Bandpass Filters...

A bandpass filter is a device that passes frequencies within a certain range, and rejects frequencies outside of that range. These items are particularly useful in Field Day settings or when a POTA or SOTA activation has two or more stations operating at the same time.

After suffering through some minor interference during this years Field Day I decided to invest in a set of filters from K9DP.com, as did another member of our club. These are for QRP operations, up to a maximum of 20w, and they are only available for 15m, 20m, and 40m at the moment. I'm hoping a 10m and 80m version becomes available in the near future.

Here's a picture of the set that arrived today:

Stay Safe Out There !!

Great Day on the Bands...

This past Sunday I decided to drive to the Thousand Islands National Park and activate CA-0099 for POTA.  This was a new site for me, in fact I have never driven through the park before, and I highly recommend that if you can, do it.

It was an absolutely beautiful day, blue skies and 23C (74F) and because the site was on the river, the humidity was very low which made it very comfortable.

Propagation was pretty good, SFI=166, SN=119, A Index=3, and the K Index=1. However, there was quite a bit of deep QSB during the day and I know that cost me a couple of contacts by the end of the activation.  Stations would be S9+ and a few seconds later would disappear for good.

Because it was a weekend the usual LIDS were out and about, you know.....the tuner-uppers and the whistlers, all of whom seem to come to your specific frequency just to play their silly games.  I didn't let them bother me, I just carried on calling CQ and had a blast doing it.

When the SSB contacts died down I made a few contacts with my new portable key. It's made by Putikeeg, a company I had never heard of before. The key is great, it has a very smooth action, and the grip is perfect.  I'm enjoying using it, and it wasn't that expensive either.

Contact wise I have done a lot better, but I put 36 contacts in the log.  It wasn't a contest, and I took my time and had fun - which is what you're suppose to do.

Here's the contact map:

Stay Safe Out There !!

Ticks...

After spending last weekend at Field Day, in a campsite near Harrowsmith, Ontario,  I seem to have picked up a tick.  After complaining to my wife about something being wrong with my back, she discovered a large red spot with a tick at the centre.  See photo on the left.

I've no idea how this thing got on my back, I never felt anything crawling on me that I can remember.  The tick has been removed, and placed, alive, in a pill bottle awaiting an appointment with my doctor.

This is the first time I've ever had a tick, so this has opened my eyes to the dangers of these little buggers!

If you're doing POTA or SOTA you need to be aware of these as they can cause several bad health issues.

One of the best websites I can find is this one HERE, produced by the Ontario Government.  It's well worth the read, and it may save you some aggravation in the long run!!

If you live in Ontario, you might be interested in the map below:

Stay Safe Out There!!

Field Day...

It's over for another year.  This year's version of Field Day was a very wet one.  It actually rained, heavily, for about 20 of the 24 hours.  I'm lucky that I have a very good lightweight tarp that attaches to the back of the truck, and gives me a large dry area to work in.

Our club operated as a 5A QRP station, and did quite well given the lousy propagation we had over the weekend. We put 338 contacts in the log, and used 80m through 10m, minus the WARC bands. CW did 153, SSB did 131, and Digi did 54. Not too bad for a QRP battery powered setup.  I guess we'll have to wait until next December, when the ARRL publishes the final scores, to find out how we actually did.

As I said the propagation was not the best, but given what we have had to work with over the last month, we guessed it wouldn't be very good.

Here's a photo of my setup:

And here's the weekends contact map:

Stay Safe out There !!

Eastbound - Day 5 & 6...

Neys Provincial Park is a beautiful spot, and I was lucky enough to get a site right by the beach for the night.  The only downside to the site was the billions (and I do mean BILLIONS) of flying critters that insisted on visiting me.

Neys is POTA site CA-0316.  I had a good evening activating the park and put 36 contacts in the log....before the bugs won the war, and drove me back into cover.

The next morning I started the long drive to Chutes Provincial Park.  It was a beautiful day, with brilliant blue skies, and really enjoyable.  It was a 620 km day and it took a little over 7 hours to do, thanks to the roadworks I had to navigate.

Once I arrived a Chutes I was surprised to get the very same campsite I had for my first night on the trip, so setup was a breeze as I knew how everything fit there.

It didn't take long to get on the air, and soon had CA-0181 on the air before supper.  The campsite was very quiet, I don't think very many people were staying there.

After supper I did a POTA late shift and got many contacts in the log before the inevitable rain hit, and it didn't stop for the rest of the night.

