AMATEUR RADIO FIELD DAY

Fun, Food & Fellowship!!
“Always the Fourth Full Weekend in June!”

Saturday, June 22 - Sunday, June 23, 2024
(Setup on Friday)

Raleigh Police Club, Knightdale
3500 Leonard Road, Knightdale

The Raleigh Amateur Radio Society (RARS) invites all interested persons to participate in our annual Field Day operation. ARRL Field Day is the single-most popular amateur radio operating event of the year in the US and Canada! Around 35,000 radio amateurs (and the friends and families of many of them) head out into the field to make as many contacts as they can in a 24-hour period.

We essentially take meadows and wooded areas, turn them into independent communications centers with world-wide communications capabilities for the weekend, and then turn them back into meadows and wooded areas on Sunday afternoon. It’s an amazing transformation!! See the recap of RARS Field Day 2023!

You do NOT have to be a member of RARS or any amateur radio club! You do NOT even have to be a licensed ham. In fact, we especially welcome people who aren't licensed, hams licensed since the last Field Day (at the end of June 2023), and licensed hams who haven't been on HF in a while. There will be a special "Get On The Air" (GOTA) station to introduce you to operating in the high frequency bands or get you back in the game! A rule change in 2023 made contacts made by the GOTA station worth 5 points each, which is more than contacts by the main stations are worth. The 2024 rules haven't been published yet (as of mid-March), but we are hoping that rule change continues to apply! So let's Get On the Air!

As of mid-March, we have enough “band captains” to operate in class “5A,” which means a club station (that's the “A”) with as many as five transmitters on the air at the same time. We would like to be able to operaate as “9A,” with nine transmitters on the air simultaneously! So, if you're interested in being a band captain, please contact Curt W4CP or Burt W4OFO, our Field Day Co-Chairs!

We are also looking for experienced operators and people who want to be. We can use phone, digital, and CW ops, so whether you like to talk or to listen to the musical warble of digital modes or the rythmn of the dits and dahs, we have a place for you!! Even though "Field Day is not a contest," we do keep score, and we do care about our results, so we want to make a lot of contacts, but we also want to have fun doing it, and we do!!

We start setting up at 10:00 am on Friday. If you want to learn about station set-ups, putting up antennas, and setting up the famous AB-577 “rocket launcher” mast, formerly with the US Army, THIS is the place to be! Yes, it’s work, but also a lot of fun and learning. If you have questions when you get there, Field Day leaders will be wearing reflective vests and name tags.

Then we are back at 10:00 am on Saturday for final set-up, before the official twenty-four hour operating period starts at 2:00 pm on Saturday. Yes, we go all night, working in shifts, depending on band conditions and availability of operators.

Even if you have NO EXPERIENCE, we will train you, if you like. Each station has a Band Captain, in charge of that station's operations, and we generally have a radio operator and a logger (using a laptop computer) at each station, so after observing a while, you can begin doing logging . . . simple, just typing into the laptop. Then, if you like, after participating up close, you can slide into the operator’s chair and make contacts yourself.

In between set-up and operating and logging, there are lots of chances for fellowship with other great ham operators and to swap stories, hear about things you may not be familiar with, and just enjoy being around other people who agree that ham radio is a GREAT hobby!!

And FOOD!!! Just as an army marches on its stomach¹, so does a Field Day crew. Friday night we’ll have pizza for the Friday set-up crew, and Saturday night we’ll have a catered meal (including, but not limited to BBQ!!) for all the gang. Sunday lunch will consist of the abundant left-overs with additional food as necessary! And all day all three days, there will be lots of cold water, soft drinks and snacks . . . calorie counting is NOT allowed!!

Field Day comes but once a year… DON’T MISS IT!!!

Contact the Field Day Co-Chairs by clicking on either of our names below if you have any questions, suggestions, or want to volunteer. We hope to see you there!

Footnotes