January 2026 Presentation – How to Use an ICOM 7600 (WCARES Field Day tutorial)
This video was shown at the WCARES January monthly meeting. It was put together as a teaching tool for those working SSB using an Icom IC-7600 at WCARES Field Days.
WCARES Winter Field Day 2026 – CANCELED
From Trey KI4ZIN, Craig N4BAX, and Hoop K9QJS, regarding Winter Field Day
Due to the inclement weather and the potential for dangerous travel conditions, we are cancelling the WCARES in-person Winter Field Day. We will not be assembling at the Public Safety Center or at Brightstone.
We encourage all to be weather aware and to be safe.
We do encourage you to participate in Winter Field Day (WFD), from your home using your own callsign. Winter Field Day rules are here: https://winterfieldday.org/downloads/2026-rules-v3.pdf This is open to all classes of amateur radio operators, including Technician class.
If you make at least one contact during Winter Field Day, submit your properly formatted Cabrillo file to the WFD sponsors, and email your WFD submission or acknowledgement email to Trey@KI4ZIN.com , you will be entered in a WCARES drawing for a $ 25 gift certificate provided by an anonymous donor. The gift certificate will be awarded at the WCARES February 14th Monthly Meeting, and you must be present to win. Our goal is to have as many WCARES Members participate as possible.
In addiiton, if at least 25 members submit their WFD acknowledgement email submission to Trey@KI4ZIN.com , Hoop K9QJS will buy donuts for everyone that attends the February 14th Monthly Meeting. You must be present to consume your donut. Coffee will be available as well, skillfully brewed by Jeff KC1DWP.
The WFD rules (link above) shows an example Cabrillo file, which you could create using a simple text editor and cut and paste for your callsign and the callsign of the station or stations you contact. Also, many free logging programs have provisions for creating the Cabrillo file as part of their application. You are welcome to do as many contacts as you would like and to use all of the possible multipliers available to you, per the rules, in order to increase your score.
How do you participate if you are a Technician class ham, and maybe a brand new ham, and only have an HT radio? Monitor the WCARES 2 meter simplex frequency 146.505 MHz with your HT or mobile radio, and make contacts there.
What is the exchange? To the other ham you are making a contact with, provide your callsign, your “Category” and “Class”, and “TN” for Tennessee. “Category” for you likely is the number “1”. “Class” is likely “H” for “Home station”. And then record the same information from the ham you are contacting into your log. If you were to contact Hoop, for example, you might record “K9QJS 1H TN”.
Again, use your own personal callsign. Do NOT use N4FR as we usually do during all field day operations.
We look forward to Summer Field Day in June! Hope everyone can join us then!
All the best,
Trey KI4ZIN, Craig N4BAX, and Hoop K9QJS
WCARES Winter Field Day 2025 – video
January 25th-26th, 2025
David Rogers shot and edited this brief video showing activity at the recent Winter Field Day event. Thanks, David!
WCARES Winter Field Day 2025
From Paul, KM4PT
The last full weekend in January (25 & 26) is Winter Field Day.
When is it?
The event officially begins at 1600 UDT (10 am) Central time on Saturday, January 25th, 2025.
It runs for 30 hours, ending at 21:59 UDT (3:59 pm) on Sunday, January 26th, 2025.
Where is it?
WCARES will operate CW/SSB and Digital stations at Brightstone, 4184 Columbia Pike, Franklin, TN.
All Modes/ Six Bands may be operated at your own designated location or QTH.
We have the opportunity to both operate in a group setting and individually at any one or multiple locations listed in the WFD 2025 Rules (See guide below). We will participate fully in Winter Field Day as individuals and a group while working together for an aggregate score AND by staying in touch (virtually) throughout the weekend.
Where do I sign signup to work a station:
Please sign-up for a three hour shift at the following links:
WFD 2025 CW
WFD 2025 SSB
WFD 2025 DIGITAL
Winlink (Note you will need to be able to accept and reply to Winlink messages)
SET-UP/TEARDOWN
Setup:
You can begin setup 24 hours before the event. You are allowed a total of 12 hours of setup time.
Introduction
Detailed Guide for WCARES Participants:
Paul Tampien KM4PT “Winter Field Day Coordinator” has written a detailed document for setup and participating as a team regardless or where you are located. Click here for the document
You can also go online to winterfieldday.org and pull up the regulations.
Winter Field Day 2024
Another Winter Field Day is in the history books. Thanks to everyone who helped and everyone who took part.
Photos courtesy of Cliff, N4CCB and Jeff, WB5WAJ.
