In an effort to encourage more ham radio field operations the following After Action Report for Winter Field Day 2026 is posted. We operated “off grid” on Mt. Diablo (CA) using (mostly) rugged military radio equipment. And camping. Lots of camping! and good food!
This is a national, emergency communications preparedness exercise. It is held every January to mirror the very popular ARRL Field Day event held every June. In January the added challenge of cold weather and potentially austere conditions recognizes that “stuff happens” at any time or day. Like what?
The US Geological Survey had recorded 583 earthquakes in a “swarm” over a period of 3 months. This is less than 2 miles from my house. Stuff indeed!
A Ham friend and I operated for 3 days from a shady but cool and windy campsite on the mountain 5 miles from there. Working some CW, reporting “2OEB”. Two transmitters, Outdoors, East Bay section:
We set up a hasty camp on the mountain with the primary goal of just camping, relaxing and chatting with friends on both CW and SSB voice radios. The intent was not to work a lot of stations, participate in a “contest” or even keep a log of contacts made. We did make comms with several members of the West Coast Military Radio Collectors Group in California and Nevada but we also contacted other participating WFD field stations.
Our simple set up included a PRC-174 HF/CW/SSB Manpack, a TRC-77 CW portable and a “civilian” Heathkit HW-8 CW transceiver kit that I had build over 40 years ago. Time to exercise it again. My buddy chatting on the “Secret Squirrel Net” with the PRC-174 below:
Continuing Ops at night.
The Heathkit HW-8 provides 4 watts output on 80-15 meters. We were using an end fed long wire rigged about 15′ up for our intended short range HF NVIS work.
It works great with the help of a small electronic keyer driven by a DIY, bomb-proof “hacksaw blade” knee paddle. Powered by a 12 volt 8 AH gel cell we will run out of food a month before the battery quits. Solar panels “at the ready”. The TRC-77 sits awaiting its turn on the antenna.
The TRC-77 HF CW portable was also along for CW contacts. 8-10 watts over 3-8 mc, crystal controlled, battery powered. I was mainly operating on 7050 kc days, 3550 kc at night. The 15 ma receiver draw will allow it to operate for 24/7 for over a month with its SLA battery. There is really no need to ever turn it off while camping. The perfect long range recon or Forward Operating Base set for monitoring the Net. My personal favorite.
We also exercised the little PRT-4/PRR-9 FM Squad Radio “helmet set” from the Vietnam era. We used it to patrol the general area while in comms with the RT-70/VRC-7 set mounted in my truck (below). 1950-60’s military radios still work great and do the job.
Note the dash-mounted altimeter reporting our campsite elevation at 2920′ AMSL. The weather at this site was a balmy 35-45 degrees compared to the weather in the rest of the country in January 2026. However we experienced 30-40 knot winds continuously for 36 hours through this site on the exposed western face of the mountain, the cost of great views! We were well prepared for cold but the wind got old after awhile. Good training.
In addition to the above equipment I also ran the PRC-47 HF set as mounted in my truck. It provides 20-100 watts output on CW or USB/LSB into an MP-57/MS-xx 14′ whip mounted on the bumper. The PRC-47 enabled solid voice comms on 40 meters LSB into my friend 156 miles south of here. Driving the whip on 75 meters not so great due to lower radiation efficiency on that band. An installed 12v-to-24v converter makes it happen here.
This radio position also served as the Bronco Motel with my military cold weather sleeping bag within. The Bronco bed is too short to button up so I left the tailgate down with my feet protruding outside under a poncho. No problem, the raccoons were on Liberty for the weekend. I can also monitor “the net” or get some laughs from Radio Habana Cuba while inside the bag at night. Alas, the soccer scores from Radio Australia are a thing of the past.
I digress: But then you have to EAT! A primary activity while “radio camping”. Note that the Tactical Operations Center is not far from the chow hall. Ribs a-cookin’.
Then BLT (Battalion Landing Team) sammitches under construction for lunch. Grandma’s cast iron frying pan soldiers (sailors?) on, continuing the tradition:
Then there’s Mess-Kit sausage, peppers & onions for dinner. Insulation helps but it’s important to keep the Internal fire going at night. We’re livin’ good, we got this.
But then you have to eat dinner the next night. Beef ribs and salad. Beats C Rats or MRE’s!
Back to it: The little Heathkit HW-8 set with the keyer, paddle, battery, DMM, antenna and accessories makes for a convenient and very functional grab&go setup. A deviation from my usual “military only” load out so this was just for fun.
All in all this was a simple, effective communications site capable of providing short and long range, reliable off-grid comms. We made lots of contacts, ate good, had fun, exercised our camping load outs and skill sets, enjoyed the days up on the mountain and kept warm. Mission Accomplished.
Details on WFD: https://winterfieldday.org/
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For more information on these military radios and more, take a look here on N6CC.COM:
https://www.n6cc.com/prc-174-hf-manpack-radio-set/
https://www.n6cc.com/trc-77-hf-cw-transceiver/
https://www.n6cc.com/prt-4-prr-9-squad-radios/
https://www.n6cc.com/the-prc-47-hf-ssbcw-transceiver/
Or last years’ Winter Field Day 2025 operations:
https://www.n6cc.com/winter-field-day-2025/
AR
NNNN
Kept an eye out for you on RBN, but my time in the shack never lined up with when you were operating! Could tell you were doing much more grilling than CQ’ing!😂 Looks like as much fun as always, I sure miss my camping trips as a kid on Mt. Diablo!
73,
Jason WA6BBQ
Ha! It’s true…The chow was great! Funny you mentioned the Reverse Beacon Network. I have my little electronic keyer set up with a button to probe the RBN with my callsign, test etc. I usually do that as a transmitter, antenna, system and propagation test when in the field or at home. It is a fantastic resource… I got good CW signal strength reports during WFD from Oregon, Washington, CA, Utah and Arizona. That was on 80, 40, 20 and 15 meters with the 4 watt HW-8 during the days.
Next Time! Thanks for visiting..