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'Field Day' is an annual amateur radio exercise sponsored by the American Radio Relay League which encourages emergency communications preparedness. It typically is the largest single emergency preparedness exercise in the country with over 30,000 ham radio operators participating each year.
Since the first Field Day in 1933, Amateur radio operators throughout the United States have practiced the rapid deployment of radio communications equipment in environments ranging from operations under tents in remote areas to operations inside Emergency Operations Centers (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 each participant's operations, there is an integrated contesting component and many clubs also engage in associated fun activities of camping out and having cookouts for the participants. Operations are typically for a continuous 24 hours requiring the scheduling of relief operators to keep the stations going through the night. Additional contest points are awarded for such things as experimenting with unusual modes, making contacts through space satellites and involving youth in the activity.
In the Western Hemisphere the ARRL Field Day is held annually the fourth full weekend in June (June 23-24 in 2007). The IARU Region 1 sponsors an Amateur Radio Field Day for Europe , and other national Amateur Radio societies sponsor them in other countries.

Contents

Emergency preparedness

Contest Activity and Rules

Promotion of amateur radio

External links

Emergency preparedness

Field Day stresses emergency preparedness. Frequently, entire radio clubs get involved and assemble a portable radio station in a field or park. Some might use quickly deployable portable antennas while other might erect more elaborate radio masts and towers supporting several antennas. Generators or solar power provide electricity to amateur radio transceivers, which may be located in tents, recreational vehicles, or other portable shelters.

Contest Activity and Rules

The contest aspect of a Field Day operating event is to contact as many stations as possible in the given time period (24 hours during a weekend, if setup commences before the contest starts, or 27 hours if setup commences at contest start time) using the portable station. Each station will information with other participating stations. For the North American Field Day, the exchange consists of the station call sign, the name of the ARRL-recognized section from which the station is operating, and a class designator which indicats the number of transmitters concurrently used at the station and information about the type of electrical power source being used. The contest portion of Field Day has two purposes. The primary purpose is to demonstrate the group's ability to plan operations that can be effective for an entire 24 hour period, including operator endurance plus adequate numbers of operators for a shift operation. The secondary portion is to demonstrate the technical proficiency of the station that has been hastily constructed for the purpose; in theory a better station will be capable of emergency operations in more dire conditions. Such a station will also be capable of making more contacts during the contest portion of Field Day.
The rules governing this activity are published by the sponsor of the particular Field Day exercise.

Promotion of amateur radio

Field Day is frequently used to attract significant publicity for amateur radio, and some clubs will demonstrate a wide range of technologies, including single sideband voice, Morse code, and digital modes such as APRS or packet radio, and satellite communications.

External links

★ ARRL Field Day

★ IARU Region 1 Field Day