National Field Day has been a highlight of the IVARC calendar for many years and 2024 was no exception. Using the Club's G6IVR/P callsign, 2024 turned out to be a bumper year, the club smashing it's previous record of 806 contacts in 24 hours with a new all time high of 897. Contacts were to 45 different countries mostly in ITU Region 1 but also included Japan, The Falklands, Zambia and Australia.
National Field Day is an annual radio contest held over the first weekend in June and coordinated across the national radio societies in International Telecoms Union Region 1. This includes all countries in Europe, the Middle East as far as Iraq, Russia and Mongolia. Teams set up portable stations in fields (no existing infrastructure is allowed to be used – stations must be completely self contained) with the objective of contacting as many other stations as possible in a specified 24 hour period. All contacts are made using Morse Code.
IVARC's field was kindly loaned by John G8FMQ. Situated on the edge of the New Forest at Canada Common near West Wellow in Hampshire it proved ideal: electrically quiet and most importantly big enough to accommodate the long dipole antenna required for topband.
The team operated in pairs, taking shifts and covering the full 24 hours; thanks to Chris G7LWV, Graham G3XSD, Ken G4DKH, Peter G4JHC, Richard G3OTK and Steve G8XEV. All the gear performed flawlessly, the weather was dry and sunny, there was an endless supply of bacon butties and tea and a great time was had by all!
National Field Day is an annual radio contest held over the first weekend in June and coordinated across the national radio societies in International Telecoms Union Region 1. This includes all countries in Europe, the Middle East as far as Iraq, Russia and Mongolia. Teams set up portable stations in fields (no existing infrastructure is allowed to be used – stations must be completely self contained) with the objective of contacting as many other stations as possible in a specified 24 hour period. All contacts are made using Morse Code.
IVARC's field was kindly loaned by John G8FMQ. Situated on the edge of the New Forest at Canada Common near West Wellow in Hampshire it proved ideal: electrically quiet and most importantly big enough to accommodate the long dipole antenna required for topband.
The team operated in pairs, taking shifts and covering the full 24 hours; thanks to Chris G7LWV, Graham G3XSD, Ken G4DKH, Peter G4JHC, Richard G3OTK and Steve G8XEV. All the gear performed flawlessly, the weather was dry and sunny, there was an endless supply of bacon butties and tea and a great time was had by all!
 IVARC's station G6IVR/P in the field at Canada Common on the edge of the New Forest |  Steve G8XEV in mass bacon buttie production |
Ken G4DKH (L) and Graham G3XSD (R) at the operating table, Richard G3OTK in the background
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