Thursday 10 February 2011

Field Day 2011

Well it's that time of year again....when the boys start dreaming of Field Day....antennas, radios and BBQ!!  This week the ARRL brought out this years Field Day Package (Click here) and there does not seem to be many changes to the rules. 

Field Day is the highlight of the year for most hams, 24 hours of non-stop radio, and for some people it can't come soon enough.

One interesting change, shown at the bottom of page 43, is that "Non US stations should be logged as DX".  This statement concerns me on several levels.  Last year the group I "do" Field Day with, when answering CQ Field Day calls, where told that on many occasions that "Field Day was for Americans only", and they would not log a contact with us.  This happened on both CW and SSB.  So needless to say the statement on page 43 concerned me somewhat.

In fact it concerned me to the point I contacted Dan Henderson, the ARRL Field Day Manager via email, and asked for an explanation (Dan's email here) of this statement.  Dan came back to me within hours and stated that "The wording you cite was to instruct people how to log the non ARRL/RAC Field Organization areas.

OK, fair enough.  BUT, we all know that not everyone reads the rules, and those that do this year will read that if you are not a US station, you are considered DX.  Therefore according to what is actually written, Canadian stations will be considered DX which is not the way it is supposed to be.

I went back to Dan and wrote "Perhaps to make things more clear, the statement: 'Non US stations should be logged as DX' should actually read 'Non North American stations should be logged as DX' "  So far I have not had a response to my suggestion, I guess we'll wait and see what happens.

Wednesday 9 February 2011

QSO Parties

Looking for something to do this coming weekend instead of shoveling snow? There are two State QSO Parties this weekend that will keep you busy.

First up is the Louisiana QSO Party. This takes place from 1500Z February 12th to 0300Z February 13th. For the rules, click here.

Then we have the New Hampshire QSO Party from 1600Z February 12th to 0400Z February 13th and 1200Z to 2200Z February 13th. For their rules, click here.

The forecast propagation looks promising for the weekend.  If you hear VE3FCT calling CQ, give me a shout.