A Little Island Activating...

This past weekend was the W/VE Island QSO Party....well it should have been, except for the fact that the US Island guys who run the event decided that VE stations could no longer enter the contest due to our low numbers. Whatever, we'll play on our own islands and have just as much fun.

So, today I drove up to Washburn Island, ON-289, with Don VE3MNE, and had an excellent time. The island is also a POTA "2fer", with CA-4882 and CA-0023...so an even better time was had.

Propagation wasn't too bad, compared to what we had at the beginning of the week, but it's still got a ways to go before it's really good. The numbers today were: SFI=232, SN=188, A Index=10, and the K Index=1.

I changed things up a bit today, instead of my usual Hamsticks on the roof of my truck, I chose to erect a 29' Rybakov antenna with two 17' ground radials and use it with my KX3. It's a good antenna, worked as advertised by several YouTubers, and I was very pleased with it. You will see this antenna built with either 25' or 29' of wire. Furthest DX was Thomas SM3NRY, in Sweden, closely followed by Chris K2MMT, in California.

Shown on the right is my 4:1 Unun, Rybakov and four 17' radials, although I only used 2 today. I think this antenna is going to get a lot more use, as I really enjoyed being able to switch bands without unscrewing various whips in order to do so.

I ended the day with 27 contacts in the log on 40m, 20m and 15m. I did try 12m but had no luck there at all.

Here's todays contact map:

And here's how I hold the DX Commander up in the air:

Stay Safe Out There!!