NA QSO Party 2019

Coming up next weekend is the North American QSO Party.

Rules can be found HERE.

Dates and Timings are 1800 UTC January 19 to 0600 UTC January 20, 2019 (third full weekend in January).

We're looking at snow here next weekend so this contest may be a good reason to stay indoors and stay warm.

Not much else going on in the VE3FI shack at the moment.  Too cold to do much outdoor operating, so spring had better hurry up and get here!

Don't forget that Winter Field Day is coming up on January 26th & 27th.  Details HERE.

Happy New Year...

RAC Winter Contest

Had a great day yesterday taking part in the RAC Winter Contest.  It was a good warm up for Winter Field Day.

I managed to work everywhere except VY1, VE8, and VY0.  Strangely, there was no sign of any station out of the north this year.  There was quite a bit of European traffic on the bands, and I did manage to put France and the Netherlands in the log as well.

The score from last year was beaten by a big margin, many more multipliers jumped into the log this year compared to last year.  Yet the propagation was a lot worse.

Contacts were made on all bands except 160m and 10m.  Lots of traffic on 160m, just didn't hear anyone calling CQ Contest, and nobody responded to my CQ's.  And, as usual nothing at all was heard on 10m.  However 6m was very active and I managed a good number of contacts there.

At 1800 UTC on Saturday, the propagation numbers here were: SFI = 68, SN = 0, A Index = 24, and the K Index = 3.  Not the best set of numbers, but the actual activity on the band was out of all proportion to what we should have had given those figures.  So there you have it, get on the air and call CQ.

As a side note, this is my 500th Blog entry.  I never anticipated reaching this number, but now I'm here.........I think we'll keep going 😎

2019 will see some changes, some new radios are coming, and I'm planning a total rebuild of my antenna system.  The current antennas have been up  for six years and it's time for some major maintenance and changes to them.

Merry Christmas

They say the best of all gifts around any Christmas tree is the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other. Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas surrounded by your precious family, and many great blessings for the coming year. 

and

I hope to work you all during the RAC Winter Contest
December 29th, 0001 - 2400 UTC

See You On The Bands!!

New Handheld...

The new radio arrived today, just in time for the empty box to go under the tree 😆.  I ordered a new dual band Yaesu FT-2DR, C4FM and analog handheld.

From what I've seen of it in the short time I played with it before the battery had to be put on charge, I'm going to enjoy this radio.

Over the past few years I've only owned Baofengs, so this is a real step up in the radio department and a huge learning curve.

This radio also has a built in GPS unit and does APRS, something I've not really been into before....so again, I'm looking forward to experimenting and messing around with it.

Ontario Island activations coming up....

I received the following information this morning and thought it may be of interest to a few readers of this Blog....

John, VE3ISE,  will be activating Lakecourt Island. ON-303. & Lighthouse CAN 1417 on Dec 15, 2018 at 1500Z on or about 7270 +/- QRM switching to 20m at 1630Z on or about 14270 +/- QRM.  Grid Reference for this is FN03fe38. 

ALSO:

He will be activating Forans Island, ON-293, & Lighthouse CAN 1417 on Saturday  Dec. 22, 2018 at  1500Z  on or about 7270 +/- QRM switching to 20m at 1630Z on or about 14270 +/- QRM....This area has heavy electric static but he will do his best. Grid Reference for this is also at FN03fe38. 

ALSO:

He will be activating Haywood Island, ON-292, & Lighthouse's CAN-540 & 541  On Dec. 29, 2018 at 1500Z on or about 7270 +/- QRM switching to 20m at 1630Z on or about 14270 +/- QRM.  Grid reference for this is at FN03ie. 

These activations are in conjunction with the ARLHS Christmas Lights QSO Party, and all of the above is dependent on weather.  

It looks like John has a few busy weekends coming up !!

WSPR

It's been a long time since I was on WSPR, but I thought I would try it tonight to see how the propagation was doing.

Here's 40m at 2105 Local on December 5th:

And, here's the 80m map for 2117 Local on December 5th:

Nothing too spectacular tonight.  This was 5w into my 148' long wire inverted L, up at 50'.

I also made several contacts today with what has to be the world's most boring mode....FT8.  If that's the future of ham radio, I'll be turning off my radios and taking up knitting really soon.  Yeah, it's nothing I want to get into, I'll stick with WSPR and PSK-31.   

Interesting.....even if a little late

I was on the Ontario QSO Party website today, looking for some QRP stats......and came across this:

This is the first I knew I had won this certificate, even though I no longer have that call sign.....better late than never !!  It was a pretty poor score, but I recall that the bands where absolute crap that weekend and I fought for every contact.   Hopefully 2019 will better.

Winter Field Day 2019

Get Ready, Winter Field Day is coming !!!!   January 26th & 27th, 1900Z to 1900Z.  

Don't be late !!

Check out the Winter Field Day Association Website.....HERE

Want to find out where the nearest WFD site to you is?  
Want to post your location so other hams can find you?   Click HERE.

