Ham Radio in a LUXURY lakeside cabin! Winter Field Day 2025

This year’s Winter Field Day brings Dave, Joe, and me to a cozy lakeside cabin in Central Wisconsin. These luxury ham radio accommodations are a far cry from some of the off grid places we’ve previously operated from, yet it still wasn’t without its challenges.
Relax and Reset Cottage rental in Friendship, WI: book.hostfully...
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#Hamradio #AmateurRadio #POTA #ParksOnTheAir #PortableHamRadio #winterfieldday #winterfieldday2025 #hamradiolifestyle
#wisconsinvacationrental #endfedhalfwave #efhw #cabinonthelake #hamradiocontesting

[@davidsradioroom9678]

Great weekend!

[@timg5tm941]

Nice job fellas!

[@dhtseany]

The Justin Bieber lamp definitely helped pull the room's decor together.

[@KB9VBRAntennas]

We've got the Bieber Fever

[@toddshook1765]

Thank for sharing your experience. Glad you had a great warm time. Our winter field day was fun. Highs winds at the spot we were at here in Calif but no antennas fell down. Had fun with my son both running qrp.

[@MikeKellercbf]

Nice work guys! You made contact with K7UVA in Utah. This is the Utah Valley Amateur Radio Club callsign. I may have been working the radio or working the logbook during your contact with us. Or, you could have made contact with one of the other club members. Winter Field Day 2025 was a lot of fun! 73 everybody. K7MDK

[@johnbaumert]

I did my first WFD this year (just licensed in 2024) and had a lot of fun. Glad to see we worked each other. Thanks for all the content to learn from. John - KF0QGT, 73

[@KB9VBRAntennas]

That's awesome. My first big HF experience was Field Day over 25 years ago, so I know the feeling.

[@conneryant5237]

Thanks for the WFD contact!

[@Hamattack]

Nicely done guys! Looks like it was a lot of fun.

[@samforbes5270]

Band conditions were different thats for sure, everything seemed a lot longer than I was expecting. 15m was our money band with all the qrm on 20m.

[@KOAOutdoors]

Lol that looks like the cabin where the Cohen brothers shot the scene for " Fargo !" Watch your back boys...😂

[@KB9VBRAntennas]

That explains the wood chipper . . .

[@Coyotehello]

Nice! What a great idea, a bunch of friends renting a cabin for POTA !!! 08:31, We did not get the recipe! L. How do you like the Chameleon LEFS 8010 after all this time? I think I am just going to have and get one!

[@KB9VBRAntennas]

The Chameleon is a lot of antenna, but it works quite well. The nice thing is you can disconnect the 80m section so it is a shorter 40-10m antenna. Biscuits and gravy are so easy, even Joe can make it: Break up and fry one package of bulk breakfast sausage. Jimmy Dean Original is my favorite, but you can go hot if you are feeling it. Add a bit of extra butter so that there is approximately 1/4 cup oil in pan. Stir in 1/4 cup flour and cook until a sticky mass (about 2 minutes). Add 2 cups milk and cook on med-low until thick. Season with pepper.

[@Coyotehello]

@@KB9VBRAntennas Thank you, That will be a perfect comforting breakfast in our boat on a rainy day!

[@Cliff-KI5OPP]

I tried 6 after lunch no dice. I did only 10 and 15. It was work but still made 135 contacts.

[@marcelookunz-lu1fk]

Felicitaciones a los 3 colegas. Hermosa Actividad. 73 cordiales desde Argentina!"

[@toddhowell2299]

I knew I forgot something on my WFD list... Someone to make biscuits and gravy and eggs for me.

[@KB9VBRAntennas]

You can't have field day without the food.

[@ChrisKD9YSW]

Good Idea on the spot.

[@DK3UH]

Hello Michael, thank you very much for this cool video! May i ask you something please: What are you having for breakfast together with the eggs? Is it minced meat wir cream and.... it looks so yummy😊 Greetings from Germany! Uwe DK3UH! 73

[@KB9VBRAntennas]

The dish is called Biscuits and Gravy. Seasoned pork sausage with a white sauce made with the fat drippings. Its a popular breakfast item in the South and Midwest US. Here's the recipe: Break up and fry a 1 lb package of pork breakfast sausage. Jimmy Dean Original is my favorite, but you can go hot if you are feeling it. Add a bit of extra butter so that there is approximately 1/4 cup oil in pan. Stir in 1/4 cup flour and cook until a sticky mass (about 2 minutes). Add 2 cups milk and cook on med-low until thick. Season with pepper. I apologize for the US measurements, but I hope you get the idea.

