Field Day 2011

Field Day is nearly upon us again and we have had to change our plans for this year.  Instead of going to Whispering Pines Scout Camp near Perth, we will be going to Hay Bay to the cottage of Don-VE3MNE.

This year we will operate as a 6A operation covering all bands with SSB, CW stations, as well as an all band Digital station.  This will be the first time in a number of years that we have had that many stations operating on the property.

Antenna wise we will have a 160m OCF, a 80m OCF, a 40m-15m vertical as well as dipoles for 20m, 15m, 10m, and 6m.

Hopefully the SFI will improve so we can get into places we have not been able to over the past few years.  We're also praying for good weather given all the rain we have had this month!

So far we have 8 amateurs lined up to attend so it should be a good time.

Field Day 2011

Well it's that time of year again....when the boys start dreaming of Field Day....antennas, radios and BBQ!!  This week the ARRL brought out this years Field Day Package (Click here) and there does not seem to be many changes to the rules. 

Field Day is the highlight of the year for most hams, 24 hours of non-stop radio, and for some people it can't come soon enough.

One interesting change, shown at the bottom of page 43, is that "Non US stations should be logged as DX".  This statement concerns me on several levels.  Last year the group I "do" Field Day with, when answering CQ Field Day calls, where told that on many occasions that "Field Day was for Americans only", and they would not log a contact with us.  This happened on both CW and SSB.  So needless to say the statement on page 43 concerned me somewhat.

In fact it concerned me to the point I contacted Dan Henderson, the ARRL Field Day Manager via email, and asked for an explanation (Dan's email here) of this statement.  Dan came back to me within hours and stated that "The wording you cite was to instruct people how to log the non ARRL/RAC Field Organization areas.

OK, fair enough.  BUT, we all know that not everyone reads the rules, and those that do this year will read that if you are not a US station, you are considered DX.  Therefore according to what is actually written, Canadian stations will be considered DX which is not the way it is supposed to be.

I went back to Dan and wrote "Perhaps to make things more clear, the statement: 'Non US stations should be logged as DX' should actually read 'Non North American stations should be logged as DX' "  So far I have not had a response to my suggestion, I guess we'll wait and see what happens.