Happy New Year

Happy New Year Everyone 
and
Stay Safe Out There !!

VE3 SOTA

For those of you looking for up-to-date information on the new VE3 SOTA Association, have a look HERE.   New information was posted there today.

Merry Christmas

It's that time of year again, when people around the world start talking about peace and goodwill.   Perhaps one day they will think about peace and goodwill all year long.

I hope you all have a wondrous Christmas, but please - remember those less fortunate than us.

Winter Field Day - 2018

Coming up quickly is the 2018 Winter Field Day!

Not only during summer field day in June, do the bands come alive with improvised signals proving the ability to respond to emergencies.  Since emergencies and natural disasters don't always happen in the good weather, during Winter Field Day, frigid winds, icy limbs, and bitter cold replace thunderstorms, mosquitoes, and the blistering heat of summer.

Rules for the event can be found HERE.

Remember to give yourself and your team a lot longer to complete the site setup, it can take up to four times longer than in the warm weather.

Make sure you watch out for each other for signs of Frostbite and Hypothermia.  Stay safe out there!!

December QRP in the Park...

VE3ULC operating and dressed for the
weather today.

Great day on the bands today !!!   Jim, VE3ULC, and I went to Lake Ontario Park and operated QRP portable for a few hours, probably for the last time this year as the snow is due to start coming down next week.

The propagation numbers today, at 1730 UTC were:  SFI = 70, SN = 0, A Index = 4, and K Index = 0.    The bands were very quiet and luckily we had an absolute S0 noise floor in the park.  Just about every signal we heard was just booming in to us.

One of our goals was to work Rick, VE3ORY/W4 in Florida, as he's emigrated down there for the winter.  Jim managed to work him on 40m with Olivia 8-500, and again on 20m using PSK-31, and we both worked him again on 20m SSB.

Best contact of the day for me was with GI0AIJ in Northern Ireland who was a solid S9++ to me and he kindly gave me a 56 in return...not too bad for 5w into an MFJ 17' collapsible whip antenna.

I also managed to get KC0ZNI in the log.  Phil is in Paola, Kansas, and was activating one of the state parks today.  Booming signal from him, and I received a 57 from him....again, not too bad for a QRP signal.

All in all a great day outside playing radio.

VE3FI operating today at Lake Ontario Park....dressed for the Ontario Winter.

VE3ORY/W4 operating today in Florida....dressed for the heat wave down there !!!!!

2017 ARRL Sweepstakes

Starting this Saturday afternoon, at 2100 UTC, this years ARRL Sweepstakes starts !!   Since winning the 2013 Canadian Division trophy for QRP I haven’t really tried hard at this contest….but this year I might give it a good push and see what I can do, but I want to have a good look at the upcoming propagation first.

The link to this years Rules are HERE.

Propagation wise we could be in for an interesting time.  One of the sites I frequent has this to say about the next few days:

"No G1 (Minor) or greater geomagnetic storms are expected.  No significant transient or recurrent solar wind features are forecast".

Hopefully everything will go smoothly......but you just never know.....

Good Luck to everyone!

In Remembrance......

In Loving Memory

of the 

Officers, NCO's, and Men

of

2816 Squadron, RAF Regiment

December 1941 - June 1946

Per Ardua

Coming Soon........

Over the past few months a renewed push has been taking place to try to get Summits on the Air (SOTA) finally operating here in VE3 land.   This quest was started over seven years ago by Martin, VA3SIE, but was sidelined due to technicalities.   Martin is now a regional manager in the VE2 SOTA association.

This past September the SOTA management team in the UK was contacted again and they have now decided that VE3 land no longer has the technical difficulties that we had back in 2010.

For those who do not know what SOTA is, it is a ham radio operating award program that was launched in the UK in 2002, and has now grown world-wide.

The aim of SOTA is to encourage licensed ham radio operators to operate temporarily from the summits of hills and mountains....in other words get out of the shack, operate, and get some good and healthy exercise.

Now Ontario does not have a lot of true mountains, it is true that we have some high summits up in the north, but they are rather scarce in the southern part of the province.  To this end we have been told that we will be allowed to operate as a 100m prominence association, instead of the normal 150m prominence that they ask for.

Ontario will be split into four regions, corresponding to the current RAC Sections.  Thankfully we have already had volunteers step forward to manage the Greater Toronto and Ontario South regions.

More news will be posted as it happens.

CQ WW SSB Contest

The towers at VE9FI

What a great week!!!   Don, VE3MNE, and I left last Wednesday morning for the 2 day trek to Hampton, New Brunswick, where we took part in this years CQ WW SSB Contest using the station of Russ, VE9FI.

