Field Days

July 25th and 26th, 2011

2011 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 27-28. 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.

Again Field Day will be at the Napoleon Township Offices grounds. The grass area to the west of the office and
fire station building will be where CARS will set up and operate for Field Day. The Township has graciously
agreed to this use.

What we do during Field Day
Radio operation during Field Day is defined as 24 hours of continuous radio operation starting at 2:00 p.m.
local time on Saturday and ending at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday. We begin setting up our equipment at 9:00 a.m.
local time. Equipment setup consists of erecting a 10'x20' canvas carport for light shelter from the sun/rain,
erecting 3 antennas covering the frequencies we intend to operate on, setup up emergency power (gas
generator) and cabling the power and antennas to our radio equipment. Once the equipment setup is
completed, we operate our radios for the 24 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 24 hour period 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 6:00 p.m.