Winter Field Day

[ToddDubya]

Winter Field Day is Jan 28-29 this year (2023). Who's doing it?

I told myself I'd do it this year, so I guess I have to. I have my super secret squirrel location I can (should) operate from. It's protected from the weather in that it has walls and a floor and a roof, but no heat, power, water, anything. A shed in the woods. That could be either Indoor or Outdoor per the rules. Probably Indoor.

I'll definitely bring the end fed to give me 40-10m. I can give some thought to my 2m/70cm yagis. One needs repair and they both would need some way to be mounted. I don't know what I'd get for contacts in the mountains, but it could be worth a try. Maybe an 80m element for the end fed or just a dipole would give me more bang for the buck.

I'll have to make a list of stuff to buy and get ready. For starters, a second battery would be good. If I can get my CW skills up at least enough to make basic QSOs, maybe a paddle.

Home - Winter Field Day

Winter Field Day. Winter Field Day is a communications exercise. WFD is held on the last full weekend in January. WFD can be worked from the comfort of your home or in a remote location. You can participate by yourself or get your friends, family, or whole club involved.

winterfieldday.com

 

[Admin]

basically 2000 points just for setting up your QRP rig outside

Alternative Power1: You may claim 500 points if no commercial power is used in powering your WFD station. This means any power not connected to the commercial power grid. Generators, batteries, solar power, and wind are all possible sources of alternative power. You may claim this bonus no matter what operational category you are working under.

Outdoor: You may claim 500 points if you are operating outdoors. Every station operating in the Outdoor category should be able to claim this bonus. Any station that is operating in the Home category but chooses to set up outdoors, may also claim this bonus.

Away from Home: You may claim 500 points if you are operating in a location other than home as defined above. If you are operating under the Indoor, Outdoor or Mobile categories, you should be able to claim this bonus.

Antenna: You may claim 500 points if you are setting up an antenna(s) just for WFD. If you or any of your operating stations are using any pre-installed antennas you may not claim this bonus. Pre-installed antennas are defined as any antenna attached to anything that could be used day to day or was set up before the WFD set-up time. This includes home antennas, installed antennas on vehicles, cargo trailers and RVs, and, any other antenna that would be considered permanently installed.

 

[Madball13]

basically 2000 points just for setting up your QRP rig outside

Alternative Power1: You may claim 500 points if no commercial power is used in powering your WFD station. This means any power not connected to the commercial power grid. Generators, batteries, solar power, and wind are all possible sources of alternative power. You may claim this bonus no matter what operational category you are working under.

Outdoor: You may claim 500 points if you are operating outdoors. Every station operating in the Outdoor category should be able to claim this bonus. Any station that is operating in the Home category but chooses to set up outdoors, may also claim this bonus.

Away from Home: You may claim 500 points if you are operating in a location other than home as defined above. If you are operating under the Indoor, Outdoor or Mobile categories, you should be able to claim this bonus.

Antenna: You may claim 500 points if you are setting up an antenna(s) just for WFD. If you or any of your operating stations are using any pre-installed antennas you may not claim this bonus. Pre-installed antennas are defined as any antenna attached to anything that could be used day to day or was set up before the WFD set-up time. This includes home antennas, installed antennas on vehicles, cargo trailers and RVs, and, any other antenna that would be considered permanently installed.

Hopefully there isn't a "diesel heater in a RTT" penalty.

 

[ToddDubya]

The extra points must be to disadvantage people who just operate from home.

From what I saw of regular field day, it's more about bullshitting and eating, kind of like a range day. There's basically zero chance I'll have anyone with me, so it'll be more like tending a fire and eating. Hmm, maybe I should find something to cook in the dutch oven, either over the fire or with coals.

 

[ToddDubya]

Just an FYI that this is coming up this weekend.

My friend lent me his FT-817ND so I'm going QRP! Now I should be able to get by on my 12Ah Bioenno. I want a 3Ah battery for my soon-to-have FT-818 and I might get that to have for the weekend, too. It'd at least give me a chance to see how long it lasts. I'll have to power a tuner too, but that only draws while tuning. Hmm, or bite the bullet and get the tuner made for the 817?

Home - Winter Field Day

Winter Field Day. Winter Field Day is a communications exercise. WFD is held on the last full weekend in January. WFD can be worked from the comfort of your home or in a remote location. You can participate by yourself or get your friends, family, or whole club involved.

winterfieldday.com

 

[ToddDubya]

Screw it, I ordered a 3Ah Bioenno and the z817 tuner from HRO. They usually get stuff here within a couple days. My tuner would have done the job, but I don't have the right interface cable for the 817, so I'd have to do it the "hard" way.

