Hurricane Net

The US Hurricane Center has has issued a statement requesting that during the day, 14.325, and during the night, 7.268, be kept clear for Hurricane traffic.....it's that time of year again.

There are two hurricanes converging on New Orleans and Houston this week...a double hit and it may get nasty down there.

If you have time please consider monitoring these frequencies for a period.  Sometimes net control requires a relay, and you maybe in the right place to help out.

The Hurricane Center is reporting that they expect this year to be a busy one for Hurricanes.

Great Day at the Park

Todays operating location.

It was a beautiful day here in Kingston, a high of 23C with a light wind to keep the bugs away.  So, with nothing else to do it was off to the park after my morning walk to chase some POTA with VE3MNE and VE3ULC.

At 1700 UTC the propagation numbers were:  SFI=71, SN=12, A Index=6, and the K Index=1.   I had my KX3 with me and my new home-brewed 20m/40m linked dipole.   As my new Bioenno battery hasn't arrived yet I had my old 12v 7 amp SLA with me.

I finally managed to get the linked dipole on the analyzer and was very happy to see that I did not have to make any adjustments to it.  It looks good to go on 15m, 20m, and 40m.  I did not get it up very high in the trees, in fact the apex was only at about 20 feet, and the ends were about 3.5 feet off the ground.

I had a look at the POTA app on my phone and saw that Ed, W5LST, was active on 20m, so I gave him a call.  He came right back, and gave a me a lowly 22 - he was S9+10 at my end.  None the less I was happy as even at that low height I still managed a contact into Arkansas.

I have discovered that there are 7 POTA locations in or near Kingston, so it looks like I will be doing some activations in the very near future.

The finished linked dipole.

Lighthouses!!

I'm looking forward to this coming weekend, it's the annual International Lighthouse Lightship Weekend.  Timings are 0001 UTC August 22 to 2400 UTC August 23.

There are no rules, but the event guidelines are available HERE.

I think this will be a good event to do given the local Wuhan Flu restrictions we have here in Kingston.

My plan as of today, is to activate the Portsmouth Olympic Harbour Light on the Saturday.  I'll be using my KX3 and a 20m-40m home-brewed linked dipole.   Unfortunately my new Bioenno battery has not yet arrived, so it looks like I will have to charge up my small SLA's.

Hopefully the weather and propagation will cooperate.

NA QSO Party

The Fall edition of the NA QSO Party is being held on the weekend of August 15 & 16.   This contest is for any ham, regardless of QTH.  The object is to work as many North American stations as possible.

Rules for this year can be found HERE.

This seems to be a contest I normally don't take part in, this is because most years the International Lighthouse Lightship Weekend takes place the same dates, and that's an event I like to do.   However, this year the ILLW has been pushed back a week due to the celebrations for the 75th anniversary of the end of the Pacific war.

I'm not sure I will enter as a QRP station, I don't think the bands are going to be good enough, so I think this will be a QRO weekend.

Any weekend on the air is better than doing yard work 😊

Stay safe out there!!

IOTA 2020

This coming weekend, July 25-26, is the 2020 IOTA Contest.   There are a few rule changes for this year, and they can be found HERE.

There are a couple of rule changes that just don't make sense to me.  One is that there will be no DXpedition stations allowed, only home stations and single operators will be allowed.  

I understand completely that most remote DX islands are out of reach this year, I think we can all see that, but this rule seems to include mini-DXpeditions to local islands.  If local rules and laws allow for this type of activity under the current Covid-19 issue, I can see no problem with operating from a local island.

Let's be honest here, YOU know your current local situation and rules far better than some IOTA committee sitting in RSGB HQ in the UK does.

August Events...

Tired of sitting at home staying safe from Covid-19?  Is the XYL tired of you being in the house under her feet all the time?  Need an excuse to hide in the shack out of her way?  Have we got something for you!!

