ChiliCon 2011 - OVQRP

The 2011 Ottawa Valley QRP Clubs "ChiliCon" is over.  What an outstanding weekend!!  Once again this event was held at the Rideau River Provincial Park, which is always very clean and extremely well maintained.  This was the last weekend the park was in operation for the season, so it was extra quiet for us noisy radio operators.

The drive up from Kingston takes about one and a half hours, and the drive is an easy one, Hwy 15 to Smith's Falls and then Hwy 43 to the park.  It was a great time of the year to travel, very little traffic and some great scenery.

I arrived at the park at 1345 and soon settled into my site.  Jim-VA3KV, from Rockland, already had his tent set up and was getting his antenna up when I drove by him.  It didn't take me long to get camp and the antenna set up.  I initially put up my Buddipole as a 20m vertical with two 17 foot counterpoises, and I'm glad I did as it worked out well for me.


The rest of the guys started to trickle in and by supper everyone was there.  As soon as the sun disappeared it started to get pretty cold.  In fact it went down to 2C Friday night......good job I took two sleeping bags, but I was still not that warm.  But, before I called it a night I worked some great DX.  Bob-PB5X in Breda, Netherlands, and Chris-G0UNJ in Oldham, UK, both of these contacts where made using 10 watts.

The next two contacts where just amazing.  I boosted the power to a wopping great 40w and worked Ian-VK3MO just outside of Melbourne, and then I worked Lee-VK2KRR, in The Rock, New South Wales.  Ian was a good S9+20 into the park, just an amazing signal, and he gave me a S8.  Both of these contacts were done on the 20m Buddipole vertical.  The picture on the right is what Ian-VK3MO was using!  Who says size matters???


It's a good job Michael-VE3WMB heard the contacts because I don't think anyone would have believed me otherwise!  I'm really pleased with with the Aussie contacts.  What a great night for DX.  The SFI was at 145, A Index 3, and the K Index 4.  The SSN was at 173, the highest its been for years.


Saturday dawned bright and clear with a bit of frost about, but no frozen water.  We all gathered at Michael's site and enjoyed coffee and an hour or two of "radio talk".  Then it was off to operate.  I worked a pile of local Canadian and US stations using 10w, and then turned things off to save the batteries in anticipation of more grey line propagation later that evening.

Saturday afternoon Jim-VA3KV helped me measure out a 28' length of wire and two 16' lengths.  With these I built a 28' vertical antenna using my MFJ mast and a 4:1 LDG balun.  After some experimenting I cut another two 16' radials to give me a total of 4, and I'll probably cut another four.  Great results, it tunes and works on 80m, 40m, 20m, 17m, 15m, 10m & 6m.  I checked into Ontars with it and received a good report from John-VE3OMA in Picton and had a 59 report from him.  The picture shows it before the additional two radials were installed.


Martin-VA3SIE and Bob-VA3QV arrived in the afternoon and went down to the beach to do their operating.  Martin did some pedestrian mobile operating with a 20' crappy pole attached to his backpack......first time I've ever seen that done.


Saturday evening we ordered pizza as the "Chili-master" couldn't make the event this year, and apple pie for desert, made a nice change.  The supper table also saw several different types of beer provided by Pat-VE3EUR and a nice bottle of Old Grouse Whiskey from Michael-VE3WMB.......see what y'all are missing by not coming out for ChiliCon??????  We spent the whole eveing till 2300 sitting around the fire talking radio and everything else we could think of.  Just an absolute great time was had by one and all.


Saturday night was an absolute heat wave, it only went down to 8C.  It certainly felt a hell of a lot warmer than Friday night!  I awoke very early on Sunday morning to the smell of a local skunk who had decided to visit another site and leave his calling card.  Once again we met at Michaels site for morning coffee and radio talk. 

I tried to check into the local Ottawa Sunday morning Pothole Net on 3.760, but the net controller couldn't hear me.  However, my battery wasn't in the best of shape by this time as it had been used pretty well over the weekend.


