Many of today’s experienced DX chasers and contesters gained their initial knowledge taking part in a Field Day with their local radio club. The shared experiences of setting up a station, designing antenna systems suitable for the contact range required and organising and maintaining logging arrangements are all useful skills to develop to progress within the hobby. It is therefore most reassuring to see a continued increase in the number of participants in this years SSB Field Day. Equally, it is pleasing to note a good cross-section of newly-licensed operators listed on the entry forms.

Band conditions followed much the same trend as recent years with good long distance propagation on 20m and 15m. The All-Asian contest provides some interesting DX contacts, whilst good operating skills come in handy when trying to convince non-Asian stations not taking part in Field Day that you need a contact for the multiplier. It is important to spend some time on 40m to work the G and European portables. For the Open section, a low dipole, say around 30-30ft, is useful for this, with maybe a quarter wave vertical or sloper to pick up the DX multipliers. Most groups manage at least 150 contacts, though some seem to struggle, possibly sue to the reduced band of just 60kHz. The only way to combat this is to get on the band at other times of the year and particularly during busy contest sessions. 80M is again useful for G and European portable contacts but mainly during the night.

The Leaders.
Bristol Contest Group, G6YB/P, toped the Open section list yet again. They commented: ‘The excellent site take-off was our greatest asset. We are sure 20m was closed at some of the time for most stations, but we were able to work into North America all night. To quote one W7 ‘You’re 10db over s9 and we can only hear one other G who’s running around s3’’. In the Restricted section, Windmill Contest Group, G3GRS/P, were also winners yet again. With just 37 contacts separating the top four stations, the deciding factor became multipliers. Knowing where and when to look is the key and these guys certainly know how.

Rule Changes.
From 2001, there is a minor change to the rules for the Open section, clarifying the use of a second receiver. It will now be permissible to use two radios as long as the transmitter section and any second receivers are disabled for the duration of the contest. This will increase interest, as other operators can now be involved in searching for multipliers. In reality, it just conforms what some groups have been doing already.