Field Notes

I like to write stuff down. Pen (or pencil) & paper. The way it's been done since the Egyptians started the fad over 3,000 years ago. I simply don't buy into recording casual notes on electronic media. I sit in meetings and watch people poking and swiping on their tablets or phones, yet not really paying attention to the topics under discussion. The technology gets in the way. 

My wife and kids tell me that, having ridden this rock around the Sun for over 68 years, I'm something of a luddite, set in my ways, too old to change, blah, blah, blah. For the record, these are the same wife and kids who come to me for tech support when they forget how to turn on their tablets or can't get the printer to work. Anyone who's read this blog knows I'm not against technology. Far from it. But, having ridden this rock for so long, I'm able to identify situations where old school technology is a better fit than new school technology.

Taking notes in the field, particularly when operating radios in the field, is one of those situations.

Background. I 'grew up' in the Army, where, as a leader, you wrote everything down. My niche job in the Army - surveying & mapping - took writing things down to extremes. Surveyors, both civilian and military, are obsessive about field notes. Field notes form the legal description of the survey. Whether we're talking about accurately locating a road centerline that will run through a subdivision, or the location of a missile launch site, there's a huge price to be paid if the data isn't accurate. Surveyors write everything down, in a specific format, with clarity, precision and accuracy (and without erasures). Hand written field notes done by experienced surveyors can be important historical documents, and many states retain libraries of survey notebooks as the foundational legal records of property boundaries and ownership. I internalized the surveyor's mindset, and still follow it today.

I'm not implying that scribbling down POTA contacts while you are working a pile-up is the same as a surveyor making careful field notes. What I am saying is that, in my experience, the foundational technology - pen or pencil, and paper - is often a better logging tool than a computer-based logging system. In fact, I know a lot of experienced field operators who record the contacts first on paper, then go back later and fill out the digital log. 

This post won't cover how to log on paper - everyone has their own way of doing it. But I will discuss some of the tools. Many will say, "Hey, it's just paper and pen or pencil, what's the big deal?" Well OK, but I'm a paper, pencil and pen geek, so obviously we're going to dive down the rabbit hole. Let's go! 

First, the paper part. I have yet to use a regular office supply store notebook that didn't become a semi-soggy mess while operating outdoors. Here in the southeast, where the summer humidity can reach 90% on a dry day, a regular notebook can quickly become unusable, particularly if you are using a ball-point pen, or a pencil with hard lead. The moisture in the paper results in a slick surface that doesn't provide enough traction to let the ink or lead flow properly. There are some really good solutions to this problem. The first is a regular surveyor's notebook. Most surveyor's notebooks are bound, or stitched, but you can also get them spiral bound. They use paper with a high 'rag' content (there's a lot of cotton linen in the paper content) and the pages are given a water resistant coating. This makes them ideal for use in high humidity conditions. While more expensive than a regular school-grade notebook, they really are not that much more expensive, especially if you buy in bulk (remember, you are not buying milk or bread - these notebooks won't go bad just sitting around for a few months, or years, waiting to be used). Surveyor's notebooks come in several different layouts, based on the type of survey activity they record. I recommend what's called a 'level book'. This has all pages laid out in columns and rows. If  you get a survey 'field book', it will likely come with facing pages showing separate layouts - the left hand page is lined for notes, and the right hand page is set up in a grid pattern for field sketches. This layout can work for ham radio logging, it's just not as convenient.

Three very common notebooks under consideration. The Elan E64 spiral bound, the Rite-in-the-Rain field book, 
and the Elan E64 bound level book. 
Elan Publishing is a major manufacturer of field books, and many are sold under private brand labels.
It's safe to say that if you spot a surveyor making notes in a field notebook, the book was made by Elan,
regardless of the name on the cover.  All of them use water resistant paper,
but Rite-in-the-Rain takes it a step further by applying an additional waterproof coating.
Any of these will do just fine in a field environment, and all are readily available from Amazon

Personally I like the spiral bound books for field logging. They lay flat, and if I need to tear out a page to hand over to another operator (who may not have brought something to write on) it's a lot easier and neater to do than trying to tear a page from a bound notebook. You can also get loose-leaf pages for use in 3-ring binders, but I don't like those because trying to 'reach' across the binder rings while writing is a pain.

Notebook page layouts. The Rite-in-the-Rain notebook is at the top, the Elan 64 spiral bound
at the bottom, and the Elan hard bound on the right. The Elan 64 spiral bound is a great option, except
for the layout (notes on the left, gridded for field drawings on the right). The Elan hard bound
on the right is great, but it's hard to tear pages out of. For this reason I tend to go with the
Rite-in-the-Rain notebook

One brand of notebooks I particularly like (although they are more expensive) are the ones made by the Rite-in-the-Rain company out of Tacoma, Washington. The paper they use is more water resistant than anything I've tested, and although the coating and texture can cause issues with some pen inks and pencil leads, if you test beforehand you'll find plenty of pens and pencils that work. We'll discuss more on this in a bit. I don't worry too much if these notebooks get wet, they seem to dry out just fine.

