Jan 25, 2025 10:00AM local
to
Jan 26, 2025 16:00 local
Many people may know that during the last weekend of June ham radio people of all stripes participate in a contest to challenge our ability to communicate and to have a little friendly competition. In the summer time ARRL Field Day is a dual-purpose event, both promoting emergency preparedness and promoting a competitive spirit. But, what if communication needs occur during the winter?
Winter Field Day was born to be a “winter” version of the popular summer event, currently put on by the the winter field day association. The rules for this contest are similar – stations will try and exchange information with as many other similar stations across the country and points are given for things that promote emergency preparedness. Gone is the problem of scorching summer heat and lack of air conditioning. Now the hazards are ice cold metal supports, water freezing on and around antenna connections, and wind-chill as you connect your coax cables.
Some of the things participants can get extra points for:
- Operating without commercial power
- Operating away from home
- Deploying new (non-permanent) antennas
- Using at least 6 bands/frequencies
- Making a contact through a ham radio satellite.
- Sending an email message to the internet from your radio using Winlink
- Using low power (QRP)
- 6 hours of continuous operation
Each of these isn’t a linear amount of points, but a MULTIPLIER, where the number of contacts is multiplied by doing these tasks. Therefore the more you can do, the better your score.
Members of the Anoka County Radio Club will be participating in this contest from their chosen locations as some members have for many years. You can follow our participants progress at the hamdash website, which will update our contest status in near real time.
New for 2025 –
- The contest has been extended to 30 hours.
- Stations can be operated for more than one location
If you are interested at all in the winter side of contesting or emergency preparedness, Winter Field Day should not be missed.
Tim Neu / N0TJN
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