ARRL Sweepstakes

Coming up this weekend, November 17-19, for stations in the United States and Canada (including territories and possessions) is this years November Sweepstakes.  

The object is to exchange QSO information with as many other US and Canadian stations as possible on 160, 80, 40, 20, 15 and 10 meter bands.

Rules can be found HERE.

I'll be entering as a QRP station again, perhaps this year I can equal my 2013 score when I won the plaque for the top Canadian QRP station.

Hope to work you guys on the bands.

Remembrance Day 2018

In Loving Memory of the

Officers, NCO's, and Men

of

2816 Squadron, RAF Regiment

December 1941 -  June 1946

LEST WE FORGET

CQ Contest - VE9FI

Don, VE3MNE, grounding coax.

Well, its nice to be home after 7 days away operating with the Hampton Amateur Radio Club.   The first few days where spent getting set up and acquainted with the shack equipment.   We also discovered that we had to ground the coax for the six element yagi to bring the noise floor down...but that was an easy fix.

We had a few issues - fortunately not very many - with the antennas, but quickly got them sorted out.  Mainly it was to to people operating on antennas that where too close together, or with similar polarities.

Friday night, for the second year in a row, we could not get a run on 80m or 40m, the stations just where not there.  One or two would pop up to work us..with difficulty..and then disappear.  It was very frustrating.  However, 20m was open into the Europe until very late, so we did well there.  We also managed a few contacts on 160m, all of them into the USA.

The propagation numbers for Friday night where:  SFI-69, SN-0, 'A' Index 6, and 'K' Index-3....not the best of conditions either.

Waterfall on the Flex, Saturday afternoon

On Saturday morning 20m didn't open up until 1200 UTC.  Before then we managed to work the odd strong station, most of whom I am certain were operating with more than legal power levels to reach out and work us.  After it opened it just went crazy, it was wall-to-wall signals right across the band, I've never seen it so crowded.

Our second station had a good day working 15m where a lot of contacts where made during the day.  It also made a few 10m contacts as well during the afternoon which was a surprise.  In the evening and overnight it was on 40m and 80m where business was slow.

On Sunday the bands opened up pretty much the same time as Saturday, and the day went pretty much the same with 20m being the crazy band again.  The 'A' Index had dropped to 4 and the 'K' Index dropped to 1, so that helped a bit with improving what little propagation we had.

Some of the more exotic stations we worked where in Malawi, Oman, UAE, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Tanzania, and Senegal.  I even managed to work Malc, 2W0SEU, and surprised him by speaking a little Welsh to him.....not something he expected from a VE9 station!!!

Our total score was about 75 QSO's down from last year, but given where we are in the solar cycle we are very pleased with our performance.  Now we wait to see the posted results, and hope we did as well as last year.

Many, many thanks go out to Russ, VE9FI and his XYL Pat, VE9DZ for their great hospitality during our time at their QTH.  They take us feel so at home.

Here's a few more pictures.....

Operating station No. 1

Operating Station No. 2

Russ VE9FI in his shack

The lovely view of the snow on the way home at Riviere du Loup.

Trip to Hampton, New Brunswick

The trip started off under blue skies and continued just like that through Quebec.   Traffic was very light, flowed well, and construction was only in a few places and it didn't impede traffic at all.   The night stop was in Saint Basile, just south of Edmundston...and again the weather was great.

Then came the trip from Saint Basile to Hampton.   As the song goes "What a difference a day makes" !!

About 25 km south the roads took on a strange white appearance, and there was this strange white stuff flying around in the air as well.   The temperature went down to 0C, and it went downhill from there.

Trans-Canada Highway, Oct 24, 2018

By the time we got to Fredericton the road was covered in about 6 inches of fresh wet and sloppy snow, and the roads were truly awful.  South of Oromocto the snow turned to rain and by the time we arrived in Hampton the roads were clear.

Not much 2m activity on the 1200 km trip.  Worked the trans-Canada IRLP Net on the Fredericton repeater, and after the net I worked VE9MTB on the same repeater.

The last two days we have been testing antennas and the amps and so far everything is working as advertised.   It's a big learning curve switching from my FT-950 to the Flex 6700 that's at my operating position.

Hopefully on Monday the snow will have melted and temperatures will be more around normal for this time of year........and the trip home will be fine.

Near Woodstock, NB.  Oct 23, 2018

JOTA 2018

Hey!!!  This weekend is the Boy Scouts annual Jamboree on the Air (JOTA). JOTA is a worldwide event, and Scouting stations in Europe will be looking for contacts as well. 

In North America keep an ear on the following frequencies:

3.690 and 3.940

7.090 to 7.190

14.290

18.140

21.360

24.960

28.390

Get on the air and work the kids !!!!

Trouble Commenting

Several people have told me that they are unable to post comments on my blog these days.   I am also having issues answering those who can post comments.  I have no idea why things have changed as I have not done anything to the page settings in over a year.

Emails have been sent off to Blogspot outlining the issue so I will just have to wait and see what they can do.

In the meantime, if you cannot post a comment I apologize.....but it's out of my control at the moment, hopefully things will change in a day or two.

Coming up......

