Chilicon

Man, what a weekend!!  The Ottawa Valley QRP Club held their annual Chilicon over the weekend of 17-19 September at Rideau River Provincial Park, and a good time was had by all that attended.  It was also QRP Afield weekend as well.

Rideau River Provincial Park is a very clean park, and the camping sites are very well kept.  There was a good number of people in the campground but it wasn't full, nor was it noisy.

Only four of us camped there for the weekend, Mike VE3WMB, Martin VA3SIE, Jim VE3XJ and myself.  It would have been nice to have more camp with us, but we did have a good number of visitors come out on Saturday to do some operating with us.

This was the first time I had camped using the new truck.  It was pretty comfortable, and I'm sure if it had rained I would have stayed dry.  As I had not been camping for a year or two, it was an interesting time trying to find all my gear.

The bands were in good condition, and I made several good DX contacts on 20m SSB running only 10 watts. First up was Gerry F6IGS in Bordeaux, France. Then it was Al YV2BYT in South-West Venezuala, and finally Nikola 9A9AA in Zagreb, Croatia. As usual I used my FT-857D and a vertical Buddipole. I also had QSO's with a dozen or so amateurs across North America. The campsite was a great place to operate from.

It was a real pleasure to meet, and talk, to the guys from Ottawa, especially the two Bob's, VE3MPG and VA3RCS.  I really learned a lot from them all. Mike VE3WMB decided to take part in the Feldhellschreiber Sprint on Saturday lunch time.  This was the first time I had seen that mode in action, and many thanks to Mike for taking the time to explain it all to me.

Hopefully Chilicon will become an annual affair for the QRPer's in Eastern Ontario, I'm already planning to be there in 2011!