Tomorrow I have another 7 hour day on the road, but at the end of the day I'll be back home.

Stay Safe Out There!!

ARRL Field Day 2024...

This year's ARRL Field Day is coming up this weekend, June 22/23....are you ready?

The rules can be found HERE.

I'll be on the air as part of the Upper Canada QRP Clubs team, operating as VE3UCC.  

I'm hoping the propagation, and the weather, both decide to behave themselves and allow us all to have a great weekend, in the field, and on the bands!

Stay Safe Out There!!

Eastbound - Day 3 & 4...

 

I did not get an activation done at Gull Lake last night as the campsite had a S9+20 noise floor and I couldn't hear a thing. This means that I have not managed to do a POTA activation in Alberta, west bound or east bound.

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.

Instead of going straight to the campground at Deleau, I went north about 15 km and activated CA-1061, Oak Lake Provincial Park,  in fact I had so much fun here activating, I ate my supper there and did the late shift from the park as well.  

After my two activations I drove back to Deleau and set up camp for the night.

Tomorrow I'm off to Arron Provincial Park, just 20 km west of Dryden, Ontario.

The next morning was pretty chilly, with the temperature being only 5C at 0630 in the morning when I climbed out of my sleeping bag, and began another 600 km drive east.

Just past Winnipeg the highway enters the Boreal Forest, where kilometres of pine and spruce trees are mixed with the granite outcroppings of the Canadian Shield.  

After a quick lunch in Nipigon, Ontario, I arrived at the trailhead for CA-0245, Kama Hills Provincial Park.  This was another park that had never been activated before, and it wasn't long before you realize why that was.  The trail goes almost straight up, almost a scramble than a hike.  It takes about an hour to reach the park boundary, and that was as far as I went.  

Once I was set up I realized my battery was nearly out of power and I had to restrict my output to 5w SSB.  To be honest I didn't think I would get a completed activation here, but was I wrong.  Among my contacts that day were Larry F5PYI in France, and Jose EA1BUL in Spain....they made my day!

That evening I ended the day at Neys Provincial Park, and had a successful activation of CA-0316.

Tomorrow night I should make it to Chutes Provincial Park in Massey, Ontario.

Eastbound - Day 1 & 2...

The first day back on the road again today....heading home! I have a 703 km drive over Highway 3 to do, and suspect it will take about 8 hours through the mountains.  

I find Highway 3 East is a terrible highway to drive, multiple steep grades and descents, and many tourists on the road who have no idea about how to safely drive in the mountains!  Make sure you have good breaks to do this route!

No radio work was done during the day, as the propagation was not very good at all, the propagation numbers were: SFI=184, SN=150, A Index=28, and the K Index=3.  This gave us some very deep QSB. 

My stop tonight will be at Yahk Provincial Park, about 40 km east of Creston.

It was an early start from Yahk to start day 2, and it was a chilly 7C (44F) under blue skies.  I did manage to get in a POTA activation last evening after the propagation numbers improved, so CA-0750 was activated.

Just outside of Cranbrook I managed to get a solid 2m simplex contact with Don WR7DW, in Eureka, Montana, about 20 km south of my location on Hwy 3.  It's always great to get a contact on .52 simplex!

It was another 700 km day and tonights stop will be at Gull Lake, Saskatchewan.  Getting a bit tired already as two 700 km days is pretty exhausting at best.

West Coast Update...

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.

I had planned to activate 10 parks in and around Vancouver, I've managed to do 8.  There does not seen to be very many Hunters in this part of the country.  Here there is nowhere near the response to our POTA CQ's as we get in Ontario.  

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!!

Day 10...

Last night was spent at CA-3921, Okanagan Lake Provincial Park.  It's a small park, tucked in below the main highway.

Amazingly, the last park of this portion of the trip, I made several contacts back home to Ontario, including a QRP to QRP contact with Chris, VE3CBK.   Chris was out activating the Armitage Marina Light (CAN-1342) for Lighthouses on the Air, when he saw my spot.  I'd love to know what antenna he was using!

I made 10 contacts at this park, and then it was off down the Highway 97 to Osoyoos and my brother's summer home.

I'm taking a couple of days off and then I'll be back activating some of the local parks, before I head. into Vancouver on Friday.

Day 8 & 9...

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.

My first POTA stop today was at CA-0005, Banff National Park.  I made zero contacts in Banff as the noise floor was S9+20 at every spot I tried.  So I gave up and moved on down the road.  I was really looking forward to operating in Banff, perhaps next time!

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.

