Well I guess I did Field Day after all
This year was a rollercoaster for trying to decide what to do for Winter Field Day. Originally I wasn't going to do anything. Maybe a POTA or SOTA activation. Then after talking to some friends, I was going to put together a winter camping out, focusing on the camping with a little radio mixed in. Then a smaller group. Then back down to nothing pretty much nothing. Long range weather forecasts with sub-zero temps will do that.
For a while I thought maybe I should just stay inside the house. But where's the fun with that? I decided to just go out for a POTA activation or two and call it good.
Saturday POTA from the fishing shack
So Saturday morning I put the portable ice fishing shelter in the truck, along with two portable radios. The Yaesu FT-818 and the Yaesu FT-891. Plan was to start the day off on QRP and going until the batteries were drained, or the WFD stations blew me out of the water. Well, that was the plan.
What happened was I called CQ on 15 meters for a few minutes and decided to bring out the bigger gun. Which I'm glad I did, for I was able to get some DX on 15 meters. It will always be fun for me to get a QSO from Europe when I'm in the field (or woods) with 100 watts and a wire.
Good time for testing things out
With temps hovering around 0 degrees Fahrenheit, it was a good time to give a new coat I picked up for volunteering at an upcoming cross country ski race a good test run. Plus more time with the portable shelter and kit for it.
When I get new gear, I like to get it a good test run close to home before I take it out for an event or camping trip many hours from home.
Amsterdam Sloughs Wildlife Area
Amsterdam Sloughs is a 5,000+ acre wildlife area near me that the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) started acquiring and managing in 1956.
I mix of wetland, woods and prairie; Amsterdam Sloughs is the kind of POTA park I like the best. In the summer months, there is plenty of room to go explore and setup a backpack portable station.
With about 2 feet of snow on the ground and sub zero temps, I decided to setup a tent in a parking lot to play radio with the added comfort of propane heat.
With that said, I do need to spend more time in this POTA park next summer.
Broke stuff
Not everything faired well on this outing. A new camping table I picked up to use with the portable shelter broke while I was setting it up. I was locking the folding top on to the frame when one of the plastic hinge points snapped. Thinking it was just too cold for its intended use.
Also when I was calling CQ on 15 meters, the radio turned off and on a time or two. I thought the battery was dying on me, so I when QRT. I made sure to top the battery off the night before, but figured it must be the cold.
On further inspection, I have a faulty Power Pole connection. Add that to my list of things to fix / remake / improve / put together.
I that point I decided to call it a day. I could have grabbed another power cable, or gone back to using the FT-818. But I did have things to do back home.
Livestream
However before I left, I did have a YouTube thing I wanted to try out. I was getting an okay cell signal from my location, so I decided to do a quick livestream on YouTube. To my surprise I could stream with the connection I had.
Even more to my surprise, people started to watch it!
When things are more hospitable outside here in Wisconsin, I may start live streaming parts of activations just for the fun of it. May be fun for some to see one going on first hand and in real time.
2nd half of Winter Field Day... more to come.
As I type this, I'm warming up from the Sunday adventure for winter field day. This will be on a separate blog post I hope to get out later in the week.
This time it was a group activation with Steve WM9G (Temporarily Offline) from my truck at Straight Lake State Park, near Luck, Wisconsin.
Spoiler Alert: we had fun.
Pictures from the day
Below are some pictures, etc. from the activation. Thanks for checking this blog out.
