Journey Beyond the Cold: Thriving in Winter Field Day

All right , hello and welcome to Live Free in Ham podcast . This is our weekly show where we discuss Ham radio topics in New Hampshire , new England and beyond , and we are thrilled to have you here , whether you're a regular listener or tuning in the first time . And , as always , thanks again for joining us for this episode . So let's get into the show .

I'm your host , eric call sign N1JR , and , with my co-hosts , hey , it's .

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So , rewind the tape , check those out , um , and you know , please , you know , say hello , leave us a message , tell us how we're doing , tell us how bad we're doing , tell us , uh , you know , whatever you know , we don't care . This could be the 75 meter net . If you want to treat it that way , that's totally fine .

So , all right , let's kick this , uh into our second segment here doing good , good doing good you do , that's good do good , do good , you're doing good absolutely I do good , good , I'm doing good , bob doing real good .

So we want to hear about them . Sure , you know , let us know about your club . You know , let us know that you just the last podium meet up and how amazing it was , you know . Come share it on the show Again . You can send us , you know , those through many different ways and obviously some of those are easier than others .

But this week I think we have a special one because we have an overachiever who decided to send us one for do good . So we have to pass it over to our VE Quizmaster over there . He'll tell us exactly what did he receive in his win link .

Nine out of nine examinees passed . The Nashua Area Radio Society offers classes for all three licensed classes twice a year and our overall success rate is over 90% past the exam and signed Ted the W1TED via Winlink HF . So thanks for that , ted .

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I'm going to write a jingle for this eventually , and you know . Or , if you're so inclined , you want to just send something via our website . You can head over to livefreeandhamcom forward slash , do good , all one word and use the form and fill that out there . Um , and we'll be assured .

As Ted has left us a wind link message , we're going to reach out to him and see if he wants to be part of our live stream , uh , in , uh the coming months , and we'll have him on and hopefully we'll be able to show the story and you know he can come out and hang out with us . Uh , cause you know he can come out and hang out with us ?

Uh , because you know , like I said , if you are an overachiever and you use win link , you reserve the right to come hang out with you . Know , giants ? I guess ? I don't know , I wouldn't quite call us giants .

In each episode , we pick three questions , and only three , from the extra class question pool to test his knowledge , hoping he gets his extra upgrade . So if you'd like to follow along , you can head over to hamstudyorg . It's a great resource to help you prepare for your test and it's recommended by three out of four volunteers .

Because the arl refuses to comment um , and I'm just going to go with that um . So , without further delay , let's hand it over to our ve quiz master .

Smaller capacitors tend to have lower ESL than larger capacitors . For example , large electrolytic or tantalum capacitors have higher ESL than small ceramic capacitors .

Is it a a measure of the efficiency of a transformer , b the imaginary part of admittance , c the magnetic impedance of a circuit , or d the ratio of magnetic field to electric field ?

The value of susceptance is still a real number , but it's described as the imaginary part of admittance because the J attached to it .

So you can always send us an email over at livefreeandham at gmailcom and we'll make sure we mention you and celebrate with you for all the hard work getting your upgrade there or getting your ticket for the first time .

So , as always , you know , if you uh , you know , as , as we've already alluded to discord , you know we have a very active discord and we don't always mention it . But you know , hey , if you want to come join in the fun , we do a whole ton of stuff over there . So come , uh be part of the lift room ham discord links in our website .

Uh , down at the very bottom , you can join for free and come hang out with us and uh enjoy in some of this really cool fun . All right , let's get into our usual . So , with usual format , I always ask our guests first . You know what's been going on your ham radio week .

So we'll start with you , marvin , how's your ham radio week been and or what's been going on ?

So of course I was still working on my trailer and getting that ready for winter field day . So that's the majority of what I've been doing .

I want to get a eventual desk in there , but I was trying to mount a rack this past weekend here on Friday afternoon in it and where I've currently got my kind of electrical cabinet per se . It sits in the front V-nose of the trailer and I can't fit that rack in there at that location .

So I've either got to bring that wall out a little further or I'm going to have to find a different way to mount it somewhere else .

Michael did that in his trailer and that worked out really well .

Obviously his design , but more so I'm like huh , I was talking to paul actually , and and just a little problem is our summer field days have been rained out , and this is not what we're talking about today , but our summer field days are constantly been rained out and I have to blame our older generation of the club going hey , it's going to rain this year and

they start early instead of , you know , when they were just ignoring the whole fact of rain . And so we got deluge last year and I told Paul as I turned to him I'm totally soaked to the bone . I'm going to grab my trailer next year . We're going to build it out , starting in April .

I'm going to tow it over to his house , we're going to build a folding down table and a bunch of other stuff , so it's all ready for field day even though I won't get a chance to really fully experience it .

So I got a bunch of those uploaded and got caught up on that and , um , I'm doing some contract work right now and uh it's radio related and not ham radio related but uh , we're actually building kind of a go box , um , for eocs and uh emergency personnel , so that they can interface a radio over the internet and and their phones and combine all three of these

things for disasters . So , uh , I was able to use my 3d printer to print up some special brackets for the box and I think it's going to turn out pretty well .

We , we I see Paul was like where's he going with this ? I'm like , we love to be in comfort , you know . So we're not going to be roughing it , you know , we definitely do it in style .

So , uh , you know , it'll feel like a 70 degree day in one of our ice tents , but , uh , it might be a negative 20 outside , but you know , hey , I don't care , it's nice and warm . Uh , all right , cool . Well , with that , let's uh pass it over to you , paul , how is your ham radio week been ?

Today , um , I , I got , I got a couple , uh that was doing a park activation and and they , they had actually hunted me , uh , when I was down in Rhode Island activate the beach and and they had , they had made a comment , um , you know about , about the YouTube channel .

Um , while I was at the beach and I was like , yeah , I'm recording , you know , so you'll , you'll be in , you'll be in the video , and uh , and I got them . I got them today and I was hunting them them and the guy comes back and he goes oh my God , your video on the skydive was amazing .

He's like I love your videos and let me tell you , as a quote-unquote content creator , it feels really good to have somebody say , hey , I saw your video and I loved it , you did a great job . Uh , so , yeah , that was , that was a an awesome thing . Uh , I do have a couple of small projects going on .

