Field Day 2007 Offers a Learning Opportunity for HF Newcomers

CW remains a popular Field Day mode: Dan Sullivan, KO1D, at the Hampden County Radio Association's 2004 Field Day in Granby, Massachusetts. [Rick Lindquist, N1RL, Photo]

NEWINGTON, CT, Mar 12, 2007 -- Although Field Day 2007 is still more than three months away, many ham radio clubs and groups already have begun making plans for this year's event, Saturday and Sunday, June 23-24. Field Day has always been an ideal time for new hams to become more proficient operators and for prospective licensees to get "bitten by the Amateur Radio bug." That may be even more the case during Field Day 2007, as many radio amateurs gain new HF operating privileges because of the rule changes that went into effect February 23.

"This is an opportunity to get new or upgraded licensees on the air for some active mentoring and active learning," says ARRL Regulatory Information Specialist Dan Henderson, N1ND. "Field Day 2007 will be a chance to learn and grow, but above all, it will be a lot of fun -- and for many there is perhaps nothing more fun in ham radio than ARRL Field Day."

The numbers support that claim. Last June, more than 32,500 operators took part in ARRL Field Day -- some as individuals but many more as part of a club or group. The League saw some 2200 Field Day log submissions for the 2006 event, during which nearly 1.24 million completed contacts went into the log -- not a record but up a little from the previous year.

While no longer a licensing requirement, Morse code (CW) remains a very popular Field Day operating mode, perhaps because CW QSOs are worth twice as much as phone contacts. Last year some 56 percent of Field Day contacts took place on SSB, while nearly 42 percent were on CW (the rest were digital contacts).

Henderson points out two small changes in the Field Day rules starting this year. First, participating stations may only complete one satellite contact for bonus points via a single-channel FM-mode spacecraft (Rule 7.3.7.1), and it must be an Earth-satellite-Earth contact. "This will allow more stations to access this very limited resource," he says.

Second, an individual Get-On-The-Air (GOTA) station operators will earn 20 points for each 20 contacts, up to a maximum of 100 per GOTA operator. Henderson notes that no partial point credit is available, and GOTA operators may not "pool" contacts toward any 20-QSO GOTA station bonus.

"Amateur Radio stands at a juncture where we can embrace both the old and new," Henderson says. He notes, too, that the variety of available operating modes -- traditional and experimental -- contributes toward Field Day's status as the most popular annual operating event.

"Field Day is truly the time where we bring Amateur Radio to Main Street USA -- a great time for 'the Bug' to bite as many people as it can," Henderson says. "Use Field Day 2007 to open up Amateur Radio to the next generation of radio amateurs on your Main Street! It's up to us to make it happen."