K1WAS Winter Field Day 2025

The Westport Astronomical Society’s amateur radio station K1WAS crackles back to life for this years Winter Field Day.

The goal of the Winter Field Day Association is to help amateur radio operators improve their preparedness for disasters and enhance their operational abilities. The winter months present unique challenges for operating, including shorter days, the potential for freezing temperatures, snow, ice, and other hazards.

Our annual Winter Field Day Exercise is not a contest but a practical field exercise designed to push your emergency preparedness skills to the limit and test your capabilities in diverse and demanding conditions. By setting up a station away from the comforts of home, you can significantly enhance your readiness for disasters and improve your operating skills in challenging environments.

However, we like comfort and will be warm and comfy in the WAS Ham Shack aka the WAS Classroom if you’d like to join us! There’s always lots of food and a lot of laughs and everyone with or without a ham radio license is welcome to attend!

We will try to operate 3 stations. The event covers CW, Phone and Digital on the 160-10m HF bands as well as some VHF/UHF satellite comms.

Again, everyone is welcome to attend, but if you would like to operate, we ask that you fill out THIS FORM to reserve your time slot. If there’s a conflict we’ll sort it out onsite, so please sign up.

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Objective: WFD is a multi-objective event. The primary objective is to set up an amateur radio field station and successfully make multiple contacts. Successful participants are those who can set up their equipment and correctly log the designated exchange during the operational period explained below. All participants are encouraged to complete as many additional objectives as possible. After the event, submit a log of stations worked and any additional documentation.

Eligibility: All licensed amateur radio operators are encouraged to participate in the emergency communications exercise known as Winter Field Day.

Operational Period: Winter Field Day is held the last full weekend in January. For 2025, it will be held on January 25th and 26th. The 30-hour operational period starts at 1600 UTC on Saturday (11 am EST), the 25th, and ends at 21:59 UTC on Sunday, the 26^th (4:59 pm EST). Stations may begin setting up no earlier than 1600 UTC (11 am EST) on the Friday before. However, cumulative set-up time shall not exceed 12 hours.

Exchange: The designated Winter Field Day exchange includes your call sign, a category number, a class identifier, and a location identifier.