Field Day

Field day…the fourth full weekend in June, is the event that the Port City Amateur Radio Club (PCARC) prepares for each year with the goal of coming first in its operating class. For those new to field day and wonder what it is all about, it is an annual event sponsored by the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) where amateur radio operators either working individually, in groups, or as clubs leave their permanent radio shacks and setup temporary stations in the field.

Primarily, this is an event where we, as radio amateurs, have the opportunity to engage with the public by acting as ambassadors to the hobby and demonstrating the various elements of amateur radio. We encourage all of our visitors to get on the air with the guidance of a licensed amateur radio operator. Hopefully those who visit a field day site leave us with a better understanding of what amateur radio is all about and maybe with an interest and desire to explore the world of amateur radio!

The exercise of field day also allows amateurs the ability to exercise their emergency communication preparedness and skills by setting up a fully functional station and to communicate with other stations around the world in a short period of time. Ideally the field day station will run off emergency power, be it an emergency generator, solar, wind, or battery power. Once the field day site is operational the goal is to make as many contacts as they can in 24 hours from 1800 UTC on Saturday to 2059 UTC on Sunday.

For 2023 on the air field day operations start at 1800 UTC on June 24. The PCARC will use the time allowed ahead of the start of the on-air activities to setup the field day site at Stratham Hill Park in Stratham, NH. Site preparations begin at 0900 local on the Friday before the event. This allows the club to get the emergency power grid constructed, shelters assembled, antennas erected and connected, computers setup and networked, and finally testing that all the stations work as intended. The park’s observation tower is used as the primary support structure for the array of antennas.

The public is invited to visit the site from 0900 – 1700 (local) on Saturday and 0900 – 1200 (local) on Sunday. The event ends at 1400 (local) on Sunday and the site will be demobilized at that time. The public is asked to not visit the site during this time to clear the way for equipment takedown.