Another WFD done...

Another great Winter Field Day down and done.

VE3ULC making the
satellite QSO.

This year we did a "3 Outdoor" QRP entry using the Upper Canada QRP Club callsign of VE3UCC.  It was a tight squeeze in the tent with 7 of us, but we made it work.

We set up the three antennas starting at about noon on Saturday.  I used a HyEndFed 9:1 Balun with 71' of wire, and it worked beautifully, just as advertised.  It went vertical up about 30' in a tree, and the horizontal component was aimed due south.  I also used two 12' radials on it.  The KX3 loved it and tuned it very quickly on all bands - 160m to 6m.  We also had a 80m OCF Dipole up and a EFHWA, both of them up about 40 feet.

Saturday, for most of the day it rained heavily, and that coupled with the snow on the ground made things very wet and damp.  Later in the day it turned to snow and we ended up with another 6" of it.  At least it wasn't very cold, in fact it hovered around 0C for most of the weekend.

Propagation was steady for the weekend and was:  SFI=72. SN=0.  A Index=5, and K Index=1.

The bands were very busy with people calling "CQ WFD", quite unlike several years ago when you hardly ever heard a station calling for WFD.  How times have changed!!

VE3MNE at the satellite station.

I used my KX3 powered by a 12 amp hour battery and was very impressed at how long the battery lasted.  The KX3 pulls very little out of the battery and it lasted forever.

Our main contacts were on 80m, 40m, and 20m.  We heard nothing on 160m, 15m, and 10m.  We did manage simplex contacts on 6m, 2m, and 70cm which added to our multipliers.

We also managed two DX QRP contacts on 20m,  one with Lithuania, and the other to the Canary Islands.  Both were easy to make, even at QRP power levels, and we received good signal reports back from them both.

However, at about 2000 hrs Saturday evening the bands just disappeared.  The signals for the most part just faded away.  Luckily our digital station managed to pull in a few more contacts before we shut down for the night.

Sunday we finally managed to get a satellite contact with a station in Western New York.  That was quite the occasion and the cheers in the tent were deafening.

It took us hardly any time at all to take everything down and coil up antennas and coax, and of course it was raining again.

Now we're looking forward to the warmth of spring so we can get out and play some more portable radio....but you never know, we'll probably be out before the warm hits.

One of our two KX3 stations.

QRP Sprint...

Tonight was the first of a series of QRP sprints being run by the Upper Canada QRP Club.  They are 2 hours in length, and are going to be held every 2 months, with the score being accumulative over the year.

This was the first event I have used my KX3 for since I bought it.   It performed very well, and I was very pleased with it.

Due to last weekends very high winds and bad ice storm, the only antenna I had available to use tonight was my 35.5' vertical wire feeding into a 4:1 balun.   It certainly wasn't the best antenna, it does need to be tweaked, but it did a good job tonight.

I managed to make seven 10w SSB contacts:  4 into Texas, 1 into Colorado, 1 into Ontario, and a great DX contact into the Cayman Islands with ZF2PG.  The last one made my night.  Given where we currently are in the solar cycle, I'm very pleased with the KX3 performance.

The propagation was definitely north-south for the most part.  The propagation numbers at 2030 UTC were:  SFI=71, SN=0, A Index=5, and the K Index=1.

Winter Field Day

Coming up on January 25th & 26th is Winter Field Day.

Information can be found HERE.

This is for ALL hams, not just North Americans.

The New Year...

VE3GO, VA3QV, VE3MNE, VE3WTN, & VE3DZE.

Some of the local characters at the Frontenac Radio Group meeting last night, held at the County Ambulance Logistics Base.

Instead of being out in the cold warehouse next to the command vehicles and support trucks, these guys snuck into the Chief's office.

As a group we are very fortunate to be able to use the logistics base for our meetings.  It also has the benefit that the paramedics, and their supervisors, know who was are.

Sad Day

Lieutenant-Colonel Fernand Gerard Villeneuve, AFC, CD, RCAF Rtd. 

July 2, 1927—December 25, 2019

Founder and First Commanding Officer of the 

RCAF Golden Hawks Aerobatic Team.

Australian Emergency...

DX Marathon...

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Years, I know I certainly did.  2019 seemed to go by so fast, we can only hope 2020 slows down a bit so we can all enjoy it.

The other day I came across this LINK.  If you don't know about the DX Marathon have a read, it's a well kept secret that needs to be made much more public.

What a great motivation this will be to try and get on the air every day.  Hopefully, as the bands get better, and the propagation starts to improve, this will be fun.

The rules for this event can be found HERE.

Happy New Year Everyone...

Its over….for this year

I think this years RAC Winter Contest was the best in a number of years.....by far.   In the end I managed to work Coast to Coast to Coast, ending up with a respectable number of QSO's......far better than the last three years combined!!

As well I also managed DX QSO's with France, Slovenia, and Belgium, all on 20m, and all of them totally unexpected.  In the end I made contacts on 20m, 40m, 80m, and 160m.  Occasionally I checked both 10m and 15m, but I never heard a thing on them, not even  in the CW portion.

Propagation for the contest was: SFI=72, SN=0, A=13, and K=2.  I have heard other local ops tell me they had high noise on the bands that hindered their efforts, but I had none of that, the bands sounded good to me.

I even managed to work the ever elusive Bob, VA3QV, on 20m.  It's amazing where you find him 😁

Now I'm off to start making some long range plans for 2020.

RAC Winter Contest 2019

Coming up this weekend, December 28th, is the 2019 edition of the RAC Winter Contest.  This is a great relaxed contest, many of the Ops stop and have a quick chat during the contact.  It's a good way to work Canada, Coast to Coast to Coast.

Rules can be found HERE.

Merry Christmas Everyone...

The Weekend...

What an awful weekend on the bands.....especially 10m.  The ARRL 10m Contest was a dismal affair this year, with absolute garbage propagation to contend with.

I did manage to put two VE6 SOTA Summits in my log on 20m, and I made a number of local contacts on 80m.

However, 10m just wasn't there.  I had no responses to any of my CQ's and I heard no SSB stations at all.  There were a couple of CW stations down on the bottom end of the band but they were sending way too fast for me to read.  So that was it...a total bust.

The RAC Winter Contest takes place on December 28th.  One can only hope the propagation improves a great deal before then.....and pigs may fly as well 😎

ARRL 10m Contest

I'm looking forward to this weekends ARRL 10m Contest, and I'm hoping the propagation is good enough to make a serious attempt at it, at the very least I want to better my score from last year.

Looking at this weekends weather forecast, it looks like a good one to stay indoors and get on the radio.

Rules can be found HERE.

I'm thinking about doing a mixed mode (SSB & CW) QRP entry, using the new KX3.  Not sure my CW is up to speed though, but you have to bite the bullet and just dive in.

See you guys on the bands.