WL2K Mobile

The VE3CLQ digital Go-Box

It was a pretty good day yesterday, the Frontenac Emcomm Group held their first WL2K deployed exercise of the year after doing a lot of RMS Express classroom work, and I deployed up to Perth Road Village, about 28 km north of Kingston.

We had eight stations up and running on the air, several from their home QTH and several from deployed locations around Frontenac County.  Over the past 18 months we have been building up a digital network here so we can stop using the archaic ARRL message forms and take Emcomm into the 21st Century.

So far in Frontenac County we have the following Gateways and Nodes:

VE3UDO-7, located in Clarendon Station this Node covers all of Northern Frontenac, most of Northern Lennox-Addington County, and a good portion of Lanark-North Leeds.

VE3FPN-7, the Node is located at the Sydenham Firehall and covers all of Central Frontenac as well as most of Central Lennox-Addington County.

VE3FRG-7, this Node is located in South Frontenac and covers all South Frontenac, the Frontenac Islands, the City of Kingston, South Lennox-Addington County, and Northern Jefferson County in New York State as far south as Watertown.

VE3MNE-10, this Gateway is located in West Kingston and covers a very large area.  The Gateway is able to connect to all of our Nodes.

VE3DTG-10, this Gateway is located in Central Kingston and is able to connect to our Nodes.

The Frontenac Club recently authorized the purchasing of equipment to build two portable Nodes which will help fill in a few holes in our coverage, and they will be able to be moved and placed where they are most needed to extend our coverage in an emergency.

All of our WL2K Gateways and Nodes operate on 145.070 and are on the air 24/7/365.

My Digital Go-Box consists of a Motorola CDM-1250 VHF radio along with a Coastal ChipWorks TNC-X and a ACER Notebook.  It performed very well.

We had a few learning experiences, we found that the Gateways will support heavy traffic with little problem.  The Nodes did get overloaded so we have a few issues to work out there.  Overall we passed the traffic we were supposed to with only a few hiccups.  It was a good training exercise and I'm looking forward to the second half of it in April.

Aurora Bounce

Interesting times on 6m tonight.  I spent a pleasant hour bouncing signals off the Aurora.  There were many stations calling from all over the US and this was the first time I have ever heard the Aurora Flutter.


Aurora Flutter normally occurs when radio signals are reflected from the auroral curtain.  SSB signals that are reflected sound very raspy, sound like the other operator is talking in a quiet whisper, and are difficult to understand and tune in.


At 2300 UTC the A Index was at 100 and the K Index was 7.  I have never seen the A Index that high before.

Your Answer To Your HOA.....

Once in a while a person's HOA gets a bit "uppity" about the supposed "stealth" antennas you're using, especially when a neighbour complains about it.  Well have I got an answer for this for you !!  

How about a portable antenna system that is mobile and can be folded, and rolled away.  This allows you to use it at night when those complaining neighbours are fast asleep.  

This system is available for a good price at your local friendly Russian Army Surplus Store.  Order it quickly, they're going fast!!

P5 Activation February 2016

This just in:

That Dom 3Z9DX had written permission to operate amateur radio from a VERY wanted DXCC entity. Today, we can reveal that entity is North Korea (P5).



Dom 3Z9DX explains he has received a further letter from authorities in Pyongyang inviting him to a final meeting to discuss [and for he to accept] rules by the North Korean military and the relevant telecommunications department.



This meeting will take place in December with activity planned for January or February 2016.

According to P5 telecoms, Dom will be permitted only three bands (20-15-10) likely using a multiband vertical from a secured place in Pyongyang with two government supervisors over-looking 24/7.

Activity will last for 5 days.



At the moment this is a solo expedition to the #1 Most wanted entity using SSB only. He is working hard behind the scenes to get one more op (CW) to join him.



Please realise this project is a work in progress and to understand that it may only be Dom who operates from North Korea.

More updates / website throughout 2015.

I never expected to see this activation in my lifetime, but I don't think very many of us will get this P5 callsign in our logbooks. As this solo DXpedition is only for 5 days, and it is the number one most sort after country, and has been for many years, I can only imagine the pile-ups, deliberate QRM, LIDS, and band police that will be out and about in full force during those 5 days.  I hope I'm wrong, but history has shown (K1N for example) I'm probably right.

The Ottawa Trip......

Had a great day yesterday, a road trip to Ottawa was on the menu.  It was good to finally get out of Kingston for a day after months of freezing cold weather and numerous feet of fallen snow.  The trip up to Ottawa was great, bare dry roads and a beautiful blue sky.  The temperature actually rose to +8C.......a heatwave !!

2m was pretty active, and I managed contacts in Perth, Westport, Franktown and Ottawa.  Much different results from last summer's cross Canada road trip.

First on the agenda was to drop three sealed gel cells off to Bob, VA3QV, at his QTH.  He's a scruffy looking bugger these days as he hasn't shaved all winter.  I will be taking up a collection later to buy a package of disposable razors to mail to him........  I know Bob appreciated getting the batteries, and I was surprised to hear from Liz, his XYL, later in the day just how happy she was when they were dumped in the middle of her living room......Oh Robert, you may need the mobile love shack a lot sooner than you know !!!!!!!

