On the weekend of 26 June 2021, Dawson Lightfoot (KI5KMQ – President of PCARC) joined with fellow members of the Dallas Amateur Radio Club to compete in the 2021 American Radio Relay League Field Day. One goal of the competition is to obtain as many confirmed conversations (“QSOs”) from as many different stations as possible. Special awards can be earned by making contact all regions of North America. It was Dawson’s first ever radio competition and he logged over 200 QSOs in 24 hours. As you can see from the colored map below, he made significant strides toward contacting all regions of North America using the very popular digital mode, FT8, on frequencies ranging from the 160 meter band (about 1.8MHz) to the 6 meter band (about 50MHz). The screenshot below shows various programs being used to both make the contacts as well as guide efforts and log progress. The bubble labels on the first world map below are the stations that heard Dawson’s radio signals during the competition while the pins on the second world map are the stations that Dawson’s station received.
