Log submissions are closed, and I'm going through the feedback forms you all filled out. There's a wealth of great stories, suggestions, criticisms, and reflections that we'll be poring over for the next few months as we get ready for WFD 2027. I want to share my initial thoughts as the guy who sorts and compiles the feedback for the board. This is far from final, and I won't cover every little thing here.
I want to thank everyone who gave us a summary of your operation. A major weather system slammed much of the Continental US and Canada with unusually cold and snowy weather exactly during Winter Field Day. Hearing about your WFD stations during this historic event means a lot, and you should be proud of what you accomplished.
Everyone who sends in a log gets an email with a link to the feedback form. We only got about 100 unique feedback entries out of almost 2600 log submissions. That's less than one half of one percent. Now many of you gave us your feedback on Facebook and Discord, a few others on Mastodon and Twitter, so we know that number is actually higher. But we would absolutely love to get many, many more feedback submissions next year. Even though it means more work for us, we'd love to see more feedback!
One thing a few people use the feedback form for every year is to request immediate assistance. We don't read the feedback until log submissions close, so those people go without help. Part of this is on us. We have a helpdesk email which is fairly new, but we didn't link it in our log submission email. We are also looking into getting an email notification for every feedback form entry, so we can address issues if they arise. If you're one of those folks, I'm sorry we didn't address your problem.
Now, onto the critical feedback. We really do like knowing where we can improve. Your suggestions, whether we incorporate them into WFD or not, are incredibly valuable in giving us a fuller picture of what participants want out of the event. Here are a few recurring comments and some quick replies.
- Logger issues:
- We don't accept paper logs.
- Don't want to use log software? Write a Cabrillo file in a text editor using our published standard.
- "My favorite logger doesn't work for WFD". Let us know AND contact the logger's support system. Software companies respond to what their customers want. Not all of them are receptive to event organizers. Ask me how I know.
- The bulletin:
- A lot of folks who couldn't copy the CW or phone bulletin didn't even try the digital bulletin. It only takes a few minutes to set up a computer to decode data modes, and you'll have an option that works better in noise than the other two. Ignoring data modes comes at a price, y'all.
- We are aware of your complaints about the CW bulletin and will look at addressing them.
- "You should have more stations transmitting more times" I agree, and you can help by volunteering :)
- "You should transmit the bulletins at full legal limit" we already do when the station has the ability to.
- You can also copy the bulletin from another station that copied it, as long as you do it over amateur RF. That's in our FAQ.
- Laptop power requirements:
- Some of you found out this year that laptops are often very power hungry, and that stressed your alternative power systems beyond their limits.
- We don't require or even encourage you to use electronic logging for WFD. You can log on paper and transcribe the logs later.
- We won't be removing logging equipment from the alternative power requirement any time soon. Plan accordingly.
- FT8: No.
- Read the rules several times every year. A surprising amount of the feedback we get each year is addressed clearly in the rules. Some folks actually try to quote ARRL Field Day rules to us. We do try to make the rules more clear every chance we get, but you have to read and understand them.
We really do read and consider all your feedback. That doesn't mean we will incorporate it, but we will discuss it. Your voices are always heard, because you are the reason Winter Field Day happens. Thank you again for making WFD 2026 the biggest and best WFD yet!
72
Mike, KY4LV