The New Antenna Farm

Plans are well under way for the new antenna farm at the new QTH, in fact the first antenna will be up in the air before noon next Saturday, and we should be back on the air no later than Monday, December 3rd, at noon.

The new 80m OCF Dipole was cut and made last Thursday evening with help from Don VE3MNE and Tim VA3TIC, and will be up in the air about 50 feet when we finish with it.  The 31 foot vertical is currently in pieces, but ready to go up as well, and the new radials are cut and rolled up waiting for the big day.

The VHF farm will have an Arrow dual band J-pole, a four element Yagi, and a 5/8 wave ground plane. 

So, God willing, we will be back on the air from 440 to 160 in a few short days.......now if only the snow will stay away for a few days longer !!

VE3CLQ's Shack

It's a sad day at the QTH today, after the Remembrance Day parade the HF and VHF/UHF antennas came down, one after another, and VE3CLQ is QRT for about two weeks while the move takes place.

It's very strange to look into the back yard and see no antennas there, after seven years here they have become a fixture.

The new shack is in the planning stages, and the new antenna farm will actually be up and in the air before the first stick of furniture arrives in the house.

The new back yard is 160 feet x 120 feet so there is lots of room to hang them....oh, I should also mention that the back yard has four 60 foot maple trees and a 50 foot fir tree, so lots of options.

Remembrance Day

In Loving Memory of the

Officers, NCO's, and Men

of

2816 Squadron, RAF Regiment

1941 - 1946

LEST WE FORGET

 



Hurricane Sandy

Quite the blustery day here in Kingston as Hurricane Sandy starts to come through the region.  We are expecting the winds to gain in strength over the evening and late into the night. 

It will be an interesting drive into work tomorrow morning, and I'm fully expecting trees to be down on the roads, and the power to be off.

Frontenac Emcomm started a listening watch at 0800 Local this morning (Monday) on both local Kingston repeaters, as well as the US 7.268 Hurricane Watch Net.

The County CEMC emailed at 1030 this morning inquiring what the groups standby status is, so things are starting to get stepped up around here.

For those interested there is a lot of available information on the US Hurricane Watch website at: www.HWN.org.

Simcoe Island - ON-022

It was a great day to be out operating portable today.  The weather here in Kingston was mainly cloudy and windy, but still warm enough not to have to wear a jacket outside.

Right after coffee this morning I took the ferry to Wolfe Island, which surprisingly is already using the alternative winter dock on Wolfe Island due to really low water levels.   After a short 8 Km drive I arrived at the small two car cable ferry to Simcoe Island, which was also having some major issues due to low water.

Simcoe Ferry in smoother water than today!

The ride over to Simcoe Island was really rough and I'm pleased to report that my Ford Ranger received a free car wash on the way over with all the heavy spray coming over the bow.

After a 10 minute drive I was at the very far end of the island, very near the Nine Mile Lighthouse.  I parked right at the end of the road and set up my 31' vertical and more radials than ever before.  Radio of the day was my IC-703 with its 10 "screaming" watts.

The bands were really busy today and the SFI numbers were excellent.  We had the Worked all Germany contest, JOTA, the W / VE Island QSO Party, and the NY QSO Party on the bands all at the same time, so lots of action to be had.

First station in the log was DL0TS, a club station in Lierderbach, Germany, this was at 1500 utc, and after that the contacts just kept coming.  I was impressed with the IC-703, it really gets the signal out, and more often than not I got the DX station on the very first call. 

After two hours in the chair I had this feeling I was being watched, but there is nobody around there at all, the site is extremely quiet and peaceful.  In fact I didn't see another person there all day.  Looking over my shoulder I was greeted by a line of about 20 brown cows all looking at me.......wondering what the hell all the noise was I suppose!

After a quick bite to eat and a drink it was back at it.  By 1830 utc there were 30 QRP contacts in the log and it was time to head home. It was a really good day, and a welcome break from the house buying that's been going on around here lately.

