Field Day 2025
David Sarnoff Radio Club Ham Radio Field Day exercise held on the weekend of June 28 and 29, 2025
Note: this site is still under construction!
Table of Contents
- An Invitation
- The Event
- Rough Schedule
- OUR FIELD DAY GOALS:
- N2RE Operational Details:
- Get On The Air (GOTA) station for new hams
- Bonuses We Will Try For
An Invitation
The David Sarnoff Radio Club has participated in ARRL Field Day for over 20 years (stats) and we consider it a part of our club preparedness training. It is also fun!
If you are a visitor of first-timer, this page is for you! If you’d like to explore Amateur Radio as a hobby, please consider visiting the David Sarnoff Radio Club Field Day exercise, on the fourth weekend of June!
The Event
WHEN:
Setup on the morning of Saturday June 28,2025 Operating Saturday 2 PM to 1:59 PM on Sunday June 29. Setup includes antennas to raise and radios to test! (Early arrivals at 9 AM, in full swing by noon.)
WHERE:
“Old Rockingham Site”– unused Somerset County park land off Route 518, Georgetown-Franklin Turnpike, one mile north-east of Rocky Hill, NJ. The location does not have a consistent GPS street address, but you can find it on some systems by entering Latitude and Longitude: Lat/Lon 40.403496, -74.613757
For example https://duckduckgo.com/?q=40.403496%2C+-74.613757&t=ffab&iaxm=maps
“108 Rockingham, Princeton, NJ 08540, United States” might work too.
(Want to know site details? http://n2re.org/rockingham-field-day-site)
WHO:
Club members, family, friends, almost anyone who asks to help.
WHY:
For fun and learning and teaching and trying!
Rough Schedule
- Tuesday June 17: Club Meeting, (Red Cross, Alexander Road). After regular program present plans
- Friday: Portajohn arrives
- Friday 27th 4 PM: Setup- site preparation, clear land for tents.
- Friday 27st: Those who can copy the ARRL Field Day Bulletin (100 points!) (full schedule to be published)
- Saturday 28nd: 9-10 AM Set Up Team Arrive, set up stations. Begin charging solar batteries.
- Possibly pause at noon for lunch
- 1 PM Safety check
- 2 PM Contest Begins. Solar power contacts take priority.
- Saturday June 28 2-5 PM Guest Hours (may expand… details coming soon)
- 6 PM Team Dinner,
- All Night Coffee Pot/hot water
- Sunday 29th: Early Morning propagation on VHF and 80M, Breakfast, Waffles (NU3E)
- Sunday June 29 10 AM to 2 PM Guest Hours (tours)
- Sunday 29th: 2 PM contest ends, Team Eats Lunch, assembles logs, cleans site, goes home
The location is wonderful for antennas. Trees are all around.
OUR FIELD DAY GOALS:
- Emergency Preparedness Communications Exercise
- Getting new, inactive, and potential hams on the air
- Presenting amateur radio to the public, especially those 18 and under
- Demonstrating amateur radio’s emergency capabilities to emergency response organizations
- Members making new friends within the club
- Members exploring new ways to communicate via Amateur Radio
- Eating lasagna, waffles, etc.
- Having fun
N2RE Operational Details:
- Our station operates transmitters with 100W or less, using our club callsign N2RE.
- The site is just one mile north of the SNJ/NNJ ARRL Section line… so N2RE 5A NNJ.
- 5A means we can have up to five stations on at any time (SSB, CW or Digital)
- We selected Class 5A, meaning up to 5 HF (or higher) transmitters. We don’t expect to win the “class”, but we do expect that everyone will have a chance to try out radios and modes.
- We can also have one “additional station” using VHF or UHF simplex FM/SSB/CW/Digital (6 M, 2 M , 70 CM…)
- We will use and teach digital modes this year (FT8, PSK-31, VARA, etc.)
- We can also have one Get On The Air- GOTA station for points and for new/renewed operators (see below)
- Our operation uses entirely emergency power – generators & solar charged batteries
- Porta-Potty (the location is rather isolated. Need we say more?)
- Computer logging with N1MM+ Logger; training available on-site & possibly in advance
- Saturday dinner and Sunday breakfast are prepared operator meals, we even stop operating when the meal bell rings. Also, hydrate! Water, coffee, tea, soda!!
Get On The Air (GOTA) station for new hams
Field Day is all about learning new things and trying things out.
The ARRL Field Day rules (get PDFs) allow us to set up one “free” station so that Technicians, Novices and New Hams can operate a station of their own. The “GOTA Station” uses the same site as our regular club station but it has its own callsign and contacts made by it count 5 points per contact… that’s more than our regular station contacts.
