Come Join SCRA at Winter Field Day 2023

Weekend of January 28 & 29 at the Group Campsite at Spring Lake Park Campground

Why Winter Field Day??

ARRL Field Day (FD) started back in the 1930s as a test of amateur radio operator’s ability to work “in the field” under emergency-like conditions. But FD takes place in the summer, when weather is typically nice. But disasters do not always occur in such nice weather. Winter Field Day (WFD) was devised by a group of dedicated amateur radio operators who believed that hams should be equally prepared for a disaster that occurs during the winter and created the Winter Field Day Association (WFDA).

 For more details regarding the forming of WFD, please visit their website: www.winterfieldday.com .

 The first WFD was held in January of 2007. SCRA has only participated in a total of four WFDs, in 2019, 2020, 2021 (virtually) and 2022. WFD2023 is now only a few days away.

 Unlike FD, WFD does not offer bonus points for engaging with the public and getting media attention. Therefore, it is not as important that we set up in public place and have a public information booth. Still, we should be prepared to answer any questions from passers-by about what we are up to (when they see our setup, they will know we are not your normal park users!).

 The Plan for Winter Field Day 2023

The location for  WFD 2023 will be the group campsite at Spring Lake Park Campground, the same location we had for WFD 2022. The weather outlook is pretty good, although there is a chance of showers on Sunday. Let’s hope the showers hold off until after we’ve packed up and left. 

We will begin setup at noon on Friday, January 27 and try to get as much done before nightfall. We should be finished with the setup and ready to operate by 11am on Saturday, January 28. The operating period runs from 11 am on Saturday until 11 am on Sunday. We will begin tearing it all down at 11am on Sunday (well, maybe we’ll take a short breather!).  

We will be running three stations:

• Phone – located in Jack, K6ROW’s RV – Station Captain: Jack, K6ROW
• CW – located in a tent  – Station Captain: Cornell, W6HMN
• Digital – located in Rick, WW6RC’s travel trailer – Station Captain: Rick, WW6RC

If you have an interest in operating any of these stations, please contact me and the appropriate station captain.

Bob, KM6GYV, has volunteered to make a Satellite contact. 

The operating period is from 11am on Saturday to 11am on Sunday. We will begin tearing down at 11am on Sunday and should be ready to leave by about 1pm or shortly thereafter. 

Power will be supplied by one or two generators. We need to keep the noise down, especially during the evening hours when generators might not be allowed. We should have deep-cycle batteries and inverters available if we need to shut down the generators. 

For antennas, we will probably be using the following:

• Zero-5 – covering 40m, 20m, 15m and 10m (from SCRA)
• Off-Center Fed Dipole – covering 75/80m, 40m, 20m, 10m (not 15m, from SCRA)
• Spider 4-Band Antenna – covering 80m, 40m, 20m, 15m (from WW6RC)
• 15m Loop (from N6IIY)

WFD has three Entry Categories, Home, Indoor, and Outdoor. We will most likely be in the Indoor category, since at two of the three stations will be in an RV where we will be weather protected.

Satellite Contacts

Bob Matreci, KM6GYV, will be coordinating several attempts to make a satellite contact. The times on Saturday are as follows:

• Jan 28, 13:58 via ISS
• Jan 28, 15:08 via SO-50
• Jan 28, 16:04 via AO-07
• Jan 28, 16:50 via FO-29

Come on by and see how it’s done!

Scoring

Beginning with WFD2022 there were a few rule changes (the rules for WFD2023 are still undergoing revision):

• Bonus points used to be 1500 points, now they are only 500
• Power limit is 100W, but power multiplier for this category is still 2.

Phone contacts count 1 point per QSO. Digital and CW contacts are 2 points per QSO

Mode and Band Multipliers – Count 1 multiplier for each mode operated per band. For example, operating CW and Phone on 80, 40, 15, and 10m, CW and PSK31 on 20m and 15m would be a total multiplier of 12x.

Power Output Multipliers – 100W or less = 2x; QRP (not in our plan) = 4x

Bonus Points –

• 500 points for not at Home (we can claim this)
• 500 points for Outdoor (we cannot claim this)
• 500 points for no commercial power (we can claim this)
• 500 points for QSO via Satellite (any volunteers?)

Claimed Score Tabulation: {QSO Points x Power Output Multiplier x Band/Mode Multiplier) + Bonus Points

Logging Contacts

As in years past, we will be using the N3FJP Winter Field Day Contest Log program, version 2.8.5. This is a different application than the ARRL Field Day Contest log. SCRA has a license for this program. Paper logs are no longer permitted for WFD, so we will need to collate all the data from the logging computers into one file for the submission. For those supplying laptops for logging, contact me if you need a license for the N3FJP Winter Field Day Contest Log program. 

Food

We will have coffee and donuts available Saturday and Sunday morning. There will be pizza for dinner Saturday late afternoon (probably around 4pm, so we can be finished before dark). 

We need a head-count by Friday afternoon for the dinner on Saturday. Please contact me at n6iiy@arrl.net if you intend to be there for dinner on Saturday. 

Parking

Parking at the group campsite is limited (the operating positions and the Breadbox will be taking up about 6 spaces), so if you can carpool with others that would be great, especially if they have an annual Sonoma County Parks Pass . There are other places to park nearby, such as the Jack Rabbit Picnic Area and the boat launch area.  

For More Information  please contact me:

 Brian Torr, N6IIY
Winter Field Day Chairman
Tel: (707) 575-5871 (home)
(707) 953-0377 (mobile)
n6iiy@arrl.net