The only downside to the whole day was the number of LIDS who chose to tune up right on top of either a QSO in progress, or a station calling CQ.  Why do people do that???!!!

And lastly, it was nice to hear all the youngsters on the air today with their JOTA stations.  Let's hope more than a few of them catch the ham bug!!

Activations this weekend

This weekend, 20th & 21st October is shaping up to be a pretty busy one for Island and Lighthouse activations here in Eastern Ontario.  It is the W / VE Island QSO Party weekend and many hams will be heading out to take part.

So far we have the following anouncements....

Dave VE3FOI will be activating Tintern Island - ON 254.

Tim VA3TIC and Derek VE3HRW will be activating Howe Island - ON 023.

Doug VE3GJ will be activating Henley Island - ON 007.

Bill VE3FCT will be activating Wolfe Island - ON 009 and Simcoe Island - ON 022.

Jerry N1Qll will be doing a first time activation of Mistake Island, Maine.

Also, John VE3ISE will be activating both of the Port Dalhousie Lights - CAN 540 and CAN 541.

On top of these activations we also the Jamboree On The Air this weekend.  We have two local stations going on the air for this event.  We have VE3SFD operating from Otter Lake Scout Camp, and VE3SIQ operating from Whispering Pines Scout Camp.

So a busy weekend, let's all hope the SFI Gods are in a good mood and cooperate so we can all have a good time!

Jamboree on the Air 2012

Frontenac Radio Group will be hosting Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts from the Perth and Ottawa area on Saturday, October 20 and Sunday, October 21, at Whispering Pines Scout Camp, starting at about 0900L.

Call sign in use for the weekend will be VE3SIQ. 

Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts all over the world will be participating in the Jamboree on the Air.

Look for the Scouts on SSB (phone)
80 m 3.690 & 3.940 MHz
40 m 7.090 & 7.190 MHz
20 m 14.290 MHz
17 m 18.140 MHz
15 m 21.360 MHz
12 m 24.960 MHz
10 m 28.390 MHz
6 m 50.160 MHz

This is a great opportunity to showcase ham radio to our younger generation, so if you hear a station calling "CQ JOTA" give them a shout!

Sunday at the Lighthouse

On a positive note.....it didn't rain!  It was very cool though, the high was only +8C and there was a pretty good breeze down by the water to make it feel real cold.  Shades of winter days to come!  After the summer we have had it is very hard to start thinking of how to dress for the cooler weather. 

Rig of the day was the IC-703 and the antenna was the "Chilicon Special Mk 2".  Once again this setup did a great job.  We made a good number of contacts, from N6O in Santa Barbara, California, to DL/PS3LPG in Weeze, Germany, and a ton of others in between them.

What is amazing is that I was kind if lazy today and I only put out two 33' radials, not the usual small forest of wire that is usually strewn about the ground, and to be honest I didn't notice any difference in antenna performance. 

Today Larissa-VE3KGC came along with us.  Larissa is a fairly new ham, and today we had her on the air with her "new" Ten-Tec Scout.  It's a really nice little rig and it performed very well today.  This was the first time I have seen this rig in action and I was impressed with it. 

The numbers were not very impressive today, we had: SFI-98; A Index-6; K Index-1; and the SN-39.  We certainly seen a lot better over the past few weeks. 

Oh well, hopefully it will get better for next Sunday when I'm going to give George-VE3SIQ a hand attempting to activate, for the second time, Brewer's Mill Island.  Hopefuly this time we will get the required 26 QSO's.  I'm starting to like this moving houses, it gives me another excuse to get out, decompress and play radio.

Nicholson's Point Light

I'm in the process of taking down all the HF and VHF antennas at my current QTH due to the upcoming move to a new and much bigger QTH.  So postings on the Blog have had to take a back seat for a while....and probably will do for a few more weeks. 

However this coming Sunday I, and several others, will be out at the Nicholson's Point Light for a day of portable operating.  This will be the very first activation for this light, CAN-1425 after we had it approved and the ARLHS assigned it an official number last year.