After packing up our gear and breaking camp we drove to a local cafe and had a slow and relaxing brunch.....but the heat in the place was off the scale!!


It was really nice to see everyone again and I had a great time.  Chilicon is a great event to attend if QRP is your thing.  It's also a great event to attend if you're into experimenting with longwire antennas....the experts always attend it.

See everyone next year!!

NORTH AMERICAN SOTA ACTIVATION DAY

THIRD ANNUAL NORTH AMERICAN SOTA ACTIVATION DAY: OCT 22ND & 23RD 2011

The North American SOTA Associations (Canada and the USA) will have an operating event on Oct 22, 2011 from 1200Z to 2400Z on Oct 23, 2011. The goal is to encourage North america SOTA (Summits on the air) summit activations and expand the awareness of this unique operating program in North America. More information about SOTA can be found at http:/www.sota.org.uk.

Summit activation teams will use all the licensed bands from VHF FM/SSB to the HF frequencies for CW and SSB. Typical operating frequencies are:

146.52,
144.200,
7.040,
7.032,
10.116,
14.060,
14.062,
14.282,
14.285 and
14.342.5

Currently there are established SOTA Associations for VE1, VE2, VE7, W1, W2, W3, W4, W5, W6, W7, and W0........... with more on the way!

The British SOTA Program encourages both summit Activators and and home-QTH Chasers through an extensive Awards program. Patterned after the IOTA program, SOTA is very popular in Europe and is quickly catching on in the North America as well as other countries. This is an annual event for the NA SOTA Associations. Please visit the Yahoo Group site for more information and/or questions: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nasota/

Take the SOTA challenge, activate your nearby SOTA summit and be the DX!

ARRL September VHF QSO Party - Part 2

This years September VHF QSO Party can be summed up in two words: pretty disappointing.  To be brutal about it, the band conditions where crap!  Lots of QRN, and some very deep QSB. 

Photo by Ron-VE3GO

We had four stations operating up on Fort Henry Hill, George VE3SIQ, Ron VE3GO, Dave VE3HFX and Bill VE3FCT.  Derek VE3HRW came out to pay us a visit as well.  I made a grand total of four.....yes four (!) contacts yesterday, two on 2m SSb and the other two on 6m SSB.

First up on 2m SSB was K2LIM, which belongs to the LIM Amateur Radio Group in Pine Valley, NY.  The second 2m SSB was with W3SO, the club call of the Wopsononock Mountaintop Operators from Altoona, PA.  These contacts were made with a four element Yagi made by Arrow Antennas.

The two 6m SSB contacts were locals, Paul VA3LX on Wolfe Island, and Don VE3MNE in Kingston.  Nothing spectacular as you can see.....but we did have fun !!

2 Meter Challenge - 2011

On the 25th September 2011, the Frontenac Radio Group will be running their 2m Challenge for the first time.  They are hoping to make this an annual event....depending on the level of participation.  This contest is based upon a very successful contest held annually in New England.

So far they have had lots of interest shown in it from clubs around the Golden Horseshoe and in Eastern Ontario. 

Details on the contest can be found at:
http://ve3frg.blogspot.com/2011/09/2-meter-challenge-2011.html

Plan on joining in and supporting VHF contesting, it should be a fun time.

Prince Edward Point Lighthouse

After work on Wednesday, Ron VE3GO and myself drove to Prince Edward Point to visit the old lighthouse there, and to see if it could be activated during the 2012 International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend.

Lighthouse in pretty sad condition

The Prince Edward Point Lighthouse, ARLHS CAN-787, was built in 1881. The 36-foot tower displayed a red light from 1881 to 1941, and was dubbed 'the red onion'. The light was changed to green in 1941.  In 1959, the light was replaced with a skeleton tower, and the lantern room removed.

