ARRL Field Day: Is it a Contest or Not? The Contest Crew Opines

Not at all:

The 'win' is the experience of operating; being part of a team, and essentially 'doing your own POTA'....

 

Can't disagree with that. Much like a multi-op contest team. Everyone contributes.

 

It's like the POTA people. They don't like their activity called a contest either.

But both operating events have all the characteristics of a contest, right down to the spotter's pages, the competitive chanting, the random appearances where bystanders are operating, etc.

Some years ago I happened to be in my ancestral homeland, and it was FD weekend. As I was driving around, reminiscing, I saw a school athletic field filled with push-up masts, temporary paracord guy lines, and an array of tents, RVs and picnic-style canopies. Of course I knew what it was.

So, incognitio, not identifying myself by calls or as being licensed in the hobby, I stroll up to some of the people setting up. Casually asked how it's going and they said "WE ARE NOT OPEN YET."

Now, they didn't know whether I was a casual passer-by or someone who might have wanted to help them set up. But the bum's rush I felt I got was the antithesis of what the public-facing "Field Day" exposition is supposed to be about.

The head of the club that sponsored that site later responded to my email of concern, asking me to try to describe anyone who talked with me, or others who may have been part of this unsavory reception. That wasn't my intent, to rat out anyone.

It was his responsibility, as it is with all such organized operating sites on Field Day, to be prepared to offer a friendly reception to anyone who comes by. This group failed miserably.

 

Contest or not, it is competitive and the stress of competition is the forge where skills are honed imo.

Operator and team development have been the primary goals for FD & WFD for our club these past several years and we have been rewarded handsomely.

Here are our goals for FD 2024:
–Demonstrate the Club’s ability to deploy a Temporary Station and Operate for 24 hours
–Exhibit our Operating Capabilities and be Ambassadors of Ham Radio
–Introduce new Hams and non-Hams to Field Operations GOTA!
–Continue to develop our Field Day capabilities and Teams as we strive to improve our YoY Performance


Look for us! WX4E - 2A WCF

73

 

Before life got too busy, (1980's) FD was a lot of fun for me. On a high bluff overlooking the Mississippi River, two of us were called to run up the mult's on CW. Russ, K9TI (SK), was on the honor roll for DXCC, and working on WAZ on 80 meters. He bought a brand new rig with the "hottest" front end around for that mission. For whatever reason, he brought it to FD. With a grin, he told me to slide over to his rig and tell him what I thought of it. A short time later, could hear a hum in the cans. Told him about it, while he was on another rig and band. A couple old timers shook their heads, saying it was best never to be the first one to buy something that was just put into production, etc. I told him it was way more than 60Hz though. An OT said: "Let somebody else get the bugs out first, then buy the new rig". The light flipped on in my brain, bugs? Opened one side of the cans, and a mosquito flew out. 'TI was relieved, and a good laugh was had by all.

 

If they'd taken the time to do a little looking, they'd realize it has been IN PART a contest since it began. Go look up the FD reports in the QST for the first edition, and you'll see they talk about points and a winner. Case closed, game over, zip up your fly.

 

I will be operating external generator and battery power from home. Too much weather this weekend in NH.

 

Some QRZ members may enjoy this radio broadcast coverage of the 1948 Field Day: https://radiorelay.org/broadcast-network-coverage-of-1948-arrl-field-day/

73, JW (WB8SIW)

 

As sure as the:

• Sun will rise
• Day is long
• Swallows return to Capistrano
• QRZ thread debating Field Day - Contest or not?

 

Here we go again another ARRL contest with the stations that don't give a dam if a qso is going on or not.
They go 2kc away and call CQ FILD DAY and if you go and tell them some thing they say that they will not
move. We now have 2 days of hell.

 

By definition, if you are keeping score, doesn't that make field day a contest?

 

There is a specific time period, a specific exchange for a valid QSO and a scoring system. It sounds like a contest. But if they don't want to acknowledge it's a contest, I'll see you all on the WARC bands.

 

"For the sole purpose of testing portable stations". Reading into just that line it would give the appearance that the ARRL wanted to test how well engineered amatuer portable stations were at the time and how quickly they could get them on the air in order to spend a day practicing exchanging {emergeny} traffic.

Frank KG4IGC

 

That's reading something into the announcement that isn't there.

Here's why:

In the USA, when amateur radio licensing became mandatory in 1912, FCC's predecessors simply didn't allow portable operation at all. EVERY station location had to have its own station license, and the precise location of the station (not just a mailing address) was on the license and known to the licensing agency.

The result was that amateurs didn't think much about portable operation at all, since it wasn't legal.

Mobile operation was similarly restricted.

In the 1930s that began to change, and the regulations began to allow portable operation by amateurs (with various rules and requirements).

To 1930s amateurs used to operation being a fixed location thing, the idea of portable operation was cutting-edge new technology. Where would power come from? How would you build equipment that would stand being outdoors? What about transport, bad weather, and similar concerns? What test equipment and tools should be brought along?

Look at typical amateur gear (not the top-of-the-line stuff, but what most amateurs actually had and used) and these were big problems.

And so Field Day was created to encourage amateur development of portable operation know-how. Note that the first FD only wanted reports from portable stations! Not emergency communications - those words don't appear anywhere. But the word "contest" DOES appear!

Read the entire announcement, not just that one line, and see.

Since then, FD has grown and diversified to be much more than a contest. And that's OK.

The point is that when people make claims about "the original purpose of Field Day is to be an emergency communications exercise, not a contest", they're just wrong. The original announcement proves this.

73 de Jim, N2EY