On the weekend of August 1st & 2nd, the annual Colorado 14er event is on.  Here's what their website has to say on this:

"Amateur Radio operators from around Colorado will be climbing many of Colorado’s 14,000-foot mountains and Summits On The Air (SOTA) peaks to set up amateur radio stations in an effort to communicate with other radio amateurs across the state and around the world. Join in on the fun during the 29th annual event and see how many of the mountaintop stations you can contact. The covers the entire weekend but many mountaintop activators will hit the trail early with the goal of being off the summits by noon due to lightning safety concerns."

A link to their website and other details is HERE.

That same weekend the South California SOTA guys are having an event called "SOTAFEST".  I believe this is the first time for this event.  

Details can be found HERE.

Having both of these events on the same weekend means there will be lots of summits on the air, all calling for contacts.  

So there you go, the weekend of August 1st & 2nd is planned for you.  Have fun.......stay safe......and you're welcome. 😊 

Linked Dipole

There's not much going on in the VE3FI household these days, due to covid-19.  As a result I decided to go through the rucksack that holds my KX3 and other portable radio gear and thought, "you need another antenna".  So, I looked at what I had, an EFHW and a Packtenna, and decided to build a linked dipole for 20m & 40m.

Good things have been written about linked dipoles, and I'm hoping that I will get 15m as a bonus on the one I'm building as a harmonic of 40m.....only testing will tell.  The beauty of it is that is will give me a full sized dipole on each band.

I've assembled all the parts, except for the four alligator clips I need.  I was sure I had some in my spare parts box, but apparently not.  I've ordered some and they should be here this week.

So far I have about $25 in wire and other parts which is certainly better than the $85 that a certain UK company wants for the same antenna.  

Pictures and results of the finished antenna will follow soon.

IARU HF Championship

Coming up this weekend, July 11 - 12, is the IARU HF World Championship.  The contest runs from 1200 UTC Saturday and ends at 1159 UTC on Sunday.

Rules for this contest can be found HERE, and I would suggest you read them before you start the contest.

Always lots of good DX available during this event, let's hope the propagation picks up before Saturday.

Another Good Day on the Bands...

Another Canada Day Contest is over.  I particularly like this contest, it is a lot more relaxed than other ones.

It did start off slow, but I think that as it was held mid-week this year, that certainly didn't help.  20m was the 'go-to' band for most of the weekend.  Contacts were made on all bands, 80m through 2m, in fact the only band I didn't manage a contact on was 160m.

Propagation was the now 'normal' low numbers.  As of 0030 UTC on Wednesday, the numbers were SFI = 69, Sn = 0, A Index = 4, and the K Index = 1.  Those numbers didn't improve all contest.

I did managed to work all Provinces, and the North West Territories.  I can't remember the last time I worked a VE8 station, so that was a real bonus.  

As usual the RAC HQ Stations were the centre of activity, with huge pileups every time they popped up on the bands.   Only the VE2, VE3, and VY2 RAC Stations never made it into the log, and it wasn't for the lack of searching for them. 

Once again I operated QRP using the KX3 and the EFHW antenna.  60 contacts are in the log, and that means last years score was beaten, as was the number of mults, so I'm pretty pleased with that.

Canada Day 2020

Coming hot on the heels of Field Day is the RAC Canada Day Contest.  This contest runs from 0000 UTC  to 2359 UTC on Wednesday, July 1st.

The Rules can be found HERE.

This is one of my favourite contests, it is not a fast paced one....in fact most of the ops will take time out to chat with old friends they haven't talked to since last year.  

Once again I'll be operating QRP with the KX3 and the EFHW.

Have fun, and stay safe!!

Field Day 2020 - the outcome...

It was just not the same operating on my own rather than with the guys in the club.  It was thoroughly enjoyable and a tough slog, but, we have to stay safe - especially as we have had another outbreak of the covid-19 here in Kingston this week.

This year I entered the event as 1B, QRP, and SSB only.  This is the first time I have entered Field Day as QRP since we formed the QRP Club.  It certainly was a learning experience.

The starting propagation at 1801 UTC on Saturday was:  SFI = 67, SN = 0, A Index = 4, and the K Index = 1.   As is becoming usual around here, these numbers were not the best.  We have operated Field Day QRO a few years ago with numbers very similar to these and still did a good job, so there was hope.