I've got , uh , some experimentation that I've got to do , cause so the way that my antennas set up is , uh , it's a , it's a . It's a big folded dipole fed by ladder line and the ballon is attached to the house . So the balance protected from the , the weather and everything . But , uh , you know the , the antenna itself has a lot of strain relief .

But as the , the wind moves the antenna , the ladder line kind of goes up and down and I've noticed every like kind of like two or three heavy windstorms .

I'll have to go out and undo the connection at the ballon and either cut the wire back and reconnect it or the wires will completely separate from the movement and the ladder line will be hanging limp in the middle of the yard . So I've got a couple thoughts on how I can remedy that problem and it'll take some experimentation . I figure I should .

I should probably document that on video as well . And then I've got I've got a T-beam Supreme that needs a new push button . It's one of those things where it's not . Yeah , you know , you know it's not something I'm super good at , but you know I'll give it my best and I'll get it functional again .

But so yeah , overall I did a lot of ham radio stuff this week and I've had a lot of fun . What a week full of YouTube for those that are getting sick of seeing my face on all the different live streams and channels . Sorry , not sorry .

Meanwhile I'm just sitting here like , come on , dude , we got like 10,000 people wanting to talk to us . He's like a celebrity .

It's good to hear that . You know you're getting some ham radio time in for sure . I know we were . It was almost getting a little ham radio dry around here for a little while . I felt like I had to , you know , lift the do the heavy lifting with everybody here to to make us a valid radio ham radio show for sure .

So with that , you know , we hand it over to Todd man . You know how was your ham radio weekend man ?

But yeah , I um , I have my potter bag still in my Jeep and I am waiting to find a second to get out there and do one , and every time it's good weather and I'm ready to go , something happens at work and it doesn't happen . So I do have friday off , so that might be enough if it doesn't snow or rain and uh , and wednesday is a dead day for us .

Like , I think I'm the only . I think , like me and one other person are the only people in the office , so that might be a good opportunity to get it done . So I am trying . I have to do a post soon because I haven't done one in over a month . It's killing me .

So we gonna do , uh , pacman adnock and hopefully uh make a video on that . So that's coming soon . But I've been preparing because you know I'm uh , we'll just say it I'm a fat slob . I sit , you know , eight hours in front of a , a computer , all day and don't get super active .

And so you know , with , uh , you know the beer glasses and you know the shot glasses which you can pick up on lipreenhamcom , forward slash shop um are , uh , you know , the shot glasses which you can pick up on live free and hamcom , forward slash shop um are , uh , you know , been added in the extra few pounds .

So I've been trying to kind of we'll , we'll train for the marathon , as they say when we get up to that event .

So I , today was the day that I actually threw the pack uh together , my regular hiking pack and through my soda gear in there and there and everything else like that , and I did a two miler through some of the backwoods and I'm alive to say that .

I'm here , you know , I made it , you know so , and I wasn't killing , I wasn't dying on the couch , I didn't have to call 911 . So all good there . You know , my legs are still , you know , in good shape , so I'm going to keep plugging away at that and keep increasing that speed .

I mean , I think the hike we're gonna end up doing is like three miles round trip , but we'll stop in the middle exactly that's the first day that always kills you . You'll feel it tomorrow or tuesday well , yeah , true , but I've been walking for a little bit without the pack . So this is the day , first day with pack , and we'll see .

Uh , I've gotten a lot of weird stairs like I normally get weird stairs when I do poda . Uh , you know , uh , activations from people going hey , you're doing aliens . I had a backpack and I'm walking through my neighborhood because that was one of the way I cut through I got like four or five people going what the hell ? Why is he wearing a backpack ?

Like okay , whatever , so you , know I'll get either way .

And so , yeah , looking forward to that . How many , how many guys are going ? Well , we got about five so far . It's going to be a pretty big group .

So we went all the way up and he was like at the top , well , he was all excited . He made it up and then he's like I can't walk down and I had to carry his little butt on my shoulders all the way down that mountain and I was like there's no way I'm going back down that trail . I walked the road . It goes back and forth and back and forth .

I'm like , oh , my shoulders were dying .

I was there once and , uh , we had a lot of smoke from the west and it was like all hazy and you get to the top and in the valley you could see just like the smoke just kind of settling in in between the hills . It was pretty cool day . And then eric , you and I did one , uh , I think we that's my only two meter .

I think that's my only two meter . Uh , poda activation when I we worked him on simpleplex .

Yeah , I think he was like 44 years old and like he he they said he was he was like a prepared , experienced hiker , like he had everything he needed . But he must have slipped on the ice and I was pretty sad but I was like I was thinking of you guys . I'm like , oh great , here we go .

But you know it's funny because , like when I first started doing our field day events for our club , I was always gung-ho for the summer events because I always hated winter , couldn't stand it . But then , you know , I had folks like Paul and a few others , you know , to show the ropes and how amazing it was .

And you know there were a few that braved it in the club . Tim KC1QDK is one of our big guys that you heard several times in the podcast , you know him .

And Paul , you know , really kind of started off our field days in our own club for Winterfield Day and you know they showed you know me that it was very possible and you could do it in comfort and have fun . And so I think you know , kudos to you , marvin .

This is one of those events that's becoming one of my favorite field days , and not so much because it's just great to hang out , but it's low-key .

It's more about just playing radio and having fun and doing some great opportunities to be able to sit around a fire , hang out , drink , eat chili , play some radio , all of that stuff and not have to feel like you got to do a specific thing for a number of contacts or whatever and you get to practice your craft .

And so I figured , as we were talking and I pinged Marvin offline about this to say hey , would you be willing to come on ? And he was like yeah , sure , no problem . So you know him . And Mike came on and I was like super stoked .

So so we've got the best two people here tonight to talk about the , the event of , uh , you know , the winter field day , um , of the pretty much winter season . So you know , I figured we'd talk maybe a little bit of , uh , we'll give you guys the floor , but you know we'll .

We'll talk a little bit about insider base , you know , insider baseball , in terms of winter field day , what's changing . You know what you guys think we should do and you know you know . So let's start somewhere . So you know who wants to take it . You know , talk a little bit about where it's been and go from there .

