Greetings!

The scoring for the Decatur Amateur Radio Club’s 71st Field Day has been submitted to the ARRL. And it’s full of numbers that we haven’t seen in a long time, if ever! Here’s how it looks:

Number of participants: 50

Number of radios: 3 (Class 3A). Does not include GOTA, satellite, 6m, and 2m radios.

Contacts:

• CW contacts: 149
• Digital contacts: 150
• Phone contacts: 300 + 5 GOTA = 305

QSO points:

• 149 x 2 = 298 (CW)
• 150 X 2 = 300 (DIG)
• 300 x 1 = 300 (PH)
• 5 x 1 = 5 (GOTA PH)
• Total QSO points = 903
• Power multiplier: 100 watts or less = QSO’s x 2
• Claimed QSO score = 1,806

Bonus points:

• 300 points – 100% Emergency power (3 HF stations x 100 points each)
• 100 points – Media Publicity
• 100 points – Set-up in Public Place
• 100 points – Information Table
• 100 points – Natural Power QSO’s Completed
• 100 points – Satellite QSO Completed
• 100 points – Site Visit by Invited Elected Official
• 100 points – Site Visit by Invited Agency Official
• 100 points – Social media (Facebook)
• 60 points – Youth bonus (3 young people x 20 points each)
• 50 points – Online entry form submission
• 25 points – GOTA station contacts
• Total bonus points = 1,235

** Total submitted score: 3,041 points
(670 points MORE than last year’s 2,370)

We had more contacts this year, and more bonus points than last year, working as a class 3A operation. We managed to work all 50 states, all 71 ARRL sections, 7 Canadian sections, and even a few DX stations.  The location at Flint City Park seemed to work well again and provided great options for stringing antennas and operating quietly while still having the openness of a publicly-accessible location. We had a lot of visitors and talking on other methods than radio, but we all had a good time.

Thanks are in order to the following:

• Bryan KD8PZT, Anna KM4QNA, and Ken KD8PZU for making all 149 CW contacts, all 150 digital contacts, and 55 phone contacts. These hams accounted for 59% of our total QSO’s! Unbelievable!
• Craig KJ4LAA for the solar equipment.
• Paul KC5RFU for the great satellite setup and contacts.
• Lou K4HNH for the GOTA setup.
• All those who manned the radios to make contacts.
• Mike KD4TGC for the logging computers and network hardware.
• Those who provided radios, antennas, computers, and all of the pieces and parts needed for a successful event.
• Those who came for setup, operating, and teardown. We couldn’t have done it without every one!
• Bob KB4ACP for the great food and snacks that were available during the event.
• And those others who brought refreshments and good company to the site.

Thanks also to Decatur City Council member Billy Jackson and Morgan County EMA representative Hilary Granbois for visiting the FD site and bringing us the bonus points.

The December issue of QST, the ARRL magazine, will list the scores for the event, and then we’ll find out just how well (or less badly, comparatively speaking) we actually did.

Go ahead and mark your calendar for next year! Field Day 2025 will be on June 28th and 29th, 2025. Make plans to come help us. We need to improve the score even more!

One request: if you took any photos during setup, operation, or teardown, would you please share them with the club by emailing them to me at this address? Thanks!