Field Day
Amateur Radio has an annual event which tests our skills as radio
operators in both a group and an individual setting. Field Day is
sponsored by the American Radio Relay League and is both a contest and
a test of our emergency operating skills. Most who participate gather
in parks or other public places or settings to test their ability to
"operate in the field" under supposed emergency conditions. The
majority participate through their local club or just get an informal
group of friends together, even perhaps in someone's back yard.
Portable equipment ranging from radios to antennas, even generators
take center stage in this effort to make radio contact with as many
participating stations as possible around the country and even
internationally. The last couple of years we have had the door opened
for Canadian stations to come in with us. Nearly every frequency band
allocated to amateur radio and every operating mode is used. These
range from old fashioned, but still thriving CW (Morse Code) to all
modes of voice operations to data operations using computers for things
like slow scan television (Sending pictures over the air) and other
data communications such as RTTY (Radio Teletype). Sending pictures
from a disaster scene could be invaluable.
Field Day is a twenty-four hour event......if you can hold out
that long, and runs during the last full weekend in June. Operations
begin in 2006 on June 24th at 1 p.m. and run until June 25th at 1 p.m.
Central Time. Each contact is worth points based upon the method it was
achieved. Voice contacts which are still the primary method for our
local group count as one point. Morse Code or digital contacts count as
two points each. Other ways to score points are to set up in a public
place, use emergency power only.....this can be lots of things other
than commercial power from your wall socket. There are other ways to
score points, but let it suffice that the main thing is to participate
and contact as many stations as you can. You will learn from the
experience because many times pulling out signals from weaker or more
distant stations can be difficult with all the other stations on the
air. It is as much an art as it is a science. A typical contact will
find the two stations exchanging call signs (Ours is W9MJL), the state
in which the station is operating, how many stations are on the air in
that group and what form of power the stations are running. For example
one station operating on Battery would give the exchange "we are one
Bravo, Illinois" and the contacted station would reciprocate with an
acknowledgement and their own information. After that it is thank you
and good luck in the contest.
Our group like many others make it a social occasion. It is at
times like these that our club, the Vermilion County Amateur Radio
Association, holds a cookout the evening of Field Day and everyone
takes a break for food and lots of it. We have the typical hamburgers
and hot dogs plus whatever side dishes the members bring in. A good
time is had by all, as we cook on a large charcoal grill made by a
member many years ago from an old propane tank. One year we had our
cookout about five p.m. and found ourselves outside again at one a.m.
cooking more burgers and hot dogs on the very same coals.
So Field Day is, to sum up, an opportunity to test our operating
skills in an emergency, a contest with nation-wide and international
implications, and also a social occasion for hams to gather who don't
always get to see each other.
One final note: Field Day has helped train many an amateur
operator for disaster communications such as the aftermath of Hurricane
Katrina and wildfires in the western states such as California. Ham
operators have always been there when disaster strikes to help both
Government agencies and private agencies like Salvation Army and Red
Cross with necessary communication to meet human needs.
Terry Powell, KB9REE
VCARA President
