So, did we win Winter Field Day? Hold on to that thought. We need to put things into perspective. Let’s look at a summary of the CLASSES first. We were in the HOME class and there was OUTDOOR (burr), INDOOR, and MOBIL. Then there was the Category which was the number of transmitter stations operational at the same time. So for the HOME class, we were 6th overall and FIRST for our Category number of two stations (2H NH). Go team. We had 738 QSO’s with a multiplier of 22 for a final score of 17,292. There were 1,231 HOME stations, 38 of those were 2H, with us at the top of that smaller list.
The multiplier was very important. Our HOME 3rd place team had more QSOs than any other station (all classes) but a lower multiplier and that put them in 3rd place (HOME Class) and 34th position for the whole event, yet they had the most QSOs.
The total number of Winter Field Day Stations was 2,481. Where did we fall in that number? Well, 92nd, I still think that we did amazing for our CLASS and Category (number of stations).
More fun facts
There was only 1 station, K6EI, with 100% of the objectives and they got a multiplier of 27, however, they only had 120 QSOs and were 6O MI OUTDOOR.
Here are the overall statistics for Winter Field Day and who was at the top of their CLASS.
Some of the Winter Field Day 2025 Operator Team
Please thank our operators for their help in achieving this milestone.
Many Thanks to Fred and Anita for allowing us to use their station and their home.
Thanks to those who brought food
Thanks to the Winter Field Day Planning Team
Hope to see everyone come out for the Sumer Field Day 2025 event on June 28-29th. Planning starts in April.
The kids’ action for Field Day was probably the most impressive. They were running CQ pileups on 40M.
They had 199 contacts. It was fun to watch and hear. AND hats off to the HAM’s who worked the kids, they had amazing patience.
We were planning to be a 4A station this year, but we had a key individual drop late in the schedule and the weather was another reason, they were forecasting 93⁰ and 38% chance of thunderstorms. So, we reverted back to last year’s 3A configuration. That meant 1 less tower to be raised.
DCIM100MEDIADJI_0516.JPG
Our weather turned out to not be as hot as predicted but it was a wet field day. Not just from rain, over night the security team had a rude awaking at around 3AM as the sprinkler system came on. We had 2 tents positioned over 2 sprinkler heads and yes these were the tents the security team had decided to sleep in. No damage other than lack of sleep.
Kids had a great time with the FOX Hunt. They wanted to do it again on Sunday different location of course.
Field Day teardown is always faster than the setup and always under the threat of thunderstorms arriving later. The Kids also participated in teardown.
Yea Yea, but how did we do it?
We had 20 operators at Field Day, the same as last year, and had 142 fewer contacts from last year, BUT because of the kids, we outscored 2023 Field Day by 552 points. We had all ARRL SECTIONS except East Bay, California & Southern New Jersey (GOTA got SNJ). We achieved our goal of field day being a learning experience (like don’t put the tents on the sprinklers)
Fun Facts 😉:
John Halbert (W1SMN) had the most contacts @ 215 and the most points at 215. Jack (WM0G) had second with 169 contacts but third in points.
Matt Seaver AC1NB came in second in points, with 104 contact and 208 points (FT8 & FT4)
The best per hour was W1TKO, with 52 contacts in an hour!!!! Outstanding
Peter KC1FNF had both the First Contact and the Last Contact.
The first contact was Australia by Matt, AC1NB
Second furthest was New Zealand by Peter, KC1FNF
We only had 24 CW Contacts. We need more CW operators to come out to man a position. It’s worth 2 points for each CW contact. We made no contacts on 80M.
We had 32 calls that were not counted as contacts; 10 were Duplicates. That means we had 22 bad calls where the database failed to list Class, Section, or both. All were FT8, and it was because the other station was not set up for Field Day. Overall, we had 5,852 points for our 2024 score.
We received a $20 donation from Norm Jackson (W1CIP). [email protected] So, if you should see him please thank him.
Bonuses:
Social Media: 100 bonus points – Thank you John
Media Publicity: 100 bonus points – Thank you John and team
Public Location: 100 bonus points
Set up at Hudson Memorial School
Public Information Table: 100 bonus points – Thank you, Brian for the INFO boards
W1AW Bulletin: 100 bonus points – Thank you, Dave (copied as CW)
Site Visitation by a representative of an agency: 100-point bonus – Thank you Frank’s Daughter Got a Fire Captain to stop by
Safety Officer Bonus: A 100-point bonus – Thank you Lee
Web submission: A 50-point bonus – Thank You Brian
GOTA
Any completed contacts made by an operator at the GOTA station are worth five (5) bonus points. We had 200 QSO’s for 1000 points
GOTA station is supervised full-time by a GOTA Coach 100 Points, thanks you to Lee KC1HKJ and Rui W1RUI, and Brian W1XMM
Field Day Youth Participation – A 20-point bonus (maximum of 100) for each participant age 18 or younger at your Field Day operation who completes at least one QSO. We had eight kids all together.
