On the weekend of January 25-26, 2025, members of the ACARA met at the Jim Crouse Memorial Radio Station in the Athens Red Cross chapter house to participate in the annual Winter Field Day (https://www.winterfieldday.com/) event in class “1I” (one transmitter, “indoors”).
Operating under the direction of Winter Field Day Chairman Paul Schulz, WD8SCV, and using the club’s callsign, W8UKE, ACARA members operated the station around-the-clock and succeeded in making 288 QSOs using CW, SSB, FM, and JS8Call on the 160, 80, 40, 20, 15, 10 and 2 meter bands. The operators were Dave Bradley, N8DWB; Drew McDaniel, W8MHV; Andy McDonald, K8FO; Eric McFadden, WD8RIF; Paul Schulz, WD8SCV; Jeff Slattery, N8SUZ; and Len Touth, W8VQ. In addition, Ben Brewster, KF8DES, and Miles McFadden, KD8KNC, helped with station set-up and/or tear-down, and other members and guests visited to the site to observe the operation.
For radios, the team used the station’s ICOM IC-7610 transceiver for HF SSB and CW, Paul Schulz’s ICOM IC-7300 transceiver for JS8Call digital, and the station’s Alinco dual-band FM transceiver for 2 meter simplex. For antennas, the team used Paul’s BuddiHex (info) multiband hex beam; the club’s Chameleon EMCOMM-III-P 6-160m end-fed wire; and the station’s permanent Hustler 5-BTV HF vertical, 40m end-fed halfwave wire, and 2m/70cm vertical.
Here’s the breakdown of 518 QSOs by band/mode:
- 160m CW: 5 QSOs
- 80m CW: 4 QSOs
- 80m SSB: 6 QSOs
- 40m CW: 48 QSOs
- 40m SSB: 84 QSOs
- 40m JS8Call: 6
- 20m CW: 64 QSOs
- 20m SSB: 52 QSOs
- 20m JS8Call: 1 QSO
- 15m CW: 1 QSOs
- 15m SSB: 10 QSOs
- 10m CW: 1 QSO
- 10m SSB: 5 QSO
- 2m FM: 2
Here’s a breakdown of QSOs by operator and band:
As had been the case during Winter Field Day 2024, overnight CW operator Drew McDaniel really struggled to make contacts on 80m. The noise floor on that band was very high.
Sandy Shirey of the Red Cross again saw the ACARA’s participation in Winter Field Day in the chapter house as an opportunity to perform an exercise in mass-care and feeding. She and other volunteers provided the ACARA with snacks and dinner on Saturday, and cots and bedding were provided for those operators who spent the night at the chapter house. Thank you, Athens Red Cross!
For 2025, the Winter Field Day rules offered Objectives that served as score multipliers. The club achieved five of the eleven Objectives: “Operate Away from Home”, “Deploy Multiple Antennas”, “Operate on at Least Six Different Bands”, “Use Multiple Modes”, and “Operate Six Continuous Hours”. The “Copy the Winter Field Day Special Bulletin” objective was attempted, but no broadcasts were heard on any of the published frequencies or modes.
With two points awarded for each CW QSO, two points awarded for each digital QSO, one point awarded for each SSB QSO, and with an Objectives multiplier of 14, ACARA’s calculated score for the event is 5,838 points.
The operation provided good training on emergency and contest operations. The use of the BuddiHex antennas demonstrated the benefits of a directional, rotatable HF antenna. The operation also highlighted some problems including a reminder that the Jim Crouse Memorial Radio Station’s Hustler 5-BTV provides very poor SWR match on several bands; the station’s 40m end-fed halfwave antenna that should be resonant on 40, 20, 15, and 10m, provides very high SWR on all bands other than 40m; and the previously unknown fact that the Chameleon EMCOMM-III-P wire antenna is limited to 50 watts for CW and 25 watts for digital modes. (Rapidly increasing SWR was the symptom noted when the antenna was driven with 100 watts CW and digital.)
Thanks go to Paul Schulz, WD8SCV, for serving as Winter Field Day Captain and to Jeff Slattery, N8SUZ, for coordinating with the Red Cross of Southeastern Ohio; and to all the operators who made this operation a success.
Eric McFadden, WD8RIF
President, Athens County Amateur Radio Association
