ARRL Field Day, on the fourth full weekend of June, is 24 hours of emergency-style operating from a temporary station. Roughly 30,000 operators take part. It is scored like a contest but is really a public demonstration and a shakedown of everyone's portable capability.
What a club needs
- A site with space and permission — parks, fairgrounds and fire stations are typical
- Generators or batteries, and shelter
- Antennas that a team can erect in a few hours
- Radios, computers with networked logging, and a band plan for who operates where
- Food, water, shade and a sleeping plan
Bonus points worth chasing
Emergency power, a public location, media publicity, an information table, a Get On The Air station for unlicensed visitors, a satellite contact, youth participation, and submitting the entry on time.
The point
Field Day is where new operators make their first contact, where the club discovers that the coax it stored wet no longer works, and where a passing family asks what all this is — which is why the GOTA station and a good sign matter more than the score.
Related events
Winter Field Day (January), state QSO parties, and Parks on the Air group activations fill the rest of the calendar. See activities and events for hamfests, special event stations and direction finding.