We had a good time at Winter Field Day this year and ended up with 4,248 points submitted.

We had contacts in 42 states, 5 Canadian sections, 3 Hawaiian stations, clearly heard a POTA station in New Zealand work a Hawaiian while we were in the pile up. Worked 2 SA and 1 European with ease.

We got 500 bonus each for non-commercial power, being away from home, and using antennas specifically set up for WFD.

We had a slight change in operating location from the last two years. We moved from the firing range parking lot to the pavilion, which gave us an outdoor work area sheltered from the rain that has visited us all three years. The shelter was nice for protecting the generator and let us wrap up coax/antennas in a nice dry location.

Entry Class: We were setup to operate two stations simultaneously, therefore our entry class was “2”

Entry Category: We used the trailer that has been under renovation for the last year or so and found the improvements to be very nice. Since this is a “potentially mobile” structure (i.e., cargo trailer), this put us in the “M” category.

We ran the radios on battery power for the entire event (we did not use the generator at all). We did have commercial power for the logging laptops, a heater and one overhead light, but for the most part the large batteries in the trailer and the 200 Watt solar panel on the roof carried the load. We did exercise the generator before and after the event (it’s always good to run them periodically).

The Yaesu FT-991A worked fabulously.

We used two antennas derived from the Chameleon antenna kit that we have – we did supplement it with a couple of components from my Chameleon antenna system. One antenna was setup as an inverted V – this was the antenna that we used for digital communications (exclusively JS8Call this year). Another was vertical attached to the corner of the trailer – this was used for most of the voice contacts. Both antennas worked well for us and let us cover bands from 80 to 10 meters.

We used the FTM-300 and the antenna on the roof of the trailer to chat with some of the SMARC/ARES members and found that radio worked well.

In addition to the BEARS equipment in the trailer, my Icom IC-7100 (https://bcares.teamapp.com/clubs/465784/articles/5250859-winter-field-day-digital-station-setup?detail=v1&_expiresat=1677628799) was used for digital contacts.

Contest: WFD
Call Sign: WB4ARS
Category: 2M
Location: TN
Power: LOW
Band: ALL
POTA: No
Non-Comm Pwr: Yes
Op Outdoors: No
Not at Home: Yes
Temp Ants: Yes
Sat QSO: No
Mobile Op: No
QSOs in Log: 201