If anyone is thinking about buying a tuner, LDG has a deal going where you can get a free balun if you order before 1/31. It's about a $30 value if you're interested.

https://www.hamradio.com/documents/LDG%20Balun%20Rebate%202022.pdf

 

[ToddDubya]

I just did a test drive of the FT-818 before WFD just to make sure it works. I hooked it up to my home antenna (DX Commander) and hit Minnesota 59 on 15m, running 2.5w SSB off the battery.

Then I thought I should make sure the tuner works so I hooked that up. Whoops, no jumper cable to the radio. That would have been a huge mistake. I stole the one off my other tuner and it worked fine. I hit a park in AL 42 (pretty weak) on 20m SSB, but it got out there.

My end fed that was giving me fits last time is slightly tidier. It should be fine as a backup with the tuner.

And the 9:1 UNUN I got for free from LDG came today. It looks like a decent little piece of kit, simple but well designed packaging. I'm not going to bother trying to get it on the air this weekend but it'll give me something to mess around with.

 

[ToddDubya]

Well WFD is done. Lessons learned:

1. Subfreezing temps are cold.
2. Good luck calling CQ when you're QRP.
3. The 3Ah battery is going to be plenty for any park activations and such. I ran from 2-8pm with it, then maybe another hour this morning when I saw the voltage starting to get low.
4. Once 20m and up are closed and everyone is on 40, QRP is rubbish.
5. When you're going to be sitting in the cold for 24 hours, maybe don't work up a sweat right before.

Honestly, it was physically quite miserable a lot of the time because I was so cold, and my seat was uncomfortable, which made my back completely useless today. But I did enjoy the little FT-818, and the LDG tuner that works with it worked really well. It had no trouble tuning up 80m that was no better than 5:1. The memory works really nicely, and makes me think my other tuner doesn't have memory like it should.

I chickened out on CW. My studying lately has been really bad; I can't copy anything the last few days. But I bet if I had done CW the 5w would have been ample.

Best distance, two contacts in Western Washington state. At least one was on 15m, which was a godsend of a band this weekend. And I started working a guy in San Diego before Captain SSTV and The Tuneup Boys just swamped me out.

I'll do it again, next time with heat.

 

[n1oty]

Well WFD is done. Lessons learned:

1. Subfreezing temps are cold.
2. Good luck calling CQ when you're QRP.
3. The 3Ah battery is going to be plenty for any park activations and such. I ran from 2-8pm with it, then maybe another hour this morning when I saw the voltage starting to get low.
4. Once 20m and up are closed and everyone is on 40, QRP is rubbish.
5. When you're going to be sitting in the cold for 24 hours, maybe don't work up a sweat right before.

Honestly, it was physically quite miserable a lot of the time because I was so cold, and my seat was uncomfortable, which made my back completely useless today. But I did enjoy the little FT-818, and the LDG tuner that works with it worked really well. It had no trouble tuning up 80m that was no better than 5:1. The memory works really nicely, and makes me think my other tuner doesn't have memory like it should.

I chickened out on CW. My studying lately has been really bad; I can't copy anything the last few days. But I bet if I had done CW the 5w would have been ample.

Best distance, two contacts in Western Washington state. At least one was on 15m, which was a godsend of a band this weekend. And I started working a guy in San Diego before Captain SSTV and The Tuneup Boys just swamped me out.

I'll do it again, next time with heat.

If you want to maximize your signal on QRP, you may want to consider resonant antennas or a dipole fed with ladder line. Your tuner makes your radio happy, but it does not prevent signal loss due to SWR induced losses in the coax. I happen to frequently use an OCFD as one of my home antennas. It is resonant on some bands and not on others. For the non-resonant bands I must use my tuner. I can also run up to a kilowatt of power and that antenna is fed with 1/2 inch Andrew Heliax. Even if I lose half my power on a particular band due to high SWR, I still have a good signal with an effective 500 watt signal into an antenna that is up at 60 feet. If you lose half of your 5 watt signal into a lower antenna, you are severely hampered.

Does your tuner support ladder line or only coax?

