Field notes · ARRL Field Day · 8 min
Field Day is not a web form. It is a pileup with a deadline.
1800Z arrives whether the logger is ready or not. Class, section, DUPE, rate, and a Cabrillo that a robot will reject if you improvised the exchange. Here is the operating discipline the weekend actually requires.
2026-09-22 UTC
The exchange belongs on the line
Class and section are not spreadsheet columns hidden behind a menu. Operators shout them. The logger should capture them at the same speed as the call. If you are tabbing through six fields to log 2A EMA, you are already off rate.
Dupe is not a suggestion
Band, mode, call. Identity at type speed. The network pileup does not get a second QSO because someone was in the kitchen tent. A late dupe sheet is how clubs donate contacts to the noise floor.
Paper dupe is honest until 200 QSOs. After that it is folklore. Digital dupe that requires a server is folklore with a nicer font.
- Local identity index, not a round-trip.
- Exchange visible during the QSO, not after.
- Cabrillo generated from the same log you ran, not a reconstruction.
Multi-station is a logistics problem
Two radios, one call. If you have a LAN, sync. If you do not, you need snapshots you can merge Monday without destroying either operator’s work. Field Day has wrecked more cloud loggers than solar flares have.
Monday morning
Cabrillo. ADIF. Then you are an activator again. The same OS should take you from FD back to POTA without learning a new program. Log73 is in field trial for clubs that want that muscle memory — and for the 1B-battery station that never had Wi-Fi in the first place.
Questions
Does Field Day logging work offline?
It must. Club Wi-Fi is not a scoring strategy. Local DUPE and exchange, then Cabrillo and ADIF from the device after the weekend.
Can multiple stations share a dupe sheet?
Only if you planned it. On-site LAN when it exists; snapshot merge when it does not. Never assume the cloud will hold at 2100Z.
Log73 is in field trial.
Request a slot. Bring a radio.