Winter Field Day

I was impressed with how well I could hear people on 160m. I expected it to be very noisy, but it was quieter than 80m. I didn't pay attention to the call signs other than I didn't notice any DX (other than VE) to know how far away anyone was. It was very busy though. I was surprised.
 
This is youses guys' fault I participated in this thing = It was fun!

73 UJay

WFD 2025
160: 1
80: 10
40: 11
20: 11
15: 11
10: 6
Total: 50 0 0 Mults 8 Total Score 800


100% Battery Power. New 150AH Life4Po testing for NewEQP Rover effort OMx1
Copied the hand-sent bulletin on 20m 00z OMx1
Had a QSO on 6 bands OMx6
OM=8

Was running CQWW 160m at the same time I head 2 stations CQ'n WFD and by the time I changed to the FD setup I missed one. Happy to claim the 6-band multiplier.

The battery ran the station for 25 hours and was down to about 20ah/13%.
The laptop / charger seems the biggest hog.

Elecraft K3 ~80w
160m Inverted L/FCP new put up during recent snowstorm for NAQP CW, therefore it works well
80m Loop
40m(15m) Loop
20m(10m) Loop

This may be my first WFD effort.
 
I was on 10M with my local club for Winter field day yesterday.
Never seen an Icom 7300. It was a really nice radio.
They had the voice recorder programmed for the Winter field day event.
I definitely have to program mine for calling cq. It was so handy and fun to use!
Logged in parts of California and Texas quite a few times. 10M was busy!
 
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It's a nicely designed radio.
I like how small it seemed and how rugged and simple the layout was.
No buttons that look like they ran out of room and said screw it just cram a few more around here.
The mic was simple and had a better connector than on my Yaesu FT-DX10.
The water fall looked nice and was easy to see.
I like my radio. But I appreciated how simplistic they designed the usability of the radio.
I had a blast with Winter field day. Everyone was so nice and friendly. 10m was the busiest band we had going.
Next year I'm going to take the weekend off and operate as an individual station and go 24 hours straight!
Snacks, beer and Chinese take out! Going to be a good time!
 
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@oldguy68 , start making your plans for regular Field Day. It's fun too, and it's in the summer.

I'll have to check my log, but I think I got in the area of 80 CW contacts on 10, 15, 20, 40. I don't think I got any on 80 because that's when my laptop died. And I know I didn't get any on 160. So I'm not setting any records this year. It was fun though, and I got a bunch of CA sections, OR, and a pile from WWA. I really could have done without the cold.

Propagation was good. I think my first contact was southern CA. Which quickly reminded me that I need to spend a little time learning the sections. CA has a lot of them.

Edit: I had 93 in a little under 4 hours. Had I known I got a bonus for "mixed mode" I would have made one SSB contact. And too bad I couldn't get 80/160 for the six band bonus. Oh well. It was certainly not for lack of trying. A lot of gremlins this year.

One of these days I'll have to do an after action report so I know what to do better next year. Heat and coax are at the top of the list.
 
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Driving Utica, NY to Manchester, NH Saturday, I picked up numerous WFD CQs on 146.520. It was my most active 2m trip ever!

I got also got two Meshtastic LoRa pings on the drive as well (not WFD-related) - Springfield, MA is a hotspot but SoNH is much hotter.
 
ToddDubya said:
@oldguy68 , start making your plans for regular Field Day. It's fun too, and it's in the summer.

I'll have to check my log, but I think I got in the area of 80 CW contacts on 10, 15, 20, 40. I don't think I got any on 80 because that's when my laptop died. And I know I didn't get any on 160. So I'm not setting any records this year. It was fun though, and I got a bunch of CA sections, OR, and a pile from WWA. I really could have done without the cold.

Propagation was good. I think my first contact was southern CA. Which quickly reminded me that I need to spend a little time learning the sections. CA has a lot of them.
Click to expand...
I logged a couple from WWA as well.
Your'e not kidding about CA. They have a bunch of sections.
I was wishing we had a map of the sections at times.
We had an operator on 20m SSB and another running PSK31.
I didn't ask what frequency the PSK31 operator was using. First time I ever saw someone using it. He did show me a how it worked. Pretty cool.
Our call sign: W1MA , our Class: 3I, Section EMA.
I wished operators were a little more standardized on giving their call sign, class and section for faster logging.
The ones that were hard was when it was given as one long and fast call sign. I'm like ahhh, can I get that again..[smile]

Looking forward to summer field day!
 