The gang at the Newport.
Picture (C) Chris VA3CME

After taking care of some business in town it was off to 322 Churchill Ave North, the location of the Newport Restaurant.  Outstanding Pizza, and the beer was good too !!   This spot is the monthly meeting place of the Ottawa Valley QRP Society 

Now normally I only get to see these guys once a year at Chillycon, so it was a real treat for me to be able to arrange my trip and get to see them all last night, all 17 of them which I understand is a bit of a record for attendance.  Nice to see the QRP community growing!

Bob, VA3QV said it best on his blog today....and I quote:   "You can only imagine what the QRM level is like inside the restaurant when you have 17 hams all describing their last DX contact, their latest antenna and how they did in the last contest all at the same time…".  It was a great evening.

Being back in Ottawa was interesting for me, I was stationed at CFB Ottawa South (Uplands) in the 1980's when I was flying on 450 Squadron.  What changes have gone on, how the ethnic makeup of my old stomping grounds have changed, and how the City has contracted urban sprawl!!  Yeah, I know things change, I'm just not convinced it's all for the better.

The 2m rig was pretty quiet on the way home, most hams must have been in bed!  Luckily the VE3FRG machine in Kingston was active and I spoke to Richard, VA3VDP, and Leo, VE3BLR.....and so ended a great day.

2015 ARRL International DC Contest - SSB

What a great weekend on the bands, over 600 contacts in the log and I'm ready for bed.   The main workhorse of the weekend was 10m....as usual.  20m wasn't far behind, and I also managed a pile of contacts on 15m and 80m.

The opening propagation figures for 0000Z 7 March was: SFI=127. SN=31. A=13. K=3.  Not too bad, we've all worked with a lot worse than those numbers.

Best contact of the weekend was with Herik, FR5DX, on Reunion Island, AF-016 in the Indian Ocean.  100 watts both ways using dipoles.....who needs beams???  It was an interesting contest this year as a lot of the usual suspects didn't show up for it.  I heard no JL's and no middle east stations.  One station I have worked every contest I have ever worked, D4C in Cape Verde, was also conspicuous by his absence.

The usual idiots were out in force, those that whistling over QSO's, and tune up right over the on-going QSO.  I'm sure they would just love it if we did it to them!

My other pet peeve was also out in force this weekend, those operators that insist on giving their callsign at triple the speed of light.  You hear them all the time calling and calling and calling....and all the time getting no response while all around them people are working stations hand over fist!  They never get it.

The other telling item was the very large number of stations working a kilowatt.  My experience was that those running a Kilowatt had, for the most part, crap signals and they were transmitting far beyond what they could hear.  I think the power they run is to compensate for poor antenna systems they may have.  They fail to memorize the first rule of ham radio.......put your $$ into the antenna system, not the radio!!   The stations running 100w had cleaner signals and were easier to understand and work.

I had great success with my 15m vertical.  This antenna is a $20 hamstick attached to a painter pole, and it sits up at about 11'.  It also has two 11' 8" radials on it.  With this antenna, if I could hear them I could work them.  It went beyond my expectation, especially as it was only put up as a stop-gap approach over the winter.  It may stay up now!!

Overall it was a great weekend, really enjoyed myself, and we'll do it all over again on the last weekend of this month for the CQ WW WPX Contest SSB.

And the Season Starts.........

The 2015 contest season officially kicks off this coming weekend with the ARRL International DX Contest (SSB).  This contest starts at 0000Z on March 7th, and end at 2359Z on the 8th March.  Always a great contest for getting those DX stations in the log.

Of course the weather is perfect for radio sport activities right now, as it is not exactly conducive for outdoor activities unless you're a very well dressed Inuit.

Rules are HERE.

Having seen the SFI numbers over the past few weeks I think this contest will  be done by VE3FCT as QRO.  So let's hope the propagation Gods smile this weekend.

Good luck to everyone taking part!!

February - A Quiet Month

February is one of those strange months, you know, one without any major ham radio contest in it, and I'm sure we're all getting quite fed-up with the cold winter and piles of snow about the landscape.

I'm hoping that March will be much different with two major contests during the month, the ARRL International SSB DX Contest on March 7th & 8th (Rules HERE), and the CQ World-Wide WPX SSB Contest on March 28th & 29th (Rules HERE).

I've also been looking at the calendar planning my spring, summer, and fall portable activities.  The problem is there is little new around here to do.......all of the islands have been activated, several times over the last few years, as have all the local lighthouses.  So it looks like I will have to travel further afield this year.....well, not as far as last years trip to the west coast.  My bank account is still recovering from the fuel bill!!

There are the regular annual items already on the calendar, Field Day, International Lighthouse Weekend, Chillycon, and the W/VE Island QSO Party.  These are pretty staple now, but they've all been done before.  So there needs to be a weekend mini-DXpedition on the horizon and I'm going to have to start looking for ideas so I can get planning.

Oh well, back to the maps and atlas to see what I can conjure up..........

Is spring coming soon ????????