Flooding over the top of the culvert bridge with the 3 ft wide stream out of its banks
Both of the area clubs either canceled or sharply curtailed their Field Day activities when faced with harsh thunderstorms which dropped nearly five inches of rain, causing flooding and spawning at least six tornados in Wisconsin.
As the stream between my house and my workshop hamshack flooded the roads to the hamshack, I decided it wasn’t worth a trip to the hamshack. The culverts beneath the bridge were a foot under water and the water was rushing over the top of the roadway. What usually is a 3 foot wide stream had broken over its banks and was 30 to 60 foot wide. Not to mention that it kept raining.
Somehow doing remote Field Day operations from the house didn’t appeal, and I decided on a “radio free weekend” instead.
Not a huge disappointment given that Field Day is only about the camaraderie for me. The tech-side is easy, but the people side is the “special sauce” I like.
Our dog Scout is wearing a cone to protect the stitches she earned chasing some varmint off the property, and she hung out next to my reading chair while I did a spot of escape reading.
Scout wearing her cone
Finished the latest Jack Reacher adventure novel The Secret and got a goodly way into the latest Matt Bracken Doomsday Reef novel. Recommend both books.
Also caught up on household paperwork.
Naught a QSO in the weekend.
73
Steve
K9ZW
With Varying Frequency - Amateur Radio Ponderings 
Which clubs cancelled or packed it in early?
Sheboygan canceled, Manitowoc (LARSC) canceled outdoors though they opened their club shack at the Armory.
Sheboygan kept the camaraderie part going, meeting for breakfast at Fountain Park (a Sheboygan restaurant).
73
Steve
K9ZW
This is why I can’t take the EmComm stuff seriously from of Manitowoc’s club. We actually had a decent year with W/K (we were in Oak Creek)… The only thing that failed was an antenna switch, and one of the members had a 6-position spare with him. I still need to compile the points but it looks like we had 1277 QSOs.
https://www.qscope.org/public/logs/search_results?usr_login=wt9x&contest_name=WK+Field+Day+2024
I am much less critical, as outside of eagerness to participate the risks outweighed any practice gains. Having done extreme adverse weather field operations (military) outside of breaking stuff and risking injury to participants, I never saw much that was gained.
Short of making a communication that had life or death implications, I certainly wasn’t about to venture out to practice.
“Keep your Powder Dry” was both philosophically and practical considerations.
—
That said the local Emcom capabilities have for many decades been eclipsed by the unorganized “Freecom” independent operators’ aggregate capabilities. There are various reasons for this. In the end there is some Emcom capability despite the headwinds.
That some capability survives enheartens, as by reasonable expectations it could be gone.
That enough individuals have capabilities that offer solid Freecom capabilities is another uplift.
73
Steve
K9ZW
I’m not critical towards all hams about it. It’s a wide hobby and some people just don’t care about operating from the field. I have my opinions on how that impacts their skills and understanding, but regardless, it’s not for everyone.
What I am critical of is clubs that see organized EmComm as the end-all-be-all of ham radio can’t actually do anything other than WinLink and 2m mobile. To me, being able operate HF from a picnic table or a car with a wire and a purchased rig is table takes. Many cannot, and that seems unusually true in the greater Manitowoc area.
Anyway, something maybe for in-person conversations someday.