Coupled with the poor propagation numbers was some extremely deep QSB on all bands.  A station would be S8 and a second later they would be totally gone.  Very tough conditions to work.

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. 

 

Radio used was the KX3, and the antennas were my 80m OCF Dipole and the 80m-10m EFHW.  Thankfully, I had no issues with any of my equipment at all, it all worked perfectly.

I mainly used the EFHW as I wanted to give it a really good workout this weekend, and a good workout it got.  I managed to work stations from Southern California to Northern Ireland, all with very little problems.  If I could hear them, I always managed to work them.  

On Saturday 20m was operating very short, and it was very noisy no matter which antenna I used.  Of course we had thunder storms all over the place and I actually had to shut down for 1.5 hours while one raged over me before it slowly moved away to the east.  

My main band on Saturday was 40m as 20m was a nightmare.  There were many high power 1D and 1E stations calling and splattering all over.  There were not so many 1B's though, which is a great shame.  In fact 40m kept me so busy, even into the late night, that I forgot to go down to 80m and have a listen around to see who was there to work.

Sunday morning came very early, and the propagation was the same, except for the SFI which had risen to 68.  Not much of a difference I know, but it seemed to help.

I have always enjoyed operating Field Day on Sunday morning.  It seems to me that the band quiets down as many of the American operators shut down and go to church.  That allows we pagan QRP'ers to get some good contacts in the log.   Stations I could not get near for the large pileups on Saturday were answering me on the first call Sunday morning.  It was great.  In fact my rate went up to 16 contacts an hour......not bad for QRP!!

On Sunday I managed to work stations on 20m, 15m, and a big surprise....on 10m as well.  The QSB was not as bad as Saturday, but it was still there.  It was great to hear 10m open....However......some of the worse behaviour of the weekend was heard there.  It seems to me that some operators, note I did not call them hams, like to go out of their way to cause trouble.  I just don't get it.

At 1800 UTC I shut down with 111 QRP SSB contacts in the log.  I'm very happy with that, in fact it's many more than I thought I would make.

The map below, from the N3FJP logging program, shows the Provinces and States worked, and it shows the reach of the new EFHW antenna.  I'm sure you will agree that it's working pretty well.

My contact breakdown is:

40m = 60

20m = 23

15m = 21

10m = 7

Overall it was a great weekend, different from the usual Field Day, but hopefully we can all get safely back to normal times, or as normal as it can get, next summer. 

I hope you are all staying safe!!

A Good Night...

It was an excellent night on 20m tonight.  After dinner I went to the shack and set up the KX3 as I wanted to use it for the local 80m QRP net our club holds on Monday evenings.

After the net I decided to go to 20m and try my luck.  I didn't hold out much hope of making many contacts, but I thought I'd make a few North American QSO's and see how the EFHW is working.

The propagation tonight was: SFI = 67, SN = 0, A Index = 5, and the K Index = 1.

So you can imagine my surprise when I worked in a pretty short time:

EI9HX, Patrick in Ireland,
DG7LAL, Rainer in Northern Germany, and
S51DX, Janez in Slovenia.

These QSO's were all done with 10w SSB.  

I'm very pleased with this evenings QSO's, obviously the EFHW antenna is doing a fine job for me.  Made of 132' of No.16 insulated wire, and is set up as an inverted 'L'.  It's vertical about 50' and the rest is horizontal to a 70' fir tree in the north-east corner of my garden.  It seems to work like a charm.

Field Day 2020...

Next weekend is Field Day, and for the first time in almost 20 years I'll be doing it on my own due to the current covid-19 restrictions.

My plan is to set up and operate at the far end of my very large back garden, using my small screen tent for protection against the millions of bugs flying around that area.  

The station will be operating QRP, and will be totally on battery power, the charging process for my 3 batteries has already began....I'd hate to run out of power half way through the event. 

Radio will be the KX3.  For antennas I will be using my new EFHW and a 20m vertical mounted 8' off the ground, made from some Buddipole parts and a MFJ 17' telescopic whip.  If time and weather permits I may also put up my PackTenna Mini using one of my 33' collapsable masts as a backup.

