Greetings!

The Decatur Amateur Radio Club has formally submitted its scoring for its 72nd Field Day to the ARRL. What a fantastic event! Here’s how the numbers look:

Number of participants: 43

Number of radios: 4 (Class 4A). Does not include GOTA, satellite, 6m, and 2m radios.

Contacts:

• CW contacts: 150
• Digital contacts: 77
• Phone contacts: 553 + 32 GOTA = 585

QSO points:

• 150 x 2 = 300 (CW)
• 77 X 2 = 154 (DIG)
• 553 x 1 = 553 (PH)
• 32 x 1 = 32 (GOTA PH)
• Total QSO points = 1039
• Power multiplier: 100 watts or less = QSO’s x 2
• Claimed QSO score = 2,078

Bonus points:

• 300 points – 400% Emergency power (4 HF stations x 100 points each)
• 100 points – Set-up in Public Place
• 100 points – Formal Message to ARRL Section Manager/SEC
• 100 points – W1AW Field Day Message Copied
• 100 points – Formal Message Handled
  (11 completed at 10 points each, 100 points max)
• 100 points – Natural Power QSO’s Completed
• 100 points – Site Visit by Invited Agency Official (EMA)
• 100 points – Youth Participation Bonus
• (15 young people x 20 points each, 100 points max)
• 100 points – Social media (Facebook)
• 160 points – GOTA Station
• 100 points – GOTA Station Coach
• 50 points – Online entry form submission
• Total bonus points = 1,510

** Total submitted score: 3,588 points
(547 points MORE than last year’s 3,041)

For the 2nd year we had more contacts and more bonus points than the previous year, working this time as a class 4A operation. The location at North Park in Priceville was great, 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 (including some young people! It was a great time! Even rainstorms on Saturday evening and early Sunday afternoon did nothing to slow things down.

Thanks are in order to the following:

• Bryan Tenniswood W1WC for a bunch of radios, antennas, power supplies, table, chairs, tents, and just about everything we needed.
• Bryan again for the solar equipment.
• Bryan for tabulating and submitting the score.
• Chris Robson KB3A who also supplied a station and manned it for a large part of the event.
• Bill Bearden N4GGH who helped a lot with the GOTA station.
• Everyone else who manned the radios to make contacts.
• Allied Construction Equipment in Athens for the loan of two beautiful lifts.
• Those others 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!
• Club Treasurer Bob Flautt 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 Morgan County EMA representative Hilary Granbois for visiting the FD site and bringing us the bonus points. Hopefully she will soon be licensed and can assist with contacts!

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 2026 will be on June 27th and 28th, 20265. Make plans to come help us. We need to improve the score even more!

I have posted some photos on the club’s album on Flickr. 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 so I can publish them with the others? Thanks!

See you at the August meeting at the Morgan County Courthouse!