ARRL Field Day

ARRL Field Day is the single most popular on-the-air event held annually in the US and Canada. On the fourth weekend of June of each year, more than 35,000 radio amateurs gather with their clubs, groups or simply with friends to operate from remote locations.

Field Day is a picnic, a campout, practice for emergencies, an informal contest and, most of all, FUN!

It is a time where many aspects of Amateur Radio come together to highlight our many roles. While some will treat it as a contest, other groups use the opportunity to practice their emergency response capabilities. It is an excellent opportunity to demonstrate Amateur Radio to the organizations that Amateur Radio might serve in an emergency, as well as the general public. For many clubs, ARRL Field Day is one of the highlights of their annual calendar. The contest part is simply to contact as many other stations as possible and to learn to operate our radio gear in abnormal situations and less than optimal conditions.

We use these same skills when we help with events such as marathons and bike-a-thons; fund-raisers such as walk-a-thons; celebrations such as parades; and exhibits at fairs, malls and museums — these are all large, preplanned, non-emergency activities.

But despite the development of very complex, modern communications systems — or maybe because they ARE so complex — ham radio has been called into action again and again to provide communications in crises when it really matters. Amateur Radio people (also called “hams”) are well known for our communications support in real disaster and post-disaster situations.

Field Day in St. John's

June 27th - 28th, SONRA will be setting up the Government of NL's Emergency Command Trailer in the parking lot of the Signal Hill National Historic Site Interpretation Centre. The trailer will be running on generator power for the duration of the event as this is a test of the emergency operations capabilities of our amateur radio club. From here we will have people making contacts across North America and the world, using different modes such as Morse code, voice, and digital modes.

There will be a "Get On The Air" (GOTA) station this year where, with the assistance of a licenced amateur, you yourself can talk directly to someone from as close as here in the province to as far away as Hawaii! The GOTA station is open to people licenced within the past year, inactive hams, or people who are not licenced and wish to try and see what the fun is all about! For more information on what Field Day is, check out the ARRL web site.