I mean , that's , you know , really important that we continue to find ways to grow our Winter Field Day and the more opportunity we can get to cover a wider audience , hopefully , the more participants we can get from that . And you mentioned a minute ago kind of like what is Winter Field Day ?

A little bit , but I want to read something that we have and we put this in all our notes and all our PowerPoints and things like that . And again , you kind of mentioned it roughly but I'll go more on it .

It says Winter Field Day is a communication exercise formatted to help you increase your level of preparedness for disasters and improve your operational skills in subpar conditions . And so you were talking about it's relaxed , it's low key , and that's part of our goal . But we want to be able to make sure you improve your operational skills .

And it's not always sunny and summery , like it is inside your house or in the middle of summer , or maybe operating . It's like it's a rainy day . I'm not going to go operate parks in the air . It's like you don't always get those days to be able to do that . You don't get to choose when you may need to operate .

You know the people coming through Hurricane Helene or Milton they didn't get to choose the type of conditions and their opportunity of places and things that they had to work for doing communications , and so we really think this is an important time to be able to exercise those skills and be able to do Winter Field Day , and so that's you know we're really

passionate about . You know we're all amateur radio operators that are on the board and we really want to try and keep that , you know open to everybody across the board . That you know that's an amateur radio operator and we don't do this just here in the US . That's an amateur radio operator and we don't do this just here in the US .

Summer Field Day is limited to the US , whereas Winter Field Day we have participants actually worldwide that will go onto our website and log their location as being a Winter Field Day site , and so I guess I will make that plug now .

If you're going to have a Winter Field Day station this year , please go out to our site , winterfielddayorg and make sure you log your site . We always like to see how many people are putting field day sites out there , because we don't really have a way to measure that or know that unless you truly put that on the map or you submit your log .

Or you submit your log and then we don't necessarily know where you're at anyway . But there's always other people . I get emails going hey , I'm looking for a local place I can go visit for Winter Field Day . Do you know where that's at ? And I'm going ? Well , I don't see no one in your part of California or Texas that may have that .

But check with your local club and see if they have it . So again , if you haven't gone on to log your Winter Field Day site , please do that and we're pretty much open to you know all the bands for Winter Field Day . We do not use the work bands , though we do stay off of them , and you know anyone that's a licensed amateur can get in and participate .

So whether it's your friends or family or your whole club , you know everybody is welcome to do that . And you know , yes , you can work winter field day . As you kind of said , you like to be comfort and be able to have fun with it . But we do have a lot . I'd say , mike , what do you think Is it ?

greater than 65 or 70 percent that operate from home , probably , or is it ? It's over 60 , for sure , that work from the comfort of their home . But really , field day , you know , winter field day , quote unquote is really meant to be getting outdoors , getting into the field , getting outside . And that don't mean you can't be in an ice house .

You could be in an RV , you could be in a cargo trailer , you might be , you know , sometimes I don't care , you can work from home . But the same thing is you can work from , like , an ELC or community center building sometimes , where you do have some heat and some elements may be a little rougher .

Because , you know , I agree , but if it's minus 20 or 30 in January in Minnesota or Wisconsin or Montana , going outside , working in a tent or the operating conditions are probably not best . You know , we don't want you to freeze and die out there . Uh , you know so .

Uh , you know a hypothermia will kick in pretty quick at minus 20 , but we do encourage you to at least , uh , you know , try and find a , you know , a comfortable spot to be able to do that and make it best . Um , so , uh , you know , we have changed a few things this year . Uh , I'll let michael talk about in just a minute .

But one of the things we did was the objective , multi objective , multiple uh multiplier numbers and really we've kind of changed that from a bonus to uh to this number . Now it will make it easier for us in doing our um , our math in the end of the year , uh for submitting scores and um . You know we've got .

You know we've extended our hours this year and we've got it set up where locations do not have to remain fixed during the entire event .

So what I've learned here , living in the Northeast , is that parks quite often and even my local park just five minutes from me here on the road closes like at 4 pm and so if we start our operational period and it would be , you know , utc like 1900 , well , that puts it like 2 pm for Eastern time and you know if that park closes at four o'clock , well ,

time you get set up anytime you have to tear down . You've got maybe hour , hour and a half of operation time total . We've been able to back that time up a little bit . I think you started your time as I think it's 11 am now Eastern time so instead of starting at 2 , so you start at 11 .

So we've extended the operational period and give those people who want to work in a park , but it's like all right , park closed down at 4, . I'm going to tear down at 3.30 .

Now I'm going to go set up over here instead and I'll find another place I can go to so I can start my first part of my day doing a poda , maybe in the morning , and then my winter field day starts at 11 am .

As long as you maintain your same section , your rack section , like if you're in Western Mass and you don't want to move across the border to Eastern Mass or you don't want to go down to Connecticut , but if you stay in the same RAC section , you can go anywhere within that section and be just fine , and so that's kind of cool .

And it was added several new objectives as well . Michael , anything you want to mention here , your section and your class , your class and your category has to be the same .

That you did from the very get-go . And the same way , as you know , like Massachusetts , you can't change that to Western Massachusetts . You know , like Massachusetts , you can't change that to Western Massachusetts . It has to be the same . Class , category and section Do have to remain the same .

But my thought around this was in the event of an emergency , you may have to change locations . You may start out at one part of town helping out in a community center , but as that fire from the hill approaches or , as you know , that area starts to get flooded , you may have to upheave your whole entire you know operation and go across town to a school .

Now and now they want you to go to a school so do you have the ability to be like ? oh crap , I gotta change and I gotta move um and I gotta do it quickly and I gotta get to another section .

You know , you can't just be like , okay , I got my go box right here , I'm prepared . Yeah , but you know , if you've never taken that go box out in the field and sat up in a tree and , uh , you know you utilized it . Then you know , we really um want to encourage you to do that and participate in winter field in that way .

So that's one of the reasons why we had the uh and it's brand new um the rule state and you can go to the um winter field day and look up a whole like operating guidelines for , uh , winter field day , but um , we still have very similar to summer ARRL field day Very similar .