I have been using the N3FJP logging software, but it doesn't work on Linux or Mac.  If anyone has any recommendations for a good Linux capable logging program, I'd love to hear from you.

This years Rules, including the amendments for this year, can be found HERE.

Have fun and stay safe!!

80m - 10m EFHW Antenna...update

The new antenna has been up in the air for about 2 days now and I have had a chance to make a few QSO's on it, both local and DX.

So far contacts have been made to:

Mexico on 20m

Slovenia on 20m

Guadaloupe on 20m

North Carolina on 40m

Alabama on 10m

Ohio on 40m

Ontario on 40m and 80m.

Reports have all been very good.  I have explained it's a new antenna and asked for a true signal report, not a canned '59'.  So far I'm pretty pleased with it.

Of course the first 'true' test will be in a couple of weeks during Field Day.  I think I will give it a try out during that event, but I haven't decided what other antennas to put up for Field Day....no doubt it will be a last minute decision as usual 😎.

Would I recommend this antenna?  Yes, I think it's a good one, and I plan on keeping up in the trees to use.

EFHW Antenna...

I've been looking at replacing my 80m OCF Dipole for quite some time now, and the time has finally come.  Don, VE3MNE, made me a home brewed, double core, 49:1 balun for use with an End Fed Half Wave Antenna or EFHW.  

Many of the hams in my club already use them, right down to QRP power levels, with great success.  Many of them have a second one they use for portable operating.

So in the race to prepare for this years Field Day, which I will be operating from home this year, I need to get this antenna built and up in the trees pretty soon.

Once it's up in the air, and in use, I'll post a report on how it does.

2020 Updated Field Day Rules...

Hot off the press....

With one month to go before 2020 ARRL Field Day, June 27 – 28, the ARRL Programs and Services Committee (PSC) has adopted two temporary rule waivers for the event:

1)      For Field Day 2020 only, Class D stations may work all other Field Day stations, including other Class D stations, for points.

Field Day rule 4.6 defines Class D stations as “Home stations,” including stations operating from permanent or licensed station locations using commercial power. Class D stations ordinarily may only count contacts made with Class A, B, C, E, and F Field Day stations, but the temporary rule waiver for 2020 allows Class D stations to count contacts with other Class D stations for QSO credit.

2)      In addition, for 2020 only, an aggregate club score will be published, which will be the sum of all individual entries indicating a specific club (similar to the aggregate score totals used in ARRL affiliated club competitions).

Ordinarily, club names are only published in the results for Class A and Class F entries, but the temporary rule waiver for 2020 allows participants from any Class to optionally include a single club name with their submitted results following Field Day.

For example, if Podunk Hollow Radio Club members Becky, W1BXY, and Hiram, W1AW, both participate in 2020 Field Day — Hiram from his Class D home station, and Becky from her Class C mobile station — both can include the radio club’s name when reporting their individual results. The published results listing will include individual scores for Hiram and Becky, plus a combined score for all entries identified as Podunk Hollow Radio Club.

The temporary rule waivers were adopted by the PSC on May 27, 2020.

ARRL Field Day is one of the biggest events on the amateur radio calendar, with over 36,000 participants in 2019, including entries from 3,113 radio clubs and emergency operations centers. In most years, Field Day is also the largest annual demonstration of ham radio, because many radio clubs organize their participation in public places such as parks and schools.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many radio clubs have made decisions to cancel their group participation in ARRL Field Day this year due to public health recommendations and/or requirements, or to significantly modify their participation for safe social distancing practices. The temporary rule waivers allow greater flexibility in recognizing the value of individual and club participation regardless of entry class.

ARRL is contacting logging program developers about the temporary rule waivers so developers can release updated versions of their software prior to Field Day weekend. Participants are reminded that the preferred method of submitting entries after Field Day is via the web applet. The ARRL Field Day rules include instructions for submitting entries after the event. Entries must be submitted or postmarked by Tuesday, July 28, 2020.

