The ARRL Programs and Services Committee is seeking input from stations and groups that participated in ARRL Field Day 2020 and 2021 and has posted a survey. The committee said the survey results may help shape the development of Field Day rules for 2022 and beyond. The survey has already been sent via email to some 13,000 Field Day participants, more than 2,400 Affiliated Clubs, and to the CQ-Contest and VHF-Contesting Reflectors.
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Jahnke said the Programs and Services Committee invites participants’ insights, in advance of its January meeting, regarding what they consider appropriate for operating ARRL Field Day 2022 during the ongoing pandemic. The committee hopes to learn if participants prefer to continue Field Day under the pandemic accommodations afforded in 2020 and 2021, which included limiting home stations to the Low Power multiplier (150 W PEP), and whether stations in some classes or all other classes should be limited to 150 W PEP as well. Field Day stations operating at high power became the topic of some discussion in the wake of Field Day 2021, when some stations were reported to be running the legal limit on FT8 on crowded bands.
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Field Day participants may use this survey link or copy this URL into a web browser: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/2022–ARRL-FIELD-DAY-SURVEY.
The survey will close on January 17, 2022. Direct any questions to the ARRL Contest Department.
Dave New, N8SBE says
I’m in favor of keeping last year’s accommodations, and extending the 100W limit for all classes, as well. With the current Omicron variant raging along, it’s unclear whether it will be safe to conduct traditional Field Day setups by mid-June this year.
In the ‘other comments’ box, I asked (again) for a distributed-multi class, where home stations can network via VPN (to keep track of which station is on which band/mode, to avoid multiple signals on the same band/mode) so a group can operate under a single club call sign (like a class A setup) but allow the stations to be in a circle of say, 50/60 miles, which would correspond to a local club’s typical service radius of 25/30 miles. In essence, suspend the 1500 ft. rule for class A setups, to allow distributed club groups to compete in the usual standings, instead of relegating them to the ‘separate but equal (NOT)’ club listings. If six stations participated simultaneously in a group, they would file as distributed-multi class 6A, for example. A rookie could operate a free GOTA station, and VHF/UHF stations would also be free, as they are today.
This is quite doable, as I successfully participated in a test setup with a group of N1MM+ logging program operators, using the Hamachi point-to-point VPN application.