Much as I hate seeing Feald [sic] Day rules tweaked every year, I believe New England Mike’s initial suggestion is tolerable. However, once the genie is out of the lantern, there will be horrendous pressure to let him or her stay out. The existing rule (Class D home stations on commercial power not able to count QSOs with other Class D stations) has been there for years and years to avoid Field Day turning into YAC — “yet another contest” — dominated by humungous (sp?) antenna farms, a high ratio of High Power to Low Power and Battery entrants, etc., etc. In recent years I have hosted a competitive 3E Field Day operation at my home, and currently I am in the throes of trying to determine what my property can safely support and what our team is interested in doing this year. We can easily do a very safe 2E operation; Linda and I have an unused rustic cabin about 400 feet from the house. If I get a dipole up in the air near the cabin in the next month, it all should be biologically inert by the time my 40-meter CW operator arrives in late June. Of course, that assumes we’re still allowed to travel for good reason. “Officer, don’t you know that Field Day is one of the most important events of the year?" Of the options Mike and Mike and Mark have suggested, I think I prefer keeping the commercial power and emergency power categories separate; for instance, our small Field Day crew takes great pride in our ability to run three 100-watt transmitters from batteries for 24 hours, although sometimes we have a “split” operation where one or two of the three operating positions are on generator instead of batteries. The possibility of the COVID-19 crisis escalating at some point to a power grid “brown out” crisis is always out there, no matter how rare it might seem at this minute; because of that, I think folks who can operate with batteries or generator deserve a separate category, not just bonus points for emergency power. I have a few close friends around the country who are fairly active in Field Day but don’t submit logs — because they do exactly what New England Mike is suggesting: They simply get on the air from their home stations with commercial power and work as many stations as they can — including other Class D stations — during the Field Day period. I’m sure every “valid” Field Day entrant or group that makes contacts with them appreciates the extra QSOs these non-entrants represent. Bud, W2RU P.S. Just to be clear, it’s easy to be “competitive” in Class 3E when there are fewer than 20 entries each year … On Apr 1, 2020, at 4:07 PM, Mark J Tharp <kb7hdx@gmail.com<mailto:kb7hdx@gmail.com>> wrote: True class E can still claim the bonus points whereas a 2020-only entry on commercial mains would not. Mark, HDX On Wed, Apr 1, 2020 at 12:44 PM Michael Ritz <w7vo@comcast.net<mailto:w7vo@comcast.net>> wrote: Not a bad idea, but I wonder if the true Class E stations will complain that their class won't really exist this year. I guess the easiest would just to change Class E to "All home stations, whether emergency or line powered" for the year, and not have a Class D at all. That would by far be the simplest. There may be more "home stations" than there are true Field Day stations this year, especially in metropolitan areas. 73; Mike W7VO On April 1, 2020 at 11:59 AM Mark J Tharp <kb7hdx@gmail.com<mailto:kb7hdx@gmail.com>> wrote: Just tell people that for 2020 if they are stuck home due to the virus to enter under class E. Nothing needs changed, software will score things correctly and no one is going to come check to see if you are running on a generator or not. KISS principal Mark, HDX On Wed, Apr 1, 2020 at 11:52 AM Michael Ritz < w7vo@comcast.net<mailto:w7vo@comcast.net>> wrote: I wholeheartedly agree also. Several members up here have brought that up to me as a suggestion, and asked me to present the idea to P&S at our next meeting. Personally, I think it'll keep the "operating event" alive during the crisis, getting hams "on the air" when otherwise they wouldn't. I think it'll also encourage amateurs to "stay home and stay safe". Based on what I'm hearing from Dr. Fauci we will be (hopefully) on the downward part of the curve by the end of June, but not out of the woods yet. I did a fairly serious SOAB effort in the WPX SSB contest last weekend, and was amazed with how many stations I worked were not "known contesters", registered in the Super Check Partial (SCP) database. The "stay at home" mandates are having a positive effect, with more hams getting on the air that would normally be doing something else on the weekends. Two new hams i worked in the contest told me that I was their first ever SSB contact! "Get on the air and stay safe!" 73; Mike W7VO
On April 1, 2020 at 11:17 AM " rjairam@gmail.com<mailto:rjairam@gmail.com>" < rjairam@gmail.com<mailto:rjairam@gmail.com>> wrote:
I had the same thought. It would encourage indoor activity.
I am all for it.
Ria N2RJ
On Wed, 1 Apr 2020 at 14:15, Mike Raisbeck via arrl-odv < arrl-odv@reflector.arrl.org<mailto:arrl-odv@reflector.arrl.org>> wrote:
Hi All,
I've thought of a very small rule change for Field Day that could increase activity this year.
Traditionally, Class D stations may not count contacts with other class D stations. This year there may be a lot of folk limited by the pandemic to operating from home. If we relax this rule for 2020, home non-emergency stations could be a bit more active.
Waddya think?
Mike K1TWF
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