Now on to the writing implements, starting with pens. A good pen needs to be comfortable in the grip, have good, smooth ink flow, but not too much ink flow that it leads to smearing. I'm a southpaw, and this ink smearing thing is a serious issue. In over 50 years of work, I've used an enormous range of pens, from the cheapo Skillcraft ball point pens the Army bought by the truckload (and were actually not too bad), to some elegant A.T. Cross models, to cheap but very nicely performing gel pens, to Fisher Space Pens with their pressurized ink cartridges. Let's look at a few of my favorites.

Want a very good yet inexpensive pen that can be bought at Wal-Mart? Try out the Pilot G-2 gel pen. It doesn't look like a whole lot, but the designers did their homework. The ink flows very smoothly and evenly and the ergonomics are great - the pen feels good in the hand. I always carry a few in my field kit. 

Next up is the Pentel RSVP medium point. While it doesn't feel as good in the hand as the Pilot (it has a narrower and shorter grip), the ink flow is outstanding - noticeably smoother than the Pilot. In fact the ink flows well both under very light pressure, and the 'press hard, you're signing three copies' pressure level. It's really remarkable how good the ink flow is on a relatively inexpensive pen.

Fisher Space Pen/Rite-in-the-Rain. I've written about Fisher & Rite-in-the-Rain on this blog before. Fisher makes the pens that are sold under the Rite-in-the-Rain name, and they feature Fisher's well known pressurized 'space pen' ink cartridges. These pens are renowned for writing under just about any condition, even under water, and the hype is mostly true. They put ink on paper under conditions that have other pens failing to write altogether. The best example are those awful printed receipts you'll get in restaurants, the ones so slick that no pen will leave a mark, and you go looking for a Sharpie. The Fischer ink cartridge can usually tackle that. I own a number of the Rite-in-the-Rain pens (I like the bright orange barreled models - easy to find). They are comfortable to grip, and the ink flows well. Recently though, I bought a Fisher Space Pen branded Zero Gravity model. The barrel is made out of rubber coated brass, and it comes with a medium tip cartridge. The ink flow is excellent. It's easily the most comfortable pen I've held for some time, and it's my new favorite for general purpose writing.

In terms of feel on the paper, the Pentel R.S.V.P. is the clear winner, 
with the Fisher Gravity coming in second. The Pilot G2 is also
very nice, but as we'll see has one major flaw

Here we are with the same pens, but writing on an Rite-in-the-Rain field notebook with water resistant paper.
The Pentel R.S.V.P was the smooth writing winner, with the Fisher Gravity a close second.
The Pilot G2 had a bit of a 'gritty' feel to it as I wrote.
Two of the pens, the Fisher Gravity and the Pilot G2, exhibited ink smearing.
The G2 was obviously the worst. I tested by writing the line, then swiping my
finger lightly over the text. This issue effectively disqualifies the Pilot G2

Same pens & pencil, but writing on an Elan 64 field notebook with water resistant paper. I didn't do 
the smear test here, but I'd expect the same results as above. The Pentel R.S.V.P was still the winner,
the Fisher a close second, and the Rite-in-the-Rain a respectable (in terms of performance) third

 
But, which pen do I take to the field? Except for the Pilot G2, any of these pens would do fine, but I'm going to stick with my Rite-in-the-Rain / Fisher orange bodied model. They are lightweight, rugged, easy to keep track of and the pressurized ink cartridge ensures ink will flow under the conditions I'm most likely to encounter on a field activation. The Fisher Gravity is a very nice pen, but it's an expensive instrument, and my pens have a habit of walking off. For field use, it's Rite-in-the-Rain.

So now we're down to pen vs. pencil. Is there a reason to choose one over the other? Not really, it's all a matter of personal preference. I used to stick strictly to pencils for field notes - again it's a surveyor thing. But over the past few years I've come to prefer the pen, mainly for the visual contrast on the notebook page. I still take pencils to the field, and my decades-long favorite are the classic Pentel P200-series mechanical pencils - the P205 for the 0.5mm lead diameter model, and the P207 for the 0.7mm model. These pencils are very well made, rugged (I have yet to break one), feel good in the hand, and are widely available. Pentel's pencil lead is some of the best available - it doesn't break easily and is smooth on the paper. My current preference is for the 0.7mm diameter lead - it writes really well on water resistant paper.

One last topic. Logging. Like many hams, I've chased awards, high field day scores and other contact-related things in ham radio. And like many hams I've played around with a variety of electronic logging systems - N1MM, Ham Radio Deluxe, Log4OM, etc. I never felt any of them worked all that well for me. I spent more time fussing with the software interface than actually logging contacts. I understand the utility of a computer-based logging system, and for serious contesters and serious 'runners & gunners', they are absolutely necessary. But I enjoy a more leisurely pace on the radio, spinning the dial, grabbing an interesting CQ call, maybe working a few special event stations or helping POTA operators fill their logs. My preferred logging method is good old paper and pencil, using the classic ARRL logbooks. It's slow, it's old-school, but it works great for my operating style. Plus, once a contact is in the paper log, it's there forever. I love flipping back through my logs, seeing what stations and countries I've contacted in the past, what equipment I used, what bands I was on. I've lost an unknown number of contacts to digital logging applications. I can't blame the logging apps, I just did a lousy job of saving out the contacts and archiving them. It's a discipline thing. For this reason, when logging, it's paper and pencil.

For fun, I'm not the only one who dorks out on pens and pencils. There's the always delightful, on point, and over-caffeinated Adam Savage - my brother from another mother...

W8BYH out