[FieldDay] ARRL FIELD DAY

[Russell Chandler]

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The ARRL Letter
Vol. 21, No. 5
February 1, 2002
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==>ARRL FIELD DAY, AFFILIATED CLUB COMPETITION CHANGES ANNOUNCED

The ARRL has adopted rule changes affecting Field Day and the ARRL
Affiliated Club Competition program. The primary Field Day change--effective
with this year's event June 22-23--phases out the Novice-Technician station
and replaces it with a new station category, the "Get-On-The-Air"--or
GOTA--station.

A GOTA station is intended for operation by  Novice and Technician operators
or by generally inexperienced or inactive amateurs as well as by
as-yet-unlicensed or "under-licensed" operators working under the privileges
of a licensed control operator (third-party traffic rules apply--see the
International Third Party Traffic page on the ARRL Web site
<http://www.arrl.org/FandES/field/regulations/io/3rdparty.html>). Under the
revised rules, any Class A Field Day entry operating at least two
transmitters may include a GOTA station, which will not count as an
additional transmitter for the purpose of entry category.

The GOTA station may operate on any Field Day band and mode, but only one
GOTA transmitter may be in use at any given time. The GOTA station may
complete up to 400 QSOs to be counted toward the group's total Field Day
score. A Field Day group can claim 100 bonus points if its GOTA station
successfully completes 400 QSOs. The GOTA station does not affect the
additional VHF/UHF station provided under Field Day rule 4.1.2.

Field Day 2002 will mark the first in which stations throughout the Americas
have been invited to participate. As approved at the July 2001 ARRL Board of
Directors' meeting, all International Amateur Radio Union Region 2
countries--North and South America--may take part in Field Day starting this
June.

Complete Field Day rules and information packet will be available on the
ARRL Web Contest Forms and Rules page <http://www.arrl.org/contests/forms>
in early February. Field Day 2002 pins and T-shirt may be ordered now via
the ARRL Web catalog
<http://www.arrl.org/catalog/?category=&words=Field+Day+Pin>.

Changes to the ARRL Affiliated Club Competition program also were included
in the report of the Membership Services Committee (MSC), presented to the
ARRL Board of Directors at its January meeting. In accordance with the
advice of the ARRL Contest Advisory Committee, five specific affiliated club
competition changes will go into effect November 1. Under the revised rules:

* The requirement that a member must attend at least two club meetings a
year in order to be allowed to submit a score for a club in the unlimited
and medium categories has been altered. The new rules will allow
participation by "a member in good standing, as defined by the club."

* Medium and unlimited clubs now may define their club service area either
as a 175-mile radius circle or as an entire ARRL section. This change will
allow clubs from larger states that encompass entire ARRL sections to
compete with each other.

* The percentage of operators who must be members of a club in order for the
club to claim a score from a multioperator station has been reduced from 66%
to 50%.

* A station owner no longer must be a member of a club in order for a guest
operator at the station to claim the score for that club.

* Canadian clubs that are full Radio Amateurs of Canada affiliates now may
participate in the ARRL Affiliated Clubs Competition.

These changes affect ARRL contests that include a club competition--January
VHF Sweepstakes, the ARRL International DX Contest, the September VHF Party,
the ARRL November Sweepstakes, the ARRL 160-Meter Contest and the ARRL
10-Meter Contest.

Complete rules for all ARRL-sponsored operating events are available on the
ARRL Web site <http://www.arrl.org/contests/announcements/>. For more
information, contact ARRL Contest Branch Manager Dan Henderson, N1ND,
n1nd@arrl.org.