Saturday in the Park...

Saturday was a brilliant day around here, no humidity and the daytime high was only 23C (73F). There was not a cloud in the sky. It was also the day before my wife came home from her trip out West, so I had to make the most of it. It was the perfect day for playing radio in the park......but which park?

It turned out that Foley Mountain Conservation Area was having an open day, and all entry fees were waived for the day. It also turns out that I had never activated the conservation area for either POTA or VEFF. So it was off to CA-5542.

It's a pleasant drive up to Westport where the park is, and it takes about 55 minutes at the most from my home.

On top of this, propagation was pretty good as well. The numbers were: SFI=123, SN=145, A Index=7, and the K Index=2. Radio was my FT-891 set at 40w, and the antennas in use were my usual hamsticks.  At this activation I made contacts on 40m, 17m, and 15m.

As I got there fairly early in the morning I scored the perfect parking spot, back in the trees with 100% shade...doesn't get better than that. First up was Bob W2FN, in Williamsville, NY. On 17m I put two Austrian Stations in the log, George OE4JHW, and Mike OE4MXB, and on 15m Jose EA1BUL made a solid contact with me. 

The only downside to the day was the very deep fading on many of the signals which made some contacts pretty difficult. 

It started to get very busy at the park, especially as it was free entry, so I managed to get 25 contacts and then packed up and headed home.  This allowed other people to park and enjoy their day as well.

Here's the days contact map:

Stay Safe Out There!

My Second Three Park Rove...

Tuesday dawned bright and early as they say, and I had plans. My wife was away visiting her family and that left me with some spare time to disappear and play radio.

Propagation was not the best, and I was determined to get all three parks I had chosen to activate done in one day. The answer of course was to up my game and take my FT-891, and set it at 40w, instead of the usual KX3 at 10w, which is exactly what I did. The FT-891 was matched with my various hamsticks.

The first park, CA-1045, Puzzle Lake Provincial Park, took just under an hour to get to, it's north-west of my home QTH in a very rural area. I put 12 contacts in the log in about 18 minutes, all of them on 40m. The band wasn't bad, but it was noisy and the QSB pretty bad.  I was sure glad to get the extra 30w behind my signal.

First in the log for the day was Martin AC1LL, in Bremen, Maine.

It was off to my second park, CA-1514, Mellon Lake Conservation Reserve, about 30 minutes from my first stop. This one is difficult to get into, and the first thing I saw in the parking lot was a shot up canoe sign.....never a good thing!

This park saw me on both 40m and 20m. First in the log for this park was Dave W4DMH, in Paw Paw, West Virginia. The noise had settled down and the QSB was not as bad in this park. The surprise of the day was getting Larry F5PYI in the log from Maclas, France. In this park I put 19 contacts in the log in 30 minutes.

Then it was off to the small town of Tweed, in Hastings County, for lunch and a coffee before I attempted the third and final park of the day.

The third park as CA-0404, Stoco Fen Provincial Park, about 10 minutes east of Tweed. There are no facilities here at all, just 20 million mosquitoes...all heading for you! You must park on the side of a pretty narrow gravel road, and hope nobody comes past you.

This park I only used 20m, as it was pretty busy with POTA activations and I knew it wouldn't take long to get activated on that band. First in the log here was Ted N0TTZ, in Cheyenne, Wyoming. He was followed quickly by Jose EA1BUL in Asturias, Spain, and Larry F5PYI again for a second park. I had 17 contacts at this park, and it took 24 minutes to activate.

Propagation for the first 2 parks was: SFI=146, SN=146, A Index=17, and the K Index=2.

Propagation for the third park was: SFI=146, SN=152, A Index=17, and the K Index=3.

The temperature was 35C (95F) by noon and very high humidity. I was glad to get the engine running after each activation to get the air conditioner turned on so I could cool down. I also went through 3 litres of water during the day.

It was an excellent day, and I have another three (maybe 4) park rove planned for late next week....if the propagation holds good!

Below is the contact map for the third activation of the day at Stoco Fen.

Stay Safe Out There!

A Beautiful Day...

It was a beautiful day here last Wednesday, blue sky, and not a cloud to be seen. It was far too nice to spend it indoors in the shack chasing DX. Instead I decided to head to the Frontenac Biosphere, CA-0023, and activate it.

The Frontenac Biosphere is a huge area covering most of southern Frontenac Country and Leeds-Grenville County. There are an unlimited numbers of spots to pick to operate from, although I tend to favour a site near the old K&P Rail trail. That ensures there's parking nearby.

Propagation was pretty good for a change that day: SFI=152, SN=128, A Index=8, and the K Index=1. Radio used was my KX3 with 40m and 20m Hamsticks.

You can see from the picture on the left that the temperature was extremely uncomfortable. At 1510 UTC it was 37C (98.6F), way too hot to operate for too long.

The answer of course is lots of water, and being able to turn on the trucks air conditioner every once in a while to cool things down.

As it turned out after 12 contacts the bands turned off and the signals simply disappeared, giving me an excuse to go QRT and get home to a cool house.

I don't think I'll be going out again in those kind of temperatures.

Stay Cool Out There!!