2022 Winter Field Day Information
Introduction to Winter Field Day 2022
Winter Field Day runs for 24 hours on January 29th and 30th from 1900 UTC (2pm EST) Saturday to 1900 UTC (2pm EST) Sunday. There is no group gathering this year, however there is a group effort and we can all operate out of our homes. Another change for this year is there is no high power allowed, so contesters are limited to 100W.
Winter Field Day uses all NON-WARC bands. This means you can operate on 160,80,40,20,15 and 10 meters, as well as 6, 2, 1.25 and 70cm bands. Modes may be any mode that can faithfully transmit the exchange intact without a conversion table… This means CW, SSB, AM, FM, DStar, C4FM, DMR, Packet, PSK, SSTV, RTTY, Fell-Hell, Olivia and JS-8 Call are permitted. FT-8 and FT-4 are not permitted. For additional information and the complete rules please see: https://www.winterfieldday.com/
How GBARC Members Should Operate WFD
All GBARC members should normally operate as Home stations for their category. Given the extreme cold weather I strongly recommend no one operate as an Outdoor station. This means your exchange would be "[Callsign] 1H CT". Even if you operating QRP on 5 watts you would be 1H. If you have a Technician license you can operate voice on son 10 meters, 6 meters. 2 meters, and 70cm, and you can operate CW on HF bands except 20M.
Operating Categories and Exchanges
Generally we will all be working from home, therefore you would be a home station. This means that your station exchange would generally be be 1 home, shortened to 1H. You would generally put our section (Connecticut) at the end so your complete exchange would be 1HCT or One Hotel, Charley Tango in voice modes. There is no transmitted power exchange, even if you are QRP.
There are indoor and outdoor club and EOC stations, so they may be identified as 1I or 1O (one india or one oscar).
Recommended Frequencies
- 160 meters (CW: 1810-1820KHz SSB:1830-1860 KHz)
- 80 meters(CW: 3.530 - 3.559 MHz SSB:3.800-3.830 MHz)
- 40 meters (CW: 7.030 - 7.050 MHz MHz SSB: 7:175-7.205 MHz)
- 20 meters (CW: 14.035 - 14.055 MHz SSB: 14.225-14.255 MHz)
- 15 meters (CW: 21.025 - 21.200 MHz SSB: 21.275-21.305 MHz)
- 10 meters (CW: 28.030 - 28.060 MHz SSB: 28.400-28.425 MHz)
On all frequencies above 10m, chose a frequency (CW, SSB, FM) that is a simplex frequency adjacent to but not on the calling frequencies.
GBARC Local Contacts
To give everyone a chance to operate Winter Field Day we want to encourage everyone to "get on the air" and make contacts locally. In keeping with our normal emergency communications protocols I would encourage people to monitor our normal simplex channels on VHF and UHF. Just to remind everyone they are:
- VHF Simplex - 146.580 FM
- UHF Simplex - 446.025 FM
These are simplex, so no offsets or PL tones are required.
Scoring
There are many ways to get points, and multipliers to enhance your score.
- Points are counted 1 point for phone (SSB, AM FM) and 2 points for CW and Digital (RTTY, PSK-31 etc)
- One multiplier for each Mode and Band. So it helps to operate multiple modes on each band.
- There are power multipliers: 100W or less is 2X, QRP is 4X.
There are also bonus points:
- 500 points if you are ONLY battery or generator powered. This means even if you make one contact on 2M simplex using a handheld, you will get 500 polints.
- 500 points if you make a verified contact via satellite. The contact may be SSB, CW or FM.
- 500 points if you are Outdoors
- 500 points if you are NOT a home (Club station or EOC) GBARC is not operating as a Club or EOC because of CoVid.
Logging Information
Logging your contacts should be done using a logging program that can produce a Cabrillo contest log file. The two most popular are:
You can also use any other program (FLDIGI for example) that can produce a Cabrillo formatted log. It is important you indicate your power level (100W or below.) See below for more information about your log submission. If you are unsure, contact N1DID or NR1T for additional information.
GBARC will have a “group/club” score tallied by having club members fill in the “CLUB:” line in their Cabrillo log file. Individual club members should send in a log under their own callsign (operating under their own privileges) with the name or callsign of the group noted on the “CLUB:” line. Please use the club name "Greater Bridgeport ARC" so that we don't conflict with other GBARC clubs.
Here is what your Cabrillo log should look like if you edit it in a text editor.
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START-OF-LOG: 3.0
Created-By: whatever program you used to make this log
CONTEST: WFD
CALLSIGN: [YOUR CALLSIGN]
CLUB: GREATER BRIDGEPORT ARC
LOCATION: [YOUR TOWN]
ARRL-SECTION: ct
CATEGORY: 1H (or your other mode)
CATEGORY-POWER: LOW (QRP, LOW or HIGH)
SOAPBOX: 500 points for not using commercial power (if applicable)
SOAPBOX: 500 points for setting up outdoors (if applicable)
SOAPBOX: 500 points for setting up away from home (if applicable)
SOAPBOX: 500 points for Satellite QSO (w/N8HM)
SOAPBOX: BONUS Total 6000 (Sat QSO, remote location, outdoors and gen pwr)(example)
CLAIMED-SCORE: xxxx (your calculated total score including bonuses)
OPERATORS: Call #1, Call #2, Call #3, etc.
NAME: Your Name (contact person)
ADDRESS : #### Your Street
ADDRESS-CITY: Your city
ADDRESS-STATE: Your state
ADDRESS-POSTALCODE: Your postal code
ADDRESS-COUNTRY: Your Country
EMAIL: Your Email Address
QSO: 3750 PH 2017-01-07 1911 W8D 1O OH WB9X 2H IL
QSO: 7030 CW 2017-01-07 2021 W8D 1O OH K8UO 14I MI
QSO: 14070 DI 2017-01-07 2131 W8D 1O OH K6XXX 14I LA
END-OF-LOG:
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