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All,
It is not too early to start the discussion about Winter Field Day 2025. The dates are January 25-26, 2025. Please mark your calendar now.
There are restrictions on making reservations, which I will outline below, but in case anyone is interested here is the link to the available information about Cooper Lake State Park and here is a link to the map of the area. Make sure and remember it is the Doctors Creek Unit. For orientation here are a couple of map images:
Winter Field Day had the Penry’s reserving cabin #4 this year and Mark Johnson had his RV in spot #36. For 2025 they plan to reserve the same and I will reserve #37 or 38 and hope to get Cliff into the other one. You will all be welcome to come and visit us and if you want to review options to stay in a cabin or take a camper/RV please orientate yourself with the maps depicted above or by using the one you can download at the link above.
I called and spoke to Mindy at Cooper Lake State Park this morning (03/05/2024) and she confirmed for me:
- We can only make individual reservations five months out, so if you are interested mark your calendar to start trying to make the reservation (512-389-8900) beginning on Monday, August 26, 2024.
- BONUS PLAY: If we can get more than five reservations going we can reserve up to 18 months in advance, so right now. If we can get six or more people signed up to make the reservation then we can call for a group reservation (512-389-8920). If you want to sign up to do this please email me and I will help set it up.
Everyone that went to WFD 2024 had a good time. Honestly, I thought it was way more cool (pun not intended) than the Summer Field Day so I am excited to take the RV to Cooper Lake State Park next January and have a blast with the group.
Phillip
Follow Up:
In January this year, when we tried reserving the call sign W5W for WFD 2025, we found the organizers website http://www.1x1callsigns.org/ only ran years out to 2024. We wrote and asked them to reserve the call sign for us and advised of the problem with their website. Zero feedback from anyone was the result.
Today, over a month later with no reply and no reservation, I wrote a harsh email to the ARRL VEC telling them to get it fixed and to get our reservation done. I copied the world, including all the other VECs that use that site to reserve 1×1 calls and got a very nice reply from Allan Batteiger (WB5QNG) with W5YI-VEC in Plano. They are one of the organizations that I copied. He explained that when I originally wrote and highlighted the problem they tried to fix it, but the website was designed by some long-gone outfit and no matter what they tried they could not get it resolved. The whole site will have to be rewritten. None of that explains why nobody could bother to reply to my January email and/or get us manually reserved, but I do appreciate the explanation. And Allan did get us manually registered:
Nutty stuff… I was trying to reserve it for the Club (WB5RDD), but they did it with my call. I have followed up and will see if they can modify it. I made several suggestions for how to improve their site and do not know if they will be implemented or not, but we now have what we need. Hopefully when it is time to register for Summer Field Day 2025 they will have it fixed. If not, I at least now have a resource that can do it for us manually.
Phillip
Reservations are now open for the Doctor’s Creek campground for January 24, 25 and 26th. You really need all three nights or you will have to leave on Sunday before WFD ends. You don’t have to stay Friday night but we like to already be there Saturday mornings to set up.
I strongly urge you to refrain from procrastinating if you are going to camp or reserve the other cabin.
WA5VHU
So, WFD folks, due to the requirements of the mode being able to convey a reasonable length message, FT8 and FT4 modes are not allowed for WFD. Most all other digital modes are and it looks like some of the modes being used are JS8, PSK31, RTTY and perhaps few others.
RTTY seems to be the fastest as it is used more often for contesting. Anyone here have much experience with these? I have only played with FT8 and FT4 so far.
WA5VHU
I use Ham Radio Deluxe for psk31. I have not had any luck getting RTTY to work with my setup. I did however discover I have been using a wrong setup, and I hope to test it out this week. If I get it going, I’ll get you an update.
Cindy and I will be in Cabin 4 and will run only one HF station. I don’t plan on running a VHF/UHF station although I will have a 2m/70cm base station radio with an outside antenna on a stick. I will normally monitor 76 and NCTC but could make some FM simplex contacts for WFD.
We will use the same HF antenna setup as last year, an end fed wire antenna going from a big dead tree just behind our cabin over to the kids slide in the playground area, see the attached photo.
As we may be getting more stations out there we might want to pay attention to how close we get to each others antennas. Even though we will be using the band filters it will be best if we don’t get our antennas too close to each other.
If you know where you are going to put your antennas let me know and I can update the picture.
You can usually go into the campground for free to just look around or after the office closes when there is no one there so you might want to check out your site before WFD.
