Winter Field Day 2026

Winter Field Day 2026 took place from 1/24 to 1/25.  I operated from Pine Log State Forest Sand Pond Campground with a small group from the Panama City Amateur Radio Club. The group included Daniel K4MDA and his wife (Marie), Greg KQ4SJP, Frank KC8VKA, John (sorry, John. Can't remember the callsign at the moment), myself and my wife Carla. My wife and I arrived Friday afternoon around 4pm and began setting up our camp. We sleep in the bed of the truck in the camper shell where I have built a bed platform and shelving for keeping our camping supplies full-time (always to ready for a camping adventure), but had to set up the popup canopy with the Ez-up Camp Cube. This provides a great way to stay out of the weather. Speaking of weather, it could not have been better for the event (at least until Sunday morning). Lows in the upper 40's at night and around 60 during the day. It was cool, but enjoyable. Friday night, we cooked steaks, asparagus and mushrooms over the propane campfire. After dinner we enjoyed some time chatting with our neighbors Daniel and Marie around the campfire. It was a good time and memories were made. 

Saturday morning, I arose around 6am and began setting up the station. My radio was the Yaesu FT-857D with the LDG Z-100 Tuner and a Buddipole dipole antenna. Since the Buddipole system is tunable, I did not need to use the tuner. It was mainly if I wanted to set up my long wire antenna, but found the Buddipole sufficient for the event. Daniel had set up his Wolf River Coil and IC-7300 in his pop up shelter. Once I was able to get Carla out of the truck bed, we cooked mountain man breakfast in the dutch oven. This is always one of our favorites for camp breakfast. Once the event kicked off, Daniel and I would trade back and forth on who was in the lead with Daniel repeatedly saying he was going to "win" field day. Well, not sure if he won, but he did get more in the log than I did. After a while we got the SotaBeam bandhopper in the air for Daniel which was an improvement over the WRC antenna, then Frank came by our sites and helped Daniel get a long wire antenna up into the tree which was a game changer. Did I "lose" field day, yeah probably. But, I enjoyed getting the station set up, the friendly competition, and visiting with friends during the event. Saturday night, we had smash burgers at Daniel and Marie's campsite cooked on the Blackstone grill. Daniel's not a bad cook...er...chef. 

Weather was looking like it was going to get bad overnight and early morning, so we all made the decision to break down Saturday night and get most of our stuff packed up. In the end, I only logged 21 contacts: some ssb, some digital. Like I said, it wasn't all about the numbers for me. I enjoy the activity of setting the station up and having a good time with friends. I hope you all had a great Winter Field Day and we will be doing it again. 

 Photos below courtesy of Frank KC8VKA and myself 

 73 -Bob