CAN-788 Activation

What a difference 24 hours makes!  Today was fantastic, mainly blue skies and a very comfortable temperature, and best of all no rain - either falling or in the forecast.

After breakfast at the Star Diner we left for Prince Edward Point Light, it's about an hour and a half drive from Kingston, including the 15 minute ferry ride at Glenora.  While it was a nice trip, it will be even better in a couple of weeks when the leaves start turning. 

The lighthouse itself is well within the boundaries of the Prince Edward Point National Wildlife Area.  This national wildlife area is nearly 1400 square acres, and hosts many thousands of migratory birds each year.  Since the mid-1960s, this section of the Long Point Peninsula has been recognized as an important area for migratory birds and in 1996 was designated an important bird area.

The area is full of birds and the very few other people that we actually saw there all had $1000 cameras with huge lenses attached. 

When we arrived at the parking lot we were the only people there and we had a great view out over the small harbour.  Because of the low water level most of the boats were high and dry.  The water was extremely shallow.

We set up two HF stations.  The rigs of choice were FT-857D's running 100w from batteries.  One station used a "Chilicon Special Mk2 Vertical", and the other a "Crappie Doublet" fed with 300 ohm twin lead.  Both antennas worked great and pulled in some good European DX.  Both stations were on the air by 1115L.

Twenty-Six contacts were made, and here is the breakdown:

6m - 1 VE3 contact in FN14
15m - 5 USA contacts, 2 VE contacts, and 15 European contacts
40m - 1 VE3 and 2 VE2 contacts

Best contact of the day was with Charles - VE2LQ/qrp running SSB with 2.5 watts from St. Jean, Quebec.  Charles had a very weak signal, but we managed to pull him out of the mud and relay some traffic from him to Bill - VE2HG in Val d'Or, Quebec.

Overall it was a good day, bands were in so-so shape with some QSB at times.  SFI was sitting at 123; A index at 5; K index at 1; and the SN at 90.

Of course on the way home we had to stop in at the Black River Cheese Factory and spend some money on the worlds best cheese.  I bought some aged onion and garlic cheddar, and always thinking of a good survival technique......a bag of home made dark fudge for the XYL!