 

[ToddDubya]

If you want to maximize your signal on QRP, you may want to consider resonant antennas or a dipole fed with ladder line. Your tuner makes your radio happy, but it does not prevent signal loss due to SWR induced losses in the coax. I happen to frequently use an OCFD as one of my home antennas. It is resonant on some bands and not on others. For the non-resonant bands I must use my tuner. I can also run up to a kilowatt of power and that antenna is fed with 1/2 inch Andrew Heliax. Even if I lose half my power on a particular band due to high SWR, I still have a good signal with an effective 500 watt signal into an antenna that is up at 60 feet. If you lose half of your 5 watt signal into a lower antenna, you are severely hampered.

Does your tuner support ladder line or only coax?

Yeah, I'm not a real big fan of tuners for all the reasons you mention plus seeking out a contact only to have to find somewhere clear to tune up.

This tuner only does coax. I have an end fed that I used all summer without a tuner, but I improved it and now it doesn't work like it used to, so I had to switch it up at the last minute. I'll get that fixed when the weather is nicer. In fact, I put together K6ARK's spark plug endfed kit that handles maybe 10w and uses a BNC connector. That will be nice to put right on the front connector of the 818. I initially bought it to use with the RockMite CW only kit.

This weekend I was using the Chameleon TD Lite, which from what I can tell is a 5:1 balun with two 60' elements and a high price tag. It looks like it's the same as their older EMCOMM II plus the counterpoise they don't include with that antenna. I had it setup as a sloping V pointing SW. They claim offers some directionality and possibly even some gain, maybe? Looking at a map and my log, it looks like the majority of my contacts were in that direction, with the exception of the 2,400 mile shot to WA. Not bad for 5w.

I threw the analyzer on after I set it up just to see what I was looking at, and it was below 3:1 on 40-10, and worse on 80. I think 15/10 were about 1.7:1, so that wasn't too bad to start with. I didn't look at 60/30/17/12 since those weren't part of this event. 6/2/70c were rubbish, but I did check those.

I have to get my log into the computer so I can submit it. I think Hamrs gives you a map of your contacts, so that'll be neat to see.

 

[ToddDubya]

I'll double check this before I submit, but here's what I got. If that dipole truly was quasi-directional I kind of wish I tweaked it this morning. It was pretty much aimed SW.

I'm sure I didn't set any records, but it was fun. I've never done a contest before, so this non-contest was an easy toe to dip.

 

[Admin]

Well WFD is done. Lessons learned:

1. Subfreezing temps are cold.
2. Good luck calling CQ when you're QRP.
3. The 3Ah battery is going to be plenty for any park activations and such. I ran from 2-8pm with it, then maybe another hour this morning when I saw the voltage starting to get low.
4. Once 20m and up are closed and everyone is on 40, QRP is rubbish.
5. When you're going to be sitting in the cold for 24 hours, maybe don't work up a sweat right before.

Honestly, it was physically quite miserable a lot of the time because I was so cold, and my seat was uncomfortable, which made my back completely useless today. But I did enjoy the little FT-818, and the LDG tuner that works with it worked really well. It had no trouble tuning up 80m that was no better than 5:1. The memory works really nicely, and makes me think my other tuner doesn't have memory like it should.

I chickened out on CW. My studying lately has been really bad; I can't copy anything the last few days. But I bet if I had done CW the 5w would have been ample.

Best distance, two contacts in Western Washington state. At least one was on 15m, which was a godsend of a band this weekend. And I started working a guy in San Diego before Captain SSTV and The Tuneup Boys just swamped me out.

I'll do it again, next time with heat.

My winter field day went like this. @Madball13

1. Have a few drinks with the wife after dinner.
2. Remember you were going to test your field radio/gear this weekend.
3. Load up your side by side with all your gear.
4. Head out, set up popup fish house, heater, radio, new encomm portable antenna, realize you lost your tensioning carabiner somewhere along the way.
5. Wire up a 73' antenna in the dark, tripping in a foot of snow, seeing it's only wired from the cage of the side by side to a tree at 4' elevation.
6. Fire up radio, tune 40m, see that it looks like a disco show on the spectrum, with no luck trying to reach a buddy on JS8.
7. Text him and tell him 40m is F'ed and he replies "Yeah it is" switch to 80m, make the contact then spend 30 minutes packing all that crap up.

Lessons learned

New QRP antenna works.
A field day was probably not the best time to test it.
Setting up all your gear in the dark with a head lamp isn't fast.
If the shit hits the fan, I can only imagine the radio traffic will be so heavy for the first week or so it will be pointless to try unless it's the wee hours of the morning. Once the sheep run out of juice the bands will open.

