Winter Field Day 2024

Winter Field Day - Downsview Park January 27th

Thanks for attending the Skywide Winter Field Day 2024 activation! Results to follow soon!

Skywide WFD 2024 Operation Plan & Guide

Onsite Hours – 10:30 to 20:00 EDT

Setup – 10:30 to 13:00

Operational Planning – 13:15 to 13:45

WFD Operations – 14:00 to 19:00

Strike – 18:30 to 20:00

Vehicle Unloading Location:

John Drury Dr & Canuck Ave

43.746001681081886, -79.48165771198103

https://maps.app.goo.gl/JCkc1sUj5qw1rQ639

Vehicle Parking & Washroom/Restroom Location:

70 Canuck Ave, North York, ON M3K 2C5

43.74418857061082, -79.48364793359278

https://maps.app.goo.gl/g5sn2NNAqppwdf3m7

Field Day Operating Location:

Festival Terrace

43.74539115425206, -79.48128648834667

https://maps.app.goo.gl/a7ZJGrvnfxfUMcmM9

Onsite communications:

VE3SKY Repeater – 146.985 (103.5T) -0.6 MHz

UHF Simplex – 446.200 no tone

General Operation

VE3SKY 4-Oscar Golf-Hotel

Operator position 1: G5RV inverted Vee (80/40M station) – FT991A with laptop

Operator position 2: 285CM Vertical Manpack (20/15M) – FT891 with laptop

Operator Position 3: J-Pole on mast (VHF/UHF) – FTM400 with laptop

Operator Position 4: Mag Loop (10M) – IC705 with iPad

Operator Position 5: QRP Longwire – FT818 – Band TBA

Other Operations – 1A) Satellite on beam 1B) V/U SSB 1C) 6M FM/SSB 2A) Winlink message/traffic 3A) Microwave 4A) 160M

Only one operator can work on a band at a time. Operation must be coordinated with the band captains.

60, 30, 17, 12 are not accepted WFD bands so we will not be making contacts on those bands.

Club Services @ WFD

The club will be providing a covered 20×10 enclosure with propane heaters, table space and a very limited number of chairs. Generator power will be available later in the day for continued operations, battery charging, etc. The club will be providing light for the tent space and logging equipment the club operated radios.

There will be water, coffee, tea and a sandwich platter provided by the club courtesy of the president and his wonderful monetary donation.

Bringing Your Own Equipment:

Antennas

If you bring your own antenna equipment you are responsible for that equipment. Please ensure that you have flagging tape or visible guy wires, safety pylons, a masting system and sand bags for the mast system.

Radios

Those who wish to operate their own equipment will be organized by the band captain(s). For the start of the event, all operations will be battery power derivative and then we will switch to generator power later in the day. Please have a power source if you intend to operate before the generator is active.

Logging

All logging must be digital – please bring a battery powered device (laptop, tablet, etc) to log contacts made with your own equipment.Please bring any chargers to recharge these devices later in the day. The logging software must be capable of accepting the new WFD ARRL/RAC Sections and Station Classes.

Food

You are welcome to bring your own meal(s) and/or non-alcoholic drinks.

Chairs & Tables

The club will be providing two large working areas for operations, food and other necessary equipment. The club requires members to bring their own chairs as there is a limited number available and any participants operating their own equipment requiring additional space will be required to bring their own tables / workspaces.

Tents/Structures/Blinds/Enclosures

Members are encouraged to bring their own enclosures for individual operations. Please remember to bring your own sandbags to secure these structures.

WX Forecast & Appropriate Clothing

Morning +3C – light drizzle – little to no wind

Afternoon +6C – overcast – wind <5 kph

Evening 4C – overcast – no wind

Ground conditions at the site will be a mix of grass, gravel and pavement with ponding present. Snow cover 0%.

Recommended Clothing

Multiple warm layers with a waterproof outer layer, waterproof thermally insulated shoes/boots & one or two pairs of winter gloves. Heating pads/warmers for feet, hands and torso are also a good idea.

Hope to see everyone there!

The club will be hosting another exciting winter field day this year. We have secured Downsview Park thanks largely to Jordan Wosnick VA3SQZ for putting the club in touch with the park administrators.

The club will be utilizing the space near the Festival Terrace – 43.74422511069161, -79.485062638818 https://maps.app.goo.gl/5dF8EyZoDEgcniKG8 for the winter field day event. Warm washrooms are located nearby and there is ample parking and excellent accessibility to transit. Please see the map below.