Day 6 & 7...

Heading north from Brandon I drove up the beautiful Qu'appelle Valley and really enjoyed the great views.  My destination today was Gull Lake, Saskatchewan.

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.

Day 4 & 5...

Another rainy day as I left Dryden, the temperature was -2C (28F).  The road to Kenora was long and boring, miles and miles of trees and granite rocks.......with no 2m repeaters between the two towns.  I was lucky enough to have the company of Rod VE3RYD and Woody VE3JJA on the Kenora YSF repeater for a while.

On the way to Brandon, my next night stop, I stopped and activated CA-2376, the Assiniboine Corridor Wildlife Management Area.  Not the easiest place to find, but it was successfully activated for the very first time, with 20 contacts.  Foolishly, I was in a hurry and didn't take a photo.

After a night in Brandon, it was off to Gull Lake, Saskatchewan.  

Day 3...

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.

The Wawa Goose this morning, in a rare, rain free, moment!

Day 1 & 2...

Unlike my previous trips to the West Coast, this trip started in brilliant sunshine!  I chose my departure day to coincide with people returning home after the May long weekend here.  There was very little west-bound traffic, as opposed to the miles of cars returning home.

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!

Camp, the first night

The view of Batchawawa Bay

Batchawana Bay beach

Wow!!!...

I've never seen a propagation forecast this bad.  It looks like it's going to be a rough weekend on the bands!!

Stay Safe Out There!

Getting Ready: D-10...

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.  

First up was a new 40m EFHW antenna made for me by Jim, VE3ULC.  I had a commercially made version for many years, and I could never get a good match with it.  I think it was made with the wrong type of core to be very honest.

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,

only 17.5' long with a 17' radial.  I haven't used this yet, but Bob has used it on SSB and had QSO's with hams in Turkey, Alaska, and Hawaii with it.

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 still have to get the curtains installed, but that will wait for this weekend.  There is also a string of LED lights to put in as well for nighttime operating back there.

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!!

This weekend...

Most of you will know that the propagation over the last 2 weeks has been pretty dismal.  Well, don't expect anything to change over the next few days.  

Here's the forecast until Saturday...

Stay Safe Out There.

Not A Bad Weekend...

Against all good common sense I decided to try and complete my 100th activation of Lemoine Point, CA-5141, on Sunday afternoon.  

Propagation wasn't that good, and the QSB was really bad, and to be very honest, it was probably not the day to do it with 10w SSB and a Hamstick antenna.

Well, Lemoine Point has three parking lots, and there was not an empty parking spot in any of them. So it was off to Parrott's Bay and try an attempt to activate CA-5142.

I ended up with 12 contacts in 90 minutes, and had to use 40m, 15m, and 10m to get those contacts. You can see from the contact map that a good proportion of the contacts were from the west coast.

Not a wasted day, just not what was planned.

Monday morning saw me heading back to Lemoine Point, CA-5141, in an attempt to have a successful 100th activation of the park........and when I arrived, nobody else was there, what a difference a day makes! The place was totally deserted, so I quickly parked and got my radio and antenna set up.

Like the day before the propagation was terrible, and I had to fight for every contact I made. Starting on 15m I made a grand total of one contact, after 10 minutes of calling with no response I moved to 40m, which was very noisy, and was full of static crashes from the storms in my area.

It still took me 60 minutes to get 13 contacts in my log, but the job was done, and the 100th activation was a great success. Many thanks to K1WIT, Shannon, who was number 10 in the log to complete the activation, and best of all she too was in a park, US-0324, so I received credit for a Park 2 Park for the same QSO.

I am still figuring out what the next POTA Challenge I will be doing. There are so many options, and that's the beauty of the POTA program.

Stay Safe Out There!!

QRP to the Field...

This Saturday, April 20th, is the day for the 2024 QRP to the Field Event. 

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!!

Getting Ready - D-35...

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

the trip.  I'm using the Buddipole Versahub system along with three 33' radials to support it and get it off the ground.  It tuned up on 20m & 40m with no trouble at all (I didn't look at any other bands), and I'm looking forward to making some contacts with it before the trip.

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!!

New Piece of Gear...

I picked up a new piece of equipment last week, an ABR Industries RF Choke.  I'm very happy with the choke, it's built extremely well - like a tank, it's about 18" long and has seven series 31 Current Ferrites. The Ferrites are covered with tough heat shrink, and it does the job as advertised......but I'm NOT happy with the hidden costs to get it here.

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!

Sweden....

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!

More Poor Propagation....

