RCAF Moose Milk

Drinking "fortified" Moose Milk at Christmas has been a time honoured tradition in the Royal Canadian Air Force for many, many years. 

For those that don't know what it is, Moose Milk is a magic elixir that makes fighter pilots look much more handsome, Aurora crews much smarter, and the Chinook crews much more rugged..............but it seems it doesn't do much for the Hercules or the CC-150 Polaris crews!

Most non-Canadians will not know the first thing about how to go about catching a wild Moose so you can milk it, and I must confess it can be a very dangerous sport if you are not extremely careful.  This is one of the few jobs we leave to the Flight Engineers as they tend to be much more responsible than the pilots, and the Loadmasters just get in the way and drink the stuff.

So to make it easier for my friends from overseas the following recipe is as close as you can get to drinking real Moose Milk.....

 

Recipe credit: www.badenremembered.com

 

Flight Sergeant Jack Moore, is credited with concocting the original mixture on the instructions of the RCAF Station Borden CO, in about 1943, for guests to "have a good time."  A couple of 40-pounders (Dark Rum and Canadian Rye) providing the kick makes it a rather enjoyable drink.  Some substitutions include a brick of ice cream in place of the whipping cream.

 

Please remember to drink and drive responsibly!!! 

If you're caught the Police will never believe you drank Moose Milk!!

2013 ARRL Sweepstakes

Yet another great weekend on the bands!  It was the perfect storm.....the wife is away on a 10 day cruise - so she can't bother me, and the propagation Gods were smiling on us.  You couldn't ask for better!

After looking at the numbers I decided to do this contest as a QRP station, and I'm glad I did....I don't think I've ever had such a good result in a contest.  The IC-703 was brought off the shelf and hooked up to power and coax and away we went.

I took it fairly easy, giving myself plenty of time off the air for breaks, and you can only submit the first 24 hours of the log anyway, so there was no need to kill yourself and go crazy.  I ended up working 63 out of the 83 ARRL and RAC Sections.  Not too shabby for a screaming 5w.

10m was wide open for most of the contest, as was 15m.  I ended up working stations on 10, 15, 20, 40 and 80m at one time or another, but 10 and 15m were my "go to" bands during the day.  I didn't get onto 20m until late Sunday afternoon as the runs on 10 and 15 were just so good!

I heard no LIDS and no band police this contest, but it was such a friendly atmosphere there was no need for them to hang around and try and make us miserable.  It was also very nice to be hunted, apparently Ontario East (ONE) is very much sought after.  I guess there are not many contesters in this Section.  One other point did stick out, and that was the number of YL's on the air.  I can't remember hearing as many on the air as I did over this weekend before.

Many thanks must go to the great operators who took the time to work me, it must have been difficult at times for them I'm sure. 


The worked Sections from my contest logger

 

Remembrance Day 2013

 

In Loving Memory of the

Officers, NCO's, and Men

of

2816 Squadron, RAF Regiment

December 1941 -  June 1946

LEST WE FORGET

 

 

 

 

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

Sad News

For those QRP'ers who followed the adventures of Rooster and Peanut, the pack goats of Steve, WG0AT, as they climbed all over the Colorado mountain ranges, there is some very sad news today.  Rooster the pack goat has passed away. 

I have always enjoyed Steve's videos of his adventures as much for the antics of the two goats, as I did for his set-ups and DX contacts.  In fact it was watching these videos that first got me hooked on QRP.

Our condolences go out to Steve and Pam, they've lost a true loyal friend.

RIP Rooster, we'll miss you.

Rooster, Steve, and Peanut.

Upper Brewers Mills Island Activation

Upper Brewers Mills Lock

Next Sunday, November 10th, the Frontenac Radio Group will be trying to activate Upper Brewers Mills Island.  This island has not been activated before, although we have attempted to activate it on one previous occasion, but were unsuccessful because of very poor propagation.

We plan on being on the air between 1530 UTC and 1800 UTC, and the frequencies in use will be 28.450;  21.350; and 14.250 to 14.260.  All frequencies are +/- 10 Kc.

Radio will be an FT-857D and the antenna will be a 31' vertical.

Hopefully the weather will cooperate!