KB6NU's Ham Radio Blog

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Get 100 Field Day bonus points even if youre operating solo

Posted: 11 Jun 2020 11:46 AM PDT
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/kb6nu...m_medium=email

Yesterday, on our club’s Zoom meeting we discussed Field Day. This year,
we’ve opted to all operate and submit our scores separately. It may not be
as much fun, but it will give our club an opportunity to score more bonus
points. One way to do this is to have each member send out a press release.
I volunteered to write a sample press release that could then be adapted by
other club members for their own operations. Heres what I came up with:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Dan Romanchik, KB6NU

734-930-6564


Amateur Radio Operators Adapt to COVID-19 Crisis

Ann Arbor, Michigan – June 12, 2020 – The last full weekend in June is a
big one for tens of thousands of amateur radio operators all over North
America. It’s Field Day weekend, a combination emergency-preparedness
exercise, public relations event, and club picnic. Clubs and individuals
tune up their power generators and charge their batteries and get on the
air to make radio contacts with other participants. It’s normally a pretty
big deal for the ARROW Communications Association, the amateur radio club
in Ann Arbor, MI. The club sets up five separate stations in the park just
north of the Ann Arbor Municipal Airport and draws well over 100
participants.

This year’s club event is yet another casualty of the COVID-19 crisis, but
that’s not deterring ARROW members from participating in this year’s Field
Day. Many are planning to set up and operate emergency-power and
alternate-power stations from their homes.

For example, Dan Romanchik, amateur radio callsign KB6NU, plans on setting
up a temporary station on his front deck on Orkney Drive in Water Hill. The
station will include a low-power (5 W) transceiver (transmitter/receiver
combination) and a temporary antenna that he’ll set up in the flower bed in
front of his house. To power the transceiver, he plans to use batteries
that he charged using a solar panel.

To make contacts, Romanchik plans to use a variety of different modes,
including voice and digital communications. He’ll also be using Morse Code.
“Morse Code is a very efficient way to communicate,� he says, “especially
when you’re using such low power.�

Romanchik notes that one of his objectives is to ensure that his equipment
will be operational, and should a real emergency occur, that he can send
and receive messages. “Even if the power goes out,� he says, “I should be
able to keep in touch using batteries charged with my solar panel.�

2020 marks the 82nd annual Field Day event. It was started in 1933 by the
ARRL, the national association for radio amateurs, and has been held every
year since then, except for the years 1942 – 1946, when amateur radio was
suspended during WW II. There are currently more than 750,000 licensed
radio amateurs in the U.S., who donate the equivalent of millions of
dollars per year providing emergency and public service communications.

For more information about Field Day, the ARROW Communications Association,
or amateur radio in general, contact Dan Romanchik, KB6NU, email:
, phone: 734-930-6564.
Now, all our club members have to do is to replace my contact info with
theirs and replace the three paragraphs in which I describe what I plan to
do with what they plan to do.
Feel free to use this for your own Field Day press release, and have fun
and be safe!

The post Get 100 Field Day bonus points even if youre operating solo
appeared first on KB6NUs Ham Radio Blog.