Winter Field Day 2026
David KB5PGY was a one-man-band activating W5RRR at the shack while the rest of us were busy hunkering down for the surprise Houston freeze warning that hit our area.
Held on Saturday, January 24th, David operated on digital in support of WFD. Note: the shack was not available for operations on Sunday since the facility was closed due to the freeze storm.
David shared his observation that JS8Call is a great ragchew mode, but it’s not a contest mode. He did switch to PSK31 after about the first hour of WFD, and affirmed that PSK31 is a superior mode for contesting because it has a higher Q rate than JS8. He used FLDIGI with FLRIG for rig control, and FLDIGI interfaces with N3JFP logging packages including the Winter Field Day and Field Day packages. FLDIGI is a powerful program because you can set up macros that make sending the proper exchanges simple with either a few keystrokes or a few mouse clicks.
JSCARC 2nd tower installation Progress
The JSC Center has graciously committed funding to lay a new concrete foundation for our 2nd tower by the shack. The club’s previously purchased 60′ SSV Rohn tower will be erected onto this new foundation. Evidence of the new foundation has been spotted beside the back door of the shack.
AB5SS/KG5LJZ activate US-4422 POTA on Feb 7
John and Jayant had a successful POTA activation at the William Goodrich Jones State Forest.
From Jayant:
Good afternoon!
We had a great POTA today (activated from the parking lot on 1488 using a new (for me) mag mounted Hamstick antenna on AB5SS car.Terry KA5TBB tried reaching us but I guess on 20m we were too close for a QSO.We operated from inside car (very noisy road traffic outside) and got QSOs in SSB, Digital modes and CW. We got a Montana QSO from Dan Nagala KG5PVP and a visit from Chris to check out our set up.The park has amazing trails and next time we maybe our equipment (maybe QRP rigs) down the trails.Please join us on future POTAs.
K5KUA activates US-0544 POTA on Feb 9
Joe tackled the activation of a difficult site, the Big Boggy NWR between Matagorda and Sargent.