July? Already?

It's definitely true that the older you get the faster time moves.  I can't believe we're already in July!  Over the weekend I did manage to complete two POTA activations, although on Saturday the propagation was not very good.

On Saturday I drove west to Trenton and then south to Carrying Place, where the Murray Canal runs through Prince Edward County.  This is part of the Trent-Severn Waterway National Historic Site, or as we know it, VE-4889.  I managed to put only 10 contacts in the log for this one, and every contact was hard fought for.  

When I looked at the propagation numbers before I left home, they looked pretty good.  SFI=94, SN=72, A Index=5, and the K Index=1.  However, I didn't see the small note about the X1.5 Solar Flare which caused a major bump in the propagation.  

I had also planned to activate Carrying Place National Historic Site, but could find no place to park so I could operate.  This is one I don't think I will be back to, it just isn't conducive to activate safely.

The third planned activation was supposed to be Lake on the Mountain Provincial Park.  This also didn't take place, not because of bad propagation, or lack of parking, but because there were just too many people wandering around and I didn't think it was safe to setup my station.  I will be back for this one, but I'll do it very early on a weekday when the crowds will not have gathered yet.

Sunday arrives and I think I had better stick close to home as it's my 34th wedding anniversary, and I would like to live to see my 35th........but the XYL asked me if I was going to go out and "play radio", well, needless to say I took a chance, said yes, and drove to activate the Frontenac Arch Biosphere, VE-0023.

Once again the propagation numbers looked good, SFI=90, SN=81, A Index=4, and the K Index=1.  But, they had fooled me yesterday so I checked them a few times to make sure I wasn't going to get fooled again.

It was early and there were not too many Park Hunters around, but this time the numbers held and I did a successful activation of VE-0023.  It was done only on 20m, normally I do it (no idea why) on 40m.  But today I reached out and 11 stations who had never worked it before got a chance to do so.

So it was a great anniversary weekend, I got to "play radio" and the XYL got some much deserved peace and quiet......a win win situation 😆

Stay safe out there!!

Sunday's 20m contacts from VE-0023

The ARRL Field Day - 2021...

Field Day 2021...

 

In three words: “What a Zoo”!!!!

 

As another ham said: “FD is a contest no matter what the ARRL says. Contests bring out all that type of behaviour most of us dislike.”

This Field Day was like the three stooges all trying to go through the same door at the same time.  Nobody listening out for other stations on the same frequency, nobody asking if the frequency is in use...yep, just spin the VFO, and wherever it stops start calling CQ FD right away before somebody else does.

 

The ARRL placed a power limit on the home based stations of 150w because of issues caused by the home based stations last year. Yet, there were home operators out there bragging they were using 1000w and 1500w again this year....and many of them. I heard a W4 and a K3 in particular, talking about their high power levels during one of their exchanges. If you’re not going to follow the rules, why take part?

 

There seemed to be more LIDS out there than usual causing issues this year, and the foul language on the air at times had to be heard to be believed. Perhaps it’s time the ARRL took some steps...big ones...to put an end to this bad behaviour on the bands. This isn’t the first year this has happened, it’s just that it gets worse every year.  Nobody seems to care about the bad behaviour and nobody will do something about it, so after a while it becomes acceptable because there is no penalty for flaunting the rules and the accepted behaviour standards.

This is what I wrote last year about Field Day:

"The ARRLs decision to temporarily modify the rules was, in my opinion, an absolute disaster. I'm sure the ARRL will scream that this year was the "Largest Field Day Turnout in History!" within the next couple weeks as the logs begin to roll in, and of course the numbers look good for their amateur radio publicity, but Field Day should not be a numbers game. It might just well have been any other contest weekend. 

 

The people who actually participated in the real SPIRIT of Field Day had absolutely no chance at all. They were getting completely blown away by the D and E stations running large antennas and amplifiers. That's all you heard. I'm just guessing right now without looking at my log, but I would say easily 95% of the contacts I made were Class D and E."

The ARRL did nothing about this, and this year it was even worse.  Every word I wrote last year I could write again about this year.  The spirit of Field Day is emergency preparedness, not a contest.  If you're not prepared to operate under minimal conditions and with minimum equipment, why bother taking part?

I think that after 25 years of doing them, I’m over field day. This was the last one for me.

QRP and Field Day...

Coming up in two weekends is Field Day 2021.  I'm not sure where I will be operating from yet, I'm still waiting to see what will be open by then.  My best guess right now is that I will be operating from a screen tent located on my back deck.