You know you have to have your equipment , your antennas , your transmitters and everything set up within a thousand foot radius a thousand foot . You know circles , but there's nothing that says that circle can't change locations throughout the event .

As a station on field day they can contribute their scores , but they couldn't come back to say you know the site and do a bunch of other stuff as a club and and I , I like I always thought I was like well , that's silly , because like that's the , that's the whole essence of like portability and , you know , emergency communications , being able to adapt .

Come on , what's wrong with you ? And I'm like finally someone gets the point . Let's start changing things up here a little bit . It shouldn't be one way and only one way , and that's the ham way , but that's awesome .

They're emailing us questions , they're emailing us information and they're asking questions or they're going hey , we got Discord server out there ourselves now for winter field day and people make comments on there .

And again , michael gets all the soapbox comments when people come in and we read through them and we really do take to heart some of those ideas and thoughts of people making suggestions and it's like , hey , this worked really well . We didn't like this Last year .

We kind of did the bonus points band multiplier and what's the other one , michael , another multiplier , and it really kind of created some congestion for us in terms of where you started to go with this , also with scoring , and so we took in . We said , hey , another idea , let's accept ADF files .

A lot of people are doing Parks in the Air , a lot of logging programs like Hammers does a winter field day export , but they only do an ADIF format , so let's go ahead and accept that . Well , that created a lot of challenges for this year as N13FJP , n1mm , hammers they all will call some of the different boxes .

It's all the same thing but they call it by a different name .

So if someone goes out and is familiar with a SQL database , when you start to parse that information out and you have three different programs calling the same thing , different names , it creates it really challenging to be able to try and put that information together into a field format like an Excel where you can submit that onto your website so people can see

their final scores . And we have been challenged by that because we also had the Gorbilla formats in there and that created a lot of problems and chaos for us this year . So scoring is kind of getting out onto the website now and I understand it's November and people have been really upset by that .

Scoring is kind of getting out onto the website now and I understand it's November and people have been really upset by that and I apologize to our people that may be listening to this podcast that Winterfield Day has had a hard time scoring this year in 2024 .

But again , we try to listen to you guys and what you are asking for and it created a lot of problems for us so we're trying to correct that for this next year , I think we've got some things that we're going to fix and and doing the objective multiplier numbers , which I'll get into in just a minute .

I will make it a lot easier , uh , for us to be able to do that . But , um , you know , that is , you know , taking on adf and cabrillo I think it's a great idea , still we do like that .

But if you operate on a hundred percent alternative power , you'll get like one point for that .

But if you operate on six different bands , there could be a multiplier of six . So let's say we've got a total out of possible 26 . You've got 10 different multiplier numbers that you have objectives that you've completed and each each objective has a different multiplier number number associated with it . And so let's say you got 10 of them , you got 300 contacts .

You now got maybe 10 or 3000 points , and so you know it would be that type of thing to how that would work out and , um , I think where it's going to be very successful , I think people are really liking it . We've had some good feedback on our discord channel from that and , um , I think that's going to be a cool thing to do .

I think we'll stick with that now , uh , for a while , but we'll . Those will continue to change every year . Again , some of those objectives are called extra points are applied to them to really encourage people to get outside of the home .

I think there's a place for people with home and I understand there's the elderly or some disabled that may have an injury or something and may be injured with just a . They may be 42 years old and they just have a knee injury and they can't get out and do that this year and they want to be able to work , participate in winter field day .

I fully get it . Uh , they can operate from home and , and and and make that happen . But the multiplier numbers are really , um , encouraged to get people outdoors and that's where those points will be applied . So , uh , if you know , if you operate .

enjoy it . And there's a lot of camaraderie that comes out of that . You got the campfires , you got the good chili , you know things like that that come with winterfield Day and people being able to just go out and enjoy the outdoors .

I just didn't know . I was kind of confusing and it was like you send a contact , you get one point like times one , one times one , or you know if you only do that times one you get no one they add up yeah , right , can add right . Yeah , no , I hear you .

So now I gotta go through this and , uh , let me tell you a little bit about what I'm gonna get , what I have to do to get all those the objectives were known as bonus points , just like in summer field day . You have these bonus points and you know it's like 500 bonus points , 500 bonus points .

Last year we ended up getting rid of the points altogether and we turned the bonuses into objectives and we said you know , yeah , you know , winter field day is great and you get the points and stuff like that , but it's really not a contest , it's more of a field exercise and that's what we really push .

So the experience and the knowledge that you have gained from going out there and doing that is huge . So the objective is to just go do it , just do it , you know .

They couldn't get the scoring together , they couldn't get that done . They didn't have any award points for any of the bonuses . So we're not doing Winterfield Day again . We've had people email us that say I'm done with Winterfield Day , I'm fed up with it .

You guys are just a bunch of jokes and like , well , I'm sorry I don't tell you , but you know it's a learning curve for us and we do those things . But you know what ? I think this will get really people excited about getting out there and doing it and , um , you know , I think the you know let me interject there real quick .

are the true contester guys that like , oh , if you don't follow a , b or c or you don't follow like cq , worldwide kind of approach of how you should do contesting , and then the winter field day is garbage .

I'm looking at it and I was like , dude , that's the common man's place to play , because I don't have to feel like I have to follow this large conglomerate that they're going to build their five-hour station and they're going to be putting out 100 watts and they'll have a couple of beams and hex beams spread across 100 yards and they've got all of this .

They'll have a couple of beams and hex beams spread across , like you know , a hundred yards and and you know like they've got all of this set up and there are clubs that do that and that's perfectly fine . But like I love , like the camaraderie , the fact that you're working towards objectives , that you're learning how to get better with the hobby .

I mean that that , to me alone , is like you know that , why I excited about wanting to do winter field day than , say , summer field day , which has kind of been more , you know , public facing for me . But yeah , I applaud you guys .

So if you want to go do a contest , by all means go , pour your heart and soul into the 51 other weekends of contesting out there . We really want to look at this from .

This is a personal achievement , a personal objective that you are able to go out and do these objectives , be able to do winter field day , go out and make QSOs , and you can look at yourself year after year and go , wow , I was able to do this last year . This year I've upped my game , I've been able to do this .