Given the nature of the event, we are also welcoming club members who would like to operate from their vehicles in the parking lot beside our tents or perhaps farther away but within the park to lessen QSB.

Like last year the majority of WFD will be limited to Saturday January 27th and we would like to setup around 10:30AM and operate from the start of the event 19:00 UTC (2PM) to 00:00UTC (7PM).

We are looking for volunteers to:

1) Coordinate the WFD Club Operations (Band Captains)

2) Collect logs and submit the data to the WFDA (Winter Field Day Association)

3) Physically help with setup and teardown

*** RULES FOR 2024****

Bands: All Amateur bands may be used except 12, 17, 30, and 60 meters. To qualify as a band worked, at least 1 valid, two-way QSO must have taken place on the said band during the contest.

Modes: All modes, CW, Phone, and Digital, may be used. CW and Phone include SSB, AM, FM, DMR, C4FM, etc. If the end result is voice, it’s Phone. Digital includes PSK, RTTY, Olivia, Packet, SSTV, ATV, JS8Call, and other soundcard modes except for FT4 & FT8. If the end result is text or a picture, it’s digital.

QSO Points: Phone contacts count as one point each, and all CW and digital modes count as 2 points each. Logging incorrect data will be penalized by two points for each missed exchange or call sign. Duplicate contacts (same call, band, and mode) will not be counted nor penalized.

Point Multipliers:

The total number of points will be multiplied by two numbers. The first number is the Power Output Multiplier of 1 or 2 and the second number will be the Band / Mode Multiplier.

Power Output Multipliers: QRP stations are defined by transmitting less than 5 watts on CW or 10 watts on phone and will get a multiplier of 2. All other stations have a multiplier of 1. The maximum permitted power is 100 watts measured from the output of the final amplifier.

Band / Mode Multipliers: Each mode worked on each band counts as 1 multiplier. If you worked both CW and Phone on 20 & 40 meters, your total multiplier would be 4. If you operated CW and Phone on 80, 40, 15, and 10 meters, CW and PSK31 on 20m, FM on 2 meters & 440 you would have a total multiplier of 12x.

Calculating Points: Scores are based on the total number of QSO points x Power Output Multiplier x Band / Mode Multiplier.

More details at the WFD Website:

https://winterfieldday.org/sop.php

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Visit our social media sites for entertaining videos and more

Archived 2023 Activation Below

Saturday January 28th - Activation from 2PM to 7PM EDT

WINTER FIELD DAY ACTIVATION COUNTDOWN

Days

Hours

Minutes

Seconds

The club is providing two large tent canopies, tables, radios, heaters, generators, coffee, tea and drinks. Other members and guests who are attending have also committed to provide heated enclosures.

Food is TBD (update coming soon).

Arrival / Setup / Timeline Details Below:

Planning for a 10:30AM arrival / setup.

For those attending, the VE3SKY repeater will be linked via a cross-band repeater at the Field Day site to 446.200 MHz (no tone/ no offset / simplex). This will allow those with hand held radios to communicate with each other in the park and with those on the repeater simultaneously and vice-versa.

Club members can work together to log contacts using N3FJP which will be running on different computers. At the end of the operating day the logs will be combined into a master AIDF log and sent in.

All members are encouraged to take part in planning discussions on the Groups.io mail-server.

Club members and friends of the club ARE NOT required to:

– contribute anything physically or monetarily
– possess an amateur radio license

– possess a radio of any type

– stay for the entire event

– possess an experience on HF, VHF or UHF

All we ask is that club members are willing to attend and take part in the event. Without club participation, there is no Winter Field Day.

Club members can share their photos in the member zone.

Google map below – use it to view satellite imagery

Toronto Weather Forecast

Additional Resources

Fore contest details please visit:

https://winterfieldday.com/

PDF Rules Document

POTA Rules:

https://docs.pota.app/

Official Winter Field Day Spotting:

https://winterfieldday.org/spotting.php

POTA Spotting:

https://pota.app/#/

Sky Gazing After Dark!

Winter Field Day 2023 - A Monumental Success

The club had an excellent turnout for Winter Field Day with over 20 members and guests showing up throughout the day for both POTA and Winter Field Day activities.

Jason VE3PLJ as well as Tim VA3TMA were able to work a distant island station in Northern Scotland on 10 meters while Ian VE3INP worked numerous station on the VHF and UHF bands from an Arrow J-Pole extended some 10 meters into the air.

The club had 5 guests visit, one a local ham from South Etobicoke and four of whom were from New York State. The group used Ian’s Arrow Branded 2M beam to connect with Yuri VA3GKX in Richmond Hill from their 5 Watt Baofengs.

