About 8 days from the time that I’m writing this, Winter Field Day will begin. I’ve been watching the Facebook page that’s been set up for WFD, and making sure that I am ready to go get things set up on the morning on January 26th. Some others in the Facebook group have explained how they already have antennas set up on their fish houses, etc.
I am of the thought that this should be an exercise in actual preparedness, and how quickly I can respond, if needed. To put my “getting ready” process into perspective, I’ll explain it, a little bit.
- The area where I’ll be setting up has been picked out. I have no “Plan B”, so if my first location won’t work out, I’ll need to come up with something else, quickly.
- Nothing has been set up or installed, but most things are ready in the “go bag”.
- I have a checklist of all the items that I’ll need, which will be completed about 3 hours before WFD starts.
- The radio that I’ll be using is still connected at my home QTH.
- Other needed items, such as tools, antennas, wire, heater, generator, fuel, flashlights, etc. are inside my hamshack (where they normally are), and will be loaded into the vehicle at the last minute.
In other words, when WFD comes, I will be grabbing everything that I need and double checking my checklist. The plan is to go from my normal operation at my home to operating in the field in under 2 hours (hopefully less). This is how I would normally do any portable operation, and is a major factor in the Winter Field Day operation. The statement on the front page of their website explains the importance of preparedness.
For Winter Field Day, I will be uploading my logs, live, to Contest Online ScoreBoard. I have a link to the WFD contest on the front page of my site. This is so you can follow along, if you’d like, and see where I’m at on the leaderboard.
I am also testing out what I’m calling a “Live Log”, which is linked in the right-hand column of the home page. That Live Log will NOT be updated during WFD, since I’ll be linked to the Contest Online ScoreBoard. It’s not that I “can’t” do it… I just don’t see the need to use any more bandwidth than I have to, while tethering during the event.
In the same respect to limiting bandwidth, I will also not be running any spotter network, either. Since I mostly plan on calling CQ, and not answering, I don’t see a real advantage in running it.
My QRZ page has been updated with the information about the fact that I will be participating in WFD, and all of the other information that I thought may be important. Since most people that I will talk to likely refer to my QRZ page, first, I thought that was important to put, there.