Radio Preppers

General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: John Galt on June 27, 2014, 02:28:15 PM

Title: Field Day: What to expect?
Post by: John Galt on June 27, 2014, 02:28:15 PM
I haven't been following this closely but my understanding is that it's basically practicing emcomms at various levels by getting off the grid, using QRP, etc.  So how does it work?  Does everyone try to maximize the number of contacts not unlike a contest?  Is LoTW used for logging? 

I've never been through one so just wondering what to look for this weekend.  As for my station, if I take the float charger off my battery, I'm completely off grid.  Well, except for my beer fridge.

Title: Re: Field Day: What to expect?
Post by: Luigi on June 27, 2014, 04:01:35 PM
I went to a field day last year. They ran several generators and solar panels to power lots of radios. It was a good way to put a face to a voice that you heard on the air. They had some awesome HF antennas at the event. There was an interesting demonstration of D-Star.

People there were interested in contesting and not much focus on data transmissions or relaying emails from remote locations.

Contesting is not my thing. It was nice to see the radios and the antennas and the devices powering them.

Luigi
Title: Re: Field Day: What to expect?
Post by: cockpitbob on June 27, 2014, 04:35:17 PM
It's basically a contest weekend where everyone operates out of buildings and off the grid.  All modes get used.  You get extra points for doing it in a public area (park, etc), for advertising what you are doing an where and for getting non-hams on the air.  Paper logs can be used, but mostly it's electronic logs that are sent in emails to the ARRL.  I assume most people also post to LoTW.  All QSOs are real quick 59s.

It's different things to different people.  Some clubs get serious about how many points they can rack up.  In other clubs, the people in charge of bringing the food and setting up the outdoor movie screen have the most important jobs.  The club I belong to is more like the latter.  Very low key.  We set-up 5 stations:  CW, digital, HF, 6meter and a Get On The Air (GOTA) station that is dedicated to getting new hams and non-hams on the air.  Often some of the stations are unused because of the good food and company.  Sadly, I can't be there this year.
Title: Re: Field Day: What to expect?
Post by: RadioRay on June 27, 2014, 08:52:38 PM
Field Day can be enjoyable, though less-so as it has become 'too contesty'.  The local group here is like that, so I don't have any plans to go.  The last time I participated in ARRL Field Day in the Rocky Mountains, we always had two questions for the other end of the link:

1.  How many BBQs do you have?

2.  What's cooking?

We gave 'bonus points' for every hammock at the site, double for hammocks in use, TRIPLE if the operator themself is in a hammock while operating. All the above points above x a billion for each operator doing all of the above AND grilling from IN a hammock.

Some people get it and some just 'got annoyed'.  I had this 'pocket hammock' that was usually my first piece of equipment deployed.  Here in The South, it's the jungle hammock, because it has no-see-um netting.   ;)

>>> I might just go out tomorrow with my solar powered, up-armored KX1, toss a wire in a tree and give some guys a few QSOs. It should survive the trip.

(http://files.qrz.com/a/w7asa/KX_1_TFR.jpg)


73 de RadioRay ..._  ._

Ps. We PREPPERS realize that REAL Field Day will likely begin like THIS -

(http://files.qrz.com/d/n7rad/lab.gif)





Title: Re: Field Day: What to expect?
Post by: DCJon on July 06, 2014, 09:00:55 AM
My club set up a beautiful, off grid station and contested for 24 hours.  I'd prefer practice EMCON but I'm the newbie. 
Title: Re: Field Day: What to expect?
Post by: Lamewolf on February 05, 2015, 01:27:56 PM
I know this is an old thread, but I'm sitting here bored and thought I'd toss my 2 cents worth in.  I've been to a club field day twice in 20 years and this is what I experienced.  First, just a few of us showed up with equipment and the gumption to set things up and start operating.  Then a bunch of folks started showing up that did not have a license that allowed them on HF frequencies wanting to work some DX and eat free food.  When asked to help serve food or make equipment changes like antenna installations, they made excuses and went home.  The ones that did operate did not want to work other stations in the USA, only wanted DX contacts and wanted nothing to do with ecomm work.  The ones that were still there when time to take everything down left and the original crew that set things up took it all back down again.  I now work field day alone with my QRP rigs ! :P
Title: Re: Field Day: What to expect?
Post by: RichardSinFWTX on February 05, 2015, 02:45:59 PM
Did any of you guys do Winter Field Day?  It's not an ARRL event.  This one is sponsored by the Society for the Preservation of Amateur Radio (SPAR). 

