Due to safety concerns for the receding COVID19 pandemic, FARS did NOT organize our usual group activity for Field Day 2021. The ARRL made a couple of small modifications to the rules to make it more practical to participate in Field Day under these restrictions. One change allows home stations to make points contacting other home stations. Here is the rule waiver:

1) For Field Day 2021 only, Class D stations may work all other Field Day stations, including other Class D stations, for points.

Additionally, they are allowing multiple stations, operating at different locations to aggregate their scores together under the banner of a radio club to produce a club score. Here is the waver for this:

2) In addition, for 2021 only, an aggregate club score will be published, which will be the sum of all individual entries indicating a specific club (similar to the aggregate score totals used in ARRL affiliated club competitions).

FARS asked our members to operate their own individual stations to make contacts for themselves and to report their scores as part of the FARS effort to provide a FARS Field Day result. The main goal was to enable everyone participate as much as they are able with the limitations in effect.

Due to vaccinations and lower infection rates, FARS felt that i would be safe to operate field day in small groups as long as appropriate precautions were taken.

Each FARS member was encouraged to participate in Field Day using his/her own station with his/her own radio call sign and radio privileges to operate and score contacts. If you used your home station, or any permanent station, your station category would be nD where n is the number of operators. For most stations n is 1. If you use emergency power at home, you would be category 1E, or perhaps 2E if you have a second family member operating the station.

If you operated as a small group under field conditions, you might have used a group call sign (the call sign of one member of the group). You might also have operated in the “B” category (one or two persons), or “A” category (more than two persons).

If your amateur license did not allow for HF operation (or you didn’t have the equipment), you could still make contacts on the VHF and UHF bands. There was an effort to encourage stations to operate Field Day on these bands, so there should have been a good number of stations on air. You could operate VHF/UHF FM using the available simplex frequencies. You could operate other modes, including SSB, Digital, SSTV, etc. You should avoid parts of these bands assigned to repeaters and other uses, but all the simplex frequencies are available except for the calling frequencies (146.52MHz, 446.00MHz). Be sure to adhere to the appropriate band segments for each mode. There are more details in the Field Day rules.

Stations should exchange their station category and their location (eg. SCV for Santa Clara Valley) when making contacts.

Here is an abbreviated list of station categories:

Class	Description
Class A	Club/non-club portable. Three or more people.
Class B	Like Class A, but limited to one or two person portable
Class C	Mobile - stations in vehicles capable of operating while moving
Class D	Home Stations - permanent or licensed locations on commercial power
Class E	Home Stations - Like Class D, but on emergency power
Class F	Emergency Operations Centers (EOC)

Most stations should use Class “1D,” when using your home station. If you use emergency power at your home station you are 1E. If you go to another location and set up a temporary station, you are class 1B for one or two people. If you have three or more operators, you are Class 1A. If a class 1B station uses battery power, you are “1B - battery.” There is a link to the full rules on the FARS Field Day page.

Some Field Day Resources

Field Day Logging on Paper

It's perfectly reasonable to log field day contacts on paper. You just need to capture the information required. A proper log book makes it easier, but you can create columns on a sheet of paper. You need the date, time, freq/band (approximate is okay), mode (SSB, CW, PSK, etc.), call sign, class (eg. “1D”), and Section (eg “SCV”). Note if times are local or UTC.

Here's an example:

Date	Time	Mode	Band/Freq	Call Sign	Class	Section
6/27	1800	SSB	7.200	XX5XX	1E	WTX
6/27	1802	SSB	7.200	XX0XY	2A	CO

Once the contest is over, you may want to type up your contest log.

Logging Software for Field Day

Free logging software. If you just use it for logging and don't try to set up the rig/radio interface, they are not difficult to set up. Logging software can ease the logging process and provide some benefits such as duplicate checking.

Most of these program can produce a Cabrillo format log file that the ARRL prefers for submitting Field Day logs. There is an example further down this page.

Name	Platform	Description
WriteLog Demo Free Version	Windows Vista	This is a fully functioning version of WriteLog but restricted to a few contests, including Field Day. Runs on Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10. This version is free. You need to provide your call sign to receive the download link and a key to activate the software.
N1MM Logger+ (Freeware)	Windows	Supports a number of radio contests including Field Day and it’s free.
Skookum Logger (Freeware)	MacOS 10.11	Supports a number of radio contests including Field Day and it’s free.

Sample Cabrillo Log File

Here is a sample Cabrillo Log file. Note the CALLSIGN line contains the station call sign and the OPERATORS line lists the operator(s) of the station. The QSO line is repeated for each contact. This sample lists two contacts. The fields are:

• Freq
• Mode
• Date
• Time
• Your Station (K6YA)
• Your Class (1D)
• Your Section (SCV)
• Contact Call
• Contact Class
• Contact Section

This file is constructed as a simple text file, so it can be edited with simple text editors like wordpad and notepad if needed.

K6YA-FD-2020.log

START-OF-LOG: 3.0
LOCATION: SCV
CALLSIGN: K6YA
CLUB: Foothills Amateur Radio Society
CONTEST: ARRL-FIELD-DAY
CATEGORY-OPERATOR: SINGLE-OP
CATEGORY-ASSISTED: NON-ASSISTED
CATEGORY-BAND: ALL
CATEGORY-MODE: MIXED
CATEGORY-POWER: HIGH
CATEGORY-STATION: FIXED
CATEGORY-TRANSMITTER: ONE
CLAIMED-SCORE: 1
OPERATORS: K6YA
NAME: FARS
ADDRESS: 
ADDRESS-CITY: Campbell
ADDRESS-STATE-PROVINCE: CA
ADDRESS-POSTALCODE: 95008
ADDRESS-COUNTRY: usa
EMAIL:  
CREATED-BY: N1MM Logger+ 1.0.7711.0
QSO: 14200 PH 2020-06-25 0155 K6YA         1D     SCV XX1XX         1F   WTX
QSO: 14200 PH 2020-06-25 0155 K6YA         1D     SCV XX1XY         1D   OR
END-OF-LOG:

	

Contact FARS Members on air for Help

Call Sign	Output Freq.	Offset	CTCSS (PL)	Links
W6ASH	440.800	+600 KHz	100 Hz	[none]

FARS Group Score - Submit your Field Day Report

When submitting Field Day reports, list “K6YA Foothills Amateur Radio Society” as your “group” or “club” so the report for FARS includes your contact total in our group total.

You can view the log of Field Day Entries Received. Search for “K6YA” on the page to find others FARS member field day submissions.

Field Day for Technician Class Licensees

Those who have a Technician Class Amateur Radio License can work Field Day on VHF. There is an effort this year to encourage stations to operate Field Day on VHF to encourage participation by hams without HF privileges. We expect most of the activity to be near, or on, 146.520. Please avoid using frequencies reserved for repeaters, SSB, weak signals, etc.

You can also work SSB on VHF if you the equipment for this mode. Use 144.200 MHz SSB on 2 meters VHF, and 432.100 MHz SSB on 70 centimeters UHF.