Field Day 2026 – Recap

Every June, amateur radio operators across North America take part in ARRL Field Day, a 24-hour exercise in emergency preparedness during which stations set up temporary equipment—often running on generators, batteries, or solar power—to simulate operating conditions after a disaster knocks out normal infrastructure. It’s part contest, part public demonstration, and part readiness drill, testing operators’ ability to make contacts, and to do so quickly, reliably, and completely off the grid.

For 2026, the Suffolk County Radio Club held its Field Day at the Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe—a site rich with its own radio history, as the former home of Nikola Tesla’s Wardenclyffe Tower, an early and ambitious experiment in wireless transmission. Operating from that same ground gave this year’s event an extra layer of meaning, tying the club’s modern-day emergency communications work back to one of the pioneers of wireless technology itself.

Team members arrived early to raise multiple antennas and tents, and to get four HF radios and emergency power supplies running for fully off-grid operation. A single vertical antenna placed in the exact original position of the Tesla Tower was used and displayed to commemorate the historic grounds we operated on.. Rounding out the station, the club added a 100-foot portable tower—generously loaned each year by Tony, KA2FZB—along with the club’s HexBeam antenna, enabling operation across multiple bands simultaneously.

Beyond the technical side, Field Day is also about outreach, and this year’s turnout reflected that. Local Fire and EMS officials stopped by alongside a steady stream of Tesla Science Center visitors and the General Public, many curious about the hobby. The team walked them through the reasoning behind Amateur Radio, the effort that goes into events like this, and the real capability the hobby provides— across Long Island, North America and around the World.

Operating the full 24 hours across multiple stations, the team logged 800 contacts by contest close—a strong showing that speaks to both the setup and the operators behind it.