The GOTA station is also a “GBOTA Station” for inactive hams to Get Back On The Air — see below
GOTA operators can use any band and mode when a properly licensed supervising Control Operator is with them. Other hams can participate as “Coaches” for GOTA operators, teaching them how to work a pile-up, understanding how contest contacts work, etc. But all contacts must be made by GOTA operators!
Here are some things adapted from the “GOTA FAQ” on the ARRL Field Day website:
Q. What is the GOTA station?
A. It is an opportunity for any Technician or Novice licensees, any newly
licensed amateur, and any other generally inactive licensees to get on the air. Also,
non-licensed persons can, with supervision, experience first-hand the fun of amateur radio, perhaps talking with another station across the state, the USA or the world.
Newly licensed means since the previous year’s Field Day
Q. I am an active Novice or Technician licensee. May I operate the GOTA station?
A. Yes. The GOTA station may be operated by any Novice or Technician
licensee. When a “GOTA COACH” is present, you can operate on any band segment and mode permitted to the control operator.
Q: I have a General Class License, but I haven’t been on the air in, like forever. Can I use the GOTA station to help me get my skills back?
A: YES!! Developing skills is what GOTA is all about! The generally inactive licensee provisions pertain to someone who holds a General or higher class license but has been inactive. The intent and the spirit of this station is to provide an opportunity for persons to gain on-the-air experience and progress to operating the regular club stations in the future.
So, if you are a Tech, you can operate the GOTA every year. If you upgraded to General, you have to be either long-term inactive or a “newly licensed” operator.
Our Field Day GOTA station may have several different antennas and different radios to learn to operate.
Bonuses We Will Try For
Part of the fun of ARRL Field Day is trying new things… the scoring provides bonuses for exploring:
- 7.3.1. 100% Emergency Power: 100 points per transmitter classification if all contacts are made only using an emergency power source up to a total of 20 transmitters (maximum 2,000 points.) WE WILL GET THIS, as the site has no non-emergency power.
- 7.3.2. Media Publicity: 100 bonus points may be earned for obtaining publicity from the local media. A copy of the actual media publicity received (newspaper article, etc.) must be submitted to claim the points. (working on it!)
- 7.3.3. Public Location: 100 bonus points for physically locating the Field Day operation in a public place (i.e. shopping center, park, school campus, etc).
- 7.3.4. Public Information Table: 100 bonus points for a Public Information Table at the Field Day site.
- 7.3.5. Message Origination to Section Manager: 100 bonus points for origination of a formal message to the ARRL Section Manager or Section Emergency Coordinator by your group from its site. (Message passing also has a bonus, 10 per message passed)
- 7.3.7. Satellite QSO: 100 bonus points Alas, no Sat station this year!
- 7.3.8. Alternate Power: 100 bonus points for Field Day groups making a minimum of five QSOs without using power from commercial mains or petroleum driven generator. This means an “alternate” energy source of power, such as solar, wind, methane or water. This includes batteries charged by natural means (not dry cells). WE WILL DO THIS ONE!
- 7.3.9. W1AW Bulletin: 100 bonus points for copying the special Field Day bulletin (can be copied from home before the contest)
- 7.3.10. Educational activity bonus: One (1) 100-point bonus may be claimed if your Field Day operation includes a specific educational-related activity. We are thinking about this one…
- 7.3.11. Site Visitation by an elected governmental official: One (1) 100-point bonus may be claimed if your Field Day site is visited by an elected government official as the result of an invitation.
- 7.3.12. Site Visitation by a representative of an agency: One (1) 100-point bonus may be claimed if your Field Day site is visited by a representative of an agency served by ARES in your local community (American Red Cross, Salvation Army, local Emergency Management, law enforcement, etc.) as the result of an invitation.
- 7.3.13. GOTA Bonuses…Related to our “Get On The Air” station for new hams/inactive hams
- 7.3.14. Web submission: A 50-point bonus may be claimed by a group submitting their Field Day
entry via the web app. - 7.3.15. Field Day Youth Participation: A 20-point bonus (up to a maximum of 100 points) may be earned for each participant age 18 or younger at your Field Day operation that completes at least one QSO.
- 7.3.16 Social Media: 100 points for promoting your Field Day activation to the general public via
an active, recognized and utilized social media platform (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc). This
bonus is available to bona fide Amateur Radio clubs and Field Day groups that welcome visitors
to their operation. Individual participants do not qualify for this bonus. Club websites do not
qualify for this bonus. https://www.facebook.com/David.Sarnoff.Radio.Club/ - 7.3.17 Safety Officer Bonus: A 100-point bonus may be earned by having a person serving as
a Safety Officer for those groups setting up Class A stations.
