From W7DTG
1/27/2008 2:41:03 PM (0 comments) 
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Well, the weekend event is now over with, and we have a total of 80 contacts under our belt for the whole weekend. Apparently it isn't as popular a contest as we had hoped, since a good number of the contacts had no idea why we were sending "winter field day". After spending several minutes explaining to them what we were doing, they would move on. Guess no one likes to test there equipment in harsh weather. maybe it just isn't a big enough event for people to be interested. In any case, I considered it a success, even with all the problems we encountered.
The first big hurdle, was getting the shed cleaned out to setup as a shack, and we had a great time pooling together, and getting all the wood moved out of there. even the kids pitched in to help. they had a great time pulling the wagon loads of wood to the tool shed out back. Next was erecting antenna's. which proved to be a challenge as well. I had the Hygain 12AVQ for 10-15-20M, but nothing for the lower bands. After spending several hours looking for the 40M dipole I had made a few months ago, I finally broke down and cut a dipole using the 468/ freq = antenna length, and left it at that. The other problem was keeping the shed warm enough, since it was the coldest weekend of the year, with temperatures down in the low teens at some points, and snow flurries coming down. We insulated the shack with plastic, and caulked all the cracks to keep it as warm as possible, but it still was very cold in there, and the condensation soaked our radios the next morning. nice surprise to wake up to and find everything soaking wet.
i still consider it a success though, since we were able to take the cold, improvise and still get on the air. In an emergency situation, we would be running the generator. we didn't run it this year because of the noise levels that it makes. Very loud, and the mother in law, as well as the neighbors, would probably complain a bit.
I still need to set up some sort of battery that we can hook our radio's to, and then run a charger off the generator, so we aren't running it the whole time we are operating. I never did get to that.
I had also been hoping that our friend john, who took his test last weekend, would be able to participate, but his license hadn't been issued yet. He is really anxious to get on the air, and work some HF. We also had jeff, one of the twins, come out and hang with me and jody for a few hours. we even let him call CQ winter field day on the radio for a bit. he had a good time. KC9HNL came out for a bt and made a contact on 40m voice also. Becky never got a chance to come out during the contest, so she is still waiting for he first HF DX contact.
Next year we will be better prepared. we had only a week to setup for this one, while at the same time running the household and taking care of our responsibilities.
here's to next year, hope to see you on te air.....