The drive down can be summed up in one word....RAIN.  It absolutely poured down for the great majority of the trip, stopping just before we arrived in Hampton on Thursday afternoon.  I have to admit the highways in New Brunswick are fantastically well maintained.  It was a real treat to drive on them.

Thursday afternoon and Friday were spent settling in and learning how to operate the equipment in the shack.   Russ has two 75' towers, one with an 8 element log periodic and the other with a 6 element 20m beam.  We also had a 1/4 wave vertical for 80m and 40m, a full sized folded dipole for 80m and 40m, and a full sized long wire for 160m.

I was using the resident Flex-6700, and Don used his own FT-950, so I had a bit of a learning curve to learn to operate the Flex....never having done so before, and I have to tell you that after spending 36 hours operating one I much prefer my FT-950.....but perhaps if I used it more I might change my mind.

The operating position for the Flex-6700.

The contest itself was a lot of hard work....but fun.  It was very different being on the receiving end of the pileup instead of one of those stations calling in.  Nothing like being hit by a wall of sound...all calling you to cause a bit of "pucker" factor......   We had lots of good comments about our signal, including to places I never work from home in Kingston, most of the time the received report was "booming".

The other thing we quickly realized was that the propagation is different from here at home.  Stations we can not get from Kingston, no matter how many times we call, all answered us on the first call from Hampton.  We also had to take into consideration that the signal bounce was landing in a different location from home and that caused a bit of worry until we realized what was happening.

At the end of the contest we ended up with a total of 997 contacts and a submitted score of 808,707, and now we await the judges comments.......

The trip home had even more rain than the trip down, and this time we also had 50 km winds gusting to 90 km for most of the trip as well....not very comfortable being buffeted around like that.   We managed to make a grand total of two 2m contacts, both on the way home.  Thanks to Ted, WW1TED from Hamlin, Maine, and Stephan, VE9SAP from St. Basile, for their company on the Grand Falls, NB, repeater.

All in all it was a fantastic trip.....I could have done without the 1270 km drive each way, but what the hell, it's a great way to see the country.

Don and I can't thank Russ and Pat enough for their unbelievable hospitality....and Pat's cooking has to be eaten to be believed.....what a cook !!   Thanks guys for everything !!

And now, a few pictures........

The 20m beam down ready for the high winds.

Another shot of the Log Periodic.

The best sea food in NB.....at St. Martins.

Off on an adventure.....

This coming weekend is the CQ World-wide SSB DX Contest and I'm off on a mini-DXpedition to Hampton, NB, to take part in the contest.

VE3FI and VE3MNE will be operating as VE9FI for the contest.  Both Don and myself are really looking forward to operating from the VE9FI station as Russ has put in a lot of work into it since he moved down there.

We reckon it will take 2 days driving to get there, so allowing some time to get to know the systems, we plan on leaving home on Wednesday morning and will spend the first night in Edmunston, NB, before moving on to Hampton on Thursday.

Looking forward to a great contest using some great antennas.   Lots more to report once I get home next week.

The VE9FI towers.....ready to go!!

Lunch Hour QRP

Looking for something to do at lunch time?  Following my last entry to this Blog, I can across the following this morning, and waited for permission to repost this information.  Mike, K9ODX, has a great idea and here it is:

Lunch Hour QRP

Ivin and I have discussed doing a "lunch hour" contest in an effort to encourage each other to get out and operate, even if it's just during a lunch break throughout the week. I then thought, if we were going to do this why not invite others to join us?

I have proposed the following to our local "QRP group" here in Central Indiana and I would like to share it with our blog readers as well. The event would last for one month and would be limited to one hour per day, your lunch hour. Please review the idea below and let us know what you think.

Purpose: To practice and encourage the use of portable/mobile amateur radio and operating at QRP power levels. Participants will drive to a remote location during their regular lunch hour, away from their home or work, and complete as many QSOs as possible using a portable/mobile station with a mobile antenna attached to their vehicle.

Dates: One Month (Monday - Friday)
Time: One Hour per day during your lunch hour
Modes: CW or SSB
Exchange: Call, RST, State (or Country if DX)

Special Rules: QRP power levels - 5w CW & 10w SSB

Points: 2 points for each CW QSO & 1 point for each SSB QSO

Multipliers: x2 points if other station is mobile & x2 points if other station is QRP

Do you know how we might make this more fun and interesting? Would you be interested in joining us? Please comment below and share your thoughts.

72 de Mike W9ODX

What makes a good club?

What makes a good club?  How about "No Dues, No Rules, Just Fun".  Well the club I belong to has no dues, no rules, but I don't find it "fun" anymore.  It's a typical club where only 3% of the members do 97% of the work, but then everyone enjoys the fruits of their labour.

I've gotten tired of planning events that only ever have the same three people attend them.  It's just not worth getting upset over any more, and it's time for the other 97% to start taking an active part in running the club.