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QTHNH said:
Participated in WFD this weekend, operating as 1ONH. Main goal was to stand up 3 antennas (2 HF and 1 2cm/70m) and get 6-band multiplier. Success. Damn cold Saturday ;-)
Click to expand...
Holy crap, I just noticed your class. You were outdoors![rofl2]
I was wearing shorts indoors. Outside, not moving around much and freezing hands. Not going to happen. If I'm having fun![smile]
 
oldguy68 said:
I logged a couple from WWA as well.
Your'e not kidding about CA. They have a bunch of sections.
I was wishing we had a map of the sections at times.
We had an operator on 20m SSB and another running PSK31.
I didn't ask what frequency the PSK31 operator was using. First time I ever saw someone using it. He did show me a how it worked. Pretty cool.
Our call sign: W1MA , our Class: 3I, Section EMA.
I wished operators were a little more standardized on giving their call sign, class and section for faster logging.
The ones that were hard was when it was given as one long and fast call sign. I'm like ahhh, can get that again..[smile]

Looking forward to summer field day!
Click to expand...

Here are some maps...

ARRL RAC Sections Map

www.mapability.com www.mapability.com

or


That's cool to see PSK31. I heard what I thought was a bunch of RTTY, but maybe PSK31. Whatever it was seemed to be more spread out, not just one lump of them like FT8.

Yeah, it's tough when people don't follow the same protocol. You hear everyone else giving it "1O VT" and you just gotta be different?

I ran 100% CW this year for the challenge. Most people were really good. Either I'm getting better (likely) or everyone else is also getting better (seemed to be the case). But there was one guy who had a 1x1 call and he gave it as K3QK3QK every time, and was using a bug. First of all, if you're going to send your call twice, put a space in there. And you don't need the K at the end. And when I get it right with a ?, just respond with R, not the whole damn string again that makes me think I got it wrong.

Another guy I heard must have had a call sign like 55555, class 5H, section HH. I was waiting in a pileup behind him and I don't know if the guy just gave up and sent him a 73 to get rid of him or what. But it was just all dits and no spaces at 35wpm. Maybe he was one of the Slovenian guys with S55 prefix?

But overall I found that just about everyone was good. I like a little GL or 73 at the end of a QSO. All but the hardcore guys seemed to do that, so that was nice.

I use the N3FJP logging software. I like that they give you a list of sections organized by district (and colors the ones you've worked). So if you hear a 6 call, you can glance over and have an idea of what to expect. If I had two screens I could have kept this map up on one screen. It looks like I got most of CA (well, 6/10) and a whopping one DX (Ontario East, Canada) [smile].


1737950200778.png
 
QTHNH said:
Participated in WFD this weekend, operating as 1ONH. Main goal was to stand up 3 antennas (2 HF and 1 2cm/70m) and get 6-band multiplier. Success. Damn cold Saturday ;-)
Click to expand...
Can confirm. 1OVT here. It was 20F when I finished snow blowing the driveway to get my car off the road, and it went down from there.

I had two antennas already up and a third vertical whip. Only one is permanent with its own coax. I forgot my other coax, so I had to 1) dig up the coax for the main antenna to use with the other two, and 2) mess with adjusting a whip. And like a bonehead I brought an all metal CW paddle, so my fingertips were numb. I strap it to my leg, so at least I don't have to hold it. I tried thin gloves at one point, and that helped some, but it made for sloppy sending. My hand warmers kind of worked and foot warmers did not work at all.

I wish I could get the 2m/70cm bands. I've tried in years past and there is just nobody around. I squeaked out an SSB and CW on 2m one year, but that was with a friend so even if he couldn't make it all out, he knows who/where I am.
 
Just saw this in a video today and grabbed a screen shot. These are the ARRL Sections. I assume they grabbed this from the N3FJP logger, which will change the colors as you work someone from each section. The ones in 6-land always throw me for a loop.

1739381675980.png
 

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