Category Archives: Winter Field Day

Winter Field Day Training Jan 19 @ 7:30 PM

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John Vecoli KC1KOO will be holding a Winter Field Day (Jan 29 & 30) training session via Zoom tomorrow, Wed Jan 19 at 7:30 PM.  You will receive an invitation via email.

Due to increased concerns over the pandemic, and after consulting with many of the potential operators, NCRC decided it was not safe to hold an in-person Winter Field Day activity this year.  That said, Winter Field Day continues as an individual activity, and club members are encouraged to participate any way they feel comfortable: From a home station (1H), in another building like an ECO (1I), or even outdoors at a park (1O).  All of those activities continue to be possible with participants operating using their own call signs.  The club can receive points for an aggregate score of all participating individual stations simply by specifying “W1SYE” as the “CLUB” in the individual log submission.  Speaking of logs, John has kindly agreed to act as a coordinator/consultant for log submissions to verify that everything is OK prior to submitting the log.

Several club members will be standing watch on 146.55 MHz FM listening for folks calling CQ WFD, and responding.  This can produce a bunch of points for the club, even as a single contact, and can be done by our members who hold a Technician License .  There are bonus points for being outside (at least 30 feet from your house), using alternative power (like a battery in a HT), and remote (not on your own property).  So a single 5 watt HT contact would produce a score of 1504 points – not bad for 3 minutes of activity from the street in front of your house!

If you decide to make lots of contacts, that’s great, but keep in mind that the category you choose to operate must remain the same for all the contacts – for example, if you are going to be (1O – 1 Outdoor), then all contacts must be made outdoors.  If you made some outdoors and some at your home station, then all of them must be considered 1H (1 Home), and the Remote and Outdoor bonus will not apply.

Rules for Winter Field Day are here: https://www.winterfieldday.com/_files/ugd/1c7085_0ef813621655469ca73adfb5427dcc35.pdf

 

John has provided this presentation that will be used during the training: Winter Field Day 2022 Team Brief

Winter Field Day Planning Meeting: Mon Jan 25 @ 7PM

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Winter Field Day is right around the corner, beginning 2 PM Saturday January 30 and ending 24 hours later.  The pandemic continues to have a major impact on group activities, but there are ways we can participate as individuals in the safety of our own home.  Check out the rules for Winter Field Day here:  https://a2a53e2b-2285-4083-9cff-c99fe5ba1658.filesusr.com/ugd/1c7085_2445ed4b22f74e048fe9bd41c8dba103.pdf
Note, if you are operating from home, your log MUST contain the line “CLUB: Newport County Radio Club” for your score to be added to the club composite score.
Willy, W1LY, has agreed to coordinate the operation on behalf of the club, and he is asking those interested in participating to attend a Zoom Meeting, starting at 7 PM on Monday January 25th.  All members should receive and invitation via email shortly.

Winter Field Day

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Winter Field Day has just a few more hours before it will be in the log, but it’s been a good event six years in a row for W1SYE.  The plan of using two ladder-line fed non-resonant antennas ran into a bit of a snag Saturday morning, as it was not possible to tune them using the Johnson Matchbox.  Some adjusting of the feedline length rectified that problem, and the two transmitter operation was underway by 14:00L.  The SSB tent would be on the air for 24 hours, while the CW station would be split between CW and Digital operation.  We also had a satellite station (Sunday morning) that made a single contact to obtain the 1500 point bonus.

Life was fine until Saturday night when storms came through the area with hard rain (a bit over an inch) and wind, but they cleared out before midnight At least that kept the temp in the 40s.  Also hard to believe that for six years in a row the weather has been warm and mostly sunny for WFD (easy for someone who didn’t show up until Sunday morning to say).  Winter is coming, for sure, but hasn’t arrived in Rhode Island yet.

The SSB Tent is in the center (you can see the feedline running up in the air  to one of the dipoles) with the all important Porta-Potty and CW station to the left

A view looking at the green-stick holding the end of the 2nd dipole. Taken from the location of the satellite station

The satellite station was on the air for 1 contact only — Computer for Doppler correction and rig are in the truck. Power is from a solar-charged Bioenno LiFePO4 battery.  The antenna, an Arrow crossed beam is visible outside the side window (mounted on a camera tripod)

Congratulations to NCRC for OUTSTANDING WFD Results!

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Congratulations to Willy W1LY and the entire Winter Field Day crew for an OUTSTANDING performance in the 2019 Winter Field Day.  W1SYE came in 4th place nationally among all Outdoor stations.  We should point out that places 1/2/3 were for 6/4/4 transmitters — so two to three times the number of stations as our “2O” entry, which makes the performance even more exceptional.

In just the 2O category, as mentioned above, we were #1 nationally.  Only one other station in New England came in the top 10.

Sadly there was no other entry posted for RI, nor was there an entry from MA or VT.  There were two entries in Maine, one entry in Connecticut, two in New Hampshire.

Great job to all that participated!

Winter Field Day Underway

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Right on schedule at 14:00 EST, W1SYE was on the air for Winter Field Day from Glen Park in Portsmouth.  Willy W1LY and helpers made short work of the setup, and had two ladder line antennas in the trees, and two tents setup for operation by noon.  There was some concern about HF noise from a new generator, and the noise went away when it was swapped out.  And as you might expect there was a scramble to get the logging computers up and going.

Two tents and two simple multiband antennas

Things were working well later this afternoon.  Reverse Beacon Network spots indicated that the CW tent was putting out a fine signal

The gang is busy on phone during WFD — that’s a new tech (waiting for license) at the mic

 

Bob WB4SON made a satellite (only one allowed) with N1FD who was 4O NH (4 transmitters Outdoors in New Hampshire). The first satellite pass happened 13 minutes after the contest began, and the contact was in the log as soon as the satellite was above the horizon.

Satellite Antenna (crossed 2m/70cm beam)

2m/70cm all-mode radio, laptop to correct Doppler, and 30 AH Battery inside truck (warm)