The ARRL Field Day web page includes a series of articles with ideas and advice for adapting participation this year.

Portable Ops...

It was a great day here today.  I managed to get out and play portable radio in the local park.  First time out playing radio this year, other than Winter Field Day.  There were not too many people at Lake Ontario Park, and nobody near me, so it was safe enough.  In fact it might be safe enough to start operating there on a semi-regular basis...unless the city regulations change again

Not many contacts made it into the logbook as the bands were not in the best condition.  The QSB on 20m was particularly bad, stations went from an S9 to S0 in seconds.   The propagation numbers were:  SFI=68, SN=0, A Index=4, and the K Index=1 at 1730 UTC.

Radio in use today was my KX3 which performed flawlessly as usual.  The antenna today was the Packtenna Mini, cut to 41.5 feet.

Supposedly you do not need radials with this antenna, but I find it works better with them.  I use a large alligator clip and attach it to the outer ring of the BNC connector as you can see in this picture.

While I normally homebrew my antennas, this one was certainly worth the money I paid for it.

Don, VE3MNE, came with me and worked on a new antenna project he has in the works for Chillycon this year.  So far it looks very promising, a few more tweaks and it will definitely give Eric, VA3AMX, a good run for his money if we can run the event this year. 😆

Once in a while I mention LIDS, and today we had a doozy, a G3 station (I have his full call) from Birmingham, England, called for over 20 minutes on top of a YL net.  The G3 knew the YL's were on frequency as he told them to go away while he tried to work DX.  I guess he must be special and owns his own frequency.  Good on the YL's for ignoring him and continuing, and I hope they send a recording of his behaviour to OFCOM.

VE3MNE working on his new portable antenna.

Today's operating position

May QRP Sprint...

Another great night on the bands!  Lots of signals on 20m and 40m tonight and many European stations calling North America as well.

Saturday night was the third  2 hour QRP Sprint in a series of six sprints this year that the Upper Canada QRP Club sponsors.  The score is accumulative over the course of the year, so far Eric, VA3AMX, is in the lead, but that may change after tonights scores trickle in.

Propagation tonight at 2309 UTC was...SFI=69, SN=0, A Index=3, and the K Index=1. There was quite a bit of bad QSB as well, but it wasn't there all the time.

Best DX for me tonight was two contacts with the Azores, not bad for 10w RF into the OCF Dipole.  On top of that I worked 2 provinces and 4 states.  Not the best of results, but I am pleased with it.

I put the following in the log:

CQ8THANKS in the Azores
W0ZF in MN
CU3HN in the Azores
W8BI in OH
VE9FI in NB
KB3CMT/p in WV
K9GPV in IN
VA3QV in ON

I'm looking forward to the next sprint in July, hopefully the weather will be good and I can operate portable for that one.

Portable Ops......FOILED!!!!

Having been cooped up in the house for quite a while, I was making plans to sneak out of the house and do a POTA at Fort Henry, VE-4864.

However, it was foiled at the last minute.

John, VE3JPW, tried to get up there last night to do a check on his new HF portable antenna.  He discovered that they have blocked the access roads to keep people and cars away.  Isn't that nice!!

Oh well......I'm off to formulate "Operating Plan B".

The red lines in the Google Map shot below shows where the barriers are placed.

QRP Weekend...

In a word, it was disappointing.   The propagation was in the toilet, the weekend numbers were: SFI=69, SN=0, A Index=7, and the K Index=1.  This coupled with some deep QSB made for some very noisy bands.  Hopefully the propagation Gods will start to wake up and allow things to improve....quickly!

This weekend saw the QRP to the Field event and the Europe to North America SOTA event.  I hung around the usual QRP watering holes but never heard a sound from any station looking to make contacts for these events.  I have not even seen any news on the SOTA event on the SOTA reflector, so it was probably just as bad on the European end as it was ours on this side of the pond.  Perhaps by the November SOTA cross the pond event propagation will have improved.

The Ontario QSO Party for a QRP SSB station was just as bad.  I managed to make contacts on 80m, 40m, 20m, 6m, and 2m.   But my final score was less than half of last years.  I did manage to make contacts from VO2 land to VE7 land, so contacts where out there to be made, just extremely difficult to do by QRP apparently.

