#155 - Winter Field Day 2022 is Right Around the Corner
The amateur radio Winter Field Day 2022 will be upon us before we know it. This year the contest will run from 1900 UTC Saturday January 29th until 1900 UTC Sunday January 30th. That's 24 hours to make as many contacts as possible around the world.
We will be setting everything up on Friday the 28th in preparation for the contest. We have 12 hours to get everything set up and we cant start setting anything up until 1900 UTC on Friday. So, anything that we do not get set up within the 12 hour time limit can not be used for the contest.
Winter Field Day, like the normal ARRL Field Day in June of each year emphasize portable radio communications as practice for emergency and disaster operations when electricity, the internet, and other normal utilities and infrastructure are not available. It is a great time for people to get out of their radio shacks and practice setting up their radios out in a park or other outdoor location and operate off battery, solar, and wind power.
I have a couple other ham radio operators that are going to join me this year to see how many contacts we can make during the contest. We will all be operating as "Outdoor" stations meaning we will be away from our homes in a park using battery, solar, and wind power. Unfortunately we will all be working independently this time using our own callsigns, but we have decided to apply for a Club Callsign that we can all operate under for the ARRL Field Day contest in June. Then we will have each operator working a different band or mode, and all the contacts add up together for the contest stats.
It should be an enjoyable, and challenging weekend. I will be sure to post some photos and an update after the contest.