What we found was not very pretty.  We had stopped in at the Rangers Office on the way in, as the light is now within the Prince Edward Point National Wildlife Area.   The Rangers there told Ron and I that the building was condemmed and was in really poor shape, and boy were they right! 

The steel tower added in 1959

The road has now been gated and you must walk around Long Point Harbour to the lighthouse, not a bad walk, but the mosquitoes were out in full force as there was little or no wind.  We did find thousands of Leopard Frogs on the road when we walked to the lighthouse, they were everywhere.  It was hard to walk without stepping on them.  Nice to see the frog population coming back.

What was surprising is that the light is protected as a historical building, yet nobody seems to care, or even do basic maintenance on it.

Anyway, we could activate the lighthouse for a few hours, but no overnights are permitted within the wild life refuge.  So we have another possibility for next August.

The drive home to Kingston was great, and the scenary just fantastic.  We stopped at the Black River Cheese Factory and stocked up with some great cheeses, and we also stopped at the Mariners Park Museum to have a look around.  Well worth the visits if you find yourselves in deepest, darkest Prince Edward County.

Leopard Frogs on the road

All Photos taken and Copyrighted by Ron VE3GO

ARRL September VHF QSO Party

My next "big" adventure is the ARRL September VHF QSO Party, September 10th & 11th.  The contest begins 1800 UTC Saturday and ends 0300 UTC Monday.  I won't be active for that whole time frame, but hopefully, if the weather cooperates, for a good portion of it.

I'm hoping to round up a few more operators and operate as a multi station, operating on 6m SSB, 2m SSB and 2m FM.  The location we'll operate portable from is Fort Henry Hill, the highest point in Kingston.   That will give us some clear shots in every direction.

The object of the contest is "To work as many amateur stations in as many different grid squares as possible using authorized frequencies above 50 MHz".

As an addition to this contest the Northern New York Amateur Radio Association (NNYARA) is promoting and coordinating FM simplex operations during this contest from either mountain tops or fire towers in the Adirondack Mountains.

The NNYARA have designated the 2 meter FM simplex frequency 146.550 as the primary NNY frequency for this contest. If there is a "pileup" on .55, try .58 or other simplex frequencies. The 2 meter FM simplex ranges are 146.400-146.595 and 147.405-147.585.

So there’s an option for you in case you do not have access to 2m SSB, CW, and Digital modes.

The NNYARA is composed of ham radio clubs in the Adirondack Mountains and adjacent areas of northern New York State stretching from the Canadian border to the Mohawk Valley including Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Fulton, Hamilton, Jefferson, Lewis, Montgomery, St. Lawrence, Schoharie counties.

Hope to work you guys during the contest.  Rules can be found HERE.

International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend - The Story

The International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend is over!!  The day started early with a meet up on the highway with Don VE3MNE and Ron VE3GO at 0630 hrs.  We travelled down Hwy 33 to the Glenora Ferry and easily made the 0730 crossing....in fact we were the first three cars on the ferry.

The weather was awful, with really heavy rain, thunder and lots of lightening crashing and booming around us as we made for the ferry.  In fact it was so bad we started to think we would not be able to activate Point Petre this year.  It was still very bad when we met up with Bill VA3WOW from Belleville as well as Matthew VE3OCC and Doug VE3ZDG from Picton.  We met up, appropriately at the Lighthouse Restaurant in Picton.  The food was great!!

Point Petre Lighthouse

After breakfast it was a mad run through the rain back to our vehicles and off we set through the back roads of Prince Edward County.  It took about 20 minutes to reach Point Petre Lighthouse, and just as we arrived.....the rain stopped.

Lots of changes to the area since we where there last year.  No grass cut this year, and the keepers house is now boarded up and looking a bit neglected.  A few minutes after we arrived one of the Environment Canada guys who look after the weather station there drove up and invited us in to see the lighthouse. 

While some of the guys went off to see the lighthouse, the rest of us started setting up, keeping one eye one the sky for signs of more bad weather.  We put up a 80m OCF dipole, a Buddipole as a 20m vertical, and a 6m hamstick dipole, all with no trouble.  We were on the air by 0930L, and the SFI for the day was sitting at 102, the A index at 3, and the K index at 0.

