Field Day - 2020

A Time to Adapt and Overcome

June 27, 2020 11:00AM Pacific Time
To
June 28, 2019, 10:59AM Pacific Time

(That’s 1800 UTC Saturday to 1759 UTC Sunday, for you purists.)


Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, MDARC will be unable to host its annual Field Day gathering, held at Heather Farm Park the last several years. But that doesn’t mean Field Day itself is cancelled. 

From our President:
The Covid-19 pandemic has certainly put the kibosh on many of our enjoyable activities and unfortunately, this year’s Field Day is no exception. However, ARRL has responded to the requests of members and spearheaded by Section Managers by making temporary rules changes to allow for individual operations from home stations running with existing antennas and commercial power (Class D) to make points by contacting Class D stations.  Also, a large plus, these temporary rule changes permit individual operators to combine their scores for club competition.  
 Check this link for all the details on how this works:
 
                
The detailed seven-page ARRL 2020 Field Day Rules are at http://www.arrl.org/files/file/Field-Day/2020/1_61-2020%20Rules.pdf).

MDARC will be operating as a club from our individual QTHs as allowed by these ARRL temporary rule changes in which case we will be able to aggregate the scores of all members, BUT we must all use the same club identifier, which in our case will be….
MDARC

Please note that if you do not use MDARC as the identifier in your Log entry, then we will not receive your points.

Although we will not have a group QTH as we have done in the past, this does not preclude individuals acting as private citizens to meet together to participate in Field Day; however, MDARC will not be advertising those QTHs. 

Many of you who have participated in Field Day in prior years may already have Logging software, but for those of us who do not have this software, Jim Siemons, W6LK has provided some Field Day logging software options. You will notice that except for item #1, these are free. 

1. N3FJP Field Day Software, there is a one-time charge for this software of $8.99, but it really is excellent. For PC only

2. N1MM Logger+, free software. For PC only

3. FDLog, free software. For Windows, Mac, Linus, and Python

4. SkookumLogger, free software. For Mac only

In conclusion, we know we are members of a hobby that has a long and proud history of providing emergency communication in many different situations. This pandemic provides us the opportunity to demonstrate that we can operate effectively and safely even during these restrictive times.  

Larry Bradley, KK6QPE
MDARC President

 See the ARRL’s Field Day web page for more information.