My club used it to test out a potential new site for ARRL Field Day.  I had a good time.  I spent most of it doing a dog and pony show for my station-in-a-box.  It did get a fair amount of Ooohs and Ahhs!  I think I ended up making a whopping 5 contacts; but they did give us multipliers that we wouldn't have others received.
Title: Re: Field Day: What to expect?
Post by: cockpitbob on February 05, 2015, 04:39:12 PM
Of course, it all depends on the people involved.  Like anything else, the people make or break it.  The club I belong to has a very strong core of people and do a great job and there's usually plenty of help.  For summer FD the club puts fun in front of points and the food committee is probably the most important and appreciated group.  There's always lots of good food and (non-adult)drink.  We do most of the setup Friday night, then watch a movie on a white tarp hung on a trailer.

My club did winter FD indoors.  Apparently they had a fairly good turnout but I was 3 states away on business so I didn't join the fun. 
Title: Re: Field Day: What to expect?
Post by: RichardSinFWTX on February 05, 2015, 04:46:22 PM
I had a good time too.  I got to show off my rig that only a couple others have seen except in pictures.  It also helped me find out what worked about it and what didn't.  I've already discovered that the guide rails for my rack need to be re-worked.  I've got Spring Break coming up in March so maybe I'll get to work on it then if not sooner.

Summer FD is pretty much a social occasion too.  The only ones that go really balls-out on it are our CW guys.  Even with that our club still scores among the top in the state.
Title: Re: Field Day: What to expect?
Post by: Lamewolf on February 07, 2015, 08:17:21 AM
Quote from: RichardSinFWTX on February 05, 2015, 02:45:59 PM
Did any of you guys do Winter Field Day?  It's not an ARRL event.  This one is sponsored by the Society for the Preservation of Amateur Radio (SPAR). 

My club used it to test out a potential new site for ARRL Field Day.  I had a good time.  I spent most of it doing a dog and pony show for my station-in-a-box.  It did get a fair amount of Ooohs and Ahhs!  I think I ended up making a whopping 5 contacts; but they did give us multipliers that we wouldn't have others received.

I didn't even hear about it until it was under way.  At one time, I had a yahoo group going called "The Monthly QRP Field Day Group (MQFD for short) going where we had a field day on one weekend each month, but it was hard to get folks to take part in it and it finally just faded away and I shut it down.  The times I worked it, it was great fun and I even worked it from my johnboat while out on a lake fishing once - I called it "MMM" Mini Maritime Mobile !
Title: Re: Field Day: What to expect?
Post by: RichardSinFWTX on February 07, 2015, 10:50:06 AM
It was cold here in Fort Worth but at least we didn't have any snow or ice to contend with.  We had a covered pavilion with grid power.  All we had to deal with was some fairly decent winds.  Ther than that I thought it was fun.
Title: Re: Field Day: What to expect?
Post by: cockpitbob on June 23, 2015, 10:24:41 AM
I couldn't participate the last 2 years due to family reunions, but I'll be doing it this year with the club.  Set-up is a small team of us working all day Friday plus most of the club Saturday a.m.  Operating goes 2:00pm Saturday to 2:00pm Sunday.  We'll have two 25'(ish) towers, a couple wire antennas and a vertical.  I think we've got 5 stations planned:  GOTA, CW, Digital, 6Meter and general SSB.  I may camp either Friday or Saturday night and act as the guard dog.  We're setting up on a school's field so I'll be an unarmed guard dog :P .

