New EndFed Antenna...

The bands have not been the best for the past week.  Lots of QRM and very deep QSB across every band I wanted to operate on.

So I decide to have a look through my junk drawer and see if I had the parts to build a new Endfed for portable use in the field...for those times I need something better than a hamstick.   I came across a small 49:1 unun, made by LnR Precision Inc.  The label on it states it's good for 10/20/40m, and it originally came with 41' wire.

Now, when I bought this, several years ago, I could never get a decent SWR with it anywhere on the bands it was advertised for.  In the end I just stripped off the wire and put the unun in my junk drawer and forgot it.  

I had a look at it again, and thought I would give it another chance.  I cut a 66' piece of wire, attached it to the unun, and added a few SOTA Beams insulators.  Up it went on my 33' mast and I put the analyzer on it.  It wasn't too bad, and after I had removed about 3' of wire  - it was just about perfect.  

I made several good solid contacts with it, and it is now usable on 40m through 6m, far more than it was supposed to have when it was new.  Best of all the SWR is 1.5:1 to 1.8:1 everywhere it will tune.

I'm glad I looked through the junk drawer now!

The finished antenna, ready to go

Map of my contacts the first time it was used.

IOTA Contest...

This weekend is this years RSGB IOTA Contest.   It's been a few years since the last time I took part in this event, but I thought I might try a few hours chasing islands this year....it will be a nice break from chasing POTA stations.

It runs from 1200 UTC July 24 to 1200 UTC July 25.

The Rules can be found HERE.

Have fun, and stay safe out there!

Lake on the Mountain

I was unable to get into this park, VE-0264, last weekend due to it being extraordinarily busy and crowded.  

It's a very strange provincial park, there's nothing there, other than a small gravel parking lot, and a viewing platform to look at the lake.

I arrived early on Thursday morning in the rain to find the parking lot empty except for a rather bored scruffy looking security guard, who immediately came over to find out what I was doing there.  Once I told him, he phoned his boss to find out if that was legal for me to do.  Yeah, the guy was on a power trip pretending he was a real cop.

The propagation that day wasn't too bad, SFI=76, SN=25, A Index=6, and the K Index=1.   The big problem I had was the extremely deep QSB and the static crashes from the lightening we had coming into the area.  I had an S5 to S7 noise floor on 40m, and a S2 noise floor on 20m.  I did not see any POTA traffic on any other band that morning.

Radio of the day was my KX3 set at 10w, and I used 40m and 20m hamsticks on a mag-mount on the roof of the van.  

In a little over an hour I made 7 contacts on 40m, 21 contacts on 20m, and I even managed to make 3 park to park contacts.  In the end I had to shut down because the lightening around me made it unsafe to stay on the air any longer.  So with 28 contacts in the log I set off on the 70 minute trip home.

Below is a screen shot of my contacts.

Radio Overheating?...

I was reading today that some hams are having issues with their portable rigs overheating and shutting down in the warm weather we have been having out west while doing POTA, and SOTA, activations.

I've never had that issue.  My Dad taught me how to make a suitable sun/heat shade for any radio I might have that I want to operate portable.

The answer is a simple cardboard box big enough to fit the radio, painted gloss white on the outside, and flat black on the inside.  

The gloss white paint reflects the suns rays and the flat black helps you see your radio in the intense sunlight.  This idea is a lot cheaper than some of the responses to the original article.

Below are some photo's of the sun shade I made last year with my KX3.  It works very well. This took me less than 10 minutes to make, and the only expense was two cans of spray paint.  I hope this idea helps somebody.

July? Already?

It's definitely true that the older you get the faster time moves.  I can't believe we're already in July!  Over the weekend I did manage to complete two POTA activations, although on Saturday the propagation was not very good.

On Saturday I drove west to Trenton and then south to Carrying Place, where the Murray Canal runs through Prince Edward County.  This is part of the Trent-Severn Waterway National Historic Site, or as we know it, VE-4889.  I managed to put only 10 contacts in the log for this one, and every contact was hard fought for.  

When I looked at the propagation numbers before I left home, they looked pretty good.  SFI=94, SN=72, A Index=5, and the K Index=1.  However, I didn't see the small note about the X1.5 Solar Flare which caused a major bump in the propagation.  

I had also planned to activate Carrying Place National Historic Site, but could find no place to park so I could operate.  This is one I don't think I will be back to, it just isn't conducive to activate safely.

The third planned activation was supposed to be Lake on the Mountain Provincial Park.  This also didn't take place, not because of bad propagation, or lack of parking, but because there were just too many people wandering around and I didn't think it was safe to setup my station.  I will be back for this one, but I'll do it very early on a weekday when the crowds will not have gathered yet.

Sunday arrives and I think I had better stick close to home as it's my 34th wedding anniversary, and I would like to live to see my 35th........but the XYL asked me if I was going to go out and "play radio", well, needless to say I took a chance, said yes, and drove to activate the Frontenac Arch Biosphere, VE-0023.

Once again the propagation numbers looked good, SFI=90, SN=81, A Index=4, and the K Index=1.  But, they had fooled me yesterday so I checked them a few times to make sure I wasn't going to get fooled again.

It was early and there were not too many Park Hunters around, but this time the numbers held and I did a successful activation of VE-0023.  It was done only on 20m, normally I do it (no idea why) on 40m.  But today I reached out and 11 stations who had never worked it before got a chance to do so.

So it was a great anniversary weekend, I got to "play radio" and the XYL got some much deserved peace and quiet......a win win situation 😆

Stay safe out there!!

Sunday's 20m contacts from VE-0023