[@Hero1395]

The oven!

[@KB9VBRAntennas]

Blast from the past

[@WD0OMHamRadio]

I mean, that place looks amazing, but I'm not sure "cabin" is really the right word, no matter how it's advertised! 😀Still, I'm now inspired to try to find some relatively quiet rental place to do a radio weekend at some point! For WFD, I found on Saturday, when I worked with my club (W0RRC), 10m was challenging mainly because it was very long. It's been long a lot, lately, but it was too long to catch much in the way of other WFDers in the US. Switching to 15m got us better results (we had someone else doing 20). On Sunday, I worked solo double-dipping as a POTA activator as well (uS-2466 Afton), I found 10m was shorter and more useful; 15 was once again pretty solid; 20 was great but too crowded, as it often is. It was almost literally giving me a headache trying to pull signals apart amid the cacophony. I wound up going back to 15 after a little while.

[@russellyeley2561]

That looks like a great breakfast. I have been gluten-free for 3 years now. I miss gluten!!!!!!

[@KB9VBRAntennas]

At least you can still eat the free range eggs.

[@LarryTaylor-l5m]

Will you come out to Northern AZ and cook for Summer Field Day?😅

[@KB9VBRAntennas]

I hear Northern Arizona is pretty nice in the summer. You have insects?

[@LarryTaylor-l5m]

@ It depends where you are. The place we do FD is Ponderosa Pine forest. No nearby lakes. No mosquitoes or other biting, stinging things.

[@matthewtrail2538]

Great video. I think I missed what antenna you used for 160?

[@KB9VBRAntennas]

I didn't specify in the video, but Dave found that if he disconnected the radiating wire from his EFHW from the transformer and connected it to a WRC Silver Bullet 1000, he could tune the wire with the coil. Using the body of his truck as a ground plane, it worked for decent operation on the 160M band.

[@nnasab]

I’m new to this kind of contests. how do you rig 3 different radios with one antenna, specially when all rigs operate at the same time in different bands.

[@KB9VBRAntennas]

While it wasn't explicitly stated in the video, we were using three antennas. I had the 80-10m EHFW, Dave used a 40-10m EFHW, and Joe had a Rybakov vertical. You can see an image of the antenna locations at 02:21

[@mattg.6367]

What adapter are you using to connect your headset to the 891? I was wishing that I had that during WFD.

[@KB9VBRAntennas]

Heil sells the adapters for its headsets. This is the AD-1-YM for the Yaesu rigs that have the modular mic connector.

[@bwillan]

What did you use for your network logging software?

[@KB9VBRAntennas]

We were using N1MM+ contest logger. Networking is super simple. I brought along a small travel router and once everyone logged on and turned the N1MM networking mode on, the program found all the logging computers and took care of the rest. The best part is that the logs are stored locally and synced in real time, if any computer drops off, no data is lost.

[@donausmus4281]

Is that Joe's Justin Beiber lamp?😅 Don K1DLA

[@KB9VBRAntennas]

He uses it as a nightlight

[@imahamjim]

Just curious whose call did u use

[@KB9VBRAntennas]

Travis, a regular on the channel, has a club call. We used his: N9CNF

[@imahamjim]

@KB9VBRAntennas tks. I'm the guy that tried to meet u couple years ago when ur daughter got married. Hope all is well. 73 jim

[@brandonboyd1]

I am interested in RTTY. What software do you recommend?

[@KB9VBRAntennas]

Most people use FLdigi for RTTY and other digital modes.

[@brandonboyd1]

@@KB9VBRAntennas thank you

[@EricFullwood]

"Is that Heaven?" No. It's Wisconsin.

[@alpha6tango860]

Luxurious? lol

[@KB9VBRAntennas]

You've never experienced Northwoods cabin chic. This place is top level