It's really about that personal achievement and being able to make yourself better , and you're a better operator for doing it too . So when you're out there dealing with pileups or you are wanting to go do a contest , now you know how to do it because you've got the experience and you've got some know-how behind it .

You've got some more baseline stuff to go off of , and I think it's really just about enhancing your personal skills and your knowledge in doing this winter field day versus really making this more of a contest , and that's the way , the perspective we look at this quite often .

Because so , as a prior military veteran , you know I'm a brand new into Army , mars , I'm into Ares , and you know anything and everything that I can do to increase my skill set as being able to respond to an emergency situation or adapt to an emergency situation and figure out how to get my station on the air , no matter where that is , no matter what the

conditions are . You know , yeah , we practice that quite often with parks on the air , and you know , summer field day is a little bit , but you know , I mean summer field day , the worst you're going to get is a little bit of rain and that's easy to accommodate , right .

But winter , I mean you're dealing with cold , you're dealing with possible snow , your possible you all of the other factors of adverse condition operating that goes along with that , and so , 100% , I'm right there with you .

It is a practice of emergency communications and a practice of rapid deployment of your station and see what works and what doesn't work , and then improve year over year over year .

So I've gone out and I bought this brand new Dakota lithium or new biennial battery and it's a 20 amp hour battery . It's like cool , I'm going to be able to operate all of field day on this . I've got a huge 20 amp hour battery . You go out there and you're like four hours . It's like what the hell happened . I was like why ?

It's like , well , wait a minute , maybe that's not enough for me . Now I realize that cold weather affected it . It wasn't enough for my 100 watts of amperage and I was trying to power everything off this 12-volt battery with my rig runner . And it's like , oh , so I learned from that . It's like , okay , that's not going to work then .

So I mean some of plug in for that . But but what I've talked about where I'm going with this is that the I've talked about your preparedness , and this preparedness isn't just for , you know , the big hurricane , the big tornado , the big flood that comes through . This is about your personal . Your basement floods , your house burns down .

Tomorrow , you know , your community has a local flood , maybe just from a single rainstorm , and it affects your neighborhood , your house , whatever . What do you do ? How do you deal with those types of things ? You have those more minor , you know emergencies . You have a family death . What do you mean ? You need to pack up a bag and go .

How can you pack it ready and go with you ? Do you have a-meter handheld ? So it's really about trying to figure some of those things out , and there's a lot of stuff out there to learn from that . So do you have the ability to operate on six different bands , or is your little transceiver a little 20-meter single-band transmitter ?

So what works and what doesn't work and how can you deal with that ? So that's what this event really is about education yourself and learning from yourself what you can improve on .

Like I've seen Paul do his setup several years , for two years now at this point , and I constantly am amazed every time he brings and elevates it every year over year and it's like wow . I mean one year it was like the muddy season . I felt like we were literally in mud the whole entire winter field day because we had no snow .

He worked , you know , in those scenarios , both physically and then at the same time , the radio side of a thing was like the best thing because , uh , you know , to be truthfully honest , I think a lot of times the summer field day becomes competitive too much , depending on what club you're in , um , and it's , and I get you know that whole aspect because it's

you know , of all of the elements and other things that have kind of built on through the years .

But Winterfield Day slows the game down , like I think a lot of people like we've had people show up that just like have never done radio or whatever , and they get a chance to play in that environment and they're , like they walk away from it going like holy crap , this is awesome , and they're just stoked that they made contacts on 10 meters or whatever .

Be the case . And that for me is more important , whether or not I get multipliers or 1,000 points or whatever , because at that point I tested my system out , or the person I was with tested their system out and we had fun doing it .

Yeah , there's summer , field day , stuff , and they just don't want to go out in there .

Definitely , you know , not people up in the north , you know , of course you know your summer field days are usually probably pretty good up there .

Uh , definitely , you know , not , not 115 degrees in the desert , like out in arizona , but um , you know , a lot of people really do enjoy doing the winter field day and uh so I got I got a question for paul paul .

So if one guy is doing qrp , we get that multiplier , if one guy works six hours in a row , we get that multiplier , or does everyone ?

When you guys submit that log , you will get that multiplier um , so not everyone has to make a satellite contact not everyone has to operate six hours . Uh , you just have to . Somewhere in that objective . Um , you know , someone has to complete that objective . As a club , as a group , you guys have to be able to mark that and put a checkbox in that box .

If you're involved in a disaster , you may show up at a site and you may get on the radio and you may be stuck there for 12 hours until you know they start organizing things . They can get a rotation , you know put together and stuff like that .

So the purpose of that six hours is , are you able to monitor the radio and you don't even have to monitor it Technically , if you know ? Say , someone was in the room with me and I'm like concentrating , I'm like five hours in and I'm like I just have to go pee , like done , I got to go , okay .

As long as I'm within earshot of that radio or as long as this other person can say hey , I just heard someone getting your call sign out on the radio . They're trying to get ahold of you . That is perfectly acceptable .

You have to be available to answer a call , just like if you were doing net control or if you were sitting in on a net and someone said hey , w4ops , are you able to relay this or accomplish this task ?

I have to be able to pick up the mic and be like oh , hey , yes , I'm still here , I'm listening , I can do that and that's what we want you to be able to do is , you know you don't have to operate and talk for six hours constantly .

I find that , you know , summer field day is , I mean , it's , it's crazy right and it's it's so much fun , but , being that the fact that this is more about just getting out there and operating , it's not so much , uh , you know , uh , like a typical contest . Even though they say summer field day is not a contest , it sometimes feels like it .

So I , I think this is more my style . Um , this is , you know , if there were events like this more often , I'd probably be more into doing these than , say , becoming a contester .

Right , there you go , that's how we , that's how we get by with this , that's how we phrase this , and so that's kind of what we , you're right , it's really just a field day exercise with a contest element to it . But again , we're not , you're right , it's not a contest .

And then you know , even when I'm doing POTA , you know I'm working towards some some kind of I don't know what do they call them awards or accomplishments or whatever . Yeah , so I'm always like , oh , if I get this . And then I get like , oh , I've got like 20 more park-to-parks and I bump up to the next tier . You know what I mean .