John VE3IPS singlehandedly had over 100 contacts with the club working around 150 or more stations. and two of our newest members, VA3SNM Matt and VA3SQZ Jordan were able to try their hand at HF and make some contacts during the POTA portion of the event.

Club president Tom Stefanac VA3VWX would like to thank all those who attended especially the committee members who dedicated their time to organize, log and in the end produce what could only be described as a amateur radio event in the purest form where education, community and teamwork all played a role and accentuated the true spirit of amateur radio.

List of attendees, guests and visitors

VA3CRL	VA3SNM	VE3INP
VA3GDZ	VA3SQZ	VE3IPS
VA3KCP	VA3TMA	VE3TGL
VA3KEX	VA3VWX	KE2ABY
VA3MA	VA3WJO	Ariana & her friends
VA3PLJ	VE3AXW	Scout Leader Steve
VA3RSX	VE3FAB	Three Scouts

WFD Photos Gallery

Share this event on your social by clicking the link below

Visit our social media sites for entertaining videos and more

Archived winter field day activation details below

Saturday January 28th - Activation from 8AM to 8PM EDT

WINTER FIELD DAY ACTIVATION COUNTDOWN

Days

Hours

Minutes

Seconds

The Skywide ARC has selected Colonel Samuel Smith Park as an accepted POTA site using either the park POTA ID or the Waterfront Trail ID. This location is both accessible in the winter and offers excellent parking. The club has secured the necessary permits from the City of Toronto.

Food is TBD (update coming soon).

Arrival / Setup / Timeline Details Below:

Club members and friends of club can arrive as early as 7:45AM for initial setup. Setup will require some physical labour to erect and enclose the canopies, move sandbags, generators, fuel and tables. Those arriving for early setup can park here – in the Humber staff lot temporarily before proceeding to the meeting point @ 43.594581, -79.514902 located on the gravel path.

The club plans to run POTA from 9AM January 28th until 2PM and will begin field day operations from 3PM until 7PM.

John VE3IPS and Ron VA3RSX will serve as our club band captains and help organize participants into different teams on different bands under the VE3SKY club callsign.

Club members can work together to log contacts using N3FJP which will be running on different computers. At the end of the operating day the logs will be combined into a master AIDF log and sent in.

All members are encouraged to take part in planning discussions on the Groups.io mail-server.

Club members and friends of the club ARE NOT required to:

– contribute anything physically or monetarily
– possess an amateur radio license

– possess a radio of any type

– stay for the entire event

– possess an experience on HF, VHF or UHF

All we ask is that club members are willing to attend and take part in the event. Without club participation, there is no Winter Field Day.

Poll / survey results are at the bottom of the page.

Club members can share their photos in the member zone.

Overview map showing the field day setup.

Meeting Point is 43.594580951654784, -79.514901638065

What3Words: carver.success.royal

Red Zone is where the tents & field day operations will occur.
Purple is the location of nearby washrooms.
Yellow is public parking.

The green path is a footpath connecting all the sites.

Google map below – use it to view satellite imagery

Toronto Weather Forecast

Additional Resources

Fore contest details please visit:

https://winterfieldday.com/

PDF Rules Document

POTA Rules:

https://docs.pota.app/

Official Winter Field Day Spotting:

https://winterfieldday.org/spotting.php

POTA Spotting:

https://pota.app/#/

Sky Gazing After Dark!

Get ready! 🔭

As the sun sets on Winter Field Day, weather permitting, members are encouraged to turn their eyes towards Polaris to see comet C/2022 E3 ZTE.

Several club members have confirmed that they will bring telescopes and optics to observe this comet.

From NASA:

Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) was discovered by astronomers using the wide-field survey camera at the Zwicky Transient Facility this year in early March. Since then the new long-period comet has brightened substantially and is now sweeping across the northern constellation Corona Borealis in predawn skies.

It’s still too dim to see without a telescope though. But this fine telescopic image from December 19 does show the comet’s brighter greenish coma, short broad dust tail, and long faint ion tail stretching across a 2.5 degree wide field-of-view.

In a voyage through the inner Solar System comet 2022 E3 will be at perihelion, its closest to the Sun, in the new year on January 12 and at perigee, its closest to our fair planet, on February 1. The brightness of comets is notoriously unpredictable, but by then C/2022 E3 (ZTF) could become visible to the eye in dark night skies.

Photos While Scouting

Poll Results / Data

Click here for the poll / attendance roster