For the past six weeks I’ve been doing my own thing, not attending club activities or meetings, I don't monitor the 2m repeater much anymore…but I am going to the local park on Sunday mornings and experimenting with different antennas and operating QRP with a group of like minded individuals…and I’m having a real blast doing it and making some good DX contacts as well.

I’ve decided that I’m going to get less and less involved with the club...and more and more involved with portable operating, HF QRP and VHF/UHF contesting, and plan my own mini-DXpeditions…in other words I’m going to start having fun and doing ham radio the way I want to...life is just too short to do otherwise.

In the mail today......

The mail was picked up, and I received a surprise today.......

Thanks to the guys at US Islands, I had a blast on Simcoe Island - ON022 that day....but I would be really amiss if I did not mention that Jim VE3ULC was also there working the digital contacts with me.

Messing about with Antennas

Yesterday here in Kingston it was a glorious day, with a high of 27C......41C with the humidex, so of course it was the perfect day to go to Lake Ontario Park and play with some antennas.

Several years ago I bought from Buddipole a Rigid Shock-Corded Whip and a Mini Shock-Corded Whip, and I have never used them...they just sat in the corner of the shack.   The issue here is that Buddipole produces no information about how to use these whips, unlike the rest of the products they have.  These two types of whips appear to be orphans.

There seems to be nothing on the Internet about these whips, no ideas for settings or how to set them up, or even how to tune them so they work on various bands.  So, it seems like it was time to experiment with them.

My Rigid Shock-Corded Whip is made up of five 22 inch sections, with a 19 inch adjustable stinger on the top and a 17 inch one on the bottom, giving it a total length of 146 inches.  According to the Buddipole literature, this whip is good for 10m through 17m, and can be used on 20m with the use of two extra 22 inch arms.

After four hours of experimenting with different set-ups here's what I managed to get to work:

On 15m, at 21.150, the SWR was 2.0:1.  The whip was set up with no stingers used, and on an 8 foot mast.  I used a single 10' 9" counterpoise wire running from 8 feet down to 4 feet.

On 17m, at 18.136, the SWR was 1.5:1.  The whip was set up with the top stinger fully extended, but the bottom stinger was not used.  It was also set-up on an 8 foot mast.  I used a single 14' 3" counterpoise wire running from 8 feet down to 4 feet.

On 20m, at 14.145, the SWR was 2.0:1.  The whip was set up with both stingers fully extended and two 22" arms.  It was also set-up on the 8 foot mast.  I used a single 14' 3" counterpoise wire running from 8 feet down to 4 feet.

Even with changing the lengths of the counterpoise wire I could not get below these SWR measurements.

The Mini Shock-Corded Whip on the other hand could not be tuned anywhere.  The version I own is the nine-section version with a 10 inch adjustable stinger on top for a total length of 122 inches.  This whip is going to take a lot more experimenting before I can get it to work.

I'm very surprised that Buddipole does not seem to support these whips the way they support the other antennas they produce.  The documentation they produce for their other antennas is fantastic.

Chillycon 2017

What a difference a year makes !!!   This Chillycon was anything but chilly, in fact I doubt it got below 23C all weekend.  We had beautiful blue skies and not a drop of rain in sight.  The only downside was the 14 gazillion mosquitoes we had to dodge all day, they were relentless.

It was different this year being at Murphy's Point Provincial Park instead of at Rideau River.  Some of the campsites left a lot to be desired, and yet others were large and very usable.   Also, these sites were not as private as at Rideau River, but hopefully we will be able to go back to Rideau River next year after they fix the flood damage.

We had about 14 camping, 6 from Kingston, 6 from Ottawa, and 2 from Montreal.  Many others dropped in for the day on Saturday and stayed for the Pizza supper that night.   It was great sitting around after the supper talking to everyone, in fact the last guy left the campsite at around midnight, so a good time was had by one and all.

Lots of different radios and antennas to see and talk about this year, most of us have come away from it with a few ideas for winter projects.

Bob VA3QV was supposed to come for the Saturday, but was a no-show.....I will talk sternly to him over this issue later.   It was great to see Martin, VA3SIE, and his XYL for the first time in about 6 years.......he had the Polar Bear QRP Club flag flying proudly over his site all weekend.

Due to the lousy propagation not many QSO's were made, however, Eric VA3AMX won the Annual DX Contest with a QRP CW QSO with a Brazilian station.  

363 days to go till the next Chillycon!!

Jim VE3ULC operating his portable Digital gobox.

The camp Kitchen.

Somebody has to guard the Scotch and Rum!!!

Wow, September already!

VA3QV heading to Chillycon

As we enter September I really wonder where this year has gone.  It seems with all the rain we had that we have gone right from spring to falling about 3 weeks!!

