WINTER FIELD DAY QRP STYLE 

Greetings from the Flying Pigs of North Central Tennessee. Well Winter Field Day

has come and gone and it was one of the best we have worked. We had some
misgivings about the weather and changed our plans several times to accommodate
what we thought would be a cold day of operation. Little did we know that it
would turn out to be one of the mildest winter field days we have worked in
quite some time.
Last year the Winter Field Day was snowed out. Most of us did not want to travel

to Doc's, NV4T's home QTH because of the snow that covered the whole town of
Clarksville, TN.
This year we were walking around in T-shirts and drinking cold beverages. The
final plan was to operate out of my 27 foot motor home with it parked in my
driveway. My home QTH is located in Montgomery county near the Cumberland River.

Our antenna system was my Cushcraft A4 with a 40 meter add on up about 30 feet.
I also have a 80 meter dipole trailing off the beam out into the woods behind my

house. We were operating with battery power using a K3 with a panadapter
belonging to Lewis, KF4WK. I can not say enough about how good this radio is so
I will just leave it at "this radio rocks". I should say a little about our
operating process. We work CW only at low power (5 watts or less depending on
the battery power LOL). In the past visiting operators have declined to operate
because we only had an electronic key available. Well this year we had a
fantastic straight key, courtesy of Terry, N5HOT plugged in and ready to go for
anyone who desired to operate. We started at 11:00 Z kind of slowly, by
having Doc, NV4T make the first contact. Doc is our Boss HOG of the Flying Pigs
and we try to make him brake the ice by making the first contact. In no time
flat he was off and running on 20 meters. We were looking for anyone calling CQ
WFD but it seemed that everyone was working on something other than calling CQ
for Winter Field Day. The next best thing was working a station who was involved

in a contest other than winter field day. We will copy anyone actually so a
little DX from TM2B in France was not a problem. That is right France on 5
watts. Now that is what I am talking about. These guys were working with a
special call from the F8KHF club station, we were their second contact of the
day. Moving on I took over and F2DX (what a call) was in the log. Peter
Brittiger from France was bumming in and it was FB for us. Still no Winter Field

Day ops on the air. We worked F6KLO, Edmond from the Radio Club of Brive La
Gaillarde in France. Nice signal into Clarksville, TN. Then another DX station
TM9FL. This station was not in the QRZ data base but he reported 86 contacts to
our 4. The airways were hot with DX, at least on 20 meters. So I tried a little
40 meter action to see if we could make a WFD contact. Sure enough K4BKD, Peter
from Marietta, GA. was on and I jumped on him like a Blue Jay on a June bug. His

report was 1H 60f. That meant he was working from his house as a single operator

and the temp was 60 degrees Fahrenheit. At last we broke the WFD ice and were on

our way. Next up was VE3RAM, the op was working out of the Ottawa Valley
Mobile Radio Club, in Ottawa Canada. Man that is cool.... he also was working
WFD and his report was MO 5C. We were on a roll now. The band just kept giving
up good signals and we started changing ops so others in the group could get a
hand in the operation. John, KX6F found KP4AGW, Angel in Puerto Rico. John is a

straight key guy and Angel was calling CQ SKCC. What a match.... Great QSO and
John had a ball working the K3. Next up was Terry, N5HOT he just had to get in a

QSO as we were having all the fun. Terry found ZW7REF, Christian on 20 meters
all the way from Brazil. Not a winter filed day contact but what a contact for
the log. All in all we made 16 contacts 6 of them were Winter Field Day
contacts. Nine of the contacts were DX. One was a rag chew with N0TWV, Maria
from Pagosa Springs, Co. I thought she would never stop sending. LOL We had so
much fun this Winter Field Day it will be hard to beat next year. I want to
thank all those operators who came by, some to operate and some to talk out loud

while you are trying to operate. Just check out the video on the KF4L web site
and you will get a kick out of me trying to find the earphones on my head.
Nothing like being excited about making a contact. Take care and we hope to see

you on the air. 72 from KM6NN, John and all the C.A.T.S. and Flying Pigs from
Clarksville.
John, KM6NN