as of 2-Feb-02

ARRL FIELD DAY, AFFILIATED CLUB COMPETITION CHANGES ANNOUNCED

The ARRL has adopted rule changes affecting Field Day and the ARRL Affiliated Club Competition program. The primary Field Day change--effective with this year's event June 22-23--phases out the Novice-Technician station and replaces it with a new station category, the "Get-On-The-Air"--or GOTA--station.

A GOTA station is intended for operation by  Novice and Technician operators or by generally inexperienced or inactive amateurs as well as by as-yet-unlicensed or "under-licensed" operators working under the privileges of a licensed control operator (third-party traffic rules apply--see the International Third Party Traffic page on the ARRL Web site <http://www.arrl.org/FandES/field/regulations/io/3rdparty.html>). Under the revised rules, any Class A Field Day entry operating at least two transmitters may include a GOTA station, which will not count as an additional transmitter for the purpose of entry category.

The GOTA station may operate on any Field Day band and mode, but only one GOTA transmitter may be in use at any given time. The GOTA station may complete up to 400 QSOs to be counted toward the group's total Field Day score. A Field Day group can claim 100 bonus points if its GOTA station successfully completes 400 QSOs. The GOTA station does not affect the additional VHF/UHF station provided under Field Day rule 4.1.2.

Field Day 2002 will mark the first in which stations throughout the Americas have been invited to participate. As approved at the July 2001 ARRL Board of Directors' meeting, all International Amateur Radio Union Region 2 countries--North and South America--may take part in Field Day starting this June.

Complete Field Day rules and information packet will be available on the ARRL Web Contest Forms and Rules page <http://www.arrl.org/contests/forms> in early February. Field Day 2002 pins and T-shirt may be ordered now via the ARRL Web catalog <http://www.arrl.org/catalog/?category=&words=Field+Day+Pin>.

Changes to the ARRL Affiliated Club Competition program also were included in the report of the Membership Services Committee (MSC), presented to the ARRL Board of Directors at its January meeting. In accordance with the advice of the ARRL Contest Advisory Committee, five specific affiliated club competition changes will go into effect November 1. Under the revised rules:

* The requirement that a member must attend at least two club meetings a year in order to be allowed to submit a score for a club in the unlimited and medium categories has been altered. The new rules will allow participation by "a member in good standing, as defined by the club."

* Medium and unlimited clubs now may define their club service area either as a 175-mile radius circle or as an entire ARRL section. This change will allow clubs from larger states that encompass entire ARRL sections to compete with each other.

* The percentage of operators who must be members of a club in order for the club to claim a score from a multioperator station has been reduced from 66% to 50%.

* A station owner no longer must be a member of a club in order for a guest operator at the station to claim the score for that club.

* Canadian clubs that are full Radio Amateurs of Canada affiliates now may participate in the ARRL Affiliated Clubs Competition.

These changes affect ARRL contests that include a club competition--January VHF Sweepstakes, the ARRL International DX Contest, the September VHF Party, the ARRL November Sweepstakes, the ARRL 160-Meter Contest and the ARRL 10-Meter Contest.

Complete rules for all ARRL-sponsored operating events are available on the ARRL Web site <http://www.arrl.org/contests/announcements/>. For more information, contact ARRL Contest Branch Manager Dan Henderson, N1ND, [email protected].