One thing is for certain, I will be running QRP on battery power with my KX3.  In fact I have just bought a second 1212a Bioenno battery to make sure I don't run out of power.  Remember, operating QRP on battery gives you a multiplier of +5 on each contact you make.

Here's a few QRP hints for you...

Timing is everything!  If you're operating QRP don't jump in at the very beginning because you will be severely stomped on by hundreds of high power stations, all looking to work the other high power stations.   Wait until late evening, perhaps even until early Sunday morning before you start.  There are two reasons for this.  Firstly, by that time the big guns will have worked all the other big guns and the "easy to work" stations.  Secondly, by Sunday morning the big guns are starting to get desperate for contacts and actually start listening, and work harder, to get weak and low powered stations in order to gather more points. 

Antennas, Antennas, Antennas.  You can never have enough.  I'll be using a vertical, and multiple dipoles.  A few points for you... If you're using a vertical, double the number radials you already have on the ground.  That will give you a gain of 1 or 2 db, and remember when operating QRP every db counts!!  Most people will put up a dipole as an inverted V as that is easier.  However, a flat-top dipole will gain you 1 or 2 db.  Once again, every db matters.  

Verticals are good for DX and distance.  From my QTH they make it easier to make contacts out on the west coast and down into the Gulf Coast, and more contacts mean a better score. I will be putting up a 40m NVIS antenna this year to make sure I can work into the upper States, Quebec, and Northern Ontario which I always seem to miss.

Know what band to use and when.  During the day 20m is normally the work horse, but don't forget to spin the VFO over 15m and 10m, as sometimes they open and get busy as well.  20m can remain open until late evening and you can catch some good stations as the Greyline goes through your location.  40m can also be a good place to hunt during the day, but it's a lot better in the evening and over night as is 80m. Very rarely do I go down to 160m, I find it's just not worth the effort.  

Two last things to remember.  The MUF begins to fall in the late afternoon or early evening.  That's the time to follow the greyline. And, skip normally lengthens in the late afternoon or evening depending on the propagation.

I hope you all have fun during Field Day. Enjoy the time and enjoy experimenting with different antennas.

Field Day Rules can be found HERE.

Stay safe out there!

Lousy Propagation...

The bands have not been cooperating for the past couple of weeks.  They have been noisy, full of deep QSB, and not much fun to operate on.

I did two local POTA activations this past weekend, and only just managed to scrape the minimum of 10 stations for a successful activation on both occasions.  In fact, on Sunday I started early in the morning and with only 5 stations in the log hit a wall.  I had to pack up and hope the bands improved in the afternoon so I could come back and finish the activation.......it did.  I managed another 6 to squeak by.  That is the very first time I had to come back to finish.

Those of us that activate parks around Kingston have noticed that while we nearly all now use Hamsticks, there is very little difference between them and our other portable wire antennas.  The hamsticks are sure a lot easier to put up!

The map of my Saturday contacts.

My map of my Sunday contacts

Hopefully the bands will get better before Field Day rolls around two weekends from now.

A bit of a surprise...

 

Very pleased to receive this certificate, my Worked All States (WAS) from Parks on the Air.

This was much harder than getting the ARRL WAS certificate. It took me the better part of a year to work a POTA station in every state, and it was even longer than I expected due to some individuals not submitting a log and having to search again for an active park in the missing state.

Now that this is done I guess I have to find a new goal to work towards.

May, a busy month...

I just looked at my calendar for the month of May, counted up my POTA activations and discovered I did 15 separate activations.  Of those activations, 5 of them had never been activated before.

During those activations I put over 400 contacts in my log. Now 400 may not look like a big number, but when you consider I only do POTA as a QRP station with 10w into a hamstick, held on to the roof of my van with a 5" mag-mount, it's not too shabby a number.

So far June is shaping up to be a quiet month for activities, especially now that the Rideau Bike Tour has been cancelled for the second year in a row due to Covid.  

I haven't made any plans for this years ARRL Field Day yet, I'm going to see what the rest of my ham buddies are going to do first.  But if I do participate this year, it will be as a QRP station.

The decision last year by the ARRL to temporarily modify the rules was, in my humble opinion, an absolute disaster. It might just well have been any other contest weekend.  The people who actually participated in the real SPIRIT of Field Day had absolutely no chance at all. They were getting completely blown away by the D and E class stations running large home based antennas and amplifiers. That's all you heard. Looking through my log, but I would say easily 95% of the contacts I made were Class D and E. 

This year, to appease the large number of hams who complained about the D and E class stations last year, the ARRL have ruled that these classes can only run a maximum of 150w.  Yeah...well, let's see how many of them play by the rules this year...I'm not going to hold my breath.

