ARRL Field Day 2025

[JohnyMac]

Amateur radio is many things - Communication, fellowship, helping the community, and many many more. The one annual event that combines all once a year is the June ARRL Field Day event. Event dates/time, June 28 - 29th start Saturday 1400E hrs and ends 1400E hrs Sunday.

My club the Susquehanna County Armature Radio Club is in the process of planning this years event. Typically we have from 5-7 radio stations with one being a GOTA (Get On The Air) station reserved for non licensed folks who would like to try their hand at getting on the air under the tutelage of one of the club members.

We will be using all modes of communication, CW (Mores Code), Phone, and Digital; Consequently, there is something for everybody.

The typical event agenda is as follows,

Thursday - Club members start to show up. RV's arrive and tents are put up.
Friday - More members show up and set up camp. Also, messenger lines for antennas are launched to
     be ready to deploy on Saturday. Generators and solar panels are set up as along with the camps wifi system
     which Starlink is being used this year vs. a hot spot as in past years. Primarily, the internet system is so we can
     sync up everyone's laptop for compiling contacts/during the event.
Saturday - Antennas are hoisted or setup and radios are tested. At 1400E hrs. the event begins and lasts through
     1400E hrs Sunday. The goal besides the fun aspects of the event is to make as many contacts during the 24-
     hour period using all the modes as possible. Saturday night, is a open house for dinner for all the club members
     and guests ($10- ea.). Most of the members bring a dish to pass with protein being supplied by the club.
Sunday - The contest continues till the appropriate time at which we begin the tear down and packing up phase.   

The vast majority of radio clubs in North America will be participating. You can find a location near you by going Field Day Locator Map and putting in your zip code. Once you hit enter you will find the club closest to you. I encourage you to go if you are starting to think about amateur radio or want to get back into the hobby.

UP subscribers. please take the time to post what your club is doing for field day using this thread. Post pictures, an AAR (After Action Review), or anything else you would like to post in relation to Field Day 2025.

73
JohnyMac

[cooter]

When it gets closer to the date let me know about where to look for your CW station and I will try to get you a contact.

[JohnyMac]

Perfect Cooter. It will be Tom AA3EY our CW Elmer. However, closer I will let you know as you requested. 

[Jackalope]

My XYL and I will be participating with one of our local clubs, the Bledsoe County Amateur Radio Club.  I believe they?ll have three stations set up, inluding a GOTA station.  My XYL is coordinating the food for the event, and she?s doing the publicity too.  Me, I just help out as needed.

[JohnyMac]

AWESOME Jackalope. 

[JohnyMac]

Well, our 3-acres on top of a 1,800 mountain is mowed, wood is cut and split for camp fires, food is ordered, invitations have gone out to folks, Porta-Pottie ordered, etc. etc. etc. We are ready for this years field day.

RV's and some tents will go up starting Thursday. Messenger lines will go up for horizontal antennas Friday. After 1400E hrs. Friday, vertical and horizontal antennas will go up and be tested.

It looks like we will have 8 stations this year plus a GOTA station (Get on the air). Half will be horizontal and the other half will be vertical antennas. Depending on the time of day, we will be running FT8, CW, and Phone modes. The goal is to make at least one contact in each state and Canadian province.

This year, we will be sporting two Starlink portable antennas for internet access. Of course electric for all will be provided by generators or solar panels. We do both more as a learning process than trying to be environmentally conscious.   

Saturday night is the big club dinner. It will be steak sandwiches (peppers, onions & cheese) and every family will bring a dish to pass to boot.

We have invited State Reps., State Senators, county officials to attend. They never show up but we do invite them. Patriotman from Americanpartisan.org fame and a subscriber to UP will be attending this years event too.

Anyhow, I did get a few people to bite and they shared their 2025 Field Day participation - Thank you. Anybody else gonna attend their local ARRL Field Day event? If so, share on this thread.

 

[JohnyMac]

THIS A PRELIMINARY AAR OF THIS YEARS FIELD DAY.

Contacts:
Phone- 150
CW-     130
FT8-     70

Class/Section:
8A
EPA

Weather:
Only rain was between 1600E hrs. and 1800E hrs. Saturday. A thunderstorm passed through and dropped about .25" of rain. Temps were in the low 80's. Perfect.

Overall:
All n' all things went as planned. The propagation was poor, hence the low number of contacts than we should have had with a 8 station set up. We had to move one station as that station was causing a bleed over on a station that was too close. No biggie. We had no visitors who wanted to get on the air (GOTA) station was never used. The one weather event was not an issue. All radios were disconnected from antennas during that period. We used a mobile Starlink antenna to gather the QSO info from the 8 stations in real time. Of the 8 stations 4 used a horizontal antenna and 4 were vertical. Of the vertical's one was a home brew, one was a Wolf River, one was a Buddy pole, and one was a hexbeam. Food was great! Fellowship was great!

I will give a more detailed AAR once the points are tabulated.

