Updated, May 2021.
Notes from Winter Field Day 2021:
Logging For Winter Field Day – David Sarnoff Radio Club
Logs must be sent in “Cabrillo Format” which means you have to format your contacts and station information… There are several options
LOG METHODS:
- Use the .pdf here: https://www.winterfieldday.com/files and then send in using “Proper Log Format” Cathy Tsao had a Excel based form which was sent to the club reflector.
- Use a logging program during the contest that has Cabrillo output.
For example N1MM Logger (free) - Use this cool online tool, found online (no warranty implied)
http://b4h.net/cabforms/winterfieldday_cab3.php It can be used with a paper log to make the Cabrillo output (which may require some tweaking at the end.) Thanks Cathy Tsao for finding this! - John DeGood recommends http://www.n3fjp.com/winterfieldday.html which costs a small amount, but can be used free for 30 contacts. Take a look at the page and see if it suits your needs.
- If you want to see what the Cabrillo format actually looks like, here‘s a good page to start with, though the header “Cabrillo” has one bad link in it, the information can be found on other pages.
- Check back later.. there may be more in this list as folks suggest things.
John – WB2YGF writes:
So it’s been years since I ran a logging program on FD
From the very first DSRC modern Field Day (I was there) I was introduced to a logging program called CT, and used it for many years, It was a DOS program but it still worked under Windows. The last time I used CT it was no longer supported, but there were some files available to update to the latest sections. After that I used a program from France for 2 years I think.
So I went on the ARRL site today to see what they recommended for logging. Some were either very basic or they wanted money. The exception was N1MM+. Well supported and free with good reviews. Very complex with a learning curve.
So I installed it and entered all the settings. Now for the fun part. Getting it to work with my IC706 MKIIG.
First challenge was remembering that the CW and control interfaces are separate. Very few radios can do CW with the control interface.
So from my CT days I had a USB C-IV control cable (Rigtalk) and a serial CW interface that plugs into the Icom key jack. (Later I had to add a USB to serial emulator cable when serial ports disappeared.)
N1MM recommended this circuit to interface to the Icom. It looked a lot like what I built for the CT program and hoped it was the same.
I got the control interface working no problem but I struggled with the CW.
With this info below I figured out how to set the serial port. You would think it would be the default but it was not. It still wouldn’t work but there was a note that the driver might not be installed unless the program was installed “as Administrator”. So I reinstalled both the program and the update as Admin re-booted. I set RTS and DTS properly, and then it finally worked!
Seems like it was much harder than it should have been.
Serial (COM) Port When a serial port is used for CW and/or PTT keying, it is the RTS and DTR lines that are used.
| DB9 pin | DB25 pin | Function |
| 7 | 4 | PTT output (RTS) |
| 4 | 20 | CW output (DTR) |
| 5 | 7 | Ground |
Once that is set up you should create a new database and new log database for the particular contest. I was looking at all the ARRL contests in this looong list but no ARRL FD. Why? Because it was labeled FD. No ARRL FD. Sheesh.
Tomorrow I hope to get antennas up. Operating 1E at 5w on battery.. This gives me a 2x multiplier for CW and 5x multiplier for QRP battery. So each contact is 10x as compared to a 1D phone contact on mains power.
Good luck all!.