Next weekend is the Florida QSO Party.  Rules for that event can be found HERE.

2020 Summer Field Day...

As of todays date, it would seem the ARRL Programs and Services Committee has in fact considered the Wuhan Flu issue, and has decided not to make any rule changes. 

This is disappointing, current social distancing requirements as well as our new provincial and municipal laws very likely will impact just how, and even whether, we are able to participate in Field Day this year.

It would have been very easy for the ARRL to put rules in place that encourage social distancing early enough for clubs, and individuals, to make alternative arrangements.  Part of the Field Day concept has always been adapting your operation to the situation at hand, and this year we have a real doozy of a situation. 

I really hope everyone who wishes to participate in Field Day is able to do so this year, and can do so in a safe manner, even if you must operate from home.

2020 Winter Field Day Results...

The Winter Field Day scores have been published (HERE), a couple of months early thanks to the ongoing Wuhan Flu, and people being able to do it quicker due to unfortunately being laid off work.

I believe over 1400 logs were sent it.  Of that number only 47 entered as QRP in the Outdoor Section of the event.  Of those 47 QRP entries our group came third overall and were the top Canadian QRP entry.

This was our first Winter Field Day attempt as a QRP entry after many years of doing it QRO, we did not expect to do as well as we did, and I can tell you we certainly didn’t expect to be the top Canadian entry this year.  

It was a great team effort and plans are already underway to go bigger and better next year.

Things to do...

While we're all hunkered down trying to stay clear of this Covid-19, here's a few things to keep you busy next weekend....

To coincide with this years annual QRP To The Field event, the next Trans-Atlantic S2S QSO Party will be on Saturday 18th April 2020 between 1300z and 1700z.  Due to various restrictions in place in a number of EU countries about being outside, participant numbers may be down.

As usual, some may prefer to start a little earlier and others continue after 1700z when propagation has been known to improve.

This is also the same weekend as the Ontario QSO Party, so there will be lots of contacts out there to make.  Rules for this event are HERE.

The QRP To The Field event runs from 0800 local to 1800 local.  The Ontario QSO Party is split into two parts.  The first runs from 1800 UTC on April 18th to 0500 UTC on April 19th, and the second part runs from 1200 UTC to 1800 UTC on April 19th.  Their Rules are HERE.

As you can tell the bands should be hoping if the propagation Gods smile upon us that weekend.  

I'm planning on operating portable from my back deck as all parks and conservation areas in my part of the world are now closed to the public.   

Have fun and stay safe everyone!!

The Weekend's Results...

Let me start by saying I've had better contest results....   It was a very tough go for the most part, with very deep QSB on the bands here, especially on 15m and 20m.

Propagation wasn't the best, in fact the numbers never changed all weekend.  They were:  SFI=68, SN=0, A Index=5, and the K Index=2.  Those numbers, coupled with the deep QSB issue, made life pretty miserable.....especially for we QRP operators.

Looking back on the weekend it was probably a bad decision to opt to run QRP, but you know, somebody has to do it 😀

Once again, as with the big ARRL DX contest two weeks ago, the "Tuner Uppers" were out in force - making it even more difficult to complete an exchange under the marginal conditions we had.  I just don't get why people need to tune up right on frequency instead of moving off 5 or 10 kc.  It's just ignorant to be honest.

One other thing, I didn't hear anyone working split this weekend, and I can't figure out why.

I managed to make contacts on 80m, 40m, 20m, and 15m on Saturday, but on Sunday 15m was dead and not a sound was heard on it here.  20m became the 'go to' band on Sunday.

There seemed to be very few European stations on this weekend.  I heard no Scandinavian, Baltic, or UK stations....in fact there were a lot of stations I normally work in big contests that where missing.    I'm hoping it was the lousy propagation and not the current pandemic that was the cause of that.

I have to say how amazed I am to have heard so many operators, in the middle of a big contest, take the time to wish us well and to stay safe.  It was so nice to hear.

