[Alexandria Radio Club Reflector] Field Day 2020 for ARC

[Edward Bradshaw]

I had hoped to that we would be able to operate in a park as normal but the
reality is, it's just not safe for clubs in NOVA.

Here is my idea, as Field Day is an emergency exercise and NOT a
contest....AND we are currently in the middle of an actual emergency:

1) We set up coordinated stations at our home QTH.  I don't have the best
of locations but I can still get out there on 20 and 40 but I know others
have good setups on 80 and other.

2) We assign net control on 2m, possibly the repeater, to members who are
unable to do HF from their home.

3) Net control will coordinate the passing of message traffic from station
to station as well as keep track of shift changes.  A shift change example
would be, me stopping 20M digital and letting someone in another location
start up.

4) If we can do digital message traffic over 2m, fantastic, but whatever
the case, our club would coordinate efforts among all member stations and
act as a single call sign.  What a great opportunity to test our our ARDEN
network.

It seems to me that the ARRL rules are set up to encourage emergency
communication with the type of incidents we've been used to all this time,
namely natural disasters.  Be it floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, etc, we
all come together to help.  In a pandemic, however, coming together IS the
issue.  Name a natural disaster in recent history that has killed over 90K
people in three months.  The cause of these deaths and severe illnesses was
not flying debris or drowning, it was the act of being in close proximity
with other people.  How do we, as Amateur Radio Operators,  provide
emergency communications when we are unable to come together as a group?
Isn't the passing of traffic between clubs part of the practice of
communicating with others you can't reach?  Imagine if this were a much
more worse situation and even essential staff were unable to go out and fix
a cell tower or power failure at a relay.

At this point, I don't care what the ARRL says.  Alexandria Radio Club has
always supported our community and right now the best way we can do that is
to continue efforts in social distancing, as we have.  We have three
options, from what I can tell: 1) Find a FD location, so as to follow AARL
rules, and put our members and community at risk. 2) Cancel our FD
activities for 2020.  3) Operate as "linked" stations and prove to the
community that we can continue to provide communications service, even in
times of a global pandemic

I will leave you with this: Do our efforts with the Marine Corps Marathon
stay within a 300 meter radius?  Don't we set up as remotely located
stations that coordinate with a central net control? Is the Marine Corps
Marathon not a perfect example of an actual service that we are called on
to provide?

73

Ed
W4EDF