Posts published in “Winter Field Day”

Winter Field Day 2025 Follow-up Report

By Tom Schaefer NY4I on 02/10/2025

Participating Clubs’ Banners [Photo by K2BHS]

On January 25th & 26th, 2025, local ham radio clubs participated in the annual Winter Field Day event in Clearwater, Florida. The day started out as planned with people gathering at 8:00 AM–some even earlier–at the Clearwater Fire Training Center for Winter Field Day 2025. This was a joint effort between the Clearwater Amateur Radio Society, the St. Petersburg Amateur Radio Club and the Upper Pinellas Amateur Radio Club. This was the first time SPARC had been back in a few years for Winter Field Day and given the number of members from different clubs, it was great to have everyone back together again.

Due to the forecasted weather being a bit too chilly overnight (yes, I know, it’s called Winter Field Day but we live in Florida for a reason…), the decision was made to have Winter Field Day indoors this year. We setup in the standard inside configuration we use for ARRL Field Day.

Thanks to everyone that took pictures.

We had all three stations capable of operating SSB with 2 stations pulling double-duty as CW and one as Digital (PSK31). Being Field Day, we always have a great spread of food to keep everyone fed. Ron and Ruth Appel and their team do a great job of organizing the food portion of Field Day.

HF Operating

Summary

We managed to work a total of 1326 contacts on 6 different bands (2M not shown in the table below). We contacted stations in all the US sections/states except Hawaii as well as all but a few Canadian sections.

SSB (Phone)

We had approximately 1100 contacts on SSB (phone) with Jeff NE4C making 545 QSOs and Bruce K2BHS making 231 contacts. Other operators can be seen in the table below:

CW (Morse Code)

Dave KR4U made 124 CW contacts with Pat AA0O adding 59 CW contacts and Tom NY4I adding a few more.

Dave KR4U working the paddle at the CW station

The short tower with the hex beam and wire antennas

Satellite Station

The Arrow antenna on a Yaesu Azimuth/Elevation rotator for tracking the satellites.

Using Ryan AF4O’s very portable satellite station, Tom NY4I managed to make 6 satellite contacts using RS-44 for SSB contacts and PO-101 for an FM contact

Education

Fred W2SUB introducing Field Day to guests

One of our important goals is to always introduce new people to ham radio. With either encouraging a new ham to pick up the microphone and make contacts, offer a few pointers on how to operate the most efficiently or introduce ham radio to someone for the very first time, education and training is why we do all of this (well the food is great too!). Fred W2SUB conducted his usual training sessions. While we do not get points for it like in Summer ARRL Field Day, points are not the motivator anyway.

Winter Field Day Objectives

Winter Field Day switched to an objective-based multiplier system. Possible objectives were as follows:

Operate 100% on alternative power
Operate away from home
Deploy multiple antenna
Make an FM satellite contact
Make a SSB or CW Satellite Contact
Send and receive at least one Winlink email
Copy the Winter Field Day Special Bulletin
Operate on at least six different bands
Use multiple modes
Operate the event QRP
Operate six continuous hours during the event

Of the above objectives, we achieved them all except operating 100% on alternative power and operate the event QRP. Jason N4BOZ sent and received a WinLink message on 2m from the site, Tom NY4I made a satellite contact on FM and SSB, Tom NY4I contacted a station on 2m 146.52 for the 6th band, we operated multiple modes with SSB, CW and PSK31, Tom NY4I copied the Winter Field Day Bulletin on Phone and CW and we operated 25 hours.

Oh the Food…

No one goes hungry at Field Day. Ron W4RFA and Ruth Appel lead a great team to help with the food. The clubs provided meals for Breakfast on Saturday and Sunday, lunch on Saturday (cooked by Dean N0OAC and Sarah N0UKS) and Sunday and Dinner on Saturday (along with the potluck). Other helpers included Karen Isak KQ4HNI, Beth Whidden (NY4I’s spouse) and Diane Friedman (K4SPF’s spouse).

