Memory Lane........

Today is a non-ham radio blog entry……which I do every once in a long while.

Some of you may have noticed the photo of the Chinook Helicopter at the top of this page. That photo was taken at a small gravel airstrip on Ellesmere Island called Eureka in the high Arctic. I had the pleasure of spending three summers there during the 1980’s flying as a Loadmaster on board the Chinooks of 450 Transport Helicopter Squadron.

In 1996 Canada retired its Chinooks and sold them to the Royal Netherlands Air Force where they continue to soldier on and fly today. In fact until we bought our own, Dutch Chinooks actually carried Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan…..kind of ironic!

Canada disbanded 450 Squadron and went without heavy lift helicopters until 2005 when we purchased several ‘second hand’ Chinook airframes from the US Army, and used them with great success in Afghanistan. They filled a need, and probably saved the lives of numerous Canadian soldiers who could now fly safely into camps and the out-stations instead of driving in vehicles on the IED infested dirt roads.

So why am I writing about this today? Good question. Today, a day I never thought I would see, the Minister of National Defence announced the reformation of 450 Tactical Helicopter Squadron. The squadron will be based in Petawawa, Ontario, and will have 15 F-Model Chinooks. These Chinooks will have a heavy lift capability to carry up to 40 personnel or 11 363 kilograms of cargo. 

I’m also extremely pleased, and proud, that LCol Duart Townsend will be the first Commanding Officer of the reborn 450 Tactical Helicopter Squadron. LCol Townsend was the very last Chinook pilot to be trained as part of the original 450 Tactical Helicopter Squadron before it was disbanded in 1996. We veterans of the original Squadron can rest assured that our customs and traditions will be passed on to the new Squadron by the new Commanding Officer.

For those ex-members of 450 Squadron, today’s announcement is a great thing. It ensures that the history we made in our youth will not be forgotten. To the ex-members it also means that the aircrew, and support crew, who died in the flying accidents aboard Chinook’s 147001 and 147002 will be remembered and honoured by the Squadron, and not just by those who remember them.

May the new 450 Squadron only have 'Fair Winds and Blue Skies'!

By Air To Battle!

The "Chillicon Special" Antenna

A couple of years ago I read an item on the blog of Martin VA3SIE on his latest canoeing adventure on Joeperry Lake in Frontenac Provincial Park. He was using two antennas on that trip, one was a 28’ vertical and the other was a 90’ inverted-L. It was the 28’ vertical that caught my attention as being a city dweller, space is at a premium on the antenna farm out back.

I emailed Martin a couple of times about it and Martin told me that it wasn’t the best of antennas, but would do in a pinch. Still intrigued about it but busy with other things, it went on the back burner for a while. It wasn’t until the Ottawa Valley QRP Societies annual “Chillicon” gathering of September, 2011 that I finally with the help of Jim-VA3KV made one. I used a 31 foot MFJ collapsible fiberglass pole as the support.


Picture from VA3SIE Blogsite
of the original design

 Originally Martin made his with only one 16 foot and one 32 foot radials, and I made my “Chillicon Special” using only four 16 foot radials. Right off the bat it worked very well - allowing me to check into the Trans-provincial Net on 40m and Ontars Net on 80m as well as numerous DX contacts around the world.

Last weekend I was cleaning out the garage, getting ready for the upcoming big move, I dragged it out and set it up again. This time I added two 32 foot radials to the original four 16 foot radials. What a difference that made! Using my IC-703, the first SSB contact was on 20m with W4P, a special event station in St. Petersburg, Florida, who gave me a nice 58 report.

Mainly I have been working 40m, 20m, 15m and 10m with it, but it will also tune up on 80m and 6m with no issues. 

Since then I have worked Kuwait, Dubai, Sweden, and Morocco with this antenna. I have a suspicion it’s going to get a lot more use up on Fort Henry Hill this summer on our very early Saturday morning get-togethers. I might even add another two 32 foot radials and see how that improves the overall performance.

This one is a keeper.

Field Day 2012

It's getting to be that time of year when we start thinking of Field Day, that joyous weekend of 24 hours of non-stop ham radio.  This year it falls on the weekend of June 23 and 24.....mark it on your calendar right now.  The full set of rules for 2012 can be found HERE.

Now normally the radio club I belong to drives out to Hay Bay to the cottage of Don, VE3MNE, and spends a delightful weekend at his cottage.  Last year, according to the scores published in QST we came third in North America and first in Canada in the 5A category.

So this year we find ourselves in the position of having out grown Don's cottage and in need of a second operating location.  There really are not that many good locations around Kingston where we can conduct Field Day.  But this year we have hit the jackpot of all Kingston locations.

Many thanks must go to Ron, VE3GO, who has managed to get us permission to conduct Field Day from aboard the retired Canadian Coast Guard Ship Alexander Henry, currently tied up next to the Maritime Museum of the Great Lakes here in Kingston.