Stay safe out there!

What A Night...

Saturday was a great night. It was our Clubs monthly HF QRP Sprint, and I decided to drive to Fort Henry and do a POTA activation at the same time.  I thought I may do well there, and I was not disappointed at all.

Propagation has not been very good around here for the past month.  The bands have been very noisy and have had a great deal of very deep QSB.  

Last night the propagation numbers were:

SFI=75, SN=13, A Index=5, and K Index=2.  We also had some deep QSB.

I used my KX3 at 10w into a 40m Hamstick mounted with a mag-mount on the roof of my van.  40m was up and down, one minute it was going long, and the next it was extremely short....so you never knew what you were going to get after you called CQ.

The Sprint runs from 1900 to 2100 local time here in Ontario, and for those two hours I hardly stopped entering stations in my logbook, it was just insane at times.  

At 2100 I shut down with 75 contacts in the log, from 22 different Provinces or States.  It was an excellent time, and I must do it again soon.

Stay safe out there!

Light CAN-766

John, VE3ISE, will be activating Canadian Light CAN-766, the Port Weller Lighthouse, on Wednesday May 19th.  

He will try and start early 1300Z to 1500Z. Running 100 Watts to a Hustler Antenna on his Jeep.

Frequency in use will be 7260 +/- 10.....Hopefully.

 

The propagation is not looking good for Wednesday right now, but let's hope that changes.  As far as I can tell, this is the first lighthouse activation of the year, so let's try and work John.

The picture shows the entrance to Port Weller Harbour.

Busted...at first!!

The day didn't start very well today radio-wise.  I had decided to try another POTA activation and do the Great Trail of Canada, better known to many people as the "Trans-Canada Trail", which is VE-5082.  It crosses Highway 38 about 15 km north of the city, so it's pretty easy to get to.

I arrived at the nearly empty parking lot, and set up for 40m.  Wow!  What a surprise.  Both 40m and 20m had a S9+20 noise floor.  I couldn't hear a thing across both bands, and the other bands were the same.  There are no power lines or building near the trail, so I have no idea where the noise is coming from.

The propagation numbers this morning were: SFI=73, SN=18, A Index=4, and K Index=2.

I gave up, packed up, and went home defeated......but not for long.  Later in the afternoon I decided to activate, again, VE-0023, the Frontenac Biosphere.  This is an easy drive from home and this will be the third or fourth time I done this site.

To be honest I wasn't expecting much after the mornings disappointment, and once again I was surprised.  

Over 60 minutes I put 26 contacts in the log, including EA1AF in Spain, DJ4POT in South Germany, and NP3MR in Puerto Rico.  I also had contacts in Newfoundland, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan....places I haven't worked in months. 

I was using my KX3 at 10w with a 20m Hamstick with a mag-mount on my van roof....nothing fancy, but it works.

So it turned out to be a pretty good day after all.

A Quick Activation...

It was raining and 8C this morning.....sounds just like last weekend!!  So I decided to go to the Frontenac Arch Biosphere Reserve - VE-0023, just to the north of Kingston to do an activation.

This site has been activated before a couple of times, so I didn't think it would cause too much excitement if it came up on the air this morning, and I didn't think with the propagation we've had over the past few days I would get many contacts either.  Wrong on both counts.

I put 19 contacts in the log in 19 minutes using the KX3 with 10w and  20m and 40m hamsticks. 

Propagation at 0900 local was - SFI=72, SN=15, A Index=3, and K Index=2.

Contacts were made in FL NJ, SC, ON, NH, IN, MI, MA, IL, OH, NY, WV, and MD on 20m and 40m.

The highlight of this mornings activation was doing my very first Park to Park on CW.  I heard Bill, K4NYM, calling CQ on 20m from a park in Florida and I threw out my call and he came back to me.  Now what I thought!  Well, I won't say it was a perfect QSO, but we did manage to complete it and get the information past.  I hope he forgives me for my terrible CW.

A New Day...

It was 8C and raining when I woke up today, not the best way to start a day.  The daily propagation wasn't any better either, the SFI=71, SN=11, A Index=5, and the K Index=3.  Not exactly the best of conditions to be outside playing QRP portable radio!

But, outside I went, and within a few minutes I was at the first of three POTA Parks I activated this morning.  All three of the parks were added to the POTA system only this week, and had never been activated before.

The first location, VE-5143, Marshland Conservation Area, was pretty much deserted which was a good thing as the parking lot isn't very big.  Amazingly it took exactly 12 minutes to get the ten contacts necessary for a good activation.  Within minutes of being spotted I had a huge pileup coming at me.