Three years ago I wasn't proficient enough to help much in the CW tent but I plan on spending a lot of time there this year.  Also, even though I own a SignaLink box I've hardly used it.  There's a guy in the club who's the total digital modes geek and I plan on sitting next to him a lot.

I'll bring my 1 pound station with MTR, battery and antenna just to show off and I'll be wearing my new t-shirt(http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o170/cockpitbob/qrp1a_dark_tshirt_zpsgcskxc7k.jpg) (http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o170/cockpitbob/qrp1a_dark_tshirt_zpsgcskxc7k.jpg)
Title: Re: Field Day: What to expect?
Post by: RichardSinFWTX on June 23, 2015, 10:35:05 AM
LOL!!!  Where'd you get that shirt, Bob?  I gotta get me one of those!
Title: Re: Field Day: What to expect?
Post by: Jim Boswell on June 23, 2015, 10:58:43 AM
Great Shirt! This year I am the ramrod for the Socorro NM club. The club will be working 2A with 2 stations and a GOTA run by the new hams. In addition to providing most of the equipment I will also be the head cook. Contesting is not my thing so I do set-up and planning.
For me Field Day is a social event, the family reunion of amateur radio. This will be the 39th Field Day I have worked on. For years I have wanted to do Field Day out on my pontoon boat, this year the boat has a locked-up motor, so field day with the club.
One station will use a 40//80 inverted Vee antenna and the other station will use a Cushcraft A5. I will bring my TenTec Paragon and the Icom 7200, add a MFJ tunner and a laptop for logging. The GOTA station will use a TS-660 and work 6 meter SSB and FM and do some 10 meter work with a inverted Vee. A lot of work to get all that gear loaded and ready. My pick-up will be loaded to the gills with tower, rotator, antennas, gas grill, tables, chairs, ice boxes, food, drinks, batteries, coax, laptop and radios. 73'S  KA5SIW
Title: Re: Field Day: What to expect?
Post by: cockpitbob on June 23, 2015, 11:36:06 AM
Quote from: RichardSinFWTX on June 23, 2015, 10:35:05 AM
LOL!!!  Where'd you get that shirt, Bob?  I gotta get me one of those!

Cafe Press (http://www.cafepress.com/+qrp+t-shirts) has a ton of specialty t-shirts, hoodies, golf shirts, etc.

I also got this on eBay last year but can't find where to buy them now.
The tower mounted Yagis don't fit with QRP  ::)
(http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o170/cockpitbob/ac6f49ddeb6ef4b93f335176451e6958_zpsbtbmzan3.jpg) (http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o170/cockpitbob/ac6f49ddeb6ef4b93f335176451e6958_zpsbtbmzan3.jpg)
Title: Re: Field Day: What to expect?
Post by: gil on June 23, 2015, 04:19:35 PM
Darn, I had no idea it was next week-end. I'll have to sign-in the local net tomorrow to see if maybe I can participate, though I sure won't be contesting, just demonstrate..

Gil.
Title: Re: Field Day: What to expect?
Post by: cockpitbob on June 23, 2015, 04:44:08 PM
Most of the bands are going to be a mess from 14:00 Saturday until 14:00 Sunday.  At least they stay off of 12, 17, 30 and 60 Meters during FD.
Title: Re: Field Day: What to expect?
Post by: RichardSinFWTX on June 23, 2015, 04:44:50 PM
Yeah, my club is trying to regulate stuff way too much and taking all the fun out of it.  I'm going to go out there and socialize until I get too hot then I'll call it a day.  I'm not even bringing any of my toys this year. 

