Winter Field Day Plans 2020

Winter is coming. A line immortalized in Game of Thrones, one of my favorite shows. Winter Field Day is coming. A line from my favorite hobby. Many of us know what Winter Field Day is all about, while others may think that field day only happens in the summer. Yes, the ARRL Field Day is in June during the heat of the summer here. But winter field day is a nice change from those hot days. On the 25th and 26th of January, the weather should be nice and cool here in Florida. The plan will be to camp at Falling Waters State Park near Chipley, FL (https://www.floridastateparks.org/parks-and-trails/falling-waters-state-park). I will be operating at the park along with N4KGL.  I waited longer than I should have to get my reservation, but I was able to get the last reservation at the other end of the campground.

The fact that we are on opposite ends of the campground will allow us to utilize another aspect of this wonderful hobby, packet radio.  Greg and I plan to set up packet communications between us so that we can coordinate band usage.  At such a close range, we could just throw a rock with a note attached, we could even use a handheld 2m radio, but where is the fun in that.  I should be able to use my portable packet station and a laptop with a simple terminal program such as Tera Term or PuTTY.  Perhaps, I will try to set up a packet station with my Kenwood TH-D72 since it has a built-in TNC and we will be short range. With all of the radios at my disposal, I have plenty of options.

So, looking at my HF station for actual Winter Field Day ops, I am planning on bringing along my large HF go-kit.  This consists of a Yaesu FT-891, LDG Z-100plus auto tuner, bioenno 20AH LiFePO4 battery, bioenno charge controller and 120 watt solar panel.  This kit also includes a Wolf River coil Silver bullet 1000, but I plan on using my Sotabeams 20, 30, 40 linked dipole supported by a fiberglass pole.

I have been looking forward to Winter Field Day 2020 for months, and I hope to catch y'all on the air. Check out some of the equipment I will be using on Amazon below.

73!