How was your clubs Field Day?

73

[Hope]

It was a beautiful day for Field Day. Our club met at a park and had 5 stations set up. My goal for the day was to set up a field station for the first time. First, we had to terminate some coax, and then we were good to go. The antenna was easy to deploy, end fed random wire 160-6m, 11 band by FlatlandersMirrors. The power source worked great. What didn't work well was the inverter we had in place to power the laptop. It was very noisy and we were not able to use it, too much interference with other stations. Therefore, the laptop didn't last too long. We will find a suitable adapter to use. We need to add a strain relief to the coax. I tuned & tested each band for receive/transmit, all received well, but three bands (10m, 40m, and 80m) had high SWR, even after tuning. Hmmm. We need to learn how to adjust the antenna so we don't have the high SWR. Also, each time I tuned, it was noisy for a nearby operator. Next time, I won't be trying to evaluate the antenna and will stick to one band and can use a pass band filter. It was a good day. Now, next up is 13 Colonies. I've never participated, think I'll give it a shot this year.

[Jackalope]

We operated 6A.  We had thunderstorms most of Saturday afternoon and then again on Sunday, starting around 10:00.  It was well attended by club members. I didn?t stay very long as I had other work to do. It was good to see the enthusiasm of the newly licensed operators.

[JohnyMac]

Thank you Hope for sharing. 

One of the clubs newbies got frustrated because he kept getting interference from a close station. Well we moved him got another antenna launched and he was operating is short time. Teamwork is great!

Bottom-line, Field Day first is about fellowship, then teamwork, then working the bugs out of ones gear.  Last, buying a plastic tote and building an emergency go-to radio kit for emergencies ala, Field Day, North America QSO party, State QSO's party, Winter Field day, Red Dawn, Hurricane Hellene, etc, etc, etc,

73

 

[Hope]

I guess my priorities were a little off, with a primary focus on equipment, but the fellowship and teamwork played out as well. I was complimented for being gracious and understanding toward others in regards to the interference, and thankfully, the interference was before the official start time for QSO's. The teamwork  is always nice to see.

Speaking of emergency radio Go Kit, my husband already has plans for a Go Box, he has been 3D printing brackets, etc. so equipment stays in place.

73

[cooter]

Johnymac,  I got on the air for a bit Saturday afternoon.  I tuned around and made some CW contacts with field day contestants, but never heard your guy.  Man, those guys send too fast for me.  I had to listen 3-4 times just to get their call signs. 
Better luck next year.

[JohnyMac]

AWESOME COOTER! THanks for playing. 

[Hope]

What is a good amount of space to have between operators. At our field day, I was about 15 feet from another operator, just wondering what space others use?

[JohnyMac]

We were spread out over 3-acres.

On another note, during winter field day, we were separated by about 15 feet apart. We all used head phones. 

[JohnyMac]

Just saw preliminary final results (Still need to compile points) from my clubs FD participation. We made a QSO in every state but 2 - North Dakota and Hawaii/Guam (PAC). We missed 6 sections in total.

Looking at Canada, we had QSO's with 7 provinces out of 10.

All in all, Phone, CW, and FT8 we had 347 QSO's vs. 277 last year.
> Phone  147
> CW      130
> FT8       70

[Hope]

WOW! Your club was rocking it on Field Day, good job!

[JohnyMac]

Thank you Hope. Our secret is our Event coordinator. You met her via email or phone, I forget. Also, we are a fun club.

Patriotman of Americanpartisan.org attended this years FD event. At 0200E hrs Sunday morning as we were wrapping up and getting ready to pull the plug on the generator for a little shut-eye, he commented that our club is not like any ham club he has belonged too. His comment was, "your club is not like my stogy old man club. It is fun."

Yeah, we are focused on fellowship, teamwork, and then radio year-round. At June's mtg we had four guests. Two of them after the meeting told me that they had never had such a good time at a ham meeting ever. I hear that a lot. I asked a new member at dusk, who arrived at about 1100 hrs. Saturday to help set-up and then leave, why was he still here? He said, "I was just having way to much fun." 

Some club members started when they were 13 years old. We have a lady who is 93 years old and she works CW. And of course of all ages in-between. We have RN's, electrical engineers, LEO's, retired 80% blind Navy intel guy,  housewife's, retired Vietnam era UDT frogmen (Later to become SEALS), clerks, welders, etc. etc. etc. I would say that 1/3 of the FCC'd licensed members are women. A bunch of other associate (Non licensed) members are women too including MrsMac.

Blah, blah, blah.

It's the people in a club that make it successful.

Anyhow, thanks for the kudos. 

[JohnyMac]

I forgot to post this so here goes.

Patriotman from Americanpartisan.org attended our clubs Field Day event. Here is his SITREP

https://www.americanpartisan.org/2025/07/after-action-report-arrl-field-day-2025/

[Hope]

Fantastic report, thanks for sharing!