Results

So how did we do? With the change in the scoring, it is hard to compare the points to last year, but contacts wise, we made more QSOs this year than last (1146 QSOs in 2024 Winter Field Day). The following table gives the break down of the contacts, bands and total points including the objective multipliers. We will see in a few months how we did as compared to other stations in the 3I (inside) class.

Thanks to Bill Terry for the majority of these pictures.

[Show slideshow]

Related Images:

Winter field Day 2025 Sign-Up is Now Available

By Tom Schaefer NY4I on 12/23/2024

Please visit this page for information about our upcoming Winter Field Day in January 2025.

Full details including what Winter Field Day is and why you should attend are in the following page:

https://www.sparc-club.org/wfd2025

Related Images:

Winter Field Day 2025 Announcement

By Tom Schaefer NY4I on 12/09/2024

Sign-up for meals here

Do you like operating in the field but hate dripping in sweat while setting up antennas? Does the idea of enduring another Field Day constantly fighting off every mosquito in Tampa Bay make you wish they held Field Day in January? Well, you’re in luck! Winter Field Day is an event very similar to the June ARRL Field Day except—you guessed it—it’s held in Winter. Specifically January 25 & 26, 2025. This is a joint operation with both the Clearwater Amateur Radio Society (CARS) and the Upper Pinellas Amateur Radio Club (UPARC). The event will be held at the Clearwater Fire Training Facility on Belcher Road south of Sunset Point Road in Clearwater. Prior efforts were a great success.

Winter Field Day is a 24 hour operating exercise where hams across the country go to the field, setup portable stations running on emergency power with temporary antennas. This event is not sponsored by the ARRL but the Winter Field Day Association. It has been operating since 2007 and gets bigger each year. There are several differences from the ARRL Field Day. Notably, there are only four classes of operation: (Outdoor, Indoor, Mobile and Home). We will be operating 3 HF stations capable of SSB, Digital modes like PSK31 and CW plus a satellite station. As with summer Field Day, you will work stations operating from home and also indoors in non-traditional settings. But when you work outside stations in Minnesota, please try not to comment on how it is a chilly 65 degrees here. They may not share your amusement. 🙂

We have the radio and computers secured and a pretty good handle on the supplies as this is the 7th event the clubs have done from this facility. We need people to help with putting things up, some people to help with food and of course, operators. Setup begins at 8:00 AM on Saturday 1/25. Three radios will be going 24 hours from 2:00 PM Saturday to 2:00 PM on Sunday so we need people that can operate. No experience is necessary. If you are brand new to ham radio, you are welcome to come out and with a little training; you get to operate the radios. If you are interested in operating portable, you will get first hand experience in how to setup a station outside with no other infrastructure. Additionally, if you are interested in Emergency Communications, you have the opportunity to setup in a unusual location, operating radios on generator power. Note that is just like people had to do in Houston and Puerto Rico after the hurricanes so if you are an EMCOMM operator, this event is tailor made for you. Plus you will be on the grounds of the premiere fire training facility in the area.

We have a great facility in the Clearwater Fire Training Center including access to the classrooms, rest rooms, etc. However, all operating is outside (tentatively but could change) with portable antennas. While this is winter in Florida, we hope the weather is nice but past year’s Winter Fields were cold and rainy so you never know what you will get.

Here is a Google Map to the location. This is centrally located to most club members in the county so we hope the facility proves to be a success for all.

The transceivers used are three Elecraft K3 radios (UPARC has three of them). We use computers for logging with the TR4W contest logger. Note this is a departure for SPARC as the standard at the club station is N1MM but you will find TR4W easy to pickup. It is also very forgiving to new operators and will not let you enter the info wrong. You are welcome to download TR4W and play with it to get used to the software but it is pretty easy to use. We will have more training on that at the January meeting.

Sign up is available now by clicking here so please save the date and plan on attending. Please sign up as soon as it is available. Don’t forget to bring anything you might need for the weekend (we recommend a camp chair and cool weather gear–more details on what to bring will be sent before the event).