October.  That means fall colours and.......CQ WW DX SSB Contest, as well as a road trip to Hampton, New Brunswick to the big contest station of VE9FI.

Since last years contest VE9FI has added several new antennas, we now have quarter wave verticals on 80m and 40m, and another big amplifier for the second operating position.   So we should be in excellent shape for this year.....hopefully we will get a bit of good propagation to help us along.

The Rules for this years event can be found HERE.

I'll do a complete write up after the event on the trip down and back as well as the contest itself.  Hopefully it will be as good a time as we had last year there.

Not far from Hampton is the village of St. Martins.  We go there for great clam chowder and fish and chips.....but they also have a lighthouse. So if we get time we might spend an afternoon at the light activating it....stay tuned.

St Martins Lighthouse.  CAN-944

CW.....the adventure begins again

In 1971 my Dad passed his exam and became VE7BUX.   From that moment the house was filled daily with the sound of CW as soon as he was home from work.   He did have a mic, but I rarely ever saw him use it.

In 1974, due to a mistake by the then Department of Communications, Dad was issued a new call, VE7CVQ....which I now hold.  Apparently the DOC had already issued Dad's first call and for two years both he and a station in Northern BC (Smithers, I believe) both operated as VE7BUX.

Every day at 1630 local, Pacific time, he and his cronies: Steve VE7OF, Rusty VE7OM, Bill VE7ATR, and another ham in Kelowna who's name is now lost to the mists of time, fired up their rigs and spent the next hour holding court on CW.    Supper would arrive at the table, the rig would be turned off, we would eat, and then after supper on went the rig and he and I searched the bands for rare and strange CW signals.  It was quite the treat for me to be in charge of the VFO in those days.

Slowly my CW skills started to improve.....even though I didn't have a license....I started to be able to read the signals that arrived at our antenna.   In 1973 and 1974 I went to night school both winters to try and learn enough to get my ticket, but it never happened.  It was way over my head at the time.  In fact it wan't until a good number of years after Dad passed away that I finally got serious, got my ticket and became the proud owner of his old callsign - even managing to get the CW qualification.  However, I didn't use CW and it's always bugged me as I know how much it would have meant to him if I had been into CW.

Six weeks I ago I gave myself a big kick in the ass and decided it was time to knuckle down and get into CW.  So I bought a portable straight key from Palm Paddle with the thought that after spending that much money I better get to work on it......and I've been practicing since it arrived.

I found a great free CW trainer on line, it's called "Seiuchy", and you can get it HERE.  For one hour every evening I sit down in the shack with a happy ghost and copy code - slowly building up my speed - and waiting until I think I'm good enough to actually go on the air.  Hopefully that won't be too far in the distance.  SK.

What a Weekend.....

Chillycon 2018 is over.  The annual gathering of Eastern Ontario QRP'ers.

This year it should have been called "Heatcon".   The weather was fantastic, but far too hot and humid for comfort, most days it was 28C but felt like 39C with the humidity.........I know, next year we'll probably be complaining about how cold it is.  We had lots of bugs out as well making things a bit itchy at times.

The propagation was nothing to write home about, SFI = 68, SN = 0, A Index = 6, and the K Index = 2 at 1430 UTC on 15 September.  DX was a rare commodity.

I brought my new toy with me, a Palm Paddle straight key, what a lovely action it has now that I have it set up to my liking.  I'm going to enjoy this.

My FT-817ND performed very well, but I have been told I need to turn down the SSB audio level as it's a bit too high right now.  I forgot to turn it down after I started to use the DYC-8x7 external Dynamic Speech Compressor.   The chosen antenna for the weekend was one that Steve, WG0AT, put me on to.  It's a 41' radiator, a 17' counterpoise, and a 9:1 Unun.  It works great.   The parts for this antenna came from a SOTABeams Bandspringer Midi that I had purchased and regardless of what I did to it would not work very well.  I used the parts and built Steve's version and get great results now.

The good weather brought out many familiar faces and many new ones.  This year was the all-time biggest attendance for a Chillycon to date.  Twenty-Six people sat down for a pizza supper on Saturday, and for the first time in many years we had no fire as it was simply far too hot to have one.   Normally the park is fairly empty on the last open weekend, but this year was different, it was full and we had hams scattered all over the park as there just was not enough spots available on our loop to hold them all.

Michael, VE3WMB, won the Upper Canada Trophy for DX Excellence this year with a 30m CW contact into southern Australia, and was the first recipient of the brand new trophy.   Many thanks to Rick, VE3ORY, for building it for us.

Eric, VE3AMX, was in second place with CW contacts to Finland and another in Denmark, and in Third place was Rick, VE3ORY, with several CW contacts into Denmark.

It was a great weekend, and I really am looking forward to next years Chillycon.


Below are some photos of the event.....

Eric, VA3AMX, trying to win the DX contest.

Guess who actually showed up this year......YES...the elusive  Bob, VA3QV.

Speeches after our pizza supper.

My FT-817ND and new straight key.

VE3UNA, VE3ORY, and VE3ULC chatting in their site.