Winter Field Day is a communications exercise. WFD is held on the last full weekend in January. WFD can be worked from the comfort of your home or in a remote location. You can participate by yourself or get your friends, family, or whole club involved. Winter Field Day is open to participants worldwide. Amateur radio operators may use frequencies on the HF, VHF, or UHF bands and are free to use any mode that can faithfully transmit the required exchange intact. Similar to the ARRL’s Field Day, bonus points are earned in several ways, including using non-commercial power sources, operating from remote locations, satellite contacts, and more.

This Winter Field Day Exercise is to encourage you to test your emergency preparedness capabilities in various conditions and push yourself to new levels. Operating out in the field, away from the comforts of home, is the best way to increase your preparedness for disasters and improve your operating skills in subpar conditions.

WFD is a learning experience, and we hope at the end of this year’s WFD exercise, you will feel more confident about your ability to adapt and overcome adverse weather conditions.

To be clear, WFD is an EMCOM exercise, so don’t get too hung up on the rules. At the end of the day, your total points don’t matter. What you learn during WFD and your ability to adapt and overcome sudden obstacles will help you during unexpected emergencies. As we continue with another year of the WFD exercise, we want to encourage participants not to chase the contacts or the points but to test their abilities and equipment. If you want to exchange signal reports, please give each other accurate information so the other station knows how well their station is working.

One thing you will notice this year is our “Bonus Points” have changed to “Objectives.” These rotating objectives will change slightly from year to year. One of your goals should be to achieve as many objectives as possible during the event.

Finally, have fun with the Winter Field Day, talk about the temperature, meet new friends, and make memories as you continue to enhance your skills as an amateur radio operator.