The light is in a small lakeside park, and because of the popularity of this park we can only activate the light in the cooler weather, in order to stay clear of the crowds that normally swarm the place.

Three HF stations will be on the air operating as VE3FRG. Frequencies will be:

7.250
14.250 - 14.260
28.450

There will also be a 2m SSB and 6m SSB station on the air.  They will operate on 50.125, and 144.200.

We are all praying to the weather God for a sunny, dry, but cool day with excellent prop!   Here's hoping!

Sunday Radio

Something broke the local Internet this morning after our ham breakfast, and with no new books loaded in the Kobo I was forced to play radio to fight off the boredom. 

Up to the shack I went, turned on the FT-950, and was nearly blown out of my seat by the signals coming in on 10m, 12m and 15m.  I spent a great couple of hours cruising the bands and managed eight solid QRP SSB contacts.....

10m HA0NAR - Hungary

10m 9A208DX - Croatia

10m 9A4WY - Croatia

10m GW4BLE - Wales

10m IT9PQJ - Italy

10m TU5KG - Ivory Coast

15m EG5INT - Spain

12m SV3AQR - Greece

SFI was at 126; A Index at 4;  K Index at 1; and the SN at 46.  Not the best numbers we have seen but they did the job today.

So, whoever the kind soul was who ran into the telephone pole and cut the internet connection.......thank you for a most enjoyable morning!

A New Blog

A few days ago a new blog made its debut, the Portable Activations Blog.  Most of my readers will know of the problem a lot of activators seem to have getting the details of their upcoming activations posted on certain websites.

Of course a lack of publicity causes a lack of awarness of the activity, and ultimately, a lack of traffic to the activation site.  Hopefully this new blog will be able to generate more traffic to the activators and help make their day a lot more successful than they have had in the past.

The new blog will post any activation, Lighthouse, Island, or SOTA......it's a non-discriminatory blog.  The only goal is to get a bit more awareness to our portable activities out there so other hams can see what we're up to.

The URL for the blog is: http://ve3.blogspot.ca/  Please pass it on to any known activators, it will only work if as many hams as possible know about it, and use it.

A Superb Weekend

Another year has past and Chilicon 2012 is now behind us.  What an outstanding weekend of ham radio, not because of the operating we managed to fit in, but because of the learning experience of it.  Many hours were spent discussing the finer points of radios, feedline, and antennas, and it was a delight walking around the sites checking out the amazing array of antennas that the guys were using.

Don VE3MNE and I arrived at the campground at about 1430L and were met by Michael VE3WMB and Jim VA3KV who had already arrived and had set up their camps.  Chris VA3CME was there as well, he had arrived on Wednesday.....obviously in a hurry for the Chilicon experience, and I know Ying VA3YH was there, but I'm not sure if he arrived before us or not.

The afternoon sky did not look too promising, so Don and I hurried and began to set up the site.......and really, we finished not a moment too soon as the rain hit us and continued to come down for the next seven hours.  Luckily the wind never came up and rain just came down straight, not sideways. I'm pleased to report we didn't get wet!

After Friday supper of steak and veggies everyone descended on our site as we had it almost completely tarped off with two 15 by 20 tarps and everyone could stay dry under them.  The single malt arrived with Dave VA3ORP and the radio talk began.  It was a good evening with everyone getting to know each other or catch up with old friends.

Saturday dawned with a good sign - a blue sky!  After a good breakfast of sausage and eggs it was antenna erecting time.  We put up two antennas, the now famous 31' vertical "Chilicon Special" and a 44' doublet, and started to play radio.  The bands were excellent with 15m, 17m, and 20m just hopping with signals.  Just after lunch a good number of the Ottawa area hams arrived including VE3EMB, VE3CBK, VE3EUR, VE3MPG, VA3AMX, VE3GTC, and the star of the show: VA3QV.  It was a Who's Who of QRP.