So I think this is going to be really good . I love the way you guys have set it up and I like the multipliers and that you just you hit that task and you get that .

So , in 2023 , we had about 2,367 logs submitted with over 296,000 QSOs , so it's a pretty good size . Overall , 15,636 different call signs were found in our database , which is pretty cool , but there were 7,041 contacts not in the logs claimed not in the logs claimed . So you know , uh , w4 OPS contacted .

Uh , um , you know , w zero MET , but um , it just never , just never really made it there . Um , ohio was the most active state with 104 stations , which was pretty cool . I think . Year before that it was North Carolina and , um , uh , yeah , and that was that was all in 2023 and 2024 of this past december .

Here we had 2085 logs , uh that were submitted with over 268 000 qso . So we are down in the number of logs submitted and the number of qso's made overall , but I won't complain . Uh , what I do find most interesting is that 19,528 different call signs again showed up and 92 different countries were worked during winter field day . That's awesome . That's awesome .

So I think that's incredible . And if people go , hey , what logging software should I use ? Here's what I want to talk about for logging software . There's all kinds of logging software out there . You can use it for Mac , you can use it for Windows , you can do it for Linux and there's , you know , rumlog and N1MM and 3FJP .

There's a TR4D or something like that , there's Hammers , there's Stoomlogger , you know , I think , rumlogger if I hadn't mentioned that one , but our most popular software that we use and we almost prefer you to use , and with the latest update and version .

And you have to realize , scott with N3FJP will go out about a week before and he will update his software from version whatever it is . Now I don't know , it's like 2.7 , something to the 2.7.1 or something . So he will go out and update . But there's a specific logging software through N3FJP . It's like 60 bucks for the suite .

You can get all his contest logging software or you can pay like 10 bucks or 12 bucks and get just the one for winter field day . And N3FJP is probably one of our most easiest platforms that you can use to be able to log your information . It's a Windows-based only .

That is the down problem , the one I did find that if you're a Mac OS user , it's called Skookum Logger and they do have a Winner Field Contest component to it . It's very similar to N3FJP , so that will be my choice . I'll probably be using this year and so , but N3FJP really seems to have their stuff together .

We've worked with them very closely to make sure they have everything in there they need . But I just ask that you use the latest version , because the other problem , when we go to get our some log submissions done , you'll have version 1.6.2 .

And then we have the you know every other version in between and then you have version 2.7.8 , whatever is the latest version . And again everything might be a little different in there from year to year , because back in like 2023 , we added MX .

Well , if they did Mexico as a contact , if they're using version 1.6.2 , it's not in there , but the version 2.4.6 might have been in there . So it depends on what version you're at . So if you have N3FJP it's a free software update Go out and get it , go to the latest software . Whatever you're using .

We appreciate you doing that because it makes our job easier for us on the submission side to be able to do that .

There's so many different other ways you can work a digital format and you don't have to use just FTA . People are familiar with it , people use it . It's a shoot and fish in the barrel . It doesn't transmit the message of what we need . So period story end of done . We're not , you know , end of story period done .

We're not talking about it further , but just people do ask that question . Every year it comes up . In fact , I think we just had someone else email the other day about the same question .

They aren't getting me 100 . They're not doing that on 100 watts , you just know . But it's just whatever . I can't control it . It's all about honesty and integrity . At the end of the day that's on you , not me .

So , however , you want to do that During the event , spot clusters , rbn , aprs , winlink may be used as long as the originating transmission is sent out via RF . So you can do some spotting , which is always kind of cool . If you want to do a QSO , they may be solicited during field day . Hey , you're on 20 meters .

Hey , do you want to try and go meet me over at 40 , 7.231 or something ? Sure , let's go over to 40 and let's try a contact there , so you can do that as well . Obviously , no repeater contacts , no digital mobile radios , ysf modes , nothing like that can be done . You're not using a hotspot to make your winter field day contacts .

And then the very top , go to rules and you can find that there and right in the middle of the page it says download the complete Winterfield Day packet by clicking here . So pretty easy to find . Go ahead , Mike .

I think it's kind of like one of those you guys kind of position yourself uniquely in the sense that Winterfield Day is definitely different than what we all know ARL's field day to be , and I'm super excited that you guys are just basically holding your ground and saying you know , hey , we're going to be different , we're going to do this in a different , you

know , kind of light um . But I think at the same time it also kind of sets you up for some of the future stuff that I don't think like a summer field day could do .

And I know I don't want to allude to it , but I know you kind of mentioned some of like the cool things of being able to do more gamification and stuff , but you're planning on doing something like that in the future . I don't want to let the cat out of the bag or if there's something in the world .

We've talked about setting up six different stations , with spelling out the word winter and finding six stations remotely for clubs that want to participate and be able to basically be like 13 colonies or the Route 66 , where you contact W1W or something and then W1I and W1N and so we try and spell that winter somehow like that , and have six different stations

remotely set up throughout the country for people to be able to operate and contact . That's one of the things we've talked about . Some of the other things have been looking at , you know again . Well , let's talk about this in just a second , mike , I'll let you get on to this .

But the Winter Field Day , special Bolton , that we're doing this year , I think that's a really cool thing . Yeah , we've copied ARRL on that , but I think it's a really cool thing and it really gives people another um light to be able to try and um achieve in terms of getting information and and can they copy a full message across the board , like that um .

And then we've had one of some other things we've talked about , mike roughly doing um no but let me said earlier that I get a lot of comments .

I look at all these different things and um that are going on and I'm like , okay , you know what works and what doesn't , and you know what fits in with the spirit of winter field day and when we start talking about the bulletin that the aro does , uh , I've read some comments where it's just like you know , you get writers camp because it's like a six minute

bulletin stuff and and we won't have one that long .

but if you think of the absolute most extreme grid down situation , that empMP hit all of eastern whatever US and there's no power east of the Mississippi because of EMP or something like that , the absolute worst situation being able the government to actually put out a national message via ORF and for people to sit down and copy that and relay that , whether it be

. CW or whatever you know we want people to be able to practice those skills and being able to actually copy , like you know five or six .

You know paragraph sentence because you know if you're making CW contacts and I'm sure there are people out there who just shoot the breeze on CW and have these conversations on CW and they do it on their head and that's those are amazing people . But you know , other people are just like .

