Field Day

2019 Field Day: June 22-23 site is the west side of Jackson Cross Mall behind Sears Auto Center We decided to have 2-3 HF stations–HF CW, phone and digital stations. A QRP station will be available as well. Tear down will begin at 12 Noon Sunday.

C.A.R.S. Field Day Schedule

The purpose of Field Day is to demonstrate the communications ability of the amateur radio community in simulated emergency situations. Field Day is an opportunity for us to practice setting up our emergency radio equipment, to practice communication skills, educate the community about us, and to have fun using our radios. Field Day is always the last full weekend in June. This year Field Day weekend is June 22-23. Field Day is an event for all radio operators in the US, Canada, Mexico and all countries within IARU Region 2. The American Radio Relay League (ARRL), the national organization for Amateur Radio operators and affiliated clubs, sponsors Field Day and provides rules/guidelines for the activity. (www.arrl.org/contests/announcements/fd) One of the major guidelines for Field Day is to set up operations in a place where the public can observe the operators and the equipment in action.

Field Day will begin with an optional breakfast at the Crackle Barrel at 8:00 AM. Shortly after 9:30 AM setup will begin at the designated location.

What we do during Field Day:

Radio operation during Field Day is defined as 24 hours of continuous radio operation starting at 2:00 PM local time on Saturday and ending at 12:00 PM on Sunday. We begin setting up our equipment shortly after 10:00 a.m. local time. Setup includes erecting 3 antennas covering the frequencies we intend to operate on and cabling the power and antennas to our radio equipment. Once the equipment setup is completed, we operate our radios for the 22 hour period. We typically contact states and Canadian provinces from the east coast all the way through to the Rocky Mountain area. If conditions are favorable we will contact California and other west coast states and on rare occasions, Alaska. We stop radio operations at the end of the 22 hour period (12 Noon Sunday) and take down the equipment that has been set up. One of our mottos is to “leave the area cleaner than when we started”. Typically, we have completed teardown and packing of the equipment by 3:00 p.m.