During the afternoon Chris VE3CBK and Dave VA3ORP changed into WW2 battledress and fired up their No. 19 Radio Sets and a No. 48 Radio Set.  In due course a 1953 Willy's jeep arrived, including uniformed driver, and both Dave and Chris began their No. 19 Set mobile fun.  They managed to work Bob VA3QV on AM, Bobs very frst AM contact.  Both Dave and Chris spent the night in a 1942 army bell tent, and it didn't leak!

The bands were pretty crowded and occasionally we had a bit of interference from the large number of radios on the air at the same time.  However, with a little bit of juggling and changing bands we managed to all have fun.  I'll tell you though, that No. 19 Radio Set has a pretty wide signal.

Just before supper the sky started to turn a bit dark and it did manage to rain for about 10 minutes.  We had all decided to order pizza from Capilano Pizza in Kemptville before hand so Michael collected the money and sorted things out.  It was decided because of the weather and our large tarps everyone came and ate and spent the evening socializing on our site again.  Once again VA3ORP's portable bar arrived with the single malt.

Saturday was September 15th, Battle of Britain Day, and the 72nd anniversary of it as well.  As VA3ORP is ex-RCAF, and I'm ex-RAF and RCAF, we toasted the occasion with a good British Beer, and an appropriate one as well, Thwaites "Lancaster Bomber" brewed in Lancashire.

Yes I know Lancaster's didn't take part in the Battle of Britain, but I did look for Spitfire or Hurricane Beer and couldn't find any.....so it had to do!  I'm sure the few of "The Few" who are still alive really wouldn't mind.

Saturday night was pretty cold and it did get down to +2C, and I for one had to get out of my sleeping bag around 0230L to add a pair of sweatpants and a fleece top in order to get warm.  I've already asked for a new sleeping bag for Christmas as the one I have is just a bit too old, but we survived.

It rained again for a few minutes Sunday morning, just before we started to take down the camp.  Of course that meant that the tarps got wet again and had to be packed away in that state.  Soon the radios were packed away, antennas dropped and rolled up, and the vehicles packed.  About 1130L we departed for a restaurant in Kemptville for a really good brunch, but I didn't write it's name down so I can't share it.  Then it was back onto Hwy 15 for the long drive back to Kingston.

This year's winner of the long distance award went to Eric VA3AMX who had a good CW QSO with a VK7 in Tasmania with 5 watts into a G5RV Junior. 

Chris VA3CME with his new KX3



The center piece of Ying VA3YH's 20m Spider Beam



The homebrewed 20m Spider Beam by Ying





The inside of Dave VA3ORP's WW2 Bell Tent - complete with
Persian carpet !!



The Magnetic Loop built by Michael VE3WMB

It was a fantastic weekend, even with the rain. Many, many, thanks to the Ottawa Valley QRP Society who sponsor this event.  Those of you who do not attend it don't know what you're missing. Only 363 days till the next Chilicon!

CAN-788 Activation

What a difference 24 hours makes!  Today was fantastic, mainly blue skies and a very comfortable temperature, and best of all no rain - either falling or in the forecast.

After breakfast at the Star Diner we left for Prince Edward Point Light, it's about an hour and a half drive from Kingston, including the 15 minute ferry ride at Glenora.  While it was a nice trip, it will be even better in a couple of weeks when the leaves start turning. 

The lighthouse itself is well within the boundaries of the Prince Edward Point National Wildlife Area.  This national wildlife area is nearly 1400 square acres, and hosts many thousands of migratory birds each year.  Since the mid-1960s, this section of the Long Point Peninsula has been recognized as an important area for migratory birds and in 1996 was designated an important bird area.

The area is full of birds and the very few other people that we actually saw there all had $1000 cameras with huge lenses attached. 

When we arrived at the parking lot we were the only people there and we had a great view out over the small harbour.  Because of the low water level most of the boats were high and dry.  The water was extremely shallow.