I then moved on to VE-5141, Lemoine Point Conservation Area.  The road into this spot had to be seen to be believed.  The pot holes were huge, you could have lost a large car in them!  

It took 15 minutes to get 16 contacts in my log at this location.   This is a huge parking lot with plenty of room to spread out.  It was busy though today with families getting some much needed exercise during the Covid-19 restrictions we're currently living under.

Nobody bothered me at this location, a few people walked past and had a look to see what all the noise was about, but that was it.

The final location was VE-5142, Parrott's Bay Conservation Area.  The rain had decided to stop the downpour by now and was just a light drizzle which eventually stopped.  In 20 minutes I put another 19 contacts in the log.  

I had a great view from the open door of my van at this last location.  It made up for the other two muddy parking lots.

The equipment I used today was my Elecraft KX3 at 10 watts, and a 40m Hamstick mounted on a mag-mount on the roof of the van.  I did try 80m and 20m but didn't have any luck on those bands, so 40m was the go-to spot.

I received mostly very good signal reports, but I also got a couple of not so good reports.  Overall I was very happy with the results and am planning my next POTA adventure.

Stay safe out there!

Spring... ??

Will we finally get a warm spring weather day so we can go and operate POTA?? It doesn't look like it for the for the next 10 days as the forecast is rain, followed by rain, followed by more rain with the occasional downpour of really heavy rain.

Of course coupled with the rainy weather the propagation has not been much good either. There have been many POTA stations spotted, but I haven't heard them.

Today, May 1st, I mowed my lawn for the first time this year, wearing a coat, hat, and gloves. That's a first!

My plans to get out and activate a few local POTA spots have been thwarted recently by both the weather and the Covid-19 Stay at Home Order. However, it seems solo activations in the local area are acceptable to do - according to the local Police, so stay tuned for some local activations in the very near future....rain or shine.

Rough Day...

Wow, the propagation today was pretty bad, I wasn't hearing a lot of stations at all.   Today is the Ontario QSO Party as well as several more QSO Parties and other contests, and probably all of them will suffer because of the SFI numbers.

These numbers are expected to get worse over night as a G2 solar storm is in the forecast for tomorrow.

It seems that the propagation has been very poor over the past two weeks, so hopefully it will start to improve early next week.  

Of course it doesn't really bother me as I have no activations planned.  Here in Ontario we are currently under a "stay at home" order to help reduce and control the third-wave outbreak of Covid-19, which seems to be getting worse instead of better due to the different variants which are popping up.

Watch out for the idiots, and stay safe out there!!

Looking for things to do this weekend??? ...

While looking for things to do radio wise while we are under this provincially mandated Covid-19 "Stay at Home Order", I actually managed to come up with a couple for this coming weekend.

As I have said before, I no longer seriously contest, but I will sit in the chair for a few hours and give out a few points, but nothing too serious.

So the big event this weekend is the Ontario QSO Party.  It takes place from 1800Z April 17 to 0500Z April 18, and again from 1200Z to 1800Z April 18.

The Rules for this event can be found HERE.  

I actually just found out I won a certificate for last years event. The other good thing about this weekend is that it is also the Michigan QSO Party, and most operators hand out points for both events at the same time......so you can double your fun.  

The second event going on this weekend is the "Support Your POTA" activity. These are held 4 times a year and are designed to encourage individuals to get out into the parks and make contacts.  

The standard POTA Rules can be found HERE.

I'm hoping to get out on my own and activate a local park.  I guess if I'm by myself, I will be sufficiently socially distanced enough to keep everyone happy.  

If you can't get out and do an activation, do some Park Hunting from home, we can't have a successful activation without the hunters out there looking for us.

Stay Safe Out There!! 

Well, life is on hold yet again...

So yesterday our Provincial Government announced another 30 day stay at home order, which means no POTA or SOTA activations from VE3 land.

Bugger!!!  It's 23C here today, under a cloudless, beautiful blue clear sky.  I even had todays POTA activation spot picked out and had done a drive by to check it out.   

It looks like the next 30 days will be spent as a hunter instead of doing the activations that were planned.  

I suppose in the long game it doesn't matter, the activation spots will still be there in a month, and hopefully then the propagation will have significantly improved over what we have had, or not had to be honest, over the past week.

Stay safe everyone, hopefully this pandemic will disappear sooner, rather than later!

QRP To The Field...

One of my favourite events happens this month, QRP To The Field.  It takes place April 24th, 0800-1800 local EDT time.

