New Mode for "Less is Morse": Field Day!

Just in time for the biggest amateur radio operating event of the year, I’ve added a new mode to “Less is Morse”: Field Day! Sponsored by the American Radio Relay League, Field Day sees hams across the US and Canada setting up temporary stations for a 24-hour semi-competitive celebration of the radio arts. As part of that, amateur radio operators will be exchanging specific information over the airwaves and seeing how many other stations they can contact.

Specifically, the Field Day exchange includes a station’s category and what section of the US or Canada they’re in. The sections are defined by the ARRL, and are either states, provinces, or subdivisions of same. CT is the section for Connecticut, for example, while Massachusetts is divided into Eastern (EMA) and Western (WMA) sections. A complete Field Day exchange will therefore be something like “3A WMA” - meaning “our station is in category 3A, in the Western Massachusetts section.”

If you’re a ham, this new mode is of course a great way to warm up for Field Day, which is coming up on June 22-23. For non-hams, Field Day mode offers a somewhat more challenging character string than the word lists, with a mix of numbers and letters.

Best of luck, and I hope to hear you on the air in a few weeks.