We set up two HF stations.  The rigs of choice were FT-857D's running 100w from batteries.  One station used a "Chilicon Special Mk2 Vertical", and the other a "Crappie Doublet" fed with 300 ohm twin lead.  Both antennas worked great and pulled in some good European DX.  Both stations were on the air by 1115L.

Twenty-Six contacts were made, and here is the breakdown:

6m - 1 VE3 contact in FN14
15m - 5 USA contacts, 2 VE contacts, and 15 European contacts
40m - 1 VE3 and 2 VE2 contacts

Best contact of the day was with Charles - VE2LQ/qrp running SSB with 2.5 watts from St. Jean, Quebec.  Charles had a very weak signal, but we managed to pull him out of the mud and relay some traffic from him to Bill - VE2HG in Val d'Or, Quebec.

Overall it was a good day, bands were in so-so shape with some QSB at times.  SFI was sitting at 123; A index at 5; K index at 1; and the SN at 90.

Of course on the way home we had to stop in at the Black River Cheese Factory and spend some money on the worlds best cheese.  I bought some aged onion and garlic cheddar, and always thinking of a good survival technique......a bag of home made dark fudge for the XYL! 

Prince Edward Point Lighthouse

Prince Edward Point Lighthouse

Late notice, but a number of operators are leaving after breakfast on Sunday, September 9th, to activate the Prince Edward Point Lighthouse - CAN788.  This lighthouse has not been activated for many years and is in a very sad state of repair.

This lighthouse is also known as Travers Point Lighthouse by the locals.  It was built in 1881, and due to its poor state of repair it was replaced in 1959 by a skeleton tower which remains active today.  The old building is still there but it looks very sad, but I guess if you were 131 years old you'd be looking mighty sad as well.

We hope to have at least two HF stations on the air and a 6m station.  Best place to look for us will be 14.250 to 14.260, 7.150, and 50.125.  The stations should be up and running by 1130 local EDT.

Callsign used will be VE3FRG.

We'll be listening, hope to work some of you.

Another Activation this weekend.....

Sent to me by Tom, KC2SFU:

A group from the Adirondack Fire Tower Radio group in Chenango County, NY, will be activating the fire tower at Stamford, NY, this Saturday.

The goal of this group is to promote the idea of operating from current and former Adirondack Fire Tower locations.

The group will be on air starting around 0800L (EDT) and will be on 2M (SSB 144.205), and (FM 146.520). they will also be on HF 40M (7.186 ssb), and may even work a satellite or two.

The group hopes to hear you on the air.  For those of you with an interest in joining in, here's a great page (HERE) that lists most of the fire towers in the Adirondacks.

"A" marks their Tower

Another Island Activation

I received an email from John VE3ISE this afternoon.  John lives in Grimsby, Ontario, and is planning an island activation in the near future. 

His email is below:

Myself and a couple of friends will be activating Byng Island ON-037 on Saturday September 8, 2012

We hope to arrive before Noon on Saturday, set up and be on the air by , no later than 12 noon. All depending on local weather conditions.  All QSL's should go to the operators home call.

Two stations will be running: 

John VE3ISE on 40 Meters 7150 ( +/- 10 kc) from 12 to 2 Pm then switching to 20 Meters 14260 ( +/- 10 kc) running 100 watts to Hustler verticals.

Doug VE3GJ on 20 Meters, HF Back Pack Frequencies running QRP.

This activation has also been listed on the US Islands Award website, and a copy of the email has also been sent to the Canadian Islands Award website.

Point Petre Lighthouse

Glenora Ferry

For a Sunday 0530L came pretty early!!  Luckily I had loaded the truck the night before so the noise was kept to a minimum,  "SWMBO" could sleep in peace, and I wouldn't be in trouble for waking her up at that unGodly hour! 

Once again the weather was just glorious, bright blue sky, with just a few clouds blowing by, and the Timmy's coffee nice and hot. 

