Next two weekends.......

There's a couple of busy weekends coming up in August.  Next Sunday, the 12th August, our club will be activating Brewers Mill Island, just south of Seeley's Bay on Hwy 15.  This Island has never been activated before, and is not listed on the Canadian Islands Award Site, so it doesn't have an official number yet.  We plan on having at least three stations up and running, all on battery power.  I'm going to assume two HF and one 2m/6m stations.

We have sent emails to the Canadian Islands Award website asking for this activation to be listed but as they have already ignored three requests so far for islands this summer.....we're not holding our breath.  You will be able to read about this activation on the US Islands Award Scheme website....along with other Canadian hams who have long since realized that sending activation notices to the Canadian website is a waste of time.

The weekend after that, the 18th & 19th August sees our club taking part in the International Lighthouse Lightship Weekend.  Once again we will be activating two lights, the first at Nine Mile Point on Simcoe Island, which is CA0031, and will be using the VE3FRG callsign. 

The second site is the light at Point Petre in South West Prince Edward County.  This is CA0026, and will be using VE3FCT as its call.  The Nine Mile Point light will be active on Sunday only, but we are hoping that the Point Petre light will be active on both days.

The event evolved from the Scottish Northern Lighthouses Award Weekend a biennial event which was first held in 1993 and became the ILLW in 1998. Over the years it has continued to grow and to date more than 450 lighthouses and Lightships in some 50 countries around the world are participating in the event each year.

The event is always held on the 3rd full weekend in August starting at 0001 UTC on Saturday and finishing at 2359 UTC on Sunday.

VE3FCT will be QRV on 7.250; 21.350; 14.250-14.260; and 50.125, for SSB depending on the band conditions.  All frequencies will be +/- 10 Kc or so.

Radios for VE3FCT, for both events, will be an FT-857D, and the antennas will be an 80m OCF Dipole and 31' homebrew vertical.  A Buddipole 6m antenna will also be used.

ARRL September VHF QSO Party

My next "big" adventure is the ARRL September VHF QSO Party, September 10th & 11th.  The contest begins 1800 UTC Saturday and ends 0300 UTC Monday.  I won't be active for that whole time frame, but hopefully, if the weather cooperates, for a good portion of it.

I'm hoping to round up a few more operators and operate as a multi station, operating on 6m SSB, 2m SSB and 2m FM.  The location we'll operate portable from is Fort Henry Hill, the highest point in Kingston.   That will give us some clear shots in every direction.

The object of the contest is "To work as many amateur stations in as many different grid squares as possible using authorized frequencies above 50 MHz".

As an addition to this contest the Northern New York Amateur Radio Association (NNYARA) is promoting and coordinating FM simplex operations during this contest from either mountain tops or fire towers in the Adirondack Mountains.

The NNYARA have designated the 2 meter FM simplex frequency 146.550 as the primary NNY frequency for this contest. If there is a "pileup" on .55, try .58 or other simplex frequencies. The 2 meter FM simplex ranges are 146.400-146.595 and 147.405-147.585.

So there’s an option for you in case you do not have access to 2m SSB, CW, and Digital modes.

The NNYARA is composed of ham radio clubs in the Adirondack Mountains and adjacent areas of northern New York State stretching from the Canadian border to the Mohawk Valley including Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Fulton, Hamilton, Jefferson, Lewis, Montgomery, St. Lawrence, Schoharie counties.

Hope to work you guys during the contest.  Rules can be found HERE.

International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend

This coming Sunday, the 21st of August, I'm off, with a few others from the Frontenac ARES Group, to Point Petre in Prince Edward County to activate the lighthouse there for the annual International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend (ILLW).  While this is a full weekend event, we will only be able to activate this light for about 6 hours.

Radios will be two FT-857D's and a FT-817, all on battery power.  Antennas will be an 80m OCF dipole, and various Buddipole antennas.

This event is not a contest.  The objective of ILLW is stated as "to promote public awareness of lighthouses and lightships and their need for preservation and restoration, to promote amateur radio and to foster International goodwill".  The rules can be found here.

The ILLW was started by a couple of guys who were members of the Ayr Amateur Radio Group in 1995 as the "Northern Lighthouse Activity Weekend", and they activated several Scottish lighthouses.  Since then it has grown and grown, and this year there will be 429 lighthouses and lightships activated over the weekend, in 49 countries.

VE3FCT will be QRV on 7.250; 21.350; 14.250-14.260; 28.450; and 50.125, for SSB, and on CW we will be on 7.040 & 7.110; 14.060; 21.060; 28.060; and 50.070.  All frequencies will be +/- 10 Kc or so.

You should also listen out for VE3FRG operating on Simcoe Island by the other half of the Frontenac County ARES group where they will be activating Nine Mile Lighthouse.

