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 26th (4:59 pm EST) – we will shut down a bit earlier so we can do tear down in the light. Stations may begin setting up no earlier than 1600 UTC (11 am EST) on the Friday before. At this point it is anticipated that the Technician station will be closed from 7 PM until 7 AM, but the General and higher station will be open continuously.
You may request additional information or express your interest in participating by emailing WFD@w1sye.org
Operating Schedule
We have cut down to a single station and the schedule is pretty full. There is still one open slot, and we could certainly use more mentors and loggers. If you have questions please contact Willy W1LY or email wfd@w1sye.org
Objectives & Multipliers Responsibilities
| Objective | Multiplier Value | Responsible Person |
| 100% Alternative Power | 1 | Dave/Team |
| Away From Home | 3 | Team |
| Multiple Antennas | 1 | Willy/Dave |
| FM Satellite Contact | 2 | Bob |
| CW/SSB Satellite Contact | 3 | Bob |
| Send & Receive WinLink Message | 1 | Bob |
| Copy WFD Special Bulletin | 1 | Bob/Bruce |
| Operate on 6 bands (1 contact) | 6 | Willy |
| Multiple Modes (SSB/CW/DIGITAL) | 2 | Team |
| Six Continuous Hours | 2 | Team |
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.
Satellite Contact Schedule
There are fewer satellites available than in many past years. This is especially true for FM birds. The optimal satellite interval will be on Sunday Jan 26 from 1:50pm through 2:50pm. Good passes of RS-44 (Linear), ISS (FM), AO-73 (Linear) and AO-7 (Linear) will happen then. As of this writing, there are no planned shutdowns of the ISS repeater.
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.