Hopefully life will get back to normal shortly, but until then....stay safe and take no chances!!

A Public Service Announcement...

This Weekends BIG Contest...

In many locations around the world we're all stuck indoors these days, and for those of you looking for something to do - other than looking at four walls, lucky for us this weekend is the CQ WW WPX Contest, SSB.

One of the years biggest contesting events, it's always a great way to collect those rare DX stations in the log.

Rules can be found HERE.

The contest runs from 0000 UTC March 28th to 2359 UTC March 29th.

Hope to work some of you on the air.

Have fun....and stay safe!

March QRP Sprint

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

Once again I used my KX3, it performed very well, I'm so glad I bought it.

I used both of my antennas during this Sprint.  It's very nice to have the option of switching between them as needed.  The majority of tonights contacts were done on the 80m OCF Dipole, which is now up at 50' since John, VE3JPW, put up a new support line for it.  Both antennas did a great job tonight.

The main workhorse tonight was 40m, it was crammed with stations called CQ for the Russian DX Contest.  As the Grey Line went through the propagation was fantastic, if I could hear them, I could work them with no issues.  It was near the end of a long day and they were hungry for contacts.

Propagation tonight was:  SFI=70, SN=0, A Index=6, and the K Index=1.  Almost identical to the last sprint in January.

So with 10 watts coming out of the KX3, I put the following stations in the log:

J42L in Greece
S53MM in Slovenia
HB9NE in Switzerland
HI8RD in the Dominican Republic
LZ5K in Bulgaria
VE3MNE in Ontario
4O4T in Montenegro
ED5N in Spain
CM6RK in Cuba
F5USK in France
N4PD in Virginia

Over all it was a great evening, and I'm really pleased with the contacts I made.

DXpedition Cancellations...

Due to the current world-wide situation, the following DXpeditions have been cancelled……for obvious reasons....everyone needs to stay safe.

Hopefully, we will see them relaunched when the world gets back to normal.

Stay safe out there....and wash your hands !!!

PZ5G - Papegaaien Island, SA-092

FK/Chesterfield - Chesterfield Island, OC-176

VU4R - Neil Island, Andamans Group, AS-001

TU2R - Ivory Coast

PJ2/DK5ON - Curacao Island, SA-099

DU2/SP5APW - Calayan Island, OC-092

ZC4MK - Cyprus, AS-044

V6ZP - Polap Atoll, OC-155

V62S - Satawal Atoll, OC-299

ZA/HG2DX - Albania

T30ET - Tarawa Atoll, OC-017

9K2F - Failaka Island, AS-118

ZD7VJ - St Helena Island, AF-022

Trans-Atlantic S2S QSO Party

To coincide with this years annual QRP To The Field event, the next Trans-Atlantic S2S QSO Party will be on Saturday 18th April 2020 between 1300z and 1700z. 

As usual, some may prefer to start a little earlier and others continue after 1700z when propagation has been known to improve.

This is also the same weekend as the Ontario QSO Party, so there will be lots of contacts out there to make.

The QRP To The Field event runs from 0800 local to 1800 local.  The Ontario QSO Party is split into two parts.  The first runs from 1800 UTC on April 18th to 0500 UTC on April 19th, and the second part runs from 1200 UTC to 1800 UTC on April 19th.

I'm already looking for a good operating location.....

A Great Weekend...

The ARRL International DX Contest is one I enjoy doing every year, to me it's the start of the contesting year.   Clearly, while the bands where not exactly in top form this year, we are I believe, out of the bottom of cycle 24 and coming up into cycle 25.

And yes, the "Lids" and "tuner uppers" where out in force all weekend doing what they do best.

40m was hopping on Friday night with wall-to-wall signals.  80m was busy with contest signals in-between the constant "let's talk about our medical issues" nets.....you know the type, they use 1500w to talk across town about their hemorrhoid problems, all the while splattering 15 kc either side of their signal!

Still, I managed to put 8 stations from the EU in the log as well as the UK and Northern Ireland on 80m, something that hasn't happened here in a number of years.