WCARES Winter Field Day 2024 – Updated
Updated – Paul has published the guidelines for this years WCARES Winter Field Day event here – be sure to read through this for all the details including schedule, rules, location, logging etc.:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qD724kbSfLua78_re9h7NLQ2h_FC_wkt8BDOytetRBo/
From Paul, KM4PT
Reminder that the last full weekend in January (27 & 28) is Winter Field Day. You can go online to winterfieldday.org and pull up the 2024 regulations.
The sign-up sheet is available at this link.
This year we will be operating from the Williamson County (Robert A Ring) Soccer Complex, West Fields. Paul, KM4PT will have more details soon so check this posting.
Update 2 – Winter Field Day 2023 Signup & WCARES details
From Paul, KM4PT
Reminder that the last weekend in January (28 & 29) is Winter Field Day. You can go online to winterfieldday.com and pull up the 2023 regulations.
The sign-up sheet is available at this link.
WCARES-specific details from Paul are here (PDF).
CW and SSB stations which will be at the Public Safety Center in Franklin. These will be broken down into three hour time slots starting at 1 P.M. on Saturday 28 January and ending at 12:59 P.M. on Sunday 29 January 2023.
There won’t be any set-up or tear down.
Winter Field Day 2022
We will participate fully in Winter Field Day as individuals while working together for an aggregate score AND by staying in touch (virtually) throughout the weekend.
Saturday, January 29 1PM CST – Sunday, January 30 1PM CST
You can begin setup 24 hours before the event, starting Friday, January 28 at 1PM CST.
You are allowed a total of 12 hours of setup time.
For questions regarding WCARES Winter Field Day 2022, contact Paul Tampien (rnggldwng07@gmail.com)
(* This event counts towards WCARES participation requirements )
See the Rules link on the Winter Field Day website for all the details.
Winter Field Day 2021 – some preliminary results
Winter Field Day 2021 is done! A number of people took part in the N3FJP setup that built the live stats web page. Here is the list of claimed scores – well done all!
| WCARES-TN Total Score = 18,857 | |||||
| Call | Score | QSOs | 20 Min | 60 Min | Frequency |
| AK4FA | 5,915 | 845 | 6 | 2 | |
| N4CCB | 4,810 | 245 | 30 | 28 | 7.03450 |
| WB5WAJ | 2,284 | 570 | 72 | 60 | |
| KA5WMF | 1,386 | 194 | 0 | 3 | 14.07800 |
| K4ARC | 832 | 208 | 3 | 9 | 7.18700 |
| KA4OTB | 792 | 183 | 9 | 17 | 3.75751 |
| WB4RHQ | 762 | 127 | 9 | 9 | |
| K4COM | 754 | 377 | 12 | 62 | |
| KN4RHI | 282 | 43 | 0 | 0 | |
| K8GNG | 240 | 40 | 0 | 4 | |
| KC1DWP | 189 | 63 | 3 | 7 | 14.29700 |
| KK4AIZ | 180 | 60 | 0 | 3 | 14.29570 |
| W4BJB | 174 | 58 | 9 | 8 | 7.21501 |
| N4YOU | 99 | 33 | 0 | 2 | 7.22300 |
| KM4SOA | 54 | 27 | 6 | 3 | 7.24350 |
| W4BAX | 44 | 44 | 3 | 9 | |
| KN4RHF | 30 | 30 | 6 | 5 | |
| N4BAX | 30 | 15 | 0 | 0 | |
| KO4DCO | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| NM4N | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 14.20200 |
Check out Cliff’s recent WCARES e-mail for all the details.
From Cliff, N4CCB:
“When is it?
The event officially begins at 1pm Central time on Saturday, January 30th, 2021.
It runs for 24 hours, ending at 1pm on Sunday, January 31st, 2021
Setup
You can begin setup 24 hours before the event.
You are allowed a total of 12 hours of setup time.
Introduction
Given that it’s currently considered unwise to gather together to conduct our normal WCARES Winter Field Day event, the question we must ask ourselves is:
How can we make the best of the situation?
We will participate fully in Winter Field Day as individuals while working together for an aggregate score AND by staying in touch (virtually) throughout the weekend.
Giving credit where credit is due, there are two sources for this interesting concept of how we’re planning to carry out this event:
- In June of 2020, the ARRL announced two temporary rule waivers for the 2020 Field Day. One of those specifies that the ARRL will publish the aggregate score of a club, based on the log files of its individual members. By specifying “WCARES-TN” in the club name field when submitting our individual logs, our scores will combine for a club score. In this way, we’re working together.
- Scott Davis, the author of N3FJP contest logging software, sent an email to his users wherein he discussed how his local club stays in touch during contests. I’ve included that email at the end of this document for your reference.
The Winter Field Day folks decided to do the same for WFD 2021.