WA5VHU
All,
As of mid-day on 08/26/2024 the following have been reserved for Winter Field Day at Cooper Lake State Park – Doctors Creek Unit:
Cabin #4 – Penry
Camping/RV #36 – Johnson
Camping/RV #37 – Beall
Screened Shelter #6 – LeathIf anyone else is interested there is another cabin (#2) right there in the midst of us, as well as Camping/RV spots directly across the street (5, 6 and 7) from Mark and I. Here is a map showing the spots:
As you can see, there are a lot of other spots too. The scale is hard to visualize, but it is a very short walk to any of those spots. The bathroom facility that you see just north of spot #36; that thing is split, ladies on one side and men on the other; heated, well lighted, hot showers and just a very nice setup. #38 is not available because it is reserved for them to move someone to if there is a problem with another location.
If you want to call and speak to a live person to make reservations, the number is 512-389-8900. You will be making reservations for Cooper Lake State Park – Doctors Creek Unit. You can also do it online at this link (click here).
The rate is $60 per night for a cabin, $25 per night for the Screened Shelter and $35 for a Camping/RV spot. There are some rules, for the Camping/RV spots – 8 people, four vehicles, tents are OK, pets are OK and it comes with a fire ring and table. You may not pick up wood to burn. They have firewood and ice at the unit store. Check in time is 1400 and check out time is 1200 (noon).
Maneuvering an RV in and out of a spot is more than a pain…so I made a reservation for Friday check in and Monday check out. Winter Field Day is 1300 Saturday to 1300 Sunday. I will probably get there Friday afternoon for an early setup and then Sunday; maybe I leave after we get the Penry’s loaded and maybe I stay the night and get started in the daylight on Monday. That one I will play by ear.
Here is a link to a PDF map of the entire area with a legend explaining the symbols (click here).
73
Phillip Beall (W5EBC)
I am not sure which antenna I will use at WFD. I’m sure I’ll break or buy a couple between now and then. Unless I come up with some goofy of the wall scheme, my antennas will be from the trail behind to the front of spot 36.
The Winter Field Day 2025 rules are published http://winterfieldday.org/sop.php The operating times have changed for 2025, as well as a few other minor details.
As we have bought a super massively tiny little camper, we cancelled our reservation for Cabin 4 and instead will be operating out of our camper in camping spot number 4. See the map for the location of RV spot 4. We intend to use our long end-fed wire from our camping spot to trees back behind our spot, which is to the north. This should be in a direction away from the other antennas.
So, Cabin 4 may be available to rent!
Let’s hope the weather is nice…
Charles WA5VHU
“Alternative Power”?
Notable changes for Winter Field Day 2025
· Event times have changed, and the event has been extended beyond 24 hours.
· Locations do not have to remain fixed during the entire event.
· Objectives (previously called bonuses) are now multipliers.
· Several objectives have been added.
The 2025 rules say:
Operate 100% on alternative power: Operate exclusively on alternative power, defined as any power source not connected to the commercial power grid. You may use generators, batteries, solar power, wind power, or anything else. All batteries, whether in use or charging, should only be recharged using alternative power. WFD stations should run all station equipment, accessories, or heaters from an alternate power source. Logging-only computers or lights are the exception, and they may be connected to the power grid or any power source available. If you use a laptop for digital modes, it should not be connected to the power grid but also be plugged into an alternative power source. OM x1
So, according to this, there are no bonus points for operating on alternative power as the multiplier is one, which is no increase in points.
Because of this lack of bonus points I will not be operating from alternative power. I will use my 12 Volt 100 AH battery with its AC charger plugged into a power grid outlet like I did last year. The year before I ran my charger from my electric vehicle but as there are no bonus points for 2025 it isn’t worth the effort for me. I know that in a pinch I can operate from my vehicle’s power.
We can’t claim that we Operate 100% on alternative power unless all stations do so.
Comments?
Charles WA5VHU
My understanding of this is that all of the multipliers are added together and the sum is what you multiply by. So if we drop off alternative power our multiplier will go down by 1. Here is an example scoresheet.
If we don’t do alternative power, our multiplier would become 10. I am ok if we decide not go 100% alternative power. I will be running my station off of battery power, because that’s how I do portable. The only thing that will change for me is how I charge the laptop. I can do either battery or shore power, it doesn’t matter to me. I wish I was capable of doing the satellite contacts, but maybe later.
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