Friday night the propagation numbers were:  SFI=69, SN=0, A Index=7, and the A Index=0 at 0130 UTC.

Saturday morning 15m opened into South America and the Caribbean.  I managed to work most of the islands and all of South America with the exception of Bolivia.  I have never managed to work Bolivia, but I guess there are not too many hams there.

We also saw a very short opening on 10m as well, and I managed to put Brazil and Argentina in the log before the opening disappeared.

The Saturday propagation numbers were:  SFI=69, SN=0, A Index=4, and the A Index=2 at 1533 UTC.

Both of my antennas worked as advertised.  The 35.5' wire vertical did very well on 15m and allowed me to work that band without any issues.  I will have to add a few more radials in the spring though. The 80m OCF Dipole, now that it has been raised another 20' (it sits at 50' above the ground), also worked extremely well, and surprisingly also now works on 15m, something it has never done before.  I wonder if the new height has something to do with that?

Most of Saturday was spent working 15m with the odd expedition to 20m and 10m.  I found 20m to be an absolute zoo with multiple stations micro-kc's apart from one end of the band to the other.  I worked the loudest signals and went back to 15m.

The Sunday propagation numbers were:  SFI=70, SN=0, A Index=4, and the A Index=2 at 1100 UTC.

I had no intention of even trying to score millions this weekend as I wasn't sure how well the antennas would perform, so Sunday was a repeat of Saturday, only at a slower pace. I went from band to band and worked the loudest signals, and looking for those few I don't already have in my log book.

There was some very deep QSB on the bands on Sunday, nothing we couldn't deal with if you took your time and had some patience.

I shut down early with 100 contacts and 49 countries in the log.  Overall it was a very good weekend.  I had a lot of fun and plan on doing it all over again for the CQ WW WPX Contest at the end of the month.

Antennas...

I had quite the fruitful evening, my 80m OCF Dipole is back up in the air....at twice the height it was before.  Thanks to John, VE3JPW, it's now sitting up at 50' in the large pine tree at the back of the garden.

Between John and I, it took us about 20 minutes to get it back up into the tree thanks to a compound bow and a modified arrow.  That's going to be one useful tool at Field Day this June!

I tested it out with a quick check in with Mike, VE3CMM, the net controller for that hour on the ONTARS Net on 3.755.  Mike gave me a solid true 59 after I told him I was after a signal report after putting the antenna back up.  It was only after I had signed off that I realized that my FT-950 was set at 5w output, so it was a true QRP contact, even though it was unintended.  So I was very pleased with the 59 report.

Later I had a sched with Don, VE3MNE, who informed me I had bad RF on my 80m signal.  After playing around with the settings, and changing a piece of coax, it turned out to simply be my mic gain was turned up too high.  It was thankfully a cheap and simply fix.

It looks like I'm all set for the weekend, it will certainly be nice to be back on the air.  Even though I don't plan on a serious effort on this weekends contest, I'm looking forward to putting a good number of DX stations in the log.

ARRL International DX Contest

Coming up next weekend is the ARRL International DX Contest, SSB.  I'm really looking forward to this event this year as it will mean my antenna is finally back in the air!!

I have not made a single HF contact for the whole month of February.  The rest has been great, but it's time to get back on the bands.  Hopefully the weather will cooperate and the antenna will get in the air tomorrow after the club breakfast.

There is always tons of great DX during this contest which runs from 0000 UTC March 7 to 2359 UTC on March 8.  A full 48 hours of contesting.

Rules can be found HERE.

The bands are getting better...slowly, but they are improving.  Hopefully next weekend will have some good propagation for us all to enjoy a bit of that DX.

Hope to work some of you on the bands!!

Mobile Radio Exemption...

This news just in tonight:

The Ontario Ministry of Transportation has “made permanent the exemption under Ontario Regulation 366/09 (Display Screens and Hand-Held Devices) of the Highway Traffic Act for hand-held two-way radios for commercial drivers and Amateur Radio operators.” 

This is about time, it's been a long time coming.  We should never have been under threat of losing our mobile privileges at all....but that's another story.