Greetings to all!

Can you believe that we're over half way through January already?

The Field Day Planning Committee held its first meeting on 12 January at the clubhouse. The following are the salient points from that meeting:

• We will participate as a 10A or possibly as an 11A.
• Pending any unexpected changes to the Field Day rules, we will operate on MF, HF and VHF using CW, Phone and Digital modes.
• We will operate 1 HF digital station, 3 CW HF stations, 5 HF Phone stations, 1 MF Phone station, 1 VHF station (6m) and possibly 1 VHF station (2m).
• As always, our primary goal is to have a safe and fun Field Day event. In addition to the preceding “boiler plate” goal there are other goals such as numbers of contacts, Field Day Bonus Points, etc. that we will develop in the coming months.
• We may need to ask club members to provide transceivers and laptops for the duration of the operating phase of Field Day.
• We also discussed having a theme for Field Day. The consensus is that a theme might inject some additional interest in our Field Day activity. So the theme for Field Day 2013 will be “A Hawaiian Field Day in Davidsonville”.
• We are also offer club members the opportunity to “practice” for Field Day by operating in four QSO parties starting in February and ending in early May. We’ll also schedule some training on assembling, raising and taking down antenna masts; assembly of shelters; and use of the logging software.
• We are going to ask the same Disaster Readiness group that provided dinner on Saturday last year, to prepare two meals for us this year (Lunch and Dinner on Saturday). The menus are in development. If you provide a total of 4 hours of “sweat equity” (help set up, Operate, Log, provide support, or help with take down) during the weekend we’ll feed you.
• In addition to the meals we will have evening snacks on Saturday and we will provide water and Gatorade all three days. We will provide sodas but only during the meals. As in the past we will place a cooler with ice, water and Gatorade in each shelter. We will need to make several purchases of ice during the three days.
• We will use one or two generators to provide power for the radio stations, laptops, fans, and lights. The generators will require fuel of course.
• Our most pressing challenge for Field Day is the level of participation by the members of the club. Over the past three years the number of Field Day participants has declined from 135 in 2009 to 38 last year.
• We plan to implement a “media blitz” that will include local advertising, club meetings, the club newsletter, and the AARC website and Field Day blog to promote Field Day.
• Field Day flyers are being distributed during every license exam session from February through June. We will also distribute Field Day posters at local businesses in the Davidsonville area.
• In early February we will mail invitations to various VIPs to attend our Field Day event.
• Field Day “commercials” will be played during the Club’s Program meetings and at some “business” meetings.

On a personal note. I apologize for not having a Field Day "commercial" for the club meeting on the 17th. I made one - in fact the longest running commercial I've ever made. I had planned to show it at Thursday’s meeting but while at the clubhouse I realized that I had brought the wrong thumb drive. My drive with the movie was stillconnected to my computer at home. So in February there will be two commercials.

The next meeting will occur in late February or in March following the exam session on the 9th. And updates to this blog will follow. We will also let you know when the the AARC Field Day website is upadated. Soon hopefully.

Don’t forget the operating event at the clubhouse on Saturday, 9 Feb from 3pm-10pm. It’s the Louisiana QSO Party so think Cajun. Steve/K3BAY will be the coordinator for this and all our practice Field Day operating events.

Questions? Send an e-mail to: fieldday@w3vpr.org

73
Your 2013 Field Day Team.