To keep this light, we’ll use titles of Rock’N’Roll songs to theme the sections in this article. I’ve included links to the music videos so you can play them in the background while you read – this might be more fun than my article…

Learning To Fly

Tom Petty

Several months ago, Craig N1SFT suggested that we do Winter Field Day (WFD) as a means to practice our Emergency Communications (EMCOM) skills and to get additional practice setting up our towers and antennas. Craig further suggested that we operate from Keyes Memorial Park in Milford, NH due to its public location, large open area, and availability of an open pavilion that could be used to construct a temporary outdoor shelter. Jerry K1OKD, Charlie W1CBD, Dave K1DLM, Mike, K1WVO, John KB1EEU, and I joined Craig to form what became the core of our 2019 Winter Field Day Team.

People Get Ready For The Train That’s Commin’…

Curtis Mayfield & The Impressions

Early on, we met with the Milford Town Board to secure permission to operate in the park overnight and we began holding weekly calls to develop our plans. Early on, we decided to operate four all-mode stations and to cover all of the non-WARC bands from 160m through 2m and 70cm. We felt that this arrangement would make us competitive with the top stations in Winter Field Day over the past several years.

Jerry and Craig created a Site Layout and Antenna Plan. It was a challenge to fit antennas for so many bands into the limited space. All of the feedlines would lead back to the Pavillion which we planned to enclose with tarps and heat.

Jerry and I put together the station plan shown above. The idea was to have 4 stations which we could operate on any band from 80m – 10m and to have two of these station with special capabilities for either 160m or 6m and above. The 6m+ station would use our portable satellite antennas to enable us to earn the Winter Field Day satellite bonus as well as be able to make FM and weak signal contacts on the 2m and 70cm bands,

We always try to incorporate some new things into each of our Field Day plans. The addition of the 160m was a big one for us this time. We decided to build a 160m dipole for our Transmit antenna and a 160m Reversible Beverage On The Ground (RBOG) antenna for receive. You can read more about our 160m antenna system and its installation and test here.

We also opted to use the N3FJP Logger for Winter Field Day. This logger supports WFD and has many of the core features of the N1MM+ contest logger that we use for Summer Field Day. Networking is simpler with this logger and the learning curve associated with it is not as steep. We held a training session the week before WFD where many of our operators had a chance to use the N3FJP Logger with our WFD stations and supporting gear and software. Everyone seemed to master the new logger quickly.

Gimme Shelter…

Rolling Stones

With all of our preparation complete, we arrived at Keyes Memorial Park on Friday and began setting up at 2 pm. One of the first things we tackled was the construction of a temporary shelter around the Pavillion in the park.

The weather can be pretty brutal here in New England in January and we began by putting up tarps to serve as a windbreak.

The process took several hours but it was very effective when complete. Thanks to John and Craig for leading the charge on this excellent piece of work!

Stand Tall!

Burton Cummings

The first order of business for the Wire Antenna Team was to put up a 50 ft guyed mast and hoist our new 160m transmit dipole antenna up.

Due to its size, we had to tune this antenna on site. The final tune-up worked out great and the antenna provided over 60 KHz of usable Tx bandwidth on the 160m band.

The Wire Antenna Team also put up a 160m Receive Reversible Beverage On The Ground (RBOG) Antenna next. This antenna requires good grounds at both ends and is 180 ft long. The grounds were enhanced with three 50 ft radials at each end and the antenna was feed using 300 ft of 75-ohm flooded coax. You can read more about this antenna here.

All Along The Watchtower…

Jimi Hendrix

The Craig N1SFT, Hamilton K1HMS, Brian W1BP, and Mike K1WVO were the core of our Tower Team and they spent the afternoon on Friday putting the tower, Triband Yagi, and the wire antennas for 80m and 40m together.

We used a gasoline powered winch and associated rigging to lift the tower.  Craig spent some time to rig and secure the winch in preparation for lifting the Tower.

Brian W1BP and Mike K1WVO handled the assembly and checkout of our TX-38 Triband Yagi which covers the 20m, 15m, and 10m bands.

A lot goes into properly and safely assembling a complex antenna system like our falling derrick tower and the Tower Team used the entire period from 2 pm until dark to ready our tower to go up.

One of the first things that we did on Saturday was to raise the tower. The picture above shows the tower being lifted using a falling derrick. The tower consists of 40 ft of Rohn 25g tower and includes the TX-38 triband yagi on a rotator and two wire antennas for 80m and 40m on a sidearm.

The final step was to adjust all of the tower guys to ensure that the tower was level and secure. With this done, the ends of the two wire antennas were anchored to create inverted-V dipoles for 80m and 40m. The 80m antenna is made from uninsulated copper wire and it has two dangling jumpers which can be left hanging or wrapped around the antenna to allow it to be used for either CW/Digital or SSB operation on the 80m band.

Rocket Man

Elton John

We Choose To Go To Winter Field Day and Do The Other Things Not Because They Area Easy But Because They Are Hard…

With the HF antennas complete, we turned our attention to the Satellite/2m/70cm weak signal antennas. We have used this antenna system in several portable operations in the past and it went together quickly.

These antennas are computer controlled and feature tower mounted preamps and switchable circular polarity. The package makes satellite and other contacts relatively easy.

Winter Field Day Is Go For Launch!

I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing

Aerosmith

Folks call 6m The Magic Band because one never knows when or how it will open. Many dedicated 6m operators listen every day to noise because They Don’t Want To Miss A Thing on 6m.

Jamey AC1DC led the way on our final antenna for Winter Field Day – a 3 element 6 m yagi on a 30 ft mast. This antenna can be pointed by rotating the mast at its base.