Related Images:

Winter Field Day

By Tom Schaeffer W4CU on 11/30/2022

Winter Field Day will be held in January. Mark your calendar for January 28th and 29th, 2023. SPARC plans to participate. Details will be provided as the date approaches.

Related Images:

Winter Field Day 2022 is Moving inside!

By Tom Schaefer NY4I on 01/27/2022

Since the forecast is for temperatures this weekend in the high 40s and low 50s during the day and to be 44 overnight with 20 mph winds, the decision was made to move the operating positions inside the Fire Training Center. This will be the same room used for Summer Field Day so the operating should be more comfortable than it would have been outside.

Just a reminder, if you did not sign up already, your chance to reserve meals has passed so please bring your own if you want to come out and expect to eat.

An email will be sent tonight to everyone that already signed up.

And as always, if you want to operate or even just listen, bring your own headset. We do not share headphones and all radios have to use headphones.

Related Images:

Winter Field Day 2022 Update

By Tom Schaefer NY4I on 01/13/2022

Do you like operating in the field but hate dripping in sweat while setting up antennas? Does the idea of enduring another Field Day constantly fighting off every mosquito in Tampa Bay make you wish they held Field Day in January? Well, you’re in luck! Winter Field Day is an event very similar to the June ARRL Field Day except—you guessed it—it’s held in Winter. Specifically January 29 & 30, 2022. This is a joint operation with the Upper Pinellas Amateur Radio Club (UPARC) and the Clearwater Amateur Radio Society (CARS). The event will be held at the Clearwater Fire Training Facility on Belcher Road south of Sunset Point Road in Clearwater. Prior efforts were a great success. You can read about that here.

Winter Field Day is a 24 hour operating exercise where hams across the country go to the field, setup portable stations running on emergency power with temporary antennas. This event is not sponsored by the ARRL but the Winter Field Day Association instead. It has been operating since 2007 and gets bigger each year. There are several differences from the ARRL Field Day. Notably, there are only three classes of operation: (Outdoor, Indoor and Home). We will be operating outdoors (under cover) with 3 stations capable of SSB, digital modes like PSK31 and CW plus a satellite station. You can sign up by clicking here. As with summer Field Day, you will work stations operating from home and also indoors in non-traditional settings. But when you work outside stations in Minnesota, please try not to comment on how it is a chilly 65 degrees here. They may not share your amusement. 🙂

We have the radio and computers secured and a pretty good handle on the supplies as this is the fifth event we have done from this facility. We need people to help with putting things up, some people to help with food and of course, operators. Setup will begin at 9:00 AM on Saturday, 1/29. 3 radios will be going 24 hours from 2:00 PM Saturday to 2:00 PM on Sunday so we need people that can operate. No experience is necessary. If you are brand new to ham radio, you are welcome to come out and with a little training; you get to operate the radios. If you are interested in operating portable, you will get first hand experience in how to setup a station outside with no other infrastructure. Additionally, if you are interested in Emergency Communications, you have the opportunity to setup in a unusual location, operating radios on generator power. Note that is just like people had to do in Houston and Puerto Rico after the hurricanes so if you are an EMCOMM operator, this event is tailor made for you. Plus you will be on the grounds of the premiere fire training facility in the area.

This is the perfect opportunity for anyone that misses that experience of setting up temporary antennas and operating radios in outside. The bonus is that instead of just one club, we have members of all different experience levels from all three clubs. Of course, we have some creature comforts in that we can use the facilities inside the Fire Training center, but all the operating is outside on generator power. While this is winter in Florida, you never know. Past year’s Winter Field Day have been cold and rainy but others very pleasant so you never know what you will get.

Here is a Google Map to the location. This is centrally located to all three club’s members so we hope the facility proves to be a success for all.

Please sign up and let us know if you can bring anything. Again, we need mostly people to setup and operate. Don’t forget to bring anything you might need for the weekend. We have the radios in the form of an Elecraft K3 for CW/SSB, an Icom 7600 and a Kenwood TS590S for SSB. We also have computers. So please sign up now by clicking here.