SPAR's 2015 Winter Field Day, Jan 24 & 25 2015 FUN EVENT!!

SPAR Announces Winter Field Day 2015

Field Day is perhaps the most popular of the many activities enjoyed by Amateurs. Every June the bands come alive with improvised signals proving the ability to respond to emergencies. The event also offers an opportunity for camaraderie and a chance to test ourselves in less than ideal circumstances, however, emergencies and natural disasters don't always happen in the summer. Winter winds, icy limbs and bitter cold replace the thunderstorms and blistering heat of summer. To test our abilities to operate in the winter, in 2007 SPAR established the 1st Winter Field Day event and invited all Amateur Radio operators to participate. In the years since, the event was enjoyed by many and considered a success and has been designated an annual event to be held the last full weekend each January. Therefore it is time to issue the invitation for the Ninth Annual SPAR Winter Field Day!

The 2015 Winter Field Day will be held from 1700 UCT (12:00 noon EST) Saturday January 24, 2015 through 1700 UCT (12:00 noon EST) Sunday January 25, 2015. The object of the event is familiar to most Amateur Radio operators: set up emergency-style communications and make as many contacts as possible during the 24 hour period. The rules encourage as many contacts on as many bands and modes as possible, because during a real emergency, the most important factor is the ability to communicate, regardless of band, mode or distance.

The official rules and exchange can be found at the SPAR web site. http://www.spar-hams.org/contests/winterfd/index.php?pg=2 The event is open to all amateurs, although we encourage everyone to join in the discussions and other activities sponsored by SPAR. Information about SPAR can be found on the SPAR Home Page. Membership is free and open to all amateurs who want to encourage technical and operating skills. You can register by going to the SPAR Forum and registering, using your amateur callsign as your user name.

SPARs website: http://www.spar-hams.org/index.php

 

We'll be there. Hopefully not gonna be a cold January down here as we're up on a hill this time.

 

We'll be operating MI from the shore of Lake Huron again about 70-80 miles from home in suburbs of Detroit.. last year was 12 degrees and biting/blowing snow at 40 mph. Not much fun getting the antennas up! A very fun weekend though... awful roads (icy) on the way home.

 

Count me in too!

 

You coming out to the lake with us? I'm waffling between bringing the 450 go box or the 817 and a mag loop antenna.

 

...Starting to gather a few things for our multi-indoor operation. We take over a Catholic Youth summer camp (Camp Ozanam) for 3 days and operate from a number of buildings on the property overlooking ice-cold Lake Huron. All stations will be on battery power as in years past. I'll be on 20 CW and possibly other CW bands. We'll likely have as many as 35-40 USECA members make the 70+ mile drive to the camp, set up, and operate. Looking like we'll be covering all non-WARC bands 80-2m in numerous modes. Should be a blast!!! Praying for less snow and cold than last year... it was 10 degrees with 25-40 mph winds on set-up morning... Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!

 

I'm planning on it. Don't know if I'll spend the night out there. It will depend on how cold it is.