Today will be a short day, only 630 km, ending up in Deleau, Manitoba. This is a fantastic little campground that the regional municipality looks after. Well worth a stay, and they ask just a small donation to stay there!
Just before noon I arrived at the small village of Pontiex, this is the home of CA-1138, Notukeu Regional Park, and it had never been activated before. Well, it's activated now! I managed to put 21 contacts in my log in a little over 20 minutes. Propagation was still not the best, but with 10 screaming watts out of the KX3...it was on the air.
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Tomorrow is my last day here on the West Coast, so I thought it was time to bring you all up-to-date on what has been happening here. The first five days it rained...typical Vancouver weather! It's only been the last 2 days the weather has become warm and decent.
Over the last 18 days I have witnessed some of the worst propagation I have seen in my last 20 years in the hobby.....so that certainly hasn't helped.
In the end I finally got fed-up calling CQ on SSB, and switched to CW only. I ended up doing my first CW only activation. It was a bit nervous, and I believe there's a station in New Mexico who won't get credit for hunting me as I screwed up his callsign, but apart from that it went well.
I'm not sure what route I'm taking home yet, but both routes I'm looking at have many parks to activate....and a couple of ATNO's each.
Hopefully I'll be packed and out of here by 0700 tomorrow morning.
Stay tuned for more adventures across Canada!
Stay Safe Out There!!
It was a very wet night at Gull Lake, and the band conditions made activating the park quite difficult. I got absolutely soaked taking camp down the next morning, and was glad to start driving and warm up. Today I'm off on a trip through the Canadian Rockies.
Second stop today was CA-0117, Yoho National Park. What a beautiful spot!!! But of course it was cloudy and raining.
The band conditions, once again, were not the best. The propagation was: SFI=162, SN=74, A Index=9, and the K Index=2. Lot's of deep QSB on the bands as well.
I managed to get 11 contacts in an hour before I had to leave and move on to the next park, CA-0028, Glacier National Park. This was my first failed activation. I managed to get one contact, Ken N5HA, in Leesville, LA. That was it, despite calling for an hour, I had no other hunters.
Two hours later I arrived at CA-0061, Mount Revelstoke National Park, another beautiful location. At this park I managed to get the bare 10 required contacts, and it only took 34 minutes.
Personally I'm finding that POTA is very different out west from what I'm used to in the Eastern part of our country. There does not seem to be as many operators doing POTA here. Perhaps SOTA is more active here given the mountains around this part of the country.
It's also quite difficult getting a signal out of these deep mountain valleys, which certainly isn't helping my activation count.
My first activation of the day was at CA-0628, Touchwood Hills Post Provincial Park. The park is quite small, and has no facilities at all, but is a great spot to stop and have lunch and play POTA.
I managed to put 12 in the log while I was there, but conditions on the bands were not the greatest. Todays propagation was:
SFI=176, SN=97, A Index=10, and the K Index=2.
A short distance down the road was the town of Raymore, Saskatchewan, where I activated CA-2816. This was an All Time New One, never activated before and I was determined to be the first to activate it. You see, the number 2816 has a special connotation to me, it was my Dad's WW2 RAF Squadron number, "2816 Squadron, RAF Regiment".....so you just know I had to get this one!!
This "park" is a bit of a joke. I'm not sure how it ever became a POTA Park. Its official name is: "Raymore Recreational Site"....but is simply a 45 meter by 18 meter gravel parking lot where they allow RV's to stop and spend the night.
Twelve contacts went into the log at CA-2816, including my first contact from back home, Steve VE3PTA. Surprisingly I also worked Jose, EA1BUL, from Spain, who I work a lot from my home parks around Kingston.
The rest of the day was spent driving towards Gull Lake, Saskatchewan, and my next nights camping.
Last night was not very enjoyable, today was even worse. After I grabbed a coffee in Wawa it started...with heavy rain like last night, combined with heavy pea-soup fog. This continued just about all day, I say "just about" because it started to snow around 1700 local. Yeah, the white stuff that should have been gone 2 months ago!
Today I managed to make a single 2m contact. It was in Thunder Bay on the VE3YQT repeater. Unfortunately I forgot to write down the gentleman's call or name.
I'm not equipped to camp in 2C (35F) weather, so I continued on from Kakabeka Falls Provincial Park where I was supposed to camp, and pushed on to Dryden, about two hours from the Manitoba border.
Needless to say, no POTA activations took place today, although there should be at least one tomorrow in the Brandon, Manitoba, area. It's a new one....never activated before, and I can't recall the POTA number at the moment.
I'm not too worried about the parks I missed today, I'll get them on the way home as I'm coming back the same route.
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| The Wawa Goose this morning, in a rare, rain free, moment! |
My only 2m contact to date has been with Bob, VE3YX, in Deep River. I passed a pleasant 20 minutes chatting with him on the Point Alexander repeater on Highway 17. I guess nobody monitors repeaters these days.
My first night stop was at Chutes Provincial Park just outside of Massey, Ontario. This park is conveniently also a POTA park, CA-0181. After camp was set up I managed, under very bad propagation conditions to get 11 contacts in the log. Between local QRM from RV generators and the QSB it was a tough activation.