We missed out on the following bonuses:
Satellite QSO – Next year we need a Elmer to help us
Message Origination to Section Manage – Need to set a schedule to a local ham
Message Handling 100 points (ten messages) – Need to set a schedule to a local ham
Alternate Power – Need a large capacity battery to make five contacts
Site Visitation by an elected governmental official – Need to personally ask someone who is elected to stop by
Additionally, thanks are needed for the team:
The worst thing that happened: No, it’s not that someone got hurt. Someone packed up the coffee pit. Yes, with coffee and coffee grounds still in it! I don’t drink coffee. It reminds me of a funny story back in the Army when I was on MIDS (11 PM to 8 AM). A sergeant told me to find something to do. Well, the coffee pot looked really nasty. (They later told me that it was well seasoned) and I cleaned it. The whole GI cleaning is done with a scouring pad and Comet cleanser. It looked brand new by the time I was done. It seems that was the wrong thing to do, because they had to go out and buy a new coffeepot, you know a 100 cup Army sized coffeepot. So, don’t blame me for the flavor of your coffee next year because you left me to clean it…… Did I mention that I don’t drink coffee? -Brian
After Action Reports 2023 After Action Report. Looking to see how well we completed previous action items.
1. Focus on staffing and working low bands as a means of improving
readiness on those bands
2. Recruit more CW ops
3. Improve management of operator resources to most effective
bands / modes
4. Increase member engagement in “educational” activities (i.e.
Satellite operation, messaging, etc)
5. Reinforce “CTRL-O”ettiquite .
6. Focus FT8 on bands/times with poor propagation only.
7. Improve on how we manage the station computers–
standardization, recovery, management
8. Increase operator knowledge of equipment
9. Prepare more thoroughly for inclement / severe weather.
10. Improve GOTA station experience
11. Having a CW team leader, GOTA Leader
12. They used mode titles for towers verse our band tents
13. Work Satellites
14. Get the Scouts involved
After Action Report 2024
1. FIX POD to have WWW access
2. Fuel pod suction system.
a. Recommend making the pods single lines to single
generator, single point failure
3. Have both trailers side by side to move stuff once
4. Need to have food put in coolers rather than being left out to
possible spoil.
5. Need to request that the sprinklers are off.
a. Possible shut off water valve rather than just computer
control
b. Mark the sprinklers and don’t put tents on sprinklers.
6. Remove the small steel cable from Tower Kit’s
7. PR / Instagram tags of field day, and or something else.
8. Power Strips need to be RFI/EMI filtered. 6M station kept going
down and required power cycle of power supply to come back.
Some stations also complained of noise.
9. Need a better way to have folks sign in.
10. Need to have a better way for the GOTA station QSO’s logs.
Lost a lot of the kids hard work because of not time or
frequency on QSO’s
Greetings All, this coming Tuesday June 4th, we will be discussing the Field Day 2024 setup and activities.
Please join us Tuesday 7PM. We will be going over the site layout, Schedule of events, Equipment layout, Field Day Bonus Points, and what to bring. We’re planning on several youth activities, so bring the youth. OH, and FREE food.
What every, your level of license or experience we want to help you get on the air. So please consider coming to the presentation and of course to Field Day.
If you can’t make the presentation, please mark on your calendar June 22 & 23 for Field Day. We will start at 2PM and complete activities at 2PM on Sunday. Please Sign up for operating times at:
At the Tech Night meeting on June 11th at 7PM we will focus on Field Day operations.
Tech Night will provide everyone with the knowledge of how to operate N1MM contact logging Software and we will also go over how to operate the radio. The presentation will also include our Station Handbook. It included cheat sheets for N1MM, radio controls, and how to make contacts. Also found in the handbook will be emergency shutdown procedures, and Safety guidelines.
Consider helping out with the setup that will start around 1PM on June 21st at the Hudson Memorial School.
Please don’t forget this is a CLUB (NARS & ARRL) sponsored event and encourages all of you to participate in the Field Day operations and setup if able.
Finally, if you can’t make Field Day in Hudson, NH, you can still help out the club by taking part in Field Day at home. Any points you make can be used to help the club by putting “Nashua Area Radio Society” in the club field on your entry form.
