For this special edition of the All Portable Discussion Zone we invited Ken N8KC to join us. Ken has been heavily involved in the promotion of Winter Field Day for years and is a member of the Winter Field Day Association that hosts the event every year. He gives a brief history of the event and then offers some great ideas to individuals and groups for a fun and successful Winter Field Day.
For those of us who want to read about the event instead of watching a video: https://www.winterfieldday.com/ de KZ4TN
Thanks! This link and the Facebook link are in the video description too. Here's the Facebook link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/winterfieldday
Did you know that Field Day was in fact the very first radio contest ever, beginning in 1933? Yep - it was scored and tallied and a winner announced. So nothing about "field day has devolved into a contest" - Field Day INVENTED contesting. Winter Field Day is merely a variation of the theme. Just a data point Dave W7UUU "Field Day History In 1933, The June 1933 QST announced that the second Saturday in June, for a period of 27 hours, starting at 4 pm local time, that hams would go into the "field" and set up portable stations. W1BDI F.E. Handy said: “The real object of this contest is to test ‘portables’ wherever they may be available.… If successful, we want to make it an annual affair.” The scoring of that first contest was each QSO with fixed stations will count 1 point, contacts with other portables count 2 points, and DX contacts count 3 points. Multiply QSO points by the total number of ARRL sections, plus countries worked September 1933 QST announced the winner of the 1st Annual Field Day was W4PAW. They made 62 QSOs and had 28 sections for a total of 1876 points"
WFD from when it first began from SPAR in 2007 and later WFDA ..I was the first Host and Promoter of the event in Maine. And still for each year since than..And We don't do it -Because of contesting that much. We do it for fun,and break up the winter blues and cabin fever and also we as a group K1AOM we just love doing it..Its a ADVENTURE.to us.And the best part is just not setting up the portable station and the individuals who drop by but its the FOOD yes we all HAMS we all got the most common thing. That is sharing the food and eating and the BS round table talks in person as we take a break from the contacts .We tell the story's of the past we did and friendship we make from radio and yes we might even show off a new piece of equipment and pictures too. We as a group has youtube productions of short videos and those can be found on w1lwt1 on youtube..But we again is looking for a new way to operate during this China virus thing .It be different but we will be OTA as always just set up a slight different in the planning...So see many of you on the air waves .we'll be working as K1AOM/W1LWT at this location.APRS:k1aom-2..
I don't agree with the NO FT8/FT4 rule. Their argument (in the rules at the bottom of the page) is you cant send any useful information on it. So how is 1E,NTX, QRZ useful? its a contest that encourages you to go portable. Its not a Traffic net passing health and welfare messages...
No dog in the fight but I do have to wonder what the difference is... FT8/4 were allowed in the 2020 Field Day. Guess they are worried about computers out in the cold temps?