Rules can be found HERE.

This year I'm hoping to be able to combine this event with a POTA activation...which would double the fun.  

Don't forget that the event also allows for the use of SOTA summits, so there are lots of excuses to get out of the shack. and play radio outside.

After the long Covid-19 winter it will be great to be able to get outside and operate again, even within the current lockdown rules we are currently under.

Stay safe out there!!

Quiet Bands...

While the HF conditions weren't too bad this weekend for the CQ SSB Contest, the bands certainly were not busy, but there was a bit of fairly deep QSB around.  In fact I simply carried on chasing POTA stations throughout Saturday, and didn't give the contest much thought......that was until I decided to pay a visit to 15m around 1600 local time.

What did I find on 15m at that time of day?  A cornucopia of DX stations all quietly and calmly calling CQ......and nobody answering them.

So in a period of about fifteen minutes I managed to work:

ZM4T, VK4KW, VK3IO, LU5FC, PT5J, HI3T, C6AGU, OA4SS, 3E3E, and TI1T.   

Not too shabby for 90w and an EFHW antenna.  Of course the highlight for me was the NZ station and the two Aussies.  I haven't had any of those countries in my log for at least three years, if not longer.   So, perhaps the bands are slowly getting better, and better days of propagation are ahead of us after all.

Stay safe out there!!

The Big Thaw...

Another quiet few weeks as the great winter thaw continues here in Eastern Canada.  It's pretty muddy in most places where the snow has melted, making it difficult to move around and do any portable operating.  It's quite frustrating really, but hopefully another week and we can get out and do things without getting filthy doing it.

I did get a nice catch yesterday from the home shack, ZF1DJ in the Cayman Islands operating from a POTA site, Park ZF-0015. Managed to get him on the first call, and while I only received a 55 signal report, I was pretty happy with that. The propagation yesterday was not the best and the QSB was very deep with S9 stations disappearing in seconds - never to be heard from again.

The bands should be pretty busy this coming weekend, the CQ World-Wide WPX Contest SSB starts at 0000 UTC on Saturday, March 27th, and runs till 2359 UTC on Sunday, March 28th. Hopefully the propagation will be much better than what we had for the ARRL DX Contest on the first weekend of this month. 

The Rules can be found HERE.

Stay safe out there!!

The Weekend...

I stayed off the bands on Saturday with the exception of making five POTA QSO's.  I've made a minimum of five QSO's a day since last September.

The bands on Saturday were in decent shape, but the large number of stations all screaming "Your 59, 1kw" was enough to tell me my 100w and an EFHW antenna were just not going to cut it.  So, I did what any amateur would have done, I turned off the rig and went for a beer.

On Sunday morning the propagation numbers were actually worse than Saturday, and were: SFI=76, SN=23, A Index=16, and the K Index=2.

Surprisingly though, the bands seemed quiet and in better shape.  I through out my call before I went out for my daily morning walk, and from 1402 - 1432 UTC I managed to put ten DX SSB stations in my log using only 10w into my EFHW.  They were:

CQ8M, HP3SS, HG8R, EB5A, IK0ETA, 9A9A, OK1DOY, SP8R, ED5R, and S57DX.

It seemed that there were very few US stations around at that early time, which of course only made it easier for a QRP station like mine to get its signal through and be heard.  It was only later that I realized that most of the US stations had probably taken the time off to go to church 😎

Stay safe out there!!

ARRL SSB DX Contest

It's that time of year again, the ARRL SSB DX Contest is coming up this weekend.  While I am no longer a serious contester, I will be spending a few hours in the chair to 'hunt & pounce' a few select countries I am still looking for.

This weekend, along with the CQ WW DX Contest on the last weekend in March, are great opportunities to work some fantastic DX.  The bands will ....or should be....full of DX signals, normally you can work 100+ countries with no problem.

Now, the downside to this is the fact that the propagation has been garbage for the past 3 weeks, so let's hope it decides to propagate correctly this coming weekend for us.

The Rules for this event can be found HERE.

Briggsy...

I lost a good friend this week. I knew he was sick and what the end result was going to be as we talked about it a lot, but that doesn't make it any easier. John and I have been friends for over 30 years, and played together in several pipe bands.

John retired from work last September, and was diagnosed with pancreatic and liver cancer a few weeks later.

Just remember boys and girls, you never know what next week, or even tomorrow is going to bring.....so start living your life to the limit, you only get one of them.

See you in the countermarch Briggsy, miss you big guy.

John Briggs 

Aug 10th 1955 - Feb 25th 2021.