RAC Ontario South Director Phil McBride, VA3QR/VA3KPJ, was active for last year’s Field Day 2020 and in the RAC Canada Day Contest. You can follow Phil on his Twitter account.
Field Day 2021: ARRL extends temporary rule waivers
The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) / Radio Amateurs of Canada (RAC) Field Day is held annually during the fourth full weekend in June. This year’s event will be held on Saturday, June 26 and Sunday, June 27, beginning at 1800 UTC Saturday and running through 2059 UTC Sunday.
Sponsored by the ARRL and RAC (but organized primarily by the ARRL), Field Day is open to all Amateur Radio operators covered by these two International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) member organizations.
The COVID-19 pandemic-modified ARRL Field Day rules from 2020 will continue this June with the addition of a power limit imposed on Class D (Home Stations) and Class E (Home Stations-Emergency Power) participants.
For Field Day 2021:
- Class D stations may work all other Field Day stations, including other Class D stations, for points. This year, however, Class D and Class E stations will be limited to 150 W PEP output.
- An aggregate club score will be published — just as it was done last year. The aggregate score will be a sum of all individual entries that attributed their score to that of a specific club.
ARRL Field Day is one of the biggest events on the Amateur Radio calendar. Last summer, a record 10,213 entries were received.
“With the greater flexibility afforded by the rules waivers, individuals and groups will still be able to participate in Field Day, while still staying within any public health recommendations and/or requirements,” Bourque said.
The preferred method of submitting entries after Field Day is via the web applet. The ARRL Field Day rules include instructions on how to submit entries, which must be submitted or postmarked by Tuesday, July 27, 2021.
The ARRL Field Day webpage includes complete rules and entry forms, as well as any updated information as it becomes available. A YouTube describing Field Day and the current challenges is provided below and on the RAC YouTube Channel.
Don’t forget to share your Field Day stories with us!
We would love to hear about your Field Day activities and would be happy to consider them for publication in The Canadian Amateur magazine. Please send them to us by using our online “Members Stories” form or by sending it directly to .
Don’t forget to follow Field Day via Twitter using #ARRLFD and #RACFD and share your stories with RAC on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/radioamateurscdn.
For full Field Day rules and details, please visit the ARRL website. Have fun!
Past Field Days:
We are pleased to include a description and photos of previous Field Days when there were no restrictions about social gatherings. They serve as great reminders of the days to come when we will see the smiling faces of our fellow Amateurs once again.
The above photos are courtesy of the Peel Amateur Radio Club, the Ottawa Amateur Radio Club and the Ottawa Valley Amateur Radio Club.
Peel Amateur Radio Club Field Day 2018
The above photos and the following text are courtesy of the Peel Amateur Radio Club and are being shown here with our thanks:
It turned out to be another very wet Field Day (FD) weekend but that didn’t seem to deter the participants from another successful effort. Including all the contacts and bonus points, we managed to come up with 6,348 points, just slightly above last year’s effort which was good enough to achieve Top Canadian in the 4A category.
Many visitors braved the conditions to come out and observe what we do. Among them were several members from the City of Brampton Emergency Management office as well as Linda Jeffery, the Mayor of Brampton (shown in the blue jacket).
Of particular note was the CW station. They managed to rack up 824 contacts, which looks to be an all time high.
To everyone in the club who participated, whether as an operator, logger or assisting with the setup and take down, we extend a big THANK YOU. None of this could have happened without you. We hope you had a great time and are looking forward to Field Day 2019.
Despite some adverse conditions on Field Day, we still managed to put in another good showing. Our score of 6,348 points earned us the top Canadian position in the 4A category once again. Overall, irrespective of the category, we placed second to VE1LD in the 2A category who had 6,448 points.
Many thanks go out to all who helped make FD a success.
For more information please visit:
https://ve3xr.wordpress.com/2018/06/28/2018-field-day-claimed-score/
https://ve3xr.wordpress.com/2018/11/21/2018-field-day-results/
The following information is courtesy of the Field Day Wikipedia site:
“Field Day is an annual Amateur Radio exercise, widely sponsored by International Amateur Radio Union (IARU regions) and member organizations, encouraging emergency communications preparedness among Amateur Radio operators.
Since the first ARRL Field Day in 1933, Radio Amateurs throughout North America have practised the rapid deployment of radio communications equipment in environments ranging from operations under tents in remote areas to operations inside Emergency Operations Centres (EOCs). Operations using emergency and alternative power sources are highly encouraged, since electricity and other public infrastructures are often among the first to fail during a natural disaster or severe weather.
To determine the effectiveness of the exercise and of each participant’s operations, there is an integrated contesting component, and many clubs also engage in concurrent leisure activities (camping out, cookouts, etc.). Operations typically last a continuous 24 hours, requiring scheduled relief operators to keep stations on the air. Additional contest points are awarded for experimenting with unusual modes, making contacts via satellite, and involving youth in the activity.”