We hope you will join us this coming Saturday, February 1, for the annual Freeze Your Buns Off Winter QRP Field Event. Some of our more balmy climes have emerged from the first ever Blizzard of ’25 with record snowfall, temperatures below 10F, and wrecking the chances for big scores. 65F here in South Louisiana today. Those in the real Winter Zones, on the other hand, may pick up those lost opportunities for record scores. Conditions should be good again this year for lots of Qs. Ten through 20 meters has been especially good and even the lower frequencies as it approaches evening. Lots of DX early in the morning and shortening up in the late morning hours. 40m might be a good place to start in the earliest hours. The rules are our same Rules Almost Forever. Work anything that walks, crawls, or flies and it counts as a Q. Even SSB and FT8 are tolerated. K7DD is the bonus station again this year and worth 100 extra points per band. He’s worth a lot.
Please drop me a note with your plans and I’ll publish them here as received. N5GW, NK9G, K5XU and K5JS appear to already be making preparations. Check out the rules under the FYBO tab above and see the results and soapbox with pictures from a previous year under the same tab. Spread the word to your favorite QRP and other mailing lists. Shame your friends into joining in. POTA and SOTA ops can turn their HF outings into a twofer by adding the temperature at their operating position and submitting their efforts through the logging website.
The auto log has been updated for 2025 and appears to be working. You can enter your scoring summary online as well as soapbox comments at http://www.qrpcontest.com/FYBO There is even a way to enter pictures. We’d appreciate, as always, having those to enjoy. If you would prefer to send pictures or comments by email or links to where you post your adventures, you can send those to me at jwstevens+FYBO2025@gmail.com and I will post them up on this website.
Our usual admonition applies again this year. This is not for an episode of Survivor. Please be very careful as the colder temperatures can be dangerous. You’ve made it this far in life, keep it that way as we want you to come back next year.
72 John K5JS