VE3MNE, VE3CLQ, VE3ZDG,
VA3WOW, and VE3OCC

Don VE3MNE ran the 40m station, using his FT-857D, and ended up on a couple of occasions being quite busy.  It's amazing how many hams where looking for the lighthouses.  Don ended up with 28 contacts for the day.  The 20m station, also using a FT-857D only made 10 contacts, but the band was not very good, the QSB on 20m was very bad.  We did make a couple of contacts with lighthouses in California and a DX contact to Germany.  No contacts were made on 6m, but that was probably due to the height of the antenna above ground.  Ron VE3GO made a couple of contacts on 15m CW as well.  We operated a VE3FCT.

Very large log periodic antenna

The lighthouse is right across the road from the CFB Trenton HF Transmitting site.  There are nine towers on the site as well as two log periodic antennas.  This site is used to talk to RCAF aircraft around the world, but luckily it isn't in use on Sundays.

Don - VE3MNE

At about 1345L we started to hear thunder crashes coming through on our rigs and the sky was starting to get pretty black, and we could hear the thunder off in the distance, so we decided to call it quits. We quickly dropped the antennas and loaded the gear up.  We were about three-quarters of the way loaded when the rain hit, and boy did it pour, and it poured down all the way home to Kingston.

All in all a great day.  Thanks to the Prince Edward Club for the use of their 2m repeater, and to Ron VE3GO for taking the photos. 

Many thanks to the Ayr Amateur Radio Group in Scotland for sponsoring this event, we really enjoy it.

Next year will also activate, hopefully for the whole weekend, we will start looking for a suitable candidate shortly......maybe Prince Edward Point Lighthouse, at the other side of the County.

For alook at what the other half of our group did at Nine Mile Point Lighthouse, click HERE.

All Photo's by Ron-VE3GO © 2011

Royal Canadian Air Force

What a week!!  On the 16th of August my much beloved Canadian Air Force once again became the Royal Canadian Air Force.  Originally the royal honour was granted in 1924 by King George V, and removed from the title by the lunatic defence minister Paul Hellyer in 1968, much to the great disgust of its veterans and serving members.

Is Paul Hellyer really a 100% "fruit and nut bar" you ask???  Well, in 2007, the Ottawa Citizen reported that Hellyer is demanding that world governments disclose any alien technology that they have.   Yep, mad as a frickin' hatter !! 


Those of us who have served since 1968, and Paul Hellyer's disasterous and controversial integration and unification of the Royal Canadian Navy, Canadian Army, and the Royal Canadian Air Force into a single organization, known as the Canadian Armed Forces, know exactly what an idiot the man must be.  As an example, what other military in the world would post a naval signaller from a naval ship to an army signal squadron and expect him, or her, to be able to function 100% in a strange environment.  Indeed, one that they are not in fact trained for.  Many such strange things happened in the early days of intergration.


So it was not a surprise at all this week when Mr. Hellyer came out against the traditional names of the three armed services being restored to them.  Well, he could hardly be expected to rejoice like the rest of us could he? 

As much as one loves to hate the navy, it's even good to see them become the Royal Canadian Navy once again.   I, of course, never met the standard to join the Navy.  The impediment to my joining the RCN was the fact that my parents were married..................to each other J

The intergration of the armed forces is a failed experiment, provable by the fact that no other country in the world has carried out such drastic measures to their military like Hellyer did to ours. 

My one hope for Paul Hellyer once he passes on is that he be met at the Pearly Gates, not by St. Peter, but by the ugliest and meanest RCAF WO1 drill pig that there ever was, and that ex-Corporal Hellyer spend purgatory marching up and down God's own parade square, repenting the embarrasment, pain and suffering he caused us all over the last 43 years.

Welcome back RCAF........................Per Ardua!