 

[ToddDubya]

I finally got around to submitting my log. No time like the last minute. I ended up having to buy the N3FJP software, which I had started using anyway, but wasn't really sure I wanted to buy just yet. It definitely would have been handy for logging real-time. Oh well, maybe for regular Field Day.

I had a whopping 2,295 points, 2,000 of which came from gimmes like being outside and on battery power and whatnot. 59 contacts on 5 bands got me the other 295 pts. Thank goodness for the single contact on 80 for that extra band! I had already worked him earlier so I think he was generous. QRP into an antenna with an SWR around 6:1 on 80m couldn't have been too good.

Maybe the next event will be better but for some reason I really struggled with the rules and logging and submitting and all that. The N3FJP software would have made it much easier if I'd used it from the start. I'll probably need a way to keep the laptop powered in the bush.

 

[ToddDubya]

Winter Field Day 2024 is coming up in a few weeks. Who's doing it? Jan 27-28.

This year I'll not run QRP but 100w instead. I'll log directly on the laptop, and I think I'll upgrade my situation to have heat. I have an old propane heater (ventless) that I'm going to try first, and if that fails I'll maybe try a Buddy Heater. I was miserably cold last year.

This year I'm much more confident running a frequency, so I'll do some of that. I'm sure CW will be bonkers but I'll try it anyway. I forget what my antenna will do, but I think everything except 60m, which you can't use anyway (no 60 or WARC bands).

Home - WFDA

winterfieldday.org

 

[timbo]

Winter Field Day 2024 is coming up in a few weeks. Who's doing it? Jan 27-28.

This year I'll not run QRP but 100w instead. I'll log directly on the laptop, and I think I'll upgrade my situation to have heat. I have an old propane heater (ventless) that I'm going to try first, and if that fails I'll maybe try a Buddy Heater. I was miserably cold last year.

This year I'm much more confident running a frequency, so I'll do some of that. I'm sure CW will be bonkers but I'll try it anyway. I forget what my antenna will do, but I think everything except 60m, which you can't use anyway (no 60 or WARC bands).

Home - WFDA

winterfieldday.org

I learned after losing 50 pounds in the past year or two that I don't do cold very well. I guess there is a certain R factor to body fat and I have lost about 75% of mine . I may participate this year with a simple battery setup in my barn hooked up to my IC-706 with lowered output power and a propane heater of some sort. I'll be using my End Fed Half Wave most likely. Will also drag my Mr. Coffee out there.

 

[ToddDubya]

Sorry for your loss.

 

[Admin]

Winter Field Day 2024 is coming up in a few weeks. Who's doing it? Jan 27-28.

This year I'll not run QRP but 100w instead. I'll log directly on the laptop, and I think I'll upgrade my situation to have heat. I have an old propane heater (ventless) that I'm going to try first, and if that fails I'll maybe try a Buddy Heater. I was miserably cold last year.

This year I'm much more confident running a frequency, so I'll do some of that. I'm sure CW will be bonkers but I'll try it anyway. I forget what my antenna will do, but I think everything except 60m, which you can't use anyway (no 60 or WARC bands).

Home - WFDA

winterfieldday.org

I'll probably give it a go. See if I can hit you and some others. It will be interesting to see the scope of traffic and a good reason to test out the gear in the cold and portable. I'll run the Icom 705 @ 10w with a 65' NVIS wire. I'd love to be able to do it from the ice, not sure it will be thick enough in my AO by then.

 

[ToddDubya]

One lesson I learned last year is that as soon as it gets dark, everybody moves to 40m. If you're running QRP you don't stand much of a chance, SSB anyway. During the day everyone is spread out across the bands.

One of the things I wanted to try last winter was to operate from a frozen lake. I never did pull it off, but maybe this year. I figured a popular fishing lake would help ensure it's thick enough, but then you have all the fishermen and sleds/quads to contend with. I could try the local reservoir that I'm sure you can't go on, but who would know except for the mountain man who lives up there.

 

[ToddDubya]

Preparations are underway here. I pulled out a ventless propane heater I bought 20+ years ago, probably used twice, and have been looking at in the garage ever since. I cleaned it up as best I could the other day, and tonight I stole the propane tank from the grill and got it running. It throws heat!

My Super Secret Squirrel Location doesn't have a lot of square footage, but the ceiling is high. The floor and ceiling/roof are insulated but the walls are just board and batten, and the door has gaps. When I built it I didn't worry about gaps so I wouldn't have to worry about CO when I put in a wood stove, which I haven't done yet. Unless it's windy I'm not worried about the gaps, and they should help with fresh air.

