Winter Field Day 2022

Published January 30, 2022

Tags: ham-radio

In January 2022, I had the pleasure of operating in the Winter Field Day 2022 ham radio event. The event, a volunteer run spinoff of the long-running ARRL Field Day encourages operators to move their radios out in the the wider, chillier world. While the ARRL field day has an explicit emphasis on disaster preparedness and mobility, Winter Field Day is as much about having a fun contest in the middle of the colder months as it is about actual field deployment. At least, that's how it seemed to me.

That said, I'm a sucker for an excuse to get out an operate in a park. So I opted to set up in the Des Plaines State Fish and Wildlife Area, POTA park number K-4120, and snag some activation counts while also participating in Field Day.

I tried out a new antenna for this activation, incorporating a Spiderbeam 12m Fiberglass Pole, an LDG Electronics 1:1 Balun, and a bunch of 20AWG speaker wire to form a linked dipole. I made a quick 3 minute video about its construction:

All in all, over about 8 hours of total operating time, I claimed 534 QSOs on 15, 20, and 40 meters, with the vast majority being on 20m SSB. With the bonus points available from operating outdoors and with low power (less than 100W), I claimed just over 7000 points total.

Now, a couple months later, the preliminary processed results are in!

Of course, this event was much more of an excuse to try new things, to get out into the great outdoors and have a great time. That said, I love an excuse to crunch through some data. So let's see how things stacked up.

Of my 534 claimed QSOs, 28 were busted in one way or another. The breakdown is as follows:

7 not in log
17 incorrect calls
4 incorrect exchanges
0 missing exchanges
9 duplicates removed

That left me with 504 Valid QSOs and exactly 6500 Points. So how does this stack up against the rest of the field?

For points in Illinois I came in 4th, and 2nd in Illinois behind Tony KB9LLD for outdoor stations:

```
    WT2P/1H  18330 pts,   387 Qs
```
```
  KB9LLD/1O  15276 pts,   131 Qs
```
```
    K9TA/3I  10324 pts,   120 Qs
```
```
  KK9JEF/1O   6500 pts,   506 Qs
```
```
  WB9UGX/1H   4072 pts,   259 Qs
```
```
    N9WH/2H   3846 pts,   662 Qs
```
```
    W0FQ/1O   3744 pts,    90 Qs
```
```
    KQ9L/1O   3404 pts,    59 Qs
```
```
  KD9KHA/1O   2524 pts,    66 Qs
```
```
   AC9XX/1O   2347 pts,    72 Qs
```

For number of QSOs in Illinois I came in 2nd, and 1st among outdoor and 1-transmitter stations (!) :

```
    N9WH/2H   3846 pts,   662 Qs
```
```
  KK9JEF/1O   6500 pts,   506 Qs
```
```
    WT2P/1H  18330 pts,   387 Qs
```
```
  WB9UGX/1H   4072 pts,   259 Qs
```
```
     K9T/2I   1324 pts,   176 Qs
```
```
    NF9Z/1H    846 pts,   142 Qs
```
```
  KB9LLD/1O  15276 pts,   131 Qs
```
```
    K9TA/3I  10324 pts,   120 Qs
```
```
    N9HQ/1H    864 pts,   110 Qs
```
```
   N9BBE/1H   2000 pts,    94 Qs
```

For points in all regions I came in 140th:

```
   1      W6ZE/6O  96720 pts,  1630 Qs
```
```
   2     N5AEX/5I  54208 pts,  1654 Qs
```
```
   3     W8MAI/7H  39204 pts,   578 Qs
```
```
                 ...
```
```
 138     W4KLY/1H   6552 pts,   413 Qs
```
```
 139     K0IIT/1O   6504 pts,   749 Qs
```
```
 140    KK9JEF/1O   6500 pts,   506 Qs
```
```
 141     W8EHH/4I   6484 pts,   357 Qs
```
```
 142     KE8PX/1H   6480 pts,   198 Qs
```

For number of QSOs in all regions I came in 59th:

```
   1     N5AEX/5I  54208 pts,  1654 Qs
```
```
   2      W6ZE/6O  96720 pts,  1630 Qs
```
```
   3     WR4MG/5O  28860 pts,  1271 Qs
```
```
                 ...
```
```
  57    VE3GJP/1H   3066 pts,   513 Qs
```
```
  58    VE2CRO/2I  26058 pts,   512 Qs
```
```
  59    KK9JEF/1O   6500 pts,   506 Qs
```
```
  60     K0TSA/1I   5064 pts,   505 Qs
```
```
  61     N9DPP/2H   2946 pts,   503 Qs
```

For number of QSOs for 1-Outdoor stations I came in 7th:

```
   1     K0IIT/1O   6504 pts,   749 Qs
```
```
   2     W4GSO/1O   5856 pts,   729 Qs
```
```
   3       W0F/1O  12860 pts,   682 Qs
```
```
   4     KY4CW/1O  23054 pts,   548 Qs
```
```
   5      N8XC/1O   9326 pts,   533 Qs
```
```
   6     W9MPX/1O   6750 pts,   518 Qs
```
```
   7    KK9JEF/1O   6500 pts,   506 Qs
```
```
   8    VA3ACE/1O   3228 pts,   431 Qs
```
```
   9      K7SH/1O  13252 pts,   413 Qs
```
```
  10     N4LCA/1O   3334 pts,   386 Qs
```

And finally, for number of points for 1-Outdoor stations I came in 7th:

```
   1     KY4CW/1O  23054 pts,   548 Qs
```
```
   2     K5TXM/1O  22320 pts,   224 Qs
```
```
   3      KA5D/1O  18844 pts,   174 Qs
```
```
                 ...
```
```
  11     W9MPX/1O   6750 pts,   518 Qs
```
```
  12     K0IIT/1O   6504 pts,   749 Qs
```
```
  13    KK9JEF/1O   6500 pts,   506 Qs
```
```
  14     W4GSO/1O   5856 pts,   729 Qs
```
```
  15    KG5SQJ/1O   5330 pts,   382 Qs
```

And finally, for those interested in my QSO breakdown by band and successful busted, here it is:

	Band	QSOs	Qso Points	Mult
Raw	40M	200	203	2
Final	40M	188	185	2
Raw	20M	332	337	2
Final	20M	316	313	2
Raw	15M	2	2	1
Final	15M	2	2	1
Raw	All	534	542	5
Final	All	506	500	5