Some of us are talking about maybe doing our own thing next year if this proves to be a bust.
Title: Re: Field Day: What to expect?
Post by: RichardSinFWTX on June 23, 2015, 04:53:33 PM
Quote from: RadioRay on June 27, 2014, 08:52:38 PM
(http://files.qrz.com/a/w7asa/KX_1_TFR.jpg)




Ray, tell me about that box!  It looks like exactly what I'm looking for to house my QRP-Labs Ultimate3S WSPR beacon kit!

That looks awesome!

Title: Re: Field Day: What to expect?
Post by: madball13 on June 24, 2015, 05:58:46 AM
Bob,
I plan to head over to the location Saturday night. Are you going to be around?
Title: Re: Field Day: What to expect?
Post by: cockpitbob on June 24, 2015, 09:43:46 AM
Matt,
Probably.  I'm working all day Friday and plan to spend a lot of time there Saturday but don't have a fixed schedule.  I'll try to be sure I'm there in the evening.
Title: Re: Field Day: What to expect?
Post by: madball13 on June 25, 2015, 11:16:26 AM
Quote from: cockpitbob on June 24, 2015, 09:43:46 AM
Matt,
Probably.  I'm working all day Friday and plan to spend a lot of time there Saturday but don't have a fixed schedule.  I'll try to be sure I'm there in the evening.

Not going to make it now. Wife has an event with friends.
Title: Re: Field Day: What to expect?
Post by: KD9EBR on June 29, 2015, 07:41:43 AM
I was stuck at softball with my girls all weekend


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Title: Re: Field Day: What to expect?
Post by: cockpitbob on June 29, 2015, 08:58:06 AM
Difficult Field Day here in MA.  Rain started Saturday night and went all day Sunday.  It got pretty windy at times.  We packed up some stations before the rain but left 2 in a big 4 walled car port tent that was buttoned up pretty tight.  Still, the winds were bad enough that 2 rigs got wet.  They're being dried right now and we'll know tomorrow if there was any damage.  I spent most of my time setting up and tearing down and didn't do much operating.  The most contacts I made were after the rain started at about 9:00 when I retreated to my car and operated CW from the front seat.

But, Field Day did its job.  We set up, made contacts, dealt with problems and learned.  If it was an easy, fun FD we wouldn't have learned much.
Title: Re: Field Day: What to expect?
Post by: madball13 on June 29, 2015, 09:32:29 AM
Quote from: cockpitbob on June 29, 2015, 08:58:06 AM
Difficult Field Day here in MA.  Rain started Saturday night and went all day Sunday.  It got pretty windy at times.  We packed up some stations before the rain but left 2 in a big 4 walled car port tent that was buttoned up pretty tight.  Still, the winds were bad enough that 2 rigs got wet.  They're being dried right now and we'll know tomorrow if there was any damage.  I spent most of my time setting up and tearing down and didn't do much operating.  The most contacts I made were after the rain started at about 9:00 when I retreated to my car and operated CW from the front seat.

But, Field Day did its job.  We set up, made contacts, dealt with problems and learned.  If it was an easy, fun FD we wouldn't have learned much.

Bob,
I was on my way out there Saturday night but i turned around after talking to Hank on the repeater and he told me they were stopping operations.
Title: Re: Field Day: What to expect?
Post by: cockpitbob on June 29, 2015, 10:01:24 AM
Small turn-out of club members too.  Set-up Friday was tough with so few people and everyone but me and a 14 year old kid (Evan) were well over 60 years old.  That 20' car port took about 2 hours to get fully erected with lights strung from the ceiling.  Finishing setup Saturday a.m. wasn't a lot better.   By Saturday p.m. I was tired enough that I was forcing myself to operate.

Oh yeah, we also had smoke in the emm comm trailer.  A flourescent light ballast failed.  No open flames or damage, but it got our attention real quick.
Title: Re: Field Day: What to expect?
Post by: cockpitbob on June 24, 2016, 09:46:28 AM
It's that time of year again.  Field Day is this weekend from 18:00utc Saturday to 21:00utc Sunday.

