My station, with the KX3 |
Don, VE3MNE, not believing the propagation numbers Saturday evening! |
My station, with the KX3 |
Don, VE3MNE, not believing the propagation numbers Saturday evening! |
The preparations continue for Field Day. This year we are travelling 90 minutes west to Grafton, Ontario, to a site we have used before, when our normal site was underwater a few years ago.
The back of my van currently looks like a cross between a Radio Shack Warehouse and a Camping Store. There is gear everywhere!! I didn't realize that I owned so much equipment.
The weather forecast so far is calling for no rain, and hopefully the propagation Gods smile upon us both days, although it looks like we may have a rough start on Saturday according to Space Weather.
Don VE3MNE, and I are heading out Friday afternoon to get the camp set up and to try and figure out where we can site and hang our antennas. This year we plan on operating as a 3A station, made up of a SSB station, a CW, and a digital Station.
The antenna line-up, so far, is a 20m/40m linked dipole dipole, and several EFHW verticals for different bands. Friday evening and Saturday morning will be spent getting these antennas in the air and checked out....and perhaps making a few POTA contacts.
Stay Safe Out There!!
It certainly has been a lousy weekend for doing portable radio. The weather was fine, the band conditions not so much!
On Saturday the propagation numbers were: SFI=149, SN=152, A Index=13, and the K Index=2. The QSB on both 20m and 40m was very bad on both days, with S9 stations disappearing in seconds and coming back as S1 or S2 before fading away completely.
The map below shows my contacts on both 20m and 40m. The majority were on 40m, which is opposite to what was forecasted for that day. 20m should have been the "go-to" band, but it was nearly dead.
Next weekend, June 11th & 12th, is the 49th running of the Rideau Lakes Cycle Tour, and the 14th year the Frontenac Radio Group has provided communications support for the event. After a two year hiatus we have managed to scrape together enough volunteers to look after our normal communications locations. This Saturday will be the first time in 2 years we have had the whole gang together, in person, since Covid hit us.
We do have the threat of rain on us this weekend. It's only a 30% chance, but it's not a thing we need or want. The last time we got hit with cold rain was 10 years ago, that year 60% of the riders went down with hypothermia with the tour being abandoned half way, and riders evacuated by bus back to Ottawa.
There are only 1300 riders registered this year, the numbers being reduced from the more normal 2100 due to covid concerns.
For those hams who regularly use the VE3FRG repeater here in Kingston, please note it will be out of service next weekend and reserved for the Bike Tour traffic only. If you need a repeater please use the VE3KBR repeater on 146.940- with a 151.4 tone.
If you're in any of the locations shown on the map below over the weekend, please watch out for the cyclists.
I still think they are silly rule changes, nobody will change my mind on that. It's called "Field Day"....not "Sit at home and operate from the comfort of your Shack Day". Field Day is supposed to make you think, and operate, outside the box. It was designed to make you travel to, and operate portable from an unprepared location, and then compare your results against those of the other participants who had done exactly the same as you had.
This is now hard to do when operating from a temporary field location, operating from batteries, using less than optimum wire antennas, when the people you're comparing yourself too are using 1500 watts with professionally installed towers and beams...all from the comfort of their normal home shacks. It seems to me that the whole spirit of Field Day has been thrown away in order to make the event "bigger and better".
This year I have decided that I will in fact operate during the event. I have been invited to Northumberland County to take part in a QRP Field Day. You know, 5w maximum, and only home-brewed wire antennas allowed. I'm going to have fun, tell tall tales and swop lies with friends I haven't seen in two years, and I will ignore those lazy individuals who decided to stay home and operate from the comfort of their own homes instead of following the true Spirit of Field Day.
It's going to be fun.
Stay Safe Out There!
Over the past two months I, and others, have noticed two things with propagation. The first thing is that when the forecasted numbers are bad, we're still making good contacts. The second thing is when the forecasted numbers are good, there's no contacts to be seen.....anywhere.
Today was a good example. The forecasted propagation. numbers were: SFI=102, SN=34, A Index=24, and the K Index=3. It certainly didn't look very good, as an example the SN was at 110 a few days ago. Today we also had some extremely deep QSB, which made making contacts, and hearing contacts, much harder.
This morning I went to Lemoine Point Conservation Area, VE-5141, for a quick POTA activation. I decided to use my Packtenna 20m EFHW antenna today, instead of my Hamsticks.The picture to the left shows the 20m EFHW antenna with the 40m extension, and the home-brewed centre piece to hold it on the mast.
Using an analyzer Don, VE3MNE, and I ran the numbers on the End-Fed. Just configured as the 20m antenna, and without the extension to take it down to 40m.
The numbers where: 14.040 it was 1.9:1 and at 14.340 it was 1.8:1. While it is usable, it wasn't so good on 10m, 28.040 was 2.5:1 and at 28.450 it was 2.4:1.
It worked very well for me on 20m. I went QRT with 13 contacts in the log after 20 minutes. This little antenna will definitely get some more use this summer.
Here's todays activation map:
As for the propagation numbers? Yeah, I think I will continue to note them, but ignore them...maybe I'll make more contacts that way!
Stay safe out there!
Another day in the park, and another day of bad bands and deep QSB. The propagation numbers today were SFI=173, SN=154, A Index=10, and the K Index=3. The good news is that it was blue skies, sunny, and 22C, which certainly made up for those cold activations I did last winter.
Today was probably a good example of when not to use QRP power levels, but I still managed to have a successful activation, it just took longer. As usual I was running 10w with my KX3, and hamsticks for my antennas. There was no room at the activation site to set up a EFHW or a dipole.
It took me over an hour today to make 16 contacts, my slowest day ever...so far. The QSB on 20m and 40m was terrible, quite possibly the worst I've heard it this year. S9 stations disappeared in nano-seconds...never to be heard from again.
I only managed to get 2 contacts on 40m, and they were both local. I must have called on 40m for 20 minutes with no luck before I moved to 20m which turned out to be a bit better, but you still had to work to get the contacts.
It's a long weekend here in Canada, so hopefully the bands will improve so we can enjoy ourselves!
Here's todays QSO map: