opinions. I will have a much better chance next year of getting the into an office.

Those of you who live in the Midwest know that there were some heavy storms last night. While nothing came of them, in terms of tornadoes or hail, the lightning formed dramatic bursts across the sky, while the thunder boomed through every home and business. The National Weather Service in Cleveland did activate the Skywarn net, in case anything were to happen. While the net result of the storms was just a little flooding in a few streets, we are expected to see more severe weather later in the week.

Any of you who know me as of late know that I have been spending a good portion of my time working. While I do try to work full time, sometimes missing the hours, I have not taken an overnight vacation in at least a year. So, when I realized that I had this past Thursday, May 26th off, I knew I had to take advantage of the situation.

Those that know me know that I frequent the message board of Leo Laporte, who used to host a couple of shows on TechTV and is now working on a number of media projects. On this board, members noticed that Leo was going to be speaking at a technical conference at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. The event focused on the use of Macromedia projects in web development and gaming, among other topics; the conference was presented by the South Eastern Ohio Macromedia User’s Group. I had thought about maybe going for quite a while, since the first mention of the conference. I knew, however, that I would likely have to work that day. On the Tuesday night before, I was at my buddy Mike’s house and asked if he wanted to go on a road trip. He asked where we would be going; I described the event. He quickly agreed, and we began to make arrangements. Fortunately, there were rooms at the local Super 8. Our room was only $60 after tax and included free Wi-Fi internet access.

We got out of bed at 6AM and were checked out of the hotel by 7. Once at the Ohio University Inn, we were treated to a series of clips from the archives of TechTV, ZDTV, and MSNBC. Leo showed up at 8. The breakfast was very informal and humorous. We ordered and ate later than we expected; we didn’t leave the breakfast until about 11. Of course, the conference sessions were scheduled to start at 9. Obviously, we missed those, especially since we needed to travel to the Baker Center about 3 miles away and find parking. Noon rolled around and Mike and I, along with the rest of the group from breakfast, grabbed our lunches and our seats for the speech with Leo. He talked about the relatively new phenomenon of podcasting and the power of the individual to create and consume content on their own schedule. The session was due to last about 50 minutes so that the next session could convene right at 1. As usual for Leo, he ran over his time; no one seemed to notice or care.

After lunch, Leo went downstairs to the lounge to sign autographs and snap some photos. The folks from breakfast simply hung around and chatted with each other until long after Leo left at 1:40. Several of us stayed until nearly 4PM. I led a couple of the folks back to the Inn, and Mike and I were ready to head home. Before we got on the road, however, I decided to try calling my brother, since he is a resident student of the college. He happened to be free for a little while, so we spent about a half an hour to an hour talking. He had to get back to work, so Mike and I spent the next three hours or so driving back to Mansfield, managing to avoid getting lost… too much. Actually, I just wanted to avoid some construction and got turned around on one of the state routes on the way back. Fortunately, it only detoured us by about five minutes.

While I try to avoid being a fanboy, I have to say that I admire what Leo and the rest of the TechTV crew were attempting to do and what they are trying to accomplish now. And it was great to see my brother for the first time in several weeks. Most of all, I was just very glad to take advantage of a confluence of events for a short but rewarding vacation.