The local club got a little tired of setting up tents and generators out in a field, getting rained on and tents blown away, so they are holding it right at their clubhouse.  It won't be as good a test of emergency preparedness, but they've done a ton of that and don't have a lot more to learn from their usual Field Day setup. Being at the club house will also cost them Field Day contest points, but they've never been into that.  This year it's going to basically be a ham radio bbq party. :D 8)

Fortunately for Gil, the bands have really been sucking lately so maybe we won't be polluting Europe's airwaves too much.
Title: Re: Field Day: What to expect?
Post by: RichardSinFWTX on June 24, 2016, 09:57:58 AM
I'm going to my club's usual campsite at one of the Corps of Engineers recreational areas.  My best friend just retired from the Army last week so he's gonna come out and hang with me and drink while I "play with my radio".  I'll be on 20m using my club call, W5SH.
Title: Re: Field Day: What to expect?
Post by: cockpitbob on June 24, 2016, 10:00:14 AM
W1GLO for the Gloucester, MA club.  This year I'm going to try to get trained-up on the PSK rig.  I've never really done digital and we've got some club members that only do digital.  Great learning opportunity.
Title: Re: Field Day: What to expect?
Post by: RichardSinFWTX on June 24, 2016, 10:07:56 AM
Ours is more of a social gathering.  We work some contacts, shoot the breeze, sneak a sip from a frosty (read "adult") beverage, repeat.  For some reason people like my rig and gravitate over to it and I spend a good bit of the time doing a "Dog and Pony Show", which I'm perfectly fine with.  I usually get them to sit and work a few stations when I need a break.

I'll listen for some of you guys this weekend.  If anyone is from LA, NM, OK or NE I'll work ya with my own call too so I can finish up my Worked All States.

Have a good weekend, y'all.
Title: Re: Field Day: What to expect?
Post by: gil on June 24, 2016, 03:02:32 PM
QuoteFortunately for Gil, the bands have really been sucking lately so maybe we won't be polluting Europe's airwaves too much.

Well, I wish I would hear something right now, anything! Never seen the bands so dead before.. I'm in my living room right now with the RT-320 set to 14285... Not a peep, nothing on 14300 either. I'd like to get a few contacts on field day, just to test the radio. I had one QSO with a station in Portugal on 3W, but I'd like a few more audio reports.

Sunday I might take the MTR out, if the propagation improves.

Gil.
Title: Re: Field Day: What to expect?
Post by: cockpitbob on June 26, 2016, 09:04:47 AM
I spent most of yesterday at the club's Field Day operation.  I finally got to sit at a digital station and get trained-up on PSK by an expert.  One of our club members holds more country awards for PSK than anyone else.  Sitting there watching a waterfall and clicking macros isn't really my cup of tea, but it's something I should probably know.  I do want email ability (RMSexpress/Winmore).  I didn't get to try it, but I've got a handful on notes, so that's next on my ham learning journey.

BTW, the bands really did suck yesterday.  In 30 minutes I was able to make 1 PSK contact.  It was frustrating watching the CQs start solid and fade out before they even finished.  Lots of background noise with everyone trying and no one getting through due to the bands and noise.
Title: Re: Field Day: What to expect?
Post by: vwflyer on June 26, 2016, 05:23:00 PM
I have yet to really participate in field day. I think I participated more this year than any other year. Last night and this morning I found a few minutes to get on the air at my home QTH. I perhaps have a grand total of one hour field day time now. I just wanted to see if anybody could hear the 4 watts radiating from the wire attached to my YouKits HB1B in the midst of all that mayhem. In all, I made about eight contacts. My strategy was to tune around the bands until I found a moderately strong signal, more or less in the clear, calling CQ FD. I would then answer him and eight times out of ten I was heard. Nobody was handing out signal reports and I had to repeat myself for a couple of them but considering the poor band condition and the QRM I think that this little test was quit successful. I'm proud of my HB1B.
Title: Re: Field Day: What to expect?
Post by: vwflyer on June 26, 2016, 07:45:53 PM
QuoteSitting there watching a waterfall and clicking macros isn't really my cup of tea, but it's something I should probably know.