Not a good day on the bands today.  It's not too often you see a K Index of 8....and it's not looking too good for tomorrow either!  Here's the latest numbers:

 

Stay Safe Out There!

Rough Day on the Bands...

Parrott's Bay

While the propagation numbers looked ok this morning, the reality of the situation was the bands were total garbage, this was coupled with extremely deep QSB wiping out signals completely.

Today was the first time, ever, it's taken me over an hour to activating a park. I made contacts on 12m, 15m, 20m, and 40m to make 10 simple contacts, it was just insane.....and no DX stations were worked. 

This mornings propagation numbers were:  SFI=131, SN=86, A Index=6, and the K Index=2.

It wasn't all bad, it was a beautiful day to be in the park, +10C under blue sky.  It was great!

Here's todays contact map:

Be Well, and Stay Safe Out There!

Testing Out the New POTA Prefix...

Over the last weekend POTA decided in its infinite wisdom to change a number of countries prefixes that lead off the individual park numbers.  Canada originally used "VE", as of Saturday we now use "CA". Yes, lots of confusion and grinding of teeth, and I certainly do not like the fact it was thrust upon us as a total surprise, and that the powers that be did not give anyone a heads up that this was happening, but we will get through it. 

One of the problems we all thought we would have is that our logging programs wouldn't accept the new prefix, but that has been disproved today with the activation of CA-5141 and CA-6003, and the successful uploading of the logs with absolutely no issues.

It was a gloriously sunny day today with the temperature sitting at +10C under blue skies.  I did the whole activation with the windows open in my truck, just like a summers day.....in early March, unheard of.

I took my time today and made 31 contacts in 50 minutes. I put 13 on 40m in the log, and another 18 on 15m.  There were 7 DX contacts into Europe, and 8 park-2-park contacts. It was just a great day, and I enjoyed myself and the slow pace of this activation.

The bands were in decent shape, but the QSB was very deep and signals very quickly disappeared forever. The propagation numbers were: SFI=140, SN=112, A Index=10, and the K Index=1.

As usual it was the KX3 at 10w, and Hamstick's on a mag-mount on the roof of my truck. Here's todays contact map:

Be Well, and Stay Safe Out There!

A Cold Day...

After a couple of fairly warm days, today was bitterly cold again. The cold, coupled with a strong north wind, was not at all pleasant to be out in. But, and there's always a 'But', it's the 29th February and this day only comes every four years, so I thought that was a good enough reason to go to a park and operate.

I went back to Lemoine Point, VE-5141, as I'm close to completing 100 activations there, and want to get that milestone behind me.

Propagation was good, today's numbers were: SFI=180, SN=109, A Index=6, and the K Index=1.  There was also, I found out, some QSB.

I had a look at the solar-terrestrial data before I set-up and realized that once again 15m was going to be my go-to band, so out came the 15m hamstick and mag-mount.

In 25 minutes I put 28 contacts in the log, including 6 Spanish stations, 2 in England, and 1 each from Germany, Austria, and France.  In other words, a great day on the bands for a QRP SSB station!  It never ceases to surprise me what can be done with 10w and a hamstick antenna.

Here's todays contact map:

Be Well, and Stay Safe Out There!

Good Day Today...

Today I complete my 68th trip around the sun, and while it sucks getting old, it definitely beats the alternative.  As a way of celebrating I decided to return to Lemoine Point, and do another POTA activation, my 89th at that location.

Propagation numbers looked pretty good today, and I thought I would do well on 15m as I have done the last few times I'm been at the park.  The numbers were: SFI=173, SN=101, A Index=3, and the K Index=1.  The Bz was sitting at -0.3, but I've operated with a lot worse than that.

The bad part of today was the fact it was -17C (1F) out, but felt like -21C (-6F) with the wind chill factored in.  As I operate from my truck I figured I would be fine.

The radio of the day was my KX3 set at 10w, and as usual I used a 15m hamstick. I've learned to leave the truck running with the heat blasting away while I set up my antenna, as the door must be open in order for me to reach the roof properly.  

It turns out 15m was good, but it wasn't great.  I managed a total of 19 QSO's before I had to close down due to a failing battery due to the cold. I did get a 2m simplex contact with Jelle VE3THI, who was activating Parrott's Bay, VE-5142, which is about 6.5 km to the west of Lemoine Point.  The lesson of the day was to make sure you also have 70cm simplex frequencies programmed in the radio as well.

Here's todays contact map:

Be Well, and Stay Safe Out There!