Hopefully this weekend I can test it out. I also have one of those radiant heaters that sits on top of a tank if this doesn't work. I don't know if it's drafty enough for one of those, but I can always leave the door cracked if I need fresh air.

 

[ToddDubya]

Well WFD is upon us. Thankfully it's going to be mid 30s here, and not much colder at night so my propane heater should be able to keep me from dying. I'll bring the two mil surplus bags (minus the bivvy sack) so sleeping I'll be warm, and I've packed enough clothes that I can change if I break a sweat.

I should be able to work from 80-6m on the main antenna, 10m on the hex, and I'll bring something for 2m. To date I've had exactly zero luck on 2m from the Super Secret Squirrel Location, but maybe I can get somebody. My buddy with the many-element beam may be able to get me. I wanted to have something for 160m but I didn't get my act together in time. My goal is to get both voice and CW on every band I work.

Good luck if you're doing it, even if it's from the comfort of home.

FYI: It runs from 2PM Eastern Saturday to 2PM Eastern Sunday.

 

[ToddDubya]

Killing it so far. The hex proved a disaster to setup in the snow without a stable base to start from. I'll try again tomorrow but for now I just used the ZS6BKW. 5 bands, 250 contacts, all SSB. My battery just gave up the ghost so hopefully the battery bank will get that back up and running for the morning. I planned on running CW tonight but I got carried away and thought my battery would last forever. Even still 7 hours is nothing to shake a stick at for 100w. I've been tempted to pick up another 12Ah battery for these sorts of events. We'll see.

Now I have to just sit here in the dark listening to the propane heater purr and the mice in the roof roll walnuts around or whatever the hell they're doing. Sons of bitches. I probably should eat something. I only had crackers and cheese and a couple mini candy bars today.

Laptop had 33% left when the radio battery went kaput. Good data point.

 

[n1oty]

Killing it so far. The hex proved a disaster to setup in the snow without a stable base to start from. I'll try again tomorrow but for now I just used the ZS6BKW. 5 bands, 250 contacts, all SSB. My battery just gave up the ghost so hopefully the battery bank will get that back up and running for the morning. I planned on running CW tonight but I got carried away and thought my battery would last forever. Even still 7 hours is nothing to shake a stick at for 100w. I've been tempted to pick up another 12Ah battery for these sorts of events. We'll see.

Now I have to just sit here in the dark listening to the propane heater purr and the mice in the roof roll walnuts around or whatever the hell they're doing. Sons of bitches. I probably should eat something. I only had crackers and cheese and a couple mini candy bars today.

Laptop had 33% left when the radio battery went kaput. Good data point.

Glad you are having fun with it. I skipped WFD myself in favor of chasing the Clipperton operation. I have them on 40 SSB, 12 SSB, 10 SSB, 12 CW and 10 CW. Stay warm!!

 

[Admin]

I did not get out this weekend. Had anniversary plans and I'm chillaxing today.

 

[ToddDubya]

With the exception of one 2m SSB contact, I did only CW today. For some reason it really took a while to get in the groove, and with about 45 minutes left in the day I pulled up my big boy pants and started calling CQ. It was not nearly as painful as I expected.

I ended up with a little over 250 SSB contacts and 60 CW, both of which were cut short when the battery gave up. But that was enough. I had a great time, and that's what counts.

Two beefs:

• What's up with people who don't/won't use phonetics?
• On CW, can you cut people a break and put a slight pause between things? CQFDCQWFDW1ABCCQFDK at 25WPM is difficult to parse, and probably why you have to call for 20 minutes before anyone answers. Then when your class/section are 5I IA and it sounds like ..........- expect me to keep sending AGN.
  • A lot of people were good, but there were quite a few like above.

Two non-beefs:

• Dads who have their kids on the air. I think I'd lose about half my pileup talking to kids. Not for five minutes or anything, but just a few questions to encourage.
• CW Ops who slow down. I heard a few who were pros at matching speed. They would just jump from whatever they were natively sending at to 5WPM, to 20, to 15, ...
• Bonus non-beef: People who can sprinkle in the appropriate amount of banter.

Morning coffee view:



Looking back into the woods while bringing stuff back to the car.



Improvement ideas for next year:

• Build that damn stove I've been talking about.
• Extension for CW paddle. How did I never notice how short that is?
• 160m
• Second battery?
• How do I get rid of the mice living in the roof?
• Hang directional antennas instead of trying to dick around with a mast in the snow. Just use a cord at the front to keep it pointed in the right direction.