Do you like operating in the field but hate dripping in sweat while setting up antennas? Does the idea of enduring another Field Day constantly fighting off every mosquito in Tampa Bay make you wish they held Field Day in January? Well, you’re in luck! Winter Field Day is an event very similar to the June ARRL Field Day except—you guessed it—it’s held in Winter. Specifically January 25 & 26, 2025. This is a joint operation with both the Clearwater Amateur Radio Society (CARS) and the Upper Pinellas Amateur Radio Club (UPARC). The event will be held at the Clearwater Fire Training Facility on Belcher Road south of Sunset Point Road in Clearwater. Prior efforts were a great success.
Winter Field Day is a 24 hour operating exercise where hams across the country go to the field, setup portable stations running on emergency power with temporary antennas. This event is not sponsored by the ARRL but the Winter Field Day Association. It has been operating since 2007 and gets bigger each year. There are several differences from the ARRL Field Day. Notably, there are only four classes of operation: (Outdoor, Indoor, Mobile and Home). We will be operating 3 HF stations capable of SSB, Digital modes like PSK31 and CW plus a satellite station. As with summer Field Day, you will work stations operating from home and also indoors in non-traditional settings. But when you work outside stations in Minnesota, please try not to comment on how it is a chilly 65 degrees here. They may not share your amusement. 🙂
We have the radio and computers secured and a pretty good handle on the supplies as this is the 7th event the clubs have done from this facility. We need people to help with putting things up, some people to help with food and of course, operators. Setup begins at 8:00 AM on Saturday 1/25. Three radios will be going 24 hours from 2:00 PM Saturday to 2:00 PM on Sunday so we need people that can operate. No experience is necessary. If you are brand new to ham radio, you are welcome to come out and with a little training; you get to operate the radios. If you are interested in operating portable, you will get first hand experience in how to setup a station outside with no other infrastructure. Additionally, if you are interested in Emergency Communications, you have the opportunity to setup in a unusual location, operating radios on generator power. Note that is just like people had to do in Houston and Puerto Rico after the hurricanes so if you are an EMCOMM operator, this event is tailor made for you. Plus you will be on the grounds of the premiere fire training facility in the area.
We have a great facility in the Clearwater Fire Training Center including access to the classrooms, rest rooms, etc. However, all operating is outside (tentatively but could change) with portable antennas. While this is winter in Florida, we hope the weather is nice but past year’s Winter Fields were cold and rainy so you never know what you will get.
Here is a Google Map to the location. This is centrally located to most club members in the county so we hope the facility proves to be a success for all.
The transceivers used are three Elecraft K3 radios (UPARC has three of them). We use computers for logging with the TR4W contest logger. Note this is a departure for SPARC as the standard at the club station is N1MM but you will find TR4W easy to pickup. It is also very forgiving to new operators and will not let you enter the info wrong. You are welcome to download TR4W and play with it to get used to the software but it is pretty easy to use. We will have more training on that at the January meeting.
Sign up will be available soon but please save the date and plan on attending. Please sign up as soon as it is available. Don’t forget to bring anything you might need for the weekend (we recommend a camp chair and cool weather gear–more details on what to bring will be sent before the event).
