One of Field Day’s great pleasures is the food! Clubs have many different methods of providing food at the Field Day site. Some will use club money to fund the food, some will orient themselves to one large meal, and others will simply bring their own food.

The driving force in planning by the club for food at the Field Day site participation. Two transmitters and two people? Simple. Nine transmitters and 45-people? Whole different story.

My participation in Field Day has been with larger groups. So, the food planning was more rigorous. As was the equipment planning. As was scheduling the cooks and helpers.

The surprise about the food is there is usually a group in your club that loves to cook for a Field Day. More than operating. It allows them to do a great service, share in Field Day, do their own planning and execution, and chat with everyone at the event. I’ve always had great respect for these people – they make Field Day a great event.

How does your club handle food for Field Day?

Scot, K9JY

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Field Day always has the opportunity to have bonus points — points that you can achieve that count above and beyond the actual contacts made during the Field Day hours of operation.

The ARRL does bonus points for three specific reasons (in my humble opinion…):

1. Encourage little used modes for points
2. Publicize the Field Day event
3. Introduce new hams to the contesting environment

Let’s look at some of the bonus point categories:

• Get On The Air (GOTA) Station. This is the classic station that is used to introduce new hams to the contesting environment. This is also a great place to show the public how new hams can learn about operating new modes.
• “Free” VHF Station. When your club has two or more transmitters, you may also operate an additional VHF transmitter without it counting against your entry qualification. This is the “little used” modes to create additional activity on the bands.
• 100% emergency power. DOH! This is an event to test portable capabilities in an emergency.
• Media publicity. 100 bonus points for attempting to have media at your event. I suggest three ways to get media to attend.
• Pubic location. 100 bonus points for operating in a public place — such as a public park.
• Public Information Table. 100 Points for having handouts available for people who come visit your site.
• Message Origination to Section Manager. 100 points for origination of a NTS style formal message to the ARRL Section Manager for your group. Hey, it’s a message.
• Message Handling. This is up to 10 messages at 10 points each for messages relayed, not including your Section Manager message.
• Satellite QSO. This is 100 bonus points for completing at least one satellite QSO during the Field Day event. A little used mode and a great method of getting the media to your event.
• Alternate power for 100 points from a minimum of five QSO’s without power from commercial mains or petroleum driven generator. Like solar — or peddling a bicycle. A great media draw.
• W1AW Bulletin. 100 points for copying the bulletin. Who do you have copying this?
• Educational Activity Bonus. Another way of exposing ham radio to others.
• Site Visitation by an elected governmental official. Not a candidate, but already elected. We need government on our side!
• Site Visitation by a representative of an Agency. Served via ARES. We provide help in communications and Field Day is representative of our capabilities.
• Web submission. 50-points for no human interface with your submission.
• Field Day Youth Participation. Points for QSO’s by people 18 or younger. We want youngsters participating in ham radio.

What a list!

From the club perspective, one needs to have a plan to earn each of these bonus points that are available to the club. This means a plan, a defined person or station captain responsible for getting the bonus points, and a validation that the  bonus points were earned by the Field Day Chairman or designate.

One can argue that the bonus points are nuts, crazy, too hard or whatever. But each of the categories make a point about extending the range of operation or including others in our hobby.  The bonus points, while worth going after, tell us where we need to be taking the hobby as a club.

Who will earn the bonus points for your club this year?

Scot, K9JY

One of the several categories of bonus points for Field Day is Media Publicity. You get the points by showing the attempt of local media to cover Field Day.

Wouldn’t it be better if the local media actually covered your Field Day?

Here’s a good suggestion for getting the media to come and cover your Field Day:

Give them three stories they could tell about your event.

Here are three suggested stories you could provide:

1. Field Day is used to test emergency communications under less than ideal conditions. Talk about emergency power, building portable antennas, and working through the night.
2. Field Day is a contest with portable equipment. Talk about number one, but also how Field Day builds skills to quickly communicate with others under harsh conditions.
3. Field Day is a public view into ham radio — and lots of fun. Talk about the ability of the public to come and watch, ask questions and learn about the hobby. And don’t forget to mention all of the social aspects of the hobby.

Simply sending the date, time and place of your Field Day event doesn’t help an editor with precious resources how to cover your event — and you’ll get bumped for virtually anything else on the calendar.

Instead, give the reporters something to sink their teeth into by giving them a head start on the story.

And, with television, give them some suggestions they can shoot for visual appeal — the solar powered station, the satellite station, the Get On The Air station where new hams are learning. Show computers and radios, not just radios. Telling television stations what to shoot with their cameras is a killer way to have that television crew show up to cover your Field Day event.

Critically important: give your press release a person to contact AT THE FIELD DAY SITE for all hours. You want your contact person to be able to show the story to the reporting crew and guide them through the various sections. Don’t be camera shy!

What other storylines have worked for your club? Leave them in the comments so all can see.

Scot, K9JY

Field Day brings forth a wide range of antennas used for the event. Clubs even have their own stock of antennas, hidden in local garages, to spring on participants if needed.

Whether it is beams and towers or stuff with wires, here are some Field Day considerations for antennas:

Easy Does It

Antennas have to be put up and taken down. Ham Radio rules apply here as well: everything will take twice as long as you think to put up and take down, so select something easier to do.

Lower is better

Field Day favors working stations close-in relative to the world. Verticals with low angles radiation won’t help you work as many people as you need to, so try horizontal antennas that are not too high up.

Monobanders help

Monoband antennas will give you better SWR across the band and will help reduce inter-station interference. Nothing like operating 20-meters on your triband yagi with the 15 and 10-meter stations chiming in as well.

Any tower must be well supported

Safety is a big deal here and people setting up antennas for an event are more likely to cut corners. Don’t do that; safety first.

Know your antenna supports

If you have a long wire or dipole or inverted vee…where will the ends be supported? The middle of a flat field doesn’t help you support dipole ends, so some other support structure will be needed. Pre-planning on the site will help.

What are your favorite Field Day antennas?

Scot, K9JY

Kid’s Day, the creation of the Boring Amateur Radio Club (of Boring, Oregon) is a way to show off our hobby to today’s youngsters.

I received my first ham radio license when I wasn’t even 16 years old — so appealing to this age group is a good thing.

Suggestions for club events:

• Setting up at local schools
• Setting up at a local supermarket
• Setting up at other events

You can show a bunch of different aspects of the hobby — even CW Skimmer (I couldn’t resist…).

It’s a good cause. Time to get planning!

h/t K7CEX

Scot, K9JY