You know call sign , signal report and you know maybe a little shorthand , but to be able to sit down there and copy .

We're going to use the same schedule that W1AW uses , because it's on a weekday and we actually have , and I wish I knew their call sign off the top of my head and I don't but it's a um station out in california . They broadcast the cw on the west coast for w1aw .

They're coming on board and they'll be broadcasting the cw for the winterfield day special bulletin very cool . So they're helping us with that . So this is a brand new thing that we've done this year and um with that . So this is a brand new thing that we've done this year and um .

That that was from the arrl playbook , but I think it has a valid , a very valid place within the you know income . A couple other things I wanted to talk about real quick . As far as the uh objectives , um , because , uh , most of them you've seen before as bonus points , you know , operating outside , operating away from home , deploying multiple antennas .

But some things that are new this year and they may not have a frequently asked question or something on the website yet we added in a second satellite objective . So in the past it's just like make a satellite contact Like that was the objective . In the past it's just like make a satellite contact .

That was the objective as I learn and grow and learn more about digital modes and satellite modes and all this , the many facets of amateur radio there are sideband satellites and CW satellites .

So you make one on fm and then , if you can make another one on , you know , sideband or cw , that gives you an additional um three , additional launch player of three . So that's brand new um , hey , real quick .

Now , if I want to send you a email back in the spirit of winter field day , I need to send that email out the original station . The originating station needs to send out that email via RF to really get the most out of the exercise . Uh , but the receiving station , um , could you know if you got internet there ? You could do that .

You don't have to complete all of them . You don't fail if you don't complete all of them but I am very excited that now on the website under results . We actually have a percentage of objectives completed .

So if there's 10 objectives and you complete a nine of them , you show it shows 90 completed under the objectives and I really feel that gives you a um , a quantifier for like the next year and be like okay , well , you know , last year we only got 30% of the objectives this year we're going to shoot for like 60% of them .

You know we're going to see if we can't improve on the number of objectives .

literally ticked the boxes on a lot of things , including satellite contacts , that I was like it , just it , magically , it was like a perfect storm . Everything , just you know , came together , things were working and it was just like you know .

We had our you know mishaps and stuff like that , but we , we , we crossed off a lot of multipliers and we probably did score wise way better than we probably would did during summer field day so you know kudos to us .

So you know , I'm happy to see that things are improving and you guys are evolving so so on one more note , and I debated actually this is in there on and I

uh , summer field day does this like they put out the I hate that person , right , and you know you got to make sure everything's taped off and all that stuff nobody does yeah , we just kind of want to issue a special bulletin that says like you know , uh , frostbite , like it's going to get cold , you know , make sure you guys are hydrated , make sure you guys

have the , the stuff that you need to stay warm . You know if you're going to go out and freezing , you know temperatures up on a mountain , you know , consider going in pairs . Like we want you to remain safe during winter field day . We don't have anything written into the objectives about it .

We don't have anything you know written into uh the rules or anything like that .

driveway because he's at 1300 asl . But you know not to say that we won't have igloos full of you know , 70 degree . You know buddy heaters running and you know the , uh , the , the little say the whiskey's flowing very , uh , you know , like a fountain there . But uh , yeah , it'll make for sure travel between tents a little tougher , that's all .

His house is on the left but the field is off to the right and we'll all set up there and it's like literally a walking distance to his house . So it's like it's like 20 feet , you know .

I know marvin probably got a truck but he's not going to be pulling a trailer up . But you know a dirt road that's like packed with snow .

Each year that certificate changes People doing POTO Lex , the awards , you get your 13 colonies , you get your battleship weekends , a lot of different special event stations will issue certificates and people do enjoy posting them or seeing them .

You know as their , you know again their personal achievements and so you know by going onto our website and submitting the Winter Field Day log in Cabrilla or ADIF . I think eventually we will probably just break down right to ADIF only , but we'll see how that changes . But your log must be submitted by March 1st . I've had you know .

I think someone last year said March 2nd and I'm like all right , I'll let you in , but I really do you know ? yeah , I mean you in , but I really do . Yeah , I mean you come to me on March 4th or 5th . I'm going to say no , sorry , march 1st was the deadline .

field day because they can see their standings immediately .

You know , live and see who's like you know , and just play this like a little friendly banter between you know groups that are , you know , activating and I would love to see something like that groups that are , uh , you know activating and I I would love to see something like that you could also have .

So you shouldn't have too much problem reissuing another . Don't fill out a new thing , just fill it in just like you did the first time and resubmit that log . It will update itself in our system . So just remember to use the call sign that was used during the event . Don't be N1JUR , submitting , as you know , w-1-l-f-h , l-f-h , exactly .

So if you used N1JUR through your contest , then that's what you want to . You know , submit it as . So . We've had a lot of people . Sometimes it will be . We'll call it the Hamden County Radio Association Club . That's the club I'm part of . Someone will put Hamden County all spelled out .

The next person will come in and try and do something and do Hamden C-O-R-A . It's the same club but they're trying to spell it two different ways . Sometimes maybe someone will do amateur with a U-E-R at the end instead of E-U-R . And so it's like A-R-A and you get two different names . So we've had some issues with that in the past .

That's one of the reasons we like to kind of have you go out . And what I started off with this evening was submitting to the website your Winter Field location because we can kind of go back and compare that and go hey , that was the Smart Valley Amateur Radio Club and they submitted a log here .

It looks like that kind of matches up and we could do that . So you know , that makes it a lot easier too for log submissions and things like that . And again , we do have hopefully better things in place this next year now with objective number multipliers to get the scoring out a lot faster and things updated . So hopefully that is going to be the case .

Um , but mike , anything else ?

We're only repeating things once in in the in in the rules , compared to what they used to be , where they were here in this one section and they were down here in another section . So we've really tried to simplify things and the old , you know , keep a simple , stupid type of method .

Uh , so , hopefully , that is we'll , we'll continue to be that way and we'll make this easy as possible for you . It's a quick , light raid . Uh , you can read it in probably less than a half hour total and get through everything . So , uh , we , we look forward to your participating again . Join our , our our Facebook page , our discord channel .