Then it was off down Hwy 33 East to Glenora, meet up with Don-VE3MNE on the road, hop on the small ferry over to Picton and a stop for a good breakfast at the very appropriately named Lighthouse Restaurant.

The drive from the restaurant to the lighthouse takes about 30 minutes over some pretty remote country roads through farming country.  Point Petre is at the very tip of the South-West corner of Prince Edward County.  The whole area is a wildlife and bird refuge, and it streches for many miles along the shore of Lake Ontario.  This area has been left as remote as it has because it was, in an earlier life, an anti-aircraft artillery range for the Royal Canadian School of Artillery (Anti-Aircraft) based nearby at Camp Picton.

Camp Picton in 2012

The school provided training for anti-aircraft gunners, gunnery radar operators, technical assistants and artillery instructors. A number of operational artillery units were also located in Picton, including the 127th and 128th Medium AA Batteries, Royal Canadian Artillery (RCA) and the 2nd and 3rd Light AA Batteries of the 1st Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, RCA. The RCAF also maintained a small detachment at the base to provide aircraft targets for the gunners. 

Camp Picton closed in 1969 as it was surplus to DND's requirements.  Today it is used by small private aircraft and the Royal Canadian Air Cadets.

We started to setup as soon as we arrived at the lighthouse, which still looks as pitiful as it did last year, with its supporting building looking shabby and all boarded up.

Don and I both brought our FT-857D's.  I put up a 6m dipole and a 2m four element yagi, and Don put up his "chilicon vertical Mk.2" with 12 radials of various lengths and operated up on the HF bands.

The bands were not in very good shape today as we quickly found out.  All bands seemed to have some very deep QSB, and the conditions were really bad. We managed a grand total of eight contacts in five hours...pretty miserable really.  We had no response to our CQ's on 2m SSB and 6m SSB at all, just empty air.

Our HF contacts included five US lighthouses.  Our small log is as follows:

W4J at Lighthouse US-0025 on 20m
WS1SM at Lighthouse US-141 on 20m
N1NC at Lighthouse US-116 on 20m
N8MR at Lighthouse US-253 on 20m
N2CMC at Lighthouse US-011 on 40m
W9IMS in Indianapolis on 17m
EA8AM in the Canary Islands on 15m
KA4WJR in Ocala, Florida on 20m

The SFI today is 97;  the A index is 11; the K index is 2; and the SN is 56.  Of the three years we have activated this light for the ILLW, this has to be our worse showing ever.  Hopefully next year we can redeem ourselves.

Setting up outside the fence at Point Petre

Thanks to Tim who posted us and our frequencies on the DX Cluster.

Nine Mile Lighthouse

Dave VE3DZE antenna

Today the Frontenac Radio Group activated the Nine Mile Lighthouse on Simcoe Island for the International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend.  The lighthouse is number CA-0031, and the island is ON-022

Dave Ve3DZE and Tim VA3TIC both went over early this morning on the ferry to Wolfe Island and then onto the very small cable ferry to Simcoe Island.

They had superb weather, with beautiful blue sky and a cool breeze, and not a cloud to be seen. 

The bands however were not in the best of shape with the SFI sitting at 97, the A index at 11, the K index at 4, and the SN at 42.

The two of them hung in there and between them they made over 70 contacts on the two HF stations.  Interesting to note that all of the contacts were either Canadian or American, no DX at all.  I managed to work both of them on 20m and 40m at 0930L, and then went on to work a pile of other lighthouse who were also on the air.

Nine Mile Point Lighthouse from the road.

This is the first half of our weekend Lighthouse activations, tomorrow, Don VE3MNE and myself are leaving at 0600L to drive to the south western corner of Prince Edward County to activate Point Petre Lighthouse, CA-0026.  Hopefully we wil have the same weather, but better SFI numbers!

I'll post our report tomorrow evening.  Look for us tomorrow on 20m between 14,250 and 14.260, or on 40m at 7.250 +/- 10 Kc.