My hope is you’ll choose to participate in this WCARES event and will use the guidelines in this document to make the most of our virtual weekend together.
The Big Picture
There are 3 things that are unique to our 2021 Winter Field Day experience:
Playing as Individuals but working toward a common goal…
The Winter Field Day folks announced that people submitting WFD logs as individuals could also specify a club name – and all of the logs that bear the same club name will be aggregated for a total club score. This will allow us to compete as individuals but adds the fun of working together for the good of the group score.
Seeing each other’s progress and our combined score…
Having our computers networked together during previous WCARES Field Days, we took advantage of the N3FJP logging software’s ability to show our combined score in real-time. While we won’t be networked together this year, the N3FJP logging software has another trick up its sleeve that WILL allow us to see each other’s progress and our combined score! This is pretty cool. Here’s how it works…
When configuring the N3FJP logging software, there is a “Settings Menu” choice called Web Upload Contest Status. (Detailed configuration instructions are found later in this document.) You can configure N3FJP to upload your contact statistics to the internet every few minutes. Then, a separate N3FJP program (running at my house) looks at all of the cloud files and builds a custom web page showing our total club score AND the statistics of each participating station! By simply keeping a web browser open all weekend to that special web page, we’ll all be able to see each other’s progress and keep track of our combined score.
Live chat all weekend…
Another way to hang out together is through a live chat room where we can type messages to each other, post photos, etc.
I’ve set up a WCARES “server” with the Discord online service. By creating your free account on Discord.com, you can then click a special link that will grant you access to our “server”/chat area.
Everybody should read the official Winter Field Day rules.
Read them online in a web browser here: Winter Field Day
Read them in a PDF, suitable for printing here:
https://a2a53e2b-2285-4083-9cff-c99fe5ba1658.filesusr.com/ugd/1c7085_2445ed4b22f74e048fe9bd41c8dba103.pdf
If you want to maximize the points you earn in the contest, you will need to read the official rules and take note of the scoring calculation “multipliers” and the four 1,500 bonus points that are the key to boosting your score.
In a nutshell, you’ll score the most points if you do the following:
- Run 5 watts (QRP) on battery power during the entire event
- Make as many contacts as possible on as many bands/modes as you can.
That is how WCARES achieved the #1 EOC and Top 10 (#9) Overall score in the country during the 2018 ARRL Field Day event.
Even though you will score the most points that way, you naturally won’t make as many contacts at 5 watts as you will at 100 watts. As much as I love QRP for my everyday ham radio fun, I enjoy running 100 watts during most contests so that I can “run a frequency” (park on a frequency and call CQ instead of “searching and pouncing” up and down the band).”
Again, be sure to check out Cliff’s recent WCARES e-mail for all the details.
Cliff gave an overview of this years WCARES Winter Field Day at the January Virtual Monthly Meeting (Saturday, January 16, 2021). You can find this presentation under the January, 2021 Virtual Monthly Meeting presentations on the presentations page:
Library & Special Interests --> Presentations
or here:
(* This event counts towards WCARES participation requirements )
Jan 2021 Virtual Monthly Meeting: Hospital Net, Winter Field Day and Vacation Shack Tour!
Our EC, Ed WB4RHQ dropped in briefly before travelling to the all-day ARRL Board Meeting – virtually on the other computer.
Presentations & Shack Tour!
Today Trey, KI4ZIN gave a presentation on the Hospital Net, discussing the organizations and people involved along with how and when the net is conducted. The net takes place primarily on the MTEARS UHF linked repeater system and provides backup communications options for facilities and primary communications in the event of an emergency. Trey also mentioned they are always looking for new volunteers to help out. Get in touch with Trey or use the Contact form on the website if you are interested in getting involved.
Cliff, N4CCB ran through a more detailed overview of Winter Field Day this year – expect to hear more from Cliff in future WCARES Notes e-mails and keep an eye on the Event Calender:
https://wcares.org/events/event/winter-field-day-2021/
Garry, W9WHF gave us a Virtual Shack Tour of his vacation setup and discussed the antennas, the radio gear and the challenge of salt coating pretty much everything. As this is a temporary spot he needed to be sure to leave it better than he found it which required some creative solutions, particularly with 4 radios and 4 antennas! The discussion about low power supply voltage at the radio due to corrosion will be of interest to anyone, even without the salt air.
Hospital Net – Trey Spain, KI4ZIN
Winter Field Day 2021 – Cliff Batson, N4CCB
Virtual Ham Shack Tour # 7 – Garry Decker, W9WHF
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uK1MFQR81mI
These and other presentations will now always be listed under the new:
Library & Special Interests --> Presentations
section of the website.