Posted: 12/27/2016 10:50:35 AM EDT
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This will be my first year to participate, today I released a show about it.
Who's Playing in '17 HR360 WFD Show |
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There is no winter in SC. Following your logic - there is no winter in the US. I grew up north of 54th deg. latitude. Snow was on the ground from early October through early May, so I know what real winter is like. Heck, schools only closed when it got below negative 30 degrees and we went cross country skiing on those days. LOL. |
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Probably alone outdoors with the KX2 or KX3 QRP.   Last few years I invited the club to join me and ended up that I did all the work. They did all the griping.
I will be leaving for the Dominican Republic 4 days after WFD so don't need a lot of extra work. HI3/NE9** |
| My club had a pretty successful first year last year, so we are planning mostly the same for this year, with a few tweaks (mostly, don't rely on water at the site). Good thing we had just had 30" of snow, or we would have been out of luck. We are hoping for much less snow this year. |
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Our little group is going to do winter field day for the first time. We will be operating as W5W out of the city alternate EOC in the main fire station.
Emergency power, field expedient antennas, but at least we will be inside. The June Field Day is usually brutally hot in our part of Texas. Being in the main fire station right next to City Hall we hope to get more attention and some PR with the City administrators. |
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Our little group is going to do winter field day for the first time. We will be operating as W5W out of the city alternate EOC in the main fire station. Emergency power, field expedient antennas, but at least we will be inside. The June Field Day is usually brutally hot in our part of Texas. Being in the main fire station right next to City Hall we hope to get more attention and some PR with the City administrators. I am also doing it with small club in Milam County, may I ask where you are located? |
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Our little group is going to do winter field day for the first time. We will be operating as W5W Our club here got a 1x1 for Field Day this year, never again. Spent way too much time saying "that's all there is" to people asking for endless repeats of the callsign. |
| Yes! And it's all your fault! I listened to the WFD show right after our failed QSO on my way through your AO. There in the rental car, with my family as witnesses, I resolved to freeze my ass off in the name of amateur radio for winter field day this year. Details to follow. Might be in a tent in my driveway if I can find a portable wood stove to keep me thawed. Might take it on the road. Not sure yet. Either way it'll be a good winter break in for my new-ish genny, and I'm sure I'll learn a lot about operating my radios with mittens on. |
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Yes! And it's all your fault! I listened to the WFD show right after our failed QSO on my way through your AO. There in the rental car, with my family as witnesses, I resolved to freeze my ass off in the name of amateur radio for winter field day this year. Details to follow. Might be in a tent in my driveway if I can find a portable wood stove to keep me thawed. Might take it on the road. Not sure yet. Either way it'll be a good winter break in for my new-ish genny, and I'm sure I'll learn a lot about operating my radios with mittens on. You can thank me later 
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I've embarked on a mission... seeing as it's winter and all, we're going to try 160 if I can come up with an antenna. Is there any activity on 160? |
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vertical to a weather balloon. Want me to send you a balloon? Then all you need is wire and possibly balun or unun and ground radials depending on the way you design your antenna..... or don't forget helium. Quoted:
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I've embarked on a mission... seeing as it's winter and all, we're going to try 160 if I can come up with an antenna. Is there any activity on 160? I had found this article and was thinking about making something like this, using some fiberglass military poles.... http://k6mm.com/antennas/160M.pdf But I'm sure a balloon 1/4 wave would kick its behind on performance. I've never done a balloon supported antenna before. There are power lines on one side of the open field we use for verticals, so I need to see if we have enough room, but I'd be willing to try it if we have space and I could come up with helium. |
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I had found this article and was thinking about making something like this, using some fiberglass military poles.... http://k6mm.com/antennas/160M.pdf But I'm sure a balloon 1/4 wave would kick its behind on performance. I've never done a balloon supported antenna before. There are power lines on one side of the open field we use for verticals, so I need to see if we have enough room, but I'd be willing to try it if we have space and I could come up with helium. |
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Forecast for 33 degrees and partly cloudy. Sounds good to me.
Are there bonus points for arfcom exchanges? 
Will be listening on 7114. probly cw unless i carry the laptop up the hill. Oh wait, looks like they are suggesting only using 7.030 - 7.050 that will condense it a bit CQ WFD/ARFCOM DE ... Have fun out there 
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Events beyond my control have conspired to make this the last weekend I'll have at home for a while, so my dreams and plans of an elaborate tent-based station on a frozen lake are dashed. I will still get on the air, but it'll probably be with the KX3 & packtenna out in the yard. Maybe I'll fire up the genny and run the 857D if I'm not being heard.