With all of the setup outside done, we put up our Nashua Area Radio Society On The Air banner and headed inside.

We Come From The Land Of The Ice And Snow From The Midnight Sun…

Lyrics from the Immigrant Song by Led Zeppelin

With most of the outside work on antennas done, we finally came inside to connect the feedlines from our antennas to the filter system and the radios. We did a careful checkout of the SWR of each antenna as we integrated it into our station.

Here’s a better view of the filter system that we used. The single feedline from the TX-38 triband yagi is fed through a triplexer which allows radios on 20m, 15m, and 10m to simultaneously use the Tribander. Each antenna path also passes through a bandpass filter to isolate the associated radio from Tx interference and overload damage from the other radios in the setup. Coaxes from each of the four radios in our setup can be connected to the filter associated with an available antenna and band. This made for easy reconfiguration of our station as the band conditions change.

With everything up and connected, we took a little time on Saturday morning to check out our station and ensure that everything was working as planned. With this done, we were ready for Winter Field Day to begin!

Eat It!

Weird Al Yankovic

With everything ready to go, we took time out to have a nice lunch and relax before operations began. Craig and others took the time to pick up food for the feast and he and others cooked us hot meals throughout the setup and operating period. THANK YOU CRAIG!

Morse Code Of Love

The Capris

We went on the air at 2 pm sharp on Saturday.

N1FD here, we are 4O NH 4O NH, QSL?

We had a great operator team on station throughout the 24-hour Winter Field Day period.

Abby AB1BY and Jamey AC1DC started out on 40m SSB and they were the early QSO leaders!

Dave K3MT and Bill AB1AV stated out on 20m CW and produced an amazing string of CW contacts from the very start of operations.

What? Dennis K1LGQ on 80m SSB Phone? Yes, it is true. The amplifier at his home QTH has made him a different Ham… After a  run on 80m SSB, Dennis changed over to 160m CW and quickly discovered just how well our 160m Tx and Rx antenna systems performed. He was producing a nice rate of QSOs on 160m from about 4 pm well into the early evening.

The first order of business for me was to secure our satellite bonus. The needed satellite contact was completed about 15 mins into the operating period. With this done, I began working the high bands, 6m, 2m, and 70cm in search of contacts and multipliers.

We had a mix of propane and kerosene heaters in our makeshift shack and these were popular spots for visitors and those looking on.

Sleeping To Dream

Jason Mraz

Jerry set up great accommodations for sleeping and relaxing and these made the night shift much more bearable for our operators.

Hello Darkness My Old Friend, I’ve Come To Talk With You Again

Lyrics from The Sounds Of Silence by Simon and Garfunkle

I have the highest respect for the folks who hang in all night at Field Day and during contests. This is tough work and it really shows the dedication of those who do it.

Here’s one of our overnight operator teams. They kept our station going all through the night on Saturday.

These are the most interesting Hams in Amateur Radio…

These folks were also very, very N1FD – Number 1 Frozen to Death…

Operations continued right up until 2 pm on Sunday. We had some excitement with our logs and some other minor glitches but overall the operation went very smoothly and our equipment performed great.

It’s All Over Now…

The Rolling Stones

So how did we do? Extremely well I think. All of the hard work to build a great station and operate it very hard is evident in our Winter Feild Day results.

Some highlights include:

• We made a total of 1,146 contacts during the 24-hour operating period
• We worked 48 of the 50 US States
• We worked all but 6 ARRL sections in the US and Canada
• We worked 14 Countries
• We had an amazing 329 CW, 756 Phone, and 61 Digital Contacts!
• We turned in a solid performance with 15 multipliers
• Our 160m portable antenna system worked amazingly well. We made 134 contacts on 160m using just 100W including one to Missoula, MT – a 2,100 mi contact.

Our final claimed score (after removing duplicates) was:

• Total QSO Points – 1,484
• Power Multiplier (100W or less) – 2
• Band-Mode Multiplier – 15
• Score from QSOs – 44,520
• Outdoor Bonus – 1,500
• No Commercial Power Bonus – 1,500
• Definitely Not At Home Location Bonus – 1,500
• Satellite Contact Bonus – 1,500

Final Claimed Score – 50,520

Our top operators included:

Operator	Call Sign	QSOs	% of Total QSOs
Jamey Finchum	AC1DC	214	19
Dave Pascoe	KM3T	198	17
Dave Merchant	K1DLM	118	10
Bill Noyce	AB1AV	116	10
Fred Kemmerer	AB1OC	111	10
Abby Finchum	AB1BY	100	9
Other Operators Combined	---	857	25

Here’s a breakdown of our contacts by Band and Mode:

Band	Phone	CW	Digital	Total	% of Total QSOs
160m	1	133		134	12
80m	219	3	24	246	21
40m	251	95	26	372	32
20m	279	97	11	387	34
15m	2			2	<1
6m	1			1	<1
2m	2	1		3	<1
Satellite	1			1	<1
Totals	756	329	61	1,146	100

Bye Bye Love

The Everly Brothers

With the operating period over, we began the process of taking all of our equipment down and packing it up. This is always a sad time for me as I know that we’ll have to wait several months before the fun begins again.

I went back to the park on Monday after Winter Field Day to take one last look around. As is always the case, it is as if we were never there.

It is a great testament to the skill and ingenuity of Amateur Radio operators in general and NARS members in particular that we are capable of pulling off a major emergency communications setup, test, and takedown such as we did this past weekend.

Thank you to everyone who contributed to a fine job well done and to the many, many special memories that we shared. And a special thanks to Charlie W1CBD whose amazing photography made this article possible.

Fred, AB1OC