In North Texas, winter always brings an ice storm.  More often, a cold snap that lingers a day or two then fades into spring.  But sometimes, we get a real chiller – roads ice over, businesses close, pipes freeze, and power fails.  This year, it happened over the Winter Field Day weekend.

We knew about the approaching weather several weeks out and by the days leading into WFD, it was on every forecast, all being consistent in their portents of doom.  Tuesday, our club voted to cancel.

I have to admit this decision really paused me.  Mostly because I’d prepared and was enthusiastically looking forward to it.  But also, because Winter Field Day, excluding the QSO contest and Chili Cookoff, is about proving and demonstrating skills, equipment, and procedures to facilitate communications in the event of an emergency.  It’s about making radio work when all else fails. And how often does nature synchronize an actual weather challenge with Winter Field Day?

The argument for bowing out was, there’s no point turning a simulated emergency into a real emergency.  I agree, 100%.  We’re mostly old dudes and have little business joining the Ice Capades. Where I take issue, is we unanimously voted to cancel field day instead of – wait for it – replanning Field Day in a way that would work with the weather. Think it through for a minute, if it were an actual emergency event, would we tell county, state, and federal responders, sorry, it’s too icy?  

Did I say replanning? It’s spelled with a “re” but it happens BEFORE the event – it only looks like clever improvisation on the outside. Successful planning includes lots of questions like, what if the park closes, what if power goes out, what if someone needs a ride, what if the sun sucks, what if someone gets hurt.

Nothing says we have to make it a campout. The objective is emergency comms, not spending the night in a tent. We could’ve explored operating from so-in-so’s barn or workshop. We would be 3I instead of 3O, but we’d have our QSOs on a map to remind the FCC and Congress why they haven’t sold our bands to commercial interests…yet. Because, when all else fails.

You don’t get to choose the weather.  You don’t get to choose the objective.  But you do get to choose how you react to it.  When all else fails.

KW5CW James and I went anyway – I know in my heart the only way to learn to function in adversity is to embrace the suck.   I went out to Eisenhower State Park on Friday morning, strung wires and did a little POTA activation.  It was cold and by 1600, it was beginning to show that dark and ominous feel that whispers “you ain’t seen nothin’”.  I drove 34 miles home for a good night’s sleep and was back in the park by about 6:00 AM and school was in session.

James and I agreed to stash the cabin keys under a flat rock and when I showed up the next morning in the cold dark – the rock was under two inches of frozen rain.  On hands and knees, I chipped it out with a screwdriver and an overpriced pair of Knipex channel locks as a mallet.

I learned some things about cold weather ops.  Even this truncated outing gave me some lessons.

• Everything covers with ice and turns into a pain in the ass, especially when you’re trying to do it in a hurry.
• Freezing rain or sleet will trap feedlines under a thick sheet of solid ice.
• Ice forms on wires and tree branches and when they contact, it will monkey with SWR.
• Ice forms on telescoping masts and makes them difficult/ impossible to retract,
• Ice forms on telescoping antennas and does the same.
• Paracord knots are very difficult to untie when frozen and iced over.
• Excess arborists throw line left strung out on the ground becomes a special frustration to get out from under the ice.
• Propane heaters are fantastic.  I like the kind that clamps right on to a 20 lb bottle.  Further, spending bucks on an extra 20 lb bottle is well worth it for the peace of mind it brings.
• Bring your cold, hard feedlines to sit next to the propane heater for a bit before you wind and stow them.
• The Marines taught me, Murphy loves misery.  Meaning, when it’s wet, cold, you’re late, and a little pissed off… you’ll get a flat.  So when you know the weather’s going to suck, you need to plan for Murphy  – charge your battery jumper, charge you travel air pump. 

I learned:

• When setting up, game out how you’re going to get everything down and back in your car – in the dark, in the cold, when everything is covered in ice – when you’re sick of being there.
• A WalMart bag taped around an EFHW UNUN will keep the ice off the feed point.
• Put excess throw line back in the bag and drop that in a Walmart bag. to keep the ice off.
• When taping things, a folded over pigtail gives you something to grab it’s time to remove it and you’re wearing gloves.
• Run your feed lines flat and free of entanglement like large rocks or fallen tree branches. It’ll make it easier to pull it up, through the newly formed skating rink.
• Plan plenty of time to break camp. You want to thaw some things and that takes time.
• Non-conductive material with ice on it – is conductive. I’m not sure what to do about this other than Ops keeping a good eye on SWR.
• Bring a step stool because you’re not as nimble when bundled up.

In the end, I was a little disappointed in my club.  Not because they canceled field day, but because they did it like they were cancelling a social event.  In that moment, they didn’t see Field Day as a world-wide test or a demonstration of our ability to think, to plan, and to adjust in a way that keeps everyone safe while getting the job done.

Again, not for a minute do I challenge the choice to not drive on icy roads or spend the night in icy temps.  I just think when we boast, “When all else fails”, we should mean it.

Put up or shut up, right?  Shutting up.

TNX ES 73,
DitWit