11/14/2019

ARRL Contest Program Manager Paul Bourque, N1SFE, reports that nearly 1.1 million contacts were made during the 2019 ARRL Field Day - the most popular operating event in North America. Bourque reported the 2019 ARRL Field Day results[1], which are available starting on page 64 of the digital edition[2] of the December 2019 issue of QST. Bourque says in his article that more than 36,000 radio amateurs took part in ARRL Field Day 2019 across all 83 ARRL/Radio Amateurs of Canada sections, up slightly from the 35,250 reported last year. The total number of contacts was down by about 7% from 2018's 1.18 million contacts.

"This year, 3,113 entries were received from local clubs and emergency operations centers (EOCs), as well as individual portable, mobile, and home stations," Bourque wrote in QST. Most entries were in Class A - club or non-club groups of three or more.

Of the nearly 1.1 million contacts, approximately 46% were made on phone, and 456,000 (42%) of contacts were made on CW. The remaining 138,000+ (12%) of the contacts were made on digital modes, such as FT8 and RTTY.

"This is a substantial increase compared to 2018, when total QSOs on the digital modes numbered just over 56,000," Bourque reported. "With the last 2018 release of WSJT-X[3] (which now supports Field Day exchanges), many participants made use of FT8's ability to communicate when band conditions weren't being cooperative."

Top 10 scores ranged between W3AO's Class 14A entry from Maryland-DC, with 32,356 points, to W1NVT's 14,876-point Class 2A entry from Vermont.

Bourque said that 95% of the 3,113 entries received came through the Field Day web applet.

"Not only is ARRL Field Day an opportunity to sharpen operating skills in temporary and portable locations, it's also an occasion to showcase amateur radio to the local community, with clubs often setting up in publicly accessible locations and interacting with non-hams," Bourque wrote.

Soapbox comments[4] for Field Day 2019 are available on the ARRL website. ARRL Field Day 2020 will take place June 27 - 28.


[1] https://field-day.arrl.org/fdresults.php
[2] https://edition.pagesuite-professional.co.uk/html5/reader/production/default.aspx?pubname=&edid=bec57bc1-b138-422d-a5e8-97c0bb526eb8
[3] https://physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/k1jt/wsjtx.html
[4] http://field-day.arrl.org/fdsoapbox.php

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