January 24 (setup), 25 & 26

NCRC will be participating in Winter Field Day again this year, and the plan is to put a two transmitter outdoor station on the air at Glen Park, in Portsmouth RI.

The primary emphasis this year will be in getting our Technician license holders on the air.  To this end, a high performance station that can be operated on 10/6/2m with a beam antenna will be available.  Mentors will also be available to train operators and assist them with logging.  Should 10m & 6m not be open for contacts, the mentor will act as a Control Operator, allowing the Technician license holder to operate on 15 or 20 meters.  Unlicensed operators are also invited, and the mentors will operate as control operators.

There will be another station for General and higher license holders that will be manned for the duration of the contest.

There have been significant changes made to the Winter Field Day rules for 2025.  The entire scoring system has been revised, with “Objectives & Multipliers” awarded for completing various tasks (like making at least one contact on six bands, making a satellite contact, sending a WinLink message, etc.).  Attention will be given to completing as many bonus multipliers as possible during the contest.

The 30-hour operational period starts at 1600 UTC on Saturday (11 am EST), the 25th, and ends at 21:59 UTC on Sunday, the 26^th (4:59 pm EST). Stations may begin setting up no earlier than 1600 UTC (11 am EST) on the Friday before.

You may request additional information or express your interest in participating by emailing WFD@w1sye.org

Technician & Mentor Schedule

This schedule is for Technicain holders or unlicensed operators.  Each slot is 2 hours long, except for the late night slots, which are 4 hours.  A mentor should be assigned to the beginning of each operating period until licensed operators are comfortable, and is mandatory for unlicensed individuals or operation on non-technician bands.  To sign up for a slot, please email your slot preference(s) to wfd@w1sye.org

General and higher Schedule

Those with General or higher license class and familiarity with contesting/logging can operate the dedicated HF station.  If mentoring would be advantageous, please sign up for a Technician slot with mentor.  To sign up for a slot, please email your slot preference(s) to wfd@w1sye.org

Objectives & Multipliers Responsibilities

If the team completes ALL the above objectives, then our QSO point total (1 point for SSB/FM, 2 points for CW/Digital) will be multiplied by 22 to achieve our final score.

At Home Winter Field Day

If you would rather participate on your own and not worry about venturing to the club WFD station, you can do that.  See the rules about participating as a stand-alone station either at home, mobile, or outside.  Please note that many RI stations will be monitoring 147.420 Simplex during the contest.  Calling CQ on that frequency will not only net you some contacts for your individual effort, but it will also be an opportunity to get your HT or other rig programmed for the RI-ARES frequency.