Get out and rock your winter.. that's right, Field Day FUN in the middle of winter, solo or with a group. This weekend, Saturday & Sunday. Rules, times, everything you need to know are all posted on the WFDA website.. https://www.winterfieldday.com/ DX welcomed! Hope to hear you lighting up the bands!!
For ham ops working two meters, I'll be monitoring 146.55 simplex from low elevation Beacon Falls. It's hard to work my station because I'm down by the Naugatuck river in what's basically an RF hole. If you work me on FM or Wires-X digital, you ought to get an award! As always, good hunting! de K1FRC
We'll be operating as W2C from Indian Lake NY. Looking forward to getting out and playing some radio!
I will be operating Frances Slocum State Park (POTA K-1354) Sunday starting around 12:00 UTC. Not looking snowy or bitter cold. Will be on 40 and 20. de WA3TVH
Will be out in Desoto National Forest in southern MS: camping, operating 1O QRP, and (maybe) getting rained on. Very much looking forward to Saturday, and even Sunday with its 50% rain forecast.
Defining 10 watts SSB as QRP Class is absurd; it should be 50W or 100W. It is a left-over artifact of an old CW-centric QRP clique of SSB haters. [Note to: the nay sayers, go away. I'm a CW op, too) 10 Watts PEP SSB is roughly equivalent to a few hundred milliwatts of CW. Or, maybe 50 milliwatts of weak signal data such as Olivia, Contestia, or JS8call. Re-defining the QRP SSB Class to a maximum 50 Watts or 100 Watts, would go a long way toward fairness, and a level playing field. It would also encourage more portable outdoor stations to participate with SSB voice. Myself included 5 Watts on CW gets out like 100 Watts SSB voice. 1 Watt on CW gets out like 20 Watts SSB voice. 250mW on CW gets out like 5 Watts SSB voice. For those who are interested, here is the RF engineering/guestimation/field experience behind this comparison, and the given conditions: Operators = skilled, talented operators Language = American English CW Speed = 15WPM Bandwidth CW = 1kHz Bandwidth SSB = 2.7kHz Signal/Noise Ratio CW = -1dB SNR a Talented CW Op Signal/oise Ratio SSB = +12dB SNR a Skilled SSB Op 5 Watts Power CW = 37dBm 100 Watts Power SSB = 50dBm Difference = 13dB Note: Some tricks can be played with CW or SSB to skew this comparison. Things like bandwidth and super-operator talent (contest ops), language (Japanese is 3dB better than American English), speech compression, morse speed (coherent CW is better), and types of noise or fading present. For those wondering about DSP noise reduction... most of the super-ops who can copy either CW or SSB at abnormally bad noise levels, don't use DSP noise reduction to do it!
I hereby challenge any Winter Field Day nay sayers to a Low Power /Pedestrian Mobile QSO. A great event to have some brisk fun. Let's do it.
We'll be 2I CT as W1ECV - Southington ARA club members will be braving the ice and rain for WFD. 73 all - gud luk!
Thanks for posting all of the good info. The Overlook Mountain ARC will be operating K2OMD in Rhinebeck, NY. Wintry mix forecast
