On February 6, Radio Amateurs of Canada (RAC) issued a statement on their website that the Ontario Section would be split into four new RAC Administrative Sections, effective September 1, 2012. The reason given for the restructure was “...to create a management model that better communicates with, and represents the interests of, the overall Ontario Amateur population.” The Ontario Section will be dissolved and be replaced with four new RAC Sections: Ontario North, Ontario South, Ontario East and the Greater Toronto Area. The new section abbreviations will be announced when final.

This new change will affect ARRL contests and Field Day in the following ways:

• For ARRL contests that use ARRL/RAC sections as multipliers -- the ARRL November Sweepstakes and the ARRL 160 Meter Contest -- there will be an overall increase of three available multipliers.
• ARRL contests that use US states and Canadian provinces as multipliers -- the ARRL RTTY Roundup, the ARRL International DX Contest and the ARRL 10 Meter Contest -- are unaffected by this change. ARRL VHF+ contests and the IARU HF Championships are also unaffected by this change.
• The first contest to be affected by the RAC administrative change will be the 2012 ARRL November Sweepstakes, which will now require 83 multipliers to achieve a Clean Sweep.
• ARRL Field Day does not use multipliers, but Ontario stations will send new Section abbreviations as part of their exchanges.