We've got our email wfdawinterfielddayorg or com . Sorry , com , if you go to winterfielddayorg , it will take you to the same website as well , but I mean , there are different ways to reach us . We're on Twitter , go , follow us there and if you have any questions , reach out to us . We're glad to answer .

Probably one of us two will be responding back to you , and we've really got some great people on the board that are able to help us out and keep things going . If you wish to make a donation to us , it's one of those things that does take a little bit of operating costs to keep the back end running , keep the website running things like that .

There is a place on our website for PayPal to go in and make a donation . Right there at the very top of the corner it says make a donation . It takes you right to PayPal .

You can either choose to pay the fee or we'll pay the fee , either one for the donation and we do appreciate your support in being able to help us out and keep the Winterfield Day organization alive . It doesn't drive it out of our own pockets and so we do appreciate .

I have to say as well and I can't go without saying this ICOM is a sponsor of our Winter Field Day and they do give us a little bit of support there and we do appreciate that by all means .

So give big hands to ICOM America for helping , continue to support us each and every year and being a big part of that , to help us continue to survive and make it go . So if you own ICOM Radio , again thank ICOM for their support and we really do appreciate it as well . Anything you want to give or donate to us , it doesn't go in our personal pockets .

We're all volunteers on the board . We don't get paid for anything . We spend a lot of time putting this together every year , especially this time of year . We're really busy now until Winter Field Day comes around .

It's been a blast , obviously , to know that we've got two and a number of other people outside that obviously weren't On the stream today , but that are just , you know , running a great , you know program there and always we'll say , pushing the needle ahead but still keeping the tradition of you know what winter field day is ?

Uh , always in the the view , uh , you know , going forward . So I , I applaud both of you guys for stepping in and taking on a big uh , you know , uh , attacks there but , at the same time , you know , having fun with it because you know it makes it fun for us .

And and , uh , you know , I'm really super excited to you know , see what you guys got going forward planning for 2025 and 2026 and beyond , Beyond absolutely I want to say one thing , and I'm sure this is Mike's doing , but being an IT person , the one thing I get pissed off the most is that people go out and buy a org website and then nine times out of

10 , everybody goes in and types winter field daycom and it redirects my friend that I applaud you and I thank you for putting that in there and saving the 90 million people going . I can't get to your website because they keep typingcom instead oforg .

We've always got stickers and buttons . We try and get to a couple different ham fests throughout the year . I'll always have . If you find me at a ham fest , I'll have some buttons and stickers . We actually have patches coming out . They should be here , I think , very soon . We should have Winter Field Day patches coming out .

We'll probably be having them for sale on our website or on Club Gear's website one of the two .

But , as you know , marvin and Mike alluded that . Hey , don't forget . Head over to their Discord . I assume their Discord link's over on your website that they can join there , it is right at the very top of the page , yep . Go be part of the conversation .

I'm looking forward to it . I mean , we're literally probably , once this airs is , you know , three , four , five days , actually four days , five days away , we'll be rolling into winter field day , so looking forward to seeing pictures and people's uh , you know , experience and and working a lot of people . So here's to some snow .

Hopefully in New England it won't be frozen ponds yet . Paul , one day , one day we will get a chance to all do our winter field day on a sheet of ice , but I don't think this year might give it that opportunity .

Marvin , you've got some stuff going on your channel , so just to kind of wrap up there , if you want to share anything that's going on your personal channel or with the Ham Radio Guy , feel free to go ahead and take it Mike , same way you can follow up after him .

But , you know , go check us out winterfielddayorg and you know , if you have any questions , reach out to us . And you know , I hope that you'll go out and participate , have fun and submit your log , most importantly at the end .

And we appreciate you guys , we appreciate those people out there , you know , hacking the weather and going through it all and treachering , you know , through the storms or whatever they might be encountering for a winter field day and we just hope that you'll really enjoy it and have fun with it and might be encountering for a winter field day and we we just hope

that you'll really enjoy it and have fun with it . And , uh , you know , maybe you listed a good podcast or uh , you know , watch a good a couple of YouTube videos while you're out there , if you're , if it's a slow day or something , uh , at the same time .

So , anyway , thank you very much for uh guy whatever , and just thanks for being a supporters of all of us in many different ways . You guys can find me , I'm a W4OPS on Twitter at W4OPS .

Make sure they leave comments and let us know what they think and how they're going to participate and what they're going to do this year as well , definitely .

So you know , you can always come participate , obviously through our voicemail and SMS and regular email . But , you know , if you're more one of those Discord type folks , you know you can head over to Live Free and Ham and join our Discord . You know you can head over to lift green ham and join our discord .

We always have some awesome stuff and conversations and topics going over there . Um , our biggest thing right now is , uh , you know , uh , we've been talking about shacks and we're kind of a loot , maybe to a future . You know , um , you know shack roast .

So you know , hey , if you want to throw your shack the ring there , you know , head over to our shacks , uh , channel there . But , uh , we've got topics on every other aspect , every show , so come be part of it .

And uh , you know , we'd love to hear from you and love to have you part of the community and , as always , um , you know you can head over to our um , our youtube channels and subscribe there , if you haven't already . We do a lot of streams . We also put our video podcast out there .

So if you're a podcast listener only and you want to see some of the video action and the stuff that we might refer to , always head over to our YouTube channel . All that conversation and episodes will be over there .

And again , use our SMS link , show notes and our 978-233-1142 to leave us a message and we'll be glad to be able to review it at our next episode because we want to hear from you , um , and so , lastly , you know , hey , you want to get on the inside , you want to be a true live free and ham kind of guy and , you know , just a diehard fan .

You know , head over our patreon , become a member . There .

You can listen to some of our uh , raw uncut stuff , get access to a whole ton of live free and ham stuff that most of the public don't get until a little later , um , and , as always , of our raw uncut stuff , get access to a whole ton of Live Free in Ham stuff that most of the public don't get until a little later and , as always , head over to

livefreeinhamcom to pick up our latest swag . Talk to any of our hosts , use any of our forums and just check out Live Free in Ham . So thanks again , as always , and from all of us at Live Free in Ham 7-3 .