PSK31, being a pretty good mode for DX has way too much macro clicking in my humble opinion, and I totally agree, not too fun. Sometimes though I'm successful in getting a good rag chew going and it's a lot of fun. All you have to do is type in a question about his brag list instead of hit the macro for "FB TNX FOR QSO ES 73" macro. Usually the other guy will say that it's been forever since he rag chewed on PSK and that he greatly enjoyed it too.

My brother still has not learned CW and so we have found that PSK31 is the best way for us to chat since propagation rarely is good enough for us to have a SSB phone chat.

I do like having the ability to send and receive email with winmore. Without it I have to relay messages through a ham who I don't know and hope he copies everything down correctly. With winmore I can send a message directly to the person who needs the message even though he isn't a ham. For example, if an earthquake takes out my neck of the woods and all commercial communication goes down, my family in washington will want to know if we survived or not and sending them a direct email is the most sure and efficient way of doing that.
I am trying to figure out how to auto-forward my emails from my gmail account to my winmore account based on their size. I want to be able to send only the small (text only) emails to winmore so that I can check my gmail emails via winmore while I'm out camping and away from cel coverage. So far I haven't figured out how to do it.
Title: Re: Field Day: What to expect?
Post by: Quietguy on June 26, 2016, 11:18:16 PM
Quote from: vwflyer on June 26, 2016, 07:45:53 PMI am trying to figure out how to auto-forward my emails from my gmail account to my winmore account based on their size.
I have not researched this, but I'm going to guess that you can't.  Or, at least if the WL2K people see that you are doing it they might disable your account.  It would be very easy to break the no-commercial traffic ham rule with an auto-forward setup.  One forwarded advertising message would put you and the WL2K team in violation of FCC rules.  I believe the FCC still holds the entrance node to WL2K network responsible for enforcing all rules.

Wally
Title: Re: Field Day: What to expect?
Post by: RadioRay on June 27, 2016, 12:17:43 AM
When I was a fulltime sailor, I used a commercial service called 'SailMail'. It required my marine HF license and was a paid service.  It used PACTOR II/III.  Being a commercial/non-ham service, there were never contests, and content/encryption was totally user choice. So, WINLINK was for some things and SailMail was for anything else.

BTW - the Marine HF license are no test and after filling outhte e-forms on the FCC website and paying my fee $180 at that time, I had my call sign on their website within 3 days.  It may have been there earlier, but I never thought to look so early. If we had HF Land Mobile licensing like many other countries, I'd do that, now that I live ashore.


73 de Ray  ..._  ._
Title: Re: Field Day: What to expect?
Post by: vwflyer on June 27, 2016, 12:33:24 AM
QuoteI have not researched this, but I'm going to guess that you can't

You're probably right. As my gmail account is a personal account an not used for business uses I figured I could probably keep out the junk mail (especially since the size restriction would filter out anything with images) and keep from busting any regs but, WL2K I'm sure would have no faith in my measures and not allow it.
Title: Re: Field Day: What to expect?
Post by: vwflyer on June 27, 2016, 12:50:07 AM
QuoteIf we had HF Land Mobile licensing like many other countries, I'd do that, now that I live ashore.
We used to pay for that type of HF license in Mexico but it was quite a bit pricier than $180 annually. The price was one reason we abondoned HF once everyone got satellite internet.
In Brazil we are still using HF in some villages but due to the frequencies assigned by the government (none higher than 8 Mhz) some of the further villages are struggling to make reliable contacts. I'm going to look into helping them set up a trial digital station to see if they can improve their success rate that way.
Title: Re: Field Day: What to expect?
Post by: NCGunDude on June 27, 2016, 04:29:18 PM
Our club had a great field day, IMO. We were a 2 station site, plus 6m. My Icom 7200 was used for 6m, we had a Harris RF 3200 for HF, a CW and a digital stations.