There's not really a lot planned for this month except for the annual Chillycon weekend which is being held at Murphys Point Provincial Park this year due to flood damage at our usual location at Rideau River Provincial Park.   This year it will not be the same, it seems a bit more crowded at Murphys Point and not as open......but it will have to do for one year.

On a good note, the long-range weather forecast for the Chillycon weekend, September 16/17 is looking mighty dry and warm.....what a change from the past three years that will be!!!

Later on in the month, September 24th to be exact, a group of us are planning to activate the Portsmouth Olympic Harbour Light for the very first time.  It already has a number, CAN-815, and we are looking, and hoping, for good weather for that event as well.

It's starting to cool off at night these days as well, that means here in Canada we start our annual antenna maintenance programs to make sure they will stand up to our five months of crappy winter weather.

2017 Island QSO Party

VE3ULC hiding under his umbrella

A great time was had by one and all!!!

This year Jim VE3ULC and I decided to go over to Simcoe Island, ON-022.  Simcoe is a relatively small island and has no RF noise at all, our meters showed S0 on the noise floor.

Lots of signals were heard on the bands, although we were mainly on 20m and 40m.   That weekend, besides the Island QSO Party was also the weekend for the Kansas and Ohio QSO Parties, so lots of traffic out there for us.........lots of LIDS and people tuning up on top of ongoing QSO's as well.

Jim operated PSK31 and I operated SSB, which worked out quite well for us.  Jim's rig was an FT-817ND into a multi-band sloper antenna held up by my 33' MFJ mast at one end.   I operated my FT-897D into a MFJ 17' collapsible whip antenna up at 8' off the ground, with two 16.5' elevated radials.  Both systems worked as advertised.

VE3FI's antenna

The WX was great, hot and sunny with just enough of a breeze to keep the worst of the bugs at bay.

Between us we managed to work 10 islands, including a couple of local ones, and another 40 contacts from people hunting the islands.

All in all it was a great day, and we're going to have to do this again before the snow flies....maybe in late October if the bands behave.

Be Careful Out There!!

They say that ham radio is basically a safe hobby.  There has also been considerable discussion and concern about the possible hazards of electromagnetic radiation, including both RF energy and power-frequency (50-60 Hz) electromagnetic fields.

BUT…..did anyone think of those simple dangers, like rocks falling out of trees?

Last Friday, in preparation for the weekends Island QSO Party, Jim VE3ULC, and I decided to test out some equipment on my driveway to make sure it was working well for the weekend event.  A portable antenna needed to be checked out, so up went a line attached to a large rock…which was placed inside a cloth bag.

My Head after being cleaned up.

Well…this was fine until the rock and line went over the wrong branch, and Jim pulled on the line to bring it down so he could try again.  It came down all right, right onto my head.  

While Jim yelled a warning I couldn’t see a thing as the midday sun was in my eyes.  The first thing I knew was a tremendous pain in my head and copious amounts of blood running down my face. 

So please keep in mind that you never know when something is going to happen and it pays to play safe.

No real damage done, but when Jim is around I’m wearing my old army helmet…it’s safer!!

My new operating helmet!!!

Island QSO Party

Don't forget, tomorrow is the W / VE Island QSO Party !!

You can find the rules HERE.

Jim-VE3ULC and I will be heading over to Simcoe Island early tomorrow morning.  We plan on operating a Digital station and a SSB station, and will be on 40m through 6m.

The propagation numbers for tomorrow are not looking too bad as of today, but lets see what happens in the morning, if nothing else it will be a nice day out on the island.

Stay tuned for the full report.....

Not the day I had hoped for......

The 20m Antenna

Well, we had high hopes for a good day of activating and chasing lighthouses......that was not too be.  At 1020 UTC the propagation numbers were:

SFI= 80, SN= 41, A Index= 21, and the K Index= 5......not the numbers you want to see on a big event day.

We also had a S5 to S7 noise floor at the operating site.  It rained heavily for about 20 minutes while we set up our gear.......just what we needed !

Once we were up and running the bands were in a disgusting state, between the high noise floor and the very deep QSB we had it was very difficult to work anyone.   In fact we had two SSB stations and a Digital station on the air and made a grand total of 4 contacts all day.....including one, solitary, lighthouse station in Florida, K4PIL.

However, having said all that, we did have a good time out there - but then again, any day outside playing radio is better than being home with a large "honey-do" list.......

My antenna for the day was my MFJ 17' collapsible whip, up at 8' with a 17' counterpoise.  Radio was my FT-897D, with my FT-817 being used for VHF work.

I hope the propagation...and weather... improve a great deal for next weekends W/VE Island QSO Party.  I'll be out for that event as well.  Details will be posted here later in the week.

The 20m station using an FT-897D

VE3ULC operating the digital station