I added an update to the original post on November 27th that said “Just registered and added myself to the Winter Field Day map, this morning. At this time, I’m the northern-most (and probably coldest) spot on the map.” Well… The first part is still true. I’m still registered and on the map, but I am no longer the “northern-most” spot on there. I am, however, still the northern-most “outdoor” station on the map.
Since I posted the original post, I have come up with a “plan B”. I now have an 80 meter end-fed half wave antenna that I will be using. In fact, the EFHW will probably become the “plan A”, and I’ll let the Big Ear antenna be the plan B. I think that I have everything that I need to get it up into a tree and on the air. I may need to hit up a friend for a smaller piece of coax, though. Everything I have is much longer than I probably need, and if I don’t need to cut it up, I don’t want to.
The place where I’ll be running WFD from is all set up, and I’ve got the proper permission that I need. The only thing that I may have to worry about is if we get any kind of really bad weather during that time period. Getting in and out of there may be a little tricky if things get bad enough. I’ll hope for the best, but plan for the worst, though.
Speaking of planning, I was thinking that I would be using a small electric heater that I have, in order to keep the van warm. I pulled the space heater out, the other day and fired up the generator. I realized that the heater (on high) pulls 1500w. The generator that I have is capable of 2000w. This would leave me 500w (pushing it) for the radio and anything else that I connect. The radio pulls just under 200W at full power and the laptop that I use for logging would pull about 150w. That would leave me about 150 watts of wiggle room. I’m not comfortable with that, at all.
My solution is to put about a $130 initial investment into a propane tank and heater. It’s all locally available, so I don’t even need to order anything. This solution should work out much better, since I will be “saving” all of those watts, and the propane heater should do a much better job of heating the van. This really showed me that the planning is about 80% of this whole exercise.
The location that I chose is very ideal, since it is a relatively open area, but has a couple trees that I can get a wire antenna up about 40 feet in the air. When I looked at the distances that I needed, the location of the “station” set up puts the antenna(s) on one side of the van and the generator on the other side, behind a small brick building (which should do a good job at blocking any interference from it). Also, it should shield the generator from the weather and wind. I may need to come up with something to protect the “connection” side of the generator, so nothing gets wet, though.
I did purchase the full suite of N3FJP software, and have started using Amateur Contact Log as my main logging program. I plan to use his Winter Field Day Contest Log during WFD. My son (KE0MHY) also plans on helping me out, and he’s familiar with the N3FJP software, since he used it during last Field Day. This should make the logging the least of any of my worries about the whole event. There’s a lot of “extras” in his software that I wasn’t even aware of when I purchased it that I’m really happy about.
Since the last post, I have also talked to Shawn (AD0ND), and he told me that he does not plan on running an outdoor station, this year. In a way, I wish he would, but in another way, I’m kinda’ happy he isn’t, since this will give me a little better chance at getting higher in the results. Not that it will get me much more than bragging rights. but like he said, “it’s fun, but the bragging rights are even better”.
The only big thing that I have major concerns about is the BIG THING that will prevent me from getting even close to obtaining those bragging rights. The HF conditions, lately have been (to say the least) AWFUL. If you’ve been on HF over the past couple weeks, I’m sure you would agree. 100 watts and a wire can usually do a pretty good job, but if the propagation isn’t there, it makes things “really” difficult. I really hope that the conditions improve before the end of January. The only thing I have on my side, if they don’t improve, is that I am a member of OMISS and the 3905 net. Those two nets have done more for me to improve my radio “hearing” than anything else. Using headphones and training my ears to ignore the static has been essential for making a lot of contacts on those nets. I’m proud to say that I’ve become pretty good at it.
This may be the last update before WFD, but I will post an update after WFD, no matter what.
Let me know, in the comments, if you are also planning to participate in Winter Field Day, and what your plan is.