CCGS Alexander Henry is a former Canadian Coast Guard light icebreaker and buoy tender on the Great Lakes.  Built by the Port Arthur Shipbuilding Company in what is now Thunder Bay, she was launched in 1958 and retired in 1984.  She has been laid up in the drydock at the Maritime Museum for a number of years and is actually run during the summer months as a Bed and Breakfast location.

So give a listen for VE3FRG this Field Day, the station will be operating from the actual radio room aboard the ship.

2m SSB

This morning, Saturday, April 28th, was my first activation of Fort Henry Hill for 2012.  Lots of construction still going on and the general area of the parking lot is still a real mess.  The construction is for the new multi-million dollar visitors center.  Kingston locals are wondering why we are spending $3.9 million on a building that actually detracts from the historical beauty of the fort it's there to explain.

Anyway, back to ham radio...... local VHF propagation was excellent this morning, and the prop charts were showing many good paths, so up to the hill I went. 

I decided to use my FT-857D today as I have not used it much lately, it just sits there beside the FT-950 looking rather lonely!  The antenna of choice was an Arrow II back pack portable four element Yagi.  This is a great little antenna, I had it up on a 16 foot painter pole and it really works well.

Four contacts were made today, two in Kingston, Tim-VA3TIC and Dave-VE3DZE, and two from the US.  Luther-N2SLN and Tom-KC2SFU who were on top of Rondaxe Mountain, near Old Forge, NY.  Booming signal from them.

We'll have to see if we can't work that ever elusive VA3QV next weekend on 2m SSB....if we can get him out of bed early enough ;-)

The DX Gods.......

What a great night on the HF bands!!  Tonight has to be the best night I've had for DX in a very long time.  Within minutes I had two from Kuwait, Dubai, and Israel in the log and all 59++.  Superb signals from the middle east tonight!  The other thing that was amazing was listening to one of the Kuwait stations working the different countries calling him.....and he had one heck of a pile up going, and switching languages as he went.  I must have heard him talk in 6 different languages in the course of 5 minutes.  Very impressive and a great operator!

I also managed to work the YW5PI DXpedition on Isla de Patos, SA-048, off the coast of Venezuela.  Not a strong signal, but enough to work them and get them in the log.  They had some deliberate jamming going on and it made it somewhat difficult to make the QSO.

The numbers tonight were SFI=142; A Index=7; K Index=1; and the SN was 122.  Let's hope it continues to improve!

1812 Special Event Station

On June 18, 1812, American President James Madison declared war on Great Britain and the Americans then tried to take Upper and Lower Canada. The Canadian Governor General, Georges Prevost had very few means to defend the colonies, a few British Regiments and the “rag-tag” Canadian Militia of the day.

Anyway, to wrap it up quickly........we won, the Americans lost, and the Whitehouse got burnt.

So, two hundred years later we are celebrating the War of 1812, and in true ham radio style we will have a special event station on the air.

The members of the Manotick Amateur Radio Group will be operating special event station - VX3W - from Fort Wellington in Prescott, Ontario, on Saturday, May 19th from 10:00 EDT to 16:00 EDT (1400Z to 2000Z) to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812, and of course our glorious victory.

The boys from Manotick will be operating on various HF bands, depending on the conditions. Local operators may be able to find them on simplex VHF and/or UHF. While most operations will be voice, they may also be operating some digital modes.

LED Lights

Yesterday I received a rather disturbing email from one of the local hams here in Kingston on the subject of the new LED lights that are currently coming on the market.

After watching this video (HERE) I'm sure you will agree that this is the type of thing our governments and our national amateur radio organizations should be addressing on our behalf. I really hope that they are as the local noise level is already getting out of sight with all the new electronic devices households are now using.  Perhaps this is why QRP and portable operating is getting more and more popular?

The reality of this matter is that pressure is always being shoved on us from eco-groups, the big box stores and paid lobbyists to introduce and use these kinds of products without any concern for proper testing, government regulations, or any harmful side effects that these might have.

I certainly hope that our national amateur radio organizations are fully aware of these concerns, plus similar ones such as the interference that plasma TV does to our ability to operate. How much our associations are doing or are able to do, I do not know. But the big questions is, does anyone know?

Lousy Contact

Tried to work Bob-VA3QV this afternoon on 40m but the propagation Gods were against us......again.  Even with all the filters on and the headset on, the best I could do was to give Bob a 43 signal report. 

Bob was at a park between the Ottawa airport and the Rideau River, and as usual was operating QRP with FT-817, and I "think" he was using his long wire antenna.


I guess we'll just have to keep trying until we manage a QSO between us!

Bob has posted a good account of his activity.  Have a look at: http://va3qv.wordpress.com/2012/04/06/friday-in-the-parks/