The good news is I'll be on an island in the Pacific by Monday afternoon, and will have my KX3 and packtenna with me. And it's slightly warmer there! |
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When our club won the CQWW DX CW contest for Central America we used the balloon antenna on 160. Worked very well. Got a lot of points during the night. Look for KP4US again from AIbonito, PR for the SSB contest in October. Was looking at doing a weather balloon to run up an antenna last field day but given the cost of helium it was a no go. |
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There is no winter in SC. Quoted:
There is no winter in SC. Quoted:
SC talkin' about Winter events LOL! 
Made a run of 7 intrepid souls (5 actually, 1 in AZ and another in NFL) on 40 CW just a few minutes ago. One was in the Maritime Provinces. Hopefully things will liven up shortly |
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made 100 total contacts.
3I for a while, went down to 2I but didn't change the disposition. 20m SUCKED, 40 and 80 were kind at times and bad at others. Packtenna Classic for 20/40 (used 40 almost exclusively) Unknown $40 Endfed on the Station Flag Pole, top fed as sloper for 80 and 40 Modified G5RV initially for 80 and others, pulled out of service as others left for the overnight. We setup about 3 miles from my QTH, in the local VFD. 3 Stations in the Bay. The building is fairly new and there was virtually no echo in the area. Some friends came and we had a great time. We used the 2x2 call of one of the ops. CW made for some EZ contacts as always. We cleaned and packed up at 1400, and there was only room in my truck for me (Quad Cab F250). I did learn some lessons, #1 being Delegate MOAR ! rigs used. Yaesu 990 Yaesu 450D Icom 718 Kenwood TS850 Kenwood TS50 may do an AAR if I can find the time! (Still hearing SSB chatter in my ears this morning!) |
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I was only able to operate from noon to 2pm on Sunday so I'm happy with my 17 SSB contacts + 1 special event station*.
20M was very good to me for western contacts from VA. 2 from OK & 1 from NE. Almost had TX (kc5rr) but I kept getting stepped on. Though I had plans to operate from a remote location miscommunications had me locked out. So I operated 1H using my Yaesu FT-747GX and 255' of OCFD. 20M was sparse going, 80 & 160M were silent for me. I was also having some kind of problem with my LDG AT-600pro that caused me to first think it had died but I looked up and did the 3 finger reset and that got it back in the game. I have to go see if the bright orange hoodie is still available to order. Summer Field Day I'm going to have my K2/100 on the air. *The special event station was WW1USA. That was cool. Quoted:
I couldn't get out west, but I got PA, KY, IL,RI,OH,NY and Quebec. Tried yesterday 1O, but got no one w 2w, so I went 1H today and got some contacts. SKCC is still running K3Y so got some of those today too. XYL probably wishes I had been more productive! |
| We did OK from Central Texas. I do not have the list, but 48 contacts on 20M PSK31, somewhere around 20 on 40M SSB. Probably not operating for at least 6-8 hours of the event. We operated from a RV on generator and a camping trailer on battery. We also had Boy Scouts for a couple hours Saturday doing contacts for their radio merit badge, so, took away some operating time. We were 3I. |
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I got set up just about the start of the contest, maybe a few minutes late. I was 1O IL, portable power, and QRP. Only managed contacts on 20M, 40M, and a handful on 80M, SSB. Stayed up until a little after midnight. Tried a satellite QSO, but no luck. Had the County Sheriff stop by and wake me up at 1:30AM. Just wanted to be sure I wasn't some kind of fugitive??? What fugitive hides out with telescopic pole and giant wire antennas? Anyway, that got me stirred up and I couldn't sleep. Made breakfast and coffee. Tried another satellite QSO, again no luck. Slept for 2 hours, then went back at it. Ended up with 110 contacts including a DX to Beata Island.
Gear: FT-817ND (All contacts on this radio alone) FT-60R (I need to build a yagi) TS-480SAT (Not used) FT-7800R (Not used) TM-261A (APRS Location Beacon for fun) Antennas: 130' EFHW running from a Sotabeams telescopic pole to a tree Sotabeams Bandspringer Midi on a Shakespeare fishing pole 
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Nice setup in the truck. Whats that shelf the laptop is sitting on, is that suspended by the steering wheel or door handle? I took a chance and tried this cheap "desk" from Amazon. I was actually very impressed with it. Not a ton of room, probably only enough for a 15" laptop at most. I had to push the telescoping steering wheel in an the way, push my seat back and recline just a bit, but it worked great. The laptop on there is a HP Revolve 810 for reference. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00M7RERPS/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 |