Thought somebody might be interested. https://www.wkyt.com/content/news/T...articipate-in-Winter-Field-Day-504941541.html
Egad, not again, "... Bluegrass Amature Radio Society...", as somebody even noted on their public Facebook page. Even the professional media editors and proofreaders can't get the spelling of AMATEUR correct. WFD was a fun event. Like many, I operated from the comfort of home. Hey it was unusually blustery cold rain here in WCF! Brrrr... no MN thick skin any more My excuse to stay warm inside and OTA was to give those that braved the outdoor elements another contact to put in their logs, and to try to help tutor the fledgling contest op's that always appear during any kind of FD event. An interesting blend of Morse CW, SSB and PSK31 modes. Unlike a CQWW or SS my average keyer speed seemed to be below 20 WPM, some styles of run pileup management were cringe-worthy, and my ears were treated to many unusual phonetics. Although I will admit some embarrassments of my own with PSK31 MMVARI operation. I made a couple of hundred QSO's but unfortunately B.A.R.S. (K4KJQ?) was not one of them. Maybe next time. 73, John, WØPV
Op'ed WFD 2019 as NM8RC in Sparr MI with KC9ON was pretty close to Zero, had fun learned I need lighter batteries and RG8/LMR400 is not easy to work with in sub-freezing temps!
Now that's a real Winter FD! Congrats on the operation and thanks for the QSO on 40m CW. CU agn, 73, John, WØPV
W0PY Perhaps the Bluegrass "Amature" Radio Society is actually what is meant, as a play on words, i.e. " amatuer, a part of an electric device that moves under the influence of a magnetic field" 73 KD2IBQ
I get the joke , but ... hmmm, errrr ... ,,, in regard to the electric device me thinks you meant to write ARMATURE (?) Incidentally, armature radio actually does exist, see the link to the Alexanderson Alternator. Also, BTW, my call sign is WØPV, as in phonetically Papa VICTOR. However, in previous posts I neglected to properly indicate being the sole operator at W4SUN, the club call sign used during WFD. That's my bad, hopefully a clarification that doesn't make anything else worse. Communicating via text quickly with precision can be challenging Relating to the challenges of communicating via text modes, it was a bit frustrating for me during WFD, when on PSK, a mode I rarely use, when several callers actually SPELLED OUT their exchange category, ie, 2 India or 1 Hotel, instead of just 2I or 1H. Perhaps this was meant to enable recognition if signals are weak and garbled, but it was also longer in time and made for very awkward logging in N1MM+, point and click would not work. 73, John, WØPV, op @ W4SUN for WFD 2019
Burrrrr ! I think any of the stations that did WFD back in that neck of the frozen woods should get at least any extra 1000 points just for showing up ! I operated from the warmth of my shack! by the way it was a chilly 74 deg. out side here in So Cal ! Had a great time on the bands 73 all KI6PMD Phil..
Operated briefly outdoors then moved inside to get out of the blustery snow and 10 deg.weather. Great event, setting up temporary antennas and operating 5 W CW QRP. Did work 59 contacts and had fun.
Thank you all who participated! We had great fun at this year's winter field day - operated under the club callsign of NX0G. We had a digital station (ICOM 706 MKII - I think) on 40M running PSK31 and phone station (Yaesu FT-857d) on 20M. The digital station was using a homemade 40M delta loop on 23' painter poles and the phone station used an Alpha-Delta DX-CC sloped between two trees. KN0MAP operated the digital station and I (K0VWA) operated the phone station. We were quite warm for this time of year at our location - 9,400' in the Colorado Rockies. Mid 20's to low 30's (F). Two propane heaters kept the "inside" up to 15F warmer than the "outside" of our 3 sided EZ-UP shelter. Wind picked up later in the day Saturday - it was no longer 15F warmer than outside. My batteries were further away from the heaters than KN0MAP's batteries and suffered from the cold. Need to keep them warmer next year. Big thanks to everyone who worked us. We had a blast. Learned some things. We're working on our plan to improve for next year as well as having more frequent local outings to test our progress. Here's a little video. It's mostly about how much fun we had and pretty light on technical info so sorry about that. Our stations were really simple but I'll be happy to answer any questions. Can't wait for next year! 73
Try LMR240 ultraflex...it is only slightly less efficient than LMR400 and a WHOLE BUNCH lighter and easier to work with...it is what i use for my camping/portable expeditions. David KG5KPU
I used RG58U the other op used the big stuff. Mine was stiff, his was just unruly. Next year I am pretty sure we are going to op 2I hihi, we had a good time and learned a lot but we are both getting older and the 150+lb battery was a lot of work in 2-3ft of snow.
Hats Off too all that braved the element's I opted for the comfort of home too, but it got me thinking of a plan attack for an outdoor adventure next year.
