Winter Field Day.....

This was the 15th Annual Winter Field Day, and it has now become a regular event on the ham radio calendar.....and what an interesting weekend it was.  

This year was not without its problems, Covid-19 being the major issue.  Just like the ARRL Summer Field Day, many of the participants chose to operate from home as a "1 Hotel" stations.  Much like the issues with the "1 Delta" stations last summer, the "1 Hotel" stations overwhelmed the QRP and low power stations to the point some gave up and simply went home.

The event is called Winter FIELD DAY.  Yet, of the 70 stations I logged over the weekend, only 9 were operating outdoors.  The rest were home based stations using multi-kilowatt amps and huge commercial antennas.  This is not the spirit of Field Day, either Summer or Winter.

Did I have a hard time with 100w and a EFHW antenna?  Yes I did.  It was extremely hard to break the pileups and it was impossible to hear the QRP and low power stations as everyone trampled all over them. It didn't help that the bands went dead around 0100 UTC and stations struggles even more to make contacts.

However, as bad as things got I still managed on Sunday morning QSOs with Fernando PY4BZ, and HH2AA, the Haitian Amateur Radio Club Station, both on 20m.

Winter Field Day has, since the beginning, been proud of the fact that it is not a contest, but an emergency comms exercise under winter conditions.  This year the big guns turned it into a fully-fledged contest and totally ruined the spirit of the event.

I'm hoping the WFD Committee, of which I'm one, will sit down and totally review the rules and make some hard decisions about the future of this event.

The map of my contacts this weekend.  Not my best performance by far!!

What's Going On??...

It's been a few weeks since I updated this page.  Too be very honest, not much has been happening.  We're in the middle of the "Winter Doldrums" here in Eastern Canada, and while we have not yet seen the usual period of deep cold that we expect around this time, it's still been cold enough to keep us home....along with the Covid-19 stay at home orders we are under.

I have not been ignoring my radio.  In fact I have been busy honing my CW skills, and I'm pleased to tell you that today I completed my 25th CW QSO.  There's a long way to go yet, but I'm really enjoying it.

Hunting contacts for POTA from home has also been keeping me busy, and I recently received a certificate for completing 400 park contacts since September 2020.  Unfortunately going out to do park, island, or lighthouse activations will have to wait for a while longer.

Coming up on the 30th - 31st January is Winter Field Day.  I'm not sure how or where I will be taking part in this event, but I will be taking part.  Information and the Rules for Winter Field Day can be found HERE.

I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy in these trying times.

Winter Field Day - January 30 - 31.

Strange Day on the Bands...

What a strange day it was on the bands today!!  I was trying, as usual, to hunt some POTA stations, and I just was not hearing a thing...on either 20m or 40m.  What few North American stations I could hear, all had very deep QSB and were impossible to copy.

So, I decided to spin the VFO up 17m and see what I could hear....and there was Mike, C6ANX, in the Bahamas calling CQ, loud and clear, with nobody going back to him.  Well, he's in my log now, as is Slavco, S57DX, who I caught a few minutes later on 20m doing the same thing.  

Hopefully propagation will get back to normal soon and I can continue to hunt POTA stations.

Stay Safe out there!!

Coming Up...

 

1700 UTC Saturday, January 30th - 1700 UTC Sunday, January 31st

Don't miss it!!

Rules are HERE

Happy New Year...

If you're reading this - congratulations, you made it through 2020!!!  

Many of us have had a difficult year this year with illness, loss of loved ones, uncertain employment, and isolation due to COVID-19. 

Let's hope that will all be behind us shortly so we can get on with our lives.

Here’s to a year full of joy, laughter, and unforgettable memories with unforgettable friends...Happy New Year everyone!

Next Year...

In between POTA contacts today I decided to start my list, as I do every year, of what ham radio related activities I wanted to do in the new year.  

Well, I'm not sure about 2021, I don't think things will be back to normal.....or anywhere near normal.....until late next September.  I hope I'm wrong, but that's how I see things play out.

So is it a waste of time making plans?  What do you guys think??  Some of my ham buddies here think it is.  Well, I don't think it hurts to dream, and you never know, things may get better far faster than people think it will.

I have a cross-country road trip all planned out, but that is really not going to happen, as much as I want to visit my brother in British Columbia, that trip is going to have to wait until at least 2022.  Instead I'm going to stick with local POTA, Islands, and Lighthouse activations for the foreseeable future.  They're pretty safe as I can do them by myself. 

There will be a multi-day, mini-DXpedition for POTA though, that's my only exception.  I have six POTA sites that I want to activate, and if the parks open (which I doubt they will) then I will make it happen.  

As you can see I'm not overly optimistic that things will be much better next year.  I hope I'm wrong, but I'm going with my gut on this one. 

Stay safe everyone!

Merry Christmas...

 Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas, and the hope that 2021 will 

be a much better year!!

RAC Winter Contest...

The Winter Contest is one of the few things, along with the Canada Day Contest that RAC does correctly......in my opinion. It's always a very friendly contest, where friends take time to chat for a few minutes and pass along news and season's greetings to each other.  It's also a very good way of collecting all the provinces and territories in a single day.

This year the contest runs from 0001 to 2359 UTC on December 19th, and the rules can be found HERE.