The CW and digital stations split time on the air, although next year we'll probably go with 3 stations, HF, digital and CW.

We worked 20m and 40m during the day and evening, 80m in the early morning. 3.5 hours of sleep and I feel great! It was worth every minute. We made mostly Eastern US contacts pushing as far west as the Rockies. A few West Coast and European, and lots of CAN and Latin American contacts.

This was my first field day as a participant, 3rd since I've been licensed. Couldn't have been a better weekend, but no band openings that we could tell. Our 6m contacts were local.

73
Title: Re: Field Day: What to expect?
Post by: Pirate96 on June 29, 2016, 12:23:01 PM
Always have fun getting set up for field day. Got to try out a new way to shoot wire antennas into the air.

We did log some 10m contacts Sunday morning.

And yes we cooked a whole hog and had live music.  Got to see a nice Go Box with solar panels at the event
Title: Re: Field Day: What to expect?
Post by: gil on June 29, 2016, 01:55:45 PM
Hello,

I use a slingshot, fishing weight and line.. Works like a charm.

Gil
Title: Re: Field Day: What to expect?
Post by: cockpitbob on June 29, 2016, 04:13:16 PM
Getting wires up in the trees is always fun.  Bow and arrow, slingshot and fishing reel and of course the tennis ball air-cannon.  On another forum a guy was describing his Field Day fun with a bow.  They lost 2 arrows in the tree.  Had the line snag after shooting which jerked the arrow back at them.  It landed 5' from their feet :o.  He said in winter there should be a visible canopy of lines in that tree  ::) ???   Well, I guess that's what Field Day is for; learning.
Title: Re: Field Day: What to expect?
Post by: vwflyer on June 29, 2016, 06:43:52 PM
QuoteI use a slingshot, fishing weight and line.. Works like a charm.
Gil, I assume you use a real with that line. I've tried shooting fishing line without a real and I just made a mess of things.
Title: Re: Field Day: What to expect?
Post by: cockpitbob on June 29, 2016, 07:27:39 PM
Quote from: vwflyer on June 29, 2016, 06:43:52 PM
QuoteI use a slingshot, fishing weight and line.. Works like a charm.
Gil, I assume you use a real with that line. I've tried shooting fishing line without a real and I just made a mess of things.
I have a fishing reel attached to the wrist bar of my slingshot with little hose clamps.  So long as I play out about 6' of line before shooting, and the line doesn't snag on anything, I can get a 1oz weight over a 70' tree.  Then I use the fishing line to pull a heavier line back over the tree.  I should try a 2oz weight.  There's been a couple times where the weight wasn't heavy enough to pull the line all the way down to the ground.
Title: Re: Field Day: What to expect?
Post by: vwflyer on June 29, 2016, 08:32:03 PM
I think I need to buy a fishing reel:)
Title: Re: Field Day: What to expect?
Post by: gil on June 30, 2016, 03:22:29 AM
Hello,

I put the spool of fishing line on my pinky finger; it works, but not always without trouble... A cheap reel would indeed be much better...

Gil.
Title: Re: Field Day: What to expect?
Post by: Rescue9 on July 03, 2016, 11:26:20 AM
One trick I use is the type of line. Don't use monofilament. Buy some good heavy weight spiderwire threads. It doesn't hold the spool shape and doesn't tangle nearly as bad as mono. I just lay the spool beneath the tree, have a 1.5 oz weight on the end, and let her fly. The spiderwire feeds off the spool nicely and when I pull it out of the tree I can just let it lay on the ground without having to worry about it coiling into a ball.
Title: Re: Field Day: What to expect?
Post by: cockpitbob on July 03, 2016, 03:14:13 PM
+1 for suggesting Spiderwire.  I've been using 15lb mono and it's desire to roll up into a ball or jump off the fishing reel's spool drives me nuts.  Spiderwire also comes in high visibility orange.  That fixes another problem I have.