The Klub regularly participates in the ARRL Field Day and Winter Field Day activities, the flagship Emergency Preparedness exercise for Radio Amateurs. Field Day is a 24 hour exercise designed to test the group’s ability to respond to emergency conditions by conducting a sustained operation in the field and under non-commercial power.
Winter Field Day started in 2007 by a non-ARRL group with the purpose of preparing for and practicing Emergency Communications across North America and beyond.Similar to Summer Field Day, offering additional challenges of wintertime operations, but with a more streamlined scoring system. In 2019, K5RWK operated as an outdoors station, placing 7th Nationally, and 1st in our Section.
Officially both Field Day and Winter Field Day are Emergency Communications Exercises, with points awarded for various types of operational proficiency in adverse conditions. We witnessed how important Amateur Radio operations were during the 2019 tornadoes in Richardson. While these events are unusual, we know they will occur again, and being prepared at a moment’s notice for these and other disasters can be invaluable. That’s why setup is limited to 12 hours total, and only during the previous 24 hours. If you are interested in honing your emergency preparedness skills, in adverse, unfamiliar conditions, you will find these events a rewarding challenge.
And unofficially, it’s a great opportunity for some good ole amateur radio camaraderie, showing off your gear, learning, and an excuse to help your RWK to earn bragging rights.
You can read more about ARRL Field Day here and Winter Field Day (not affiliated with ARRL) here.
Field Day Photo Gallery
Photos from some of our previous Field Day & Winter Field Day exercises. Click on a picture for more or click the slide show link below.
Field day galleries
We also have a full selection of RWK pictures from Field Day and Winter Field Day from previous years that are available here.
Field Day Posts
The Chawed Rag – September 2025
October 2, 2025
Here’s The Chawed Rag for Sept 2025. We’ve got a chance for you to voice your opinion on HOA restrictions, obsession about Balloons!, an upcoming SSTV event, Foxhunts are Alive and Well at RWK, belated Field Day 2025 results, our RWK Meeting Video Archive is back, call for 2026 Officers, the usual upcoming events and news and so much more. Hope you enjoy! – KD4CRead Full Post...QRV Tech – September 2025 – JS8Call
September 16, 2025
One of the biggest complaints about the popular FT-8/FT-4 digital modes is that the exchange is short and fixed, and there’s no way to add to the QSO. What if I told you that there was a mode that used the same weak-signal technology as FT-8/4 but you could send whatever you want to the other party? For as long as you want? Well, join us tonight to learn about ...Read Full Post...QRV Tech – August 2025 – GOES Satellite Reception and Decoding
August 18, 2025During tomorrow night’s QRV session, we will learn about NOAA’s GOES (Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite) satellite system and how you can decode its transmissions for yourself. We will talk about what GOES is, how the data is channelized and transmitted, how you can setup your own ground station for receiving the data, and the software needed to parse the data into beautiful pictures of planet Earth. I’ll be focusing primarily on ...Read Full Post...Field Day 2025 – It’s Coming this Saturday!
June 23, 2025
RWK Field Day is this Saturday (June 27) and will again be at the Richardson Emergency Operations Center (EOC) (Plano Rd & Lookout Drive). What Is Field Day? Field Day is the largest amateur radio operating event of the year. If previous years are any indication, there will be 30,000 to 40,000 hams on the air during the 24 hour period. Field Day is basically a nationwide Emergency Preparedness exercise, so some ...Read Full Post...QRV Tech – June 2025 – All You Need to Know about RWK Field Day
June 17, 2025We’re moving QRV Tech for this month to next week! Please join RWK on Tuesday June 24th for this month’s QRV Tech. Coming up at the end of June is Field Day 2025. Field Day is amateur radio’s biggest event of the year, and hams new and old look forward to it every year. At this QRV Tech session, you will find out what exactly is “Field Day” and how it got ...Read Full Post...
RWK Field Day History
RWK has been participating in Field Day since the late 1950s. In the 1960s and 1970s, when Field Day was much more of a contest, RWK often scored in the Top 10 of the entered class and was #1 several years.
Tim Bratton K5RA has researched the RWK’s Field Day results and has an excellent summary and results over the years. You can read his piece here.
We came across a brief movie from Field Day in the late 60s showing a tower setup in a field in Richardson.
RWK Field Day Results
| Year | Category | Result |
| 1959 | 4A | 59 |
| 1969 | 2A | 6 |
| 1970 | 2A | 3 |
| 1971 | 2A | 1(!) |
| 1972 | 2A | 3 |
| 1973 | 3A | 2 |
| 1974 | 1A | 3 |
| 1975 | 2A | 2 |
| 1976 | 3A | 1 |
| 1977 | 3A | 2 |
| 1978 | 3A | 2 |
| 1979 | 3A | 2 |
| 1982 | 2A | 1 |
| 1983 | 2A | 4 |
| 1984 | 1A | 13 |
| 1985 | 2A | 9 |