We plan on being there rain or shine.  Hope to see you on the bands.

Field Day 2011 - The Results

Another successful field day is over!   This year Frontenac ARES operated as a 5A station, covering all bands from 160m to 6m. 

Our weekend started early Friday morning when myself, Don-VE3MNE, Tim-VA3TIC and Dave-VE3DZE met for breakfast at the Star Diner on Princess Street.  After firming up some plans we left for Don's cottage on the shore of Hay Bay, about 45 Kms west of Kingston.

The gang arrived at the cottage about 0930 hrs and first to go up were the antennas.  We erected a 160m OCF dipole, two 80m OCF dipoles, a 20m Delta Loop, a 15m vertical and a 10m / 6m fan dipole, and we also put up three screen tents, two for operating and the third for eating.   It was a long busy day and we didn't stop to have lunch, about 1900 hrs we left for Picton to have supper at the Texas Grill.  This is the fourth year we have supper there, and this has now become one of our field day traditions.

The weather was hot and sticky on Friday, cloudy and unsettled on Saturday with a little bit of rain during the night.  Sunday was a cloudy day with a little bit of sun....and of course just as we started to take everything down the rain started!

On Saturday morning the rest of the crew showed up, George-VE3SIQ and Martin-VA3AKY, and got their stations put together.  Once everyone was ready we installed our notch filters and tested for interference from each other.  Everything worked well except for the 10m notch which had to have emergency surgery performed on it, but we eventually had everyone up and running.

The SFI hovered about 96 all weekend with the 'A' index around 6 and the 'K' index at 2.  The bands where, for the most part, quiet, but not really good.

The 160m and 80m station didn't fair too well.  The 160m band never opened up at all and hardly any stations where heard on it, and the 80m band was only a little better.  The 40m station, while busy with stations on the eastern seaboard, never opened up and went long to the west coast.

The 15m and 20m stations carried the load with plenty of activity and many contacts between the two stations.  Our 10m station did very well, making over 100 contacts.  Six meters was a bust however.

I would be very remiss if I did not mention that this year was the very first field day for Tim-VA3TIC.  In fact Tim (now known as the "Duke") has only been a ham for about 6 months.  We put Tim on the 20m station, and stood back in amazement as he racked up 425 contacts!  It's great to see that his many years as a CBer were good training for him as a contester!  

Overall we did 1014 contacts on five bands, and we're happy with that score.  After all the main thing is to get out there, do the set up, fix any interference issues, operate and have fun.......and we did that.  Many thanks to Don for the use of his property and for doing the cooking.

Oh yeah, the only thing with Tim is to keep him away from the trees at all cost.  He has a really nasty habit of attracting falling tree branches when we were putting up the antennas.



W3EDP Antenna

Next weekend is Winter Field Day and the group which is taking part from the Frontenac Radio Group decided today which antennas we will be using.  So, the choices are: a 80m OCF Dipole, a 20m Delta Loop, a W3EDP, and a 20m Buddipole Vertical.

(See updated article HERE)

(See another W3EDP article HERE)

We had everything but the W3EDP...but that got built tonight.  Many thanks to Bob, VA3QV, for his comments and thoughts on this antenna............and I'm sure you'll agree that it's also nice to have somebody else to blame if it doesn't work :-)

Everyone I have spoken to who has used this antenna speaks highly of it.  We'll give it a try and see how it works out.

We are already planning several Lighhouse activations next summer and this type of antenna will be very useful on those trips....when it's -30C it's always nice to dream of next summer's fun when it will be +30C !!

For all of you going out next weekend to take part in the Winter Field Day, be careful, dress warm, stay safe, and please remember that it takes four times as long to do tasks in the cold as it does in the warm weather, so take your time.

The Fifth Annual SPAR Winter Field Day!

I'm looking forward to the 2011 Winter Field day, which is being held over the weekend of 29th/30th January.  This will be the fourth year I have taken part in this event.

Now I'm not a fan of winter, and I hate the cold with a passion....but I do believe that SPAR has it right, emergencies and disasters do not always happen in the "good months".  And it is because of this that ARES members must train and operate in less than ideal conditions.

This year six of us will be deploying to Leggat Lake, about 7 kms north of Parham (40 kms north of Kingston).  We have the use of by brother-in-laws uninsulated summer cottage, that thankfully does have an operating woodstove, and you'll find me very close to it.....if not sitting on top of it for most of the weekend. 

The rules for the SPAR Winter Field Day can be found HERE.  We plan of having three HF stations on the air - 2cw and 1 ssb. We have a 80m OCF dipole, a 20m loop, and a Buddipole system ready to go. 

Hope to work you guys on the air that weekend.