The Amazon Truck...

Hopefully, when the Amazon delivery truck arrives...the wife is out 😀.  But today that wasn't the case, she was home.....oh well. I had ordered a couple of new items for the portable shack to make my life a bit easier.

First up was a Bioenno 12v 3amp battery.  This will allow me to hike into some of the POTA parks and not have a rucksack filled with a big heavy battery.  This one should give me a few hours at 10w.

And, the second item to be delivered was an "Anker Soundcore" powered speaker.  It came highly recommended by Thomas K4SWL and Bill K4NYM who both use one.  After so many hours flying on Chinook helicopters my hearing is not what it should be at all, and this speaker makes a huge difference with the KX3.

Here's some photo's:

Stay Safe Out There !!

Good Conditions...

I finally managed to get out and do another POTA activation yesterday, I needed to, it's been over a week since my last one, and it was time to escape from the house for a while.

The temperature was above zero....well, just...it was +1C.  The wind was pretty cold though, which certainly didn't help.

The propagation numbers were:  SFI=134, SN=23, A Index=7, and the K Index=2.  There was some QSB but not a lot, in fact it really didn't bother me at all.  

As usual in winter I used my KX3 and hamsticks for ease of set-up and yesterday was no different.  It was a slow day POTA wise, but I did hear many station taking part in the Russian DX Contest.  Be what it may, but I only managed to put 11 contacts in the log.  I did make contacts with DX stations in Germany, The Netherlands, Spain, and the Dominican Republic.  Not bad for 10w and a 10m Hamstick!!

Here's yesterday's contact map:

Stay Safe Out There!!

A Quick POTA Activation...

Yesterday I thought I would sneak off to the local park and do a quick POTA activation, the weather was nice...and as a bonus the temperature was above zero, in fact it was +3C and no wind !!

The propagation numbers were: SFI=180, SN=155, A Index=22, and the K Index=2.  Not the best of numbers, but I've activated in much worse at the bottom of Cycle 24.

So it was off to Lemoine Point, VE-5141, which is about 15 minutes from my QTH, and surprisingly it was very busy for a weekday.  It took me longer to find a good parking spot than it did to get the park activated.

First up was 10m, and while the band was quiet, there was very little traffic on it.  I ended up with five contacts there before moving on to 40m, which while very noisy, managed to scare up 14 more contacts for me.  

Radio was the KX3 at 10w, and the antenna was a 10m or 40m hamstick mounted on a mag-mount on the roof of the van.  

Here's the contact map.....I'll let you guys figure out which were the 10m and which were the 40m contacts!

Stay Safe Out There!

Not a bad weekend to be on the bands...

Not a bad weekend to be on the bands!!  This weekend was the ARRL SSB DX Contest, and I managed to put 30 countries in my log in about 2.5 hours of on-air time.  My "go-to" bands were 10m & 15m, in fact I never even checked any of the other bands at all.  It's nice to see something other than 20m & 40m being used.

I must admit that after spending the last 2 years not contesting at all, I have come to love the laid back attitude of the POTA activations I do.  This weekend was fine to put a few DX entities in the log again, but I can't see me getting seriously back into contesting like I used to do.  Being asked to repeat my callsign three or four times, and then getting a "59" signal report, just makes me laugh now.  

Another thing that crossed my mind today, is why is it that we mostly only hear these European stations during contests?  Do they never get on and call CQ during weekdays or evenings....or do they only take part in contest weekends?

Was it just me or did it seem there were less stations calling CQ this weekend?  While the bands were busy, they did not seem as busy as years past.  Too many people hanging out on 14.074 it would seem.

Propagation on Saturday was:  SFI=175, SN=122, A Index=22, and the K Index=2.  

Antenna in use this weekend was my 80m EFHW fed with a 49:1 Unun.  If nothing else it's nice to know the antenna is still capable of working DX.  Radio was trusty my FT-950 at 100w.

Saturday's contact map:

Solar Storm Inbound...(Updated)

The current geomagnetic storm watch has been upgraded to include the possibility of a strong (G3) level geomagnetic storm within the next 24 to 48 hours. This is in response to the possible combined effects of two CMEs that occurred on Friday and Saturday that will be sweeping past Earth.

This is the first time I have ever seen the K7 and G3 warning posted. I think it will be a rough few days on the bands.

UPDATE:

The G3 Solar storm continues, and will continue for the next 24 hrs. They expect it to degrade to a G2 storm on Wednesday. Here are the updated predictions:

Sunday on 10m...

Today was one of those rare winter days here when the temperature goes above zero, in fact when I left home this morning it was +3C...a heatwave here for this time of year!! The ground is still frozen solid, and there are lots of places still covered in ice which makes setting up antennas interesting.

The propagation report for today was pretty good, in fact it was probably the second best day this cycle so far. Todays numbers were: SFI=210, SN=203, A Index=11, and the K Index=1.  

Once I reached a park that had a clear parking lot that you could actually park in, I set up my KX3 and a 10m Hamstick, and got to work.  Within minutes I had the UK, Italy, Spain, and the Czech Republic in the log.  It was just a great morning on the band.  

The other noticeable thing today was the S1 noise floor.  There was no straining to hear the weaker stations, I don't think I worked anyone who was less than S5 today.

I'll be back out tomorrow and see what I can work then, maybe I'll try 15m as well.

Here's todays contact map:

Stay Safe Out There!

A New Antenna...

A package arrived at the VE3FI Shack today, a brand new JPC-12 portable antenna.  It's a great piece of kit, and I'm looking forward to using at soon as the ground in Eastern Canada has thawed out.

It is, here in Eastern Canada anyway, a three season antenna.  I doubt the ground spike would last very long being banged into the frozen ground at -30C around here.

The antenna is supposed to work on 40, 20, 17, 15, and 10m.  While I have not been able to test it yet myself, there are plenty of Youtube videos out there showing how it is used and its good performance.  It comes in a very nice case, and is built very solidly and looks and feels to be of a high quality.  My only issue is that it does not use the now standard 3/8x24 thread.  Instead it uses whatever thread the hams in China use - so I can not use my Buddipole parts and coils to "experiment" with it.

I will be the first to admit that the so-called "manual" is an absolute joke.  It's written in a form of quasi-English used by nobody in particular, on a deserted island, in the West Pacific.  It also has a few pages written in