Very early the next day say me activate CA-1329, Brennan Harbour Conservation Reserve, near the town of Spanish. This was my first early shift activation, and this was the very first activation for the park. It's difficult to find. Again, the propagation wasn't the best, and once again only 11 contacts went into the log.
The drive that day was pretty uneventful, not much traffic at all on the roads. My lunch stop was at Batchawana Bay Provincial Park, CA-0147. Things had improved and while eating lunch put 17 contacts in the log.
My second night was spent at Lake Superior Provincial Park, but the weather was so bad no radio was attempted. The wind and rain howled all night, luckily I didn't get too wet.
Today I'm off to Kakabeka Falls Provincial Park, outside of Thunder Bay. It is a POTA park, so I will attempt to get it on the air tonight.
Off we go!
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| Camp, the first night |
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| The view of Batchawawa Bay |
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| Batchawana Bay beach |
There are 10 days left before the "Great Trek West" occurs. So far I'm on track to leave on May 20th. A few pieces of equipment have made their way into my gear box for the trip over the past week.
This version is made with SOTA Beams yellow wire, thin, yet quite strong, and capable of handling 100w if needed.
So far this one had worked perfectly and has given me some great SWR matches.
Next up is a version of K4OGO's "Coastal 20", as made by Bob, VA3QV. This is an interesting antenna,
According to Bob it works from 40m through 10m.
I'm planning on using this antenna with my SOTA Beams Tactical Mini Mast, and I will be using more than one 17' radial with it. This will probably be my "go-to" antenna while I'm camping in provincial and national parks on the way across, due to its very small footprint.
Today I cleaned out the back of the truck, re-installed the floor and carpet, and got the bed back inside. I'm having a small leakage issue in the corner were the bed is, so I have had to install a length of tarp along the front and side to help protect the mattress from getting wet.
I'll do one more report once everything is loaded and ready to go. Once again I'm looking at following the Red Coat Trail across Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta. However, having said that, this years trip will be dictated by Forest Fire warnings and their posted detours.
Stay Safe Out There!!
The Rules for the event can be found HERE.
Last year, 2023, I was the only Canadian station to submit a log, and from the results page, it looks like I was the only SSB station as well. The event allows both CW & SSB. CW is 5w, and SSB is 10w.
If you're out doing SOTA or POTA, those contacts can be submitted to QRP to the Field.
Get outside and have some fun.
Stay Safe Out There!!
Just over a month until I depart on a 30 day, 10,000+ km cross Canada trip. This is the first of a couple of updates before my departure day. I'm planning on activating over 70 POTA parks, including quite a few that have never been activated yet. If you chase parks you can follow me on POTA Spots during the trip and catch a few new ones.
Jim VE3ULC, and I spent Monday afternoon analyzing some antenna systems to make sure they were acceptable and usable on the new mounts. It took a little bit of tweaking but all three of them look really good now.
First up was my 40m Hamstick that I plan on using on the rear antenna mount, at night, for my WSPR station. I'm not planning on using APRS on the trip, as there are currently huge holes in the Canadian APRS coverage map. Friends and family can log into the WSPR Page each evening and see where I have made it to.
The 40m hamstick was ok, but we still ended up trimming about 1" off the whip and it came down to 1.1:1 SWR, which is very acceptable.
I initially tried four 17' radials with the hamstick, but found that when I used just two radials you couldn't see the difference.
We also had a look at my Slidewinder coil, that I have never used before, and set it up as it will be used on
Lastly, we measured and cut the wire for a new 40m EFHW antenna. This will be used with my SOTABeams Tactical-Mini Mast. After trimming it, the EFHW tuned up on all bands, 40m through 10m, with no issues at all.
Later this week I have to start booking provincial and national park camping sites to make sure I have a place to sleep each night. Next Monday we will be removing the canopy from my truck and re-sealing it to make it water tight. At the moment it leaks in heavy rain, and I need to keep my sleeping bag and the rest of my equipment nice and dry.
This trip I will not have access to wifi on a regular basis, unlike the other trips I have done, so I will update the page when I can.
Stay Safe Out There!!
When I purchased this item from ABR Industries they charged me an additional $30 for shipping, which was almost two-thirds of the base price. OK, I need the gear, so I'll swallow the cost and purchase it.
What I did not count on was that they shipped it via UPS, and that company charged me an additional $47.95 to deliver it to my door, after I'd already paid ABR for delivery! Delivery charges have now come very close to being twice the actual cost of the piece of equipment. So this is the last piece of gear I will get from ABR Industries as they seem to only ship via UPS.
As I stated, it's a well built piece of equipment, and does a great job, but it's not worth anywhere near the total price I have had to pay to get it.
Stay Safe Out There!
It was a good day on the bands yesterday....for a change!! The last few days have been particularly bad after the double CME hit, but things are improving. Hopefully today I will catch some DX on the CQ WPX Contest.
I had a first today, I was at Lemoine Park doing a POTA activation (as usual), and I was hunted by Thomas, SM3NRY, a Swedish station. This is the very first time I have worked Sweden doing POTA. Thomas gave me a 58 report, not too bad for 10w into a 15m Hamstick!
Propagation yesterday was: SFI=175, SN=90, A Index=7, K Index=1.
It was a quick activation, only 18 contacts were made, but it was great to be out in the sunshine and a park for even a short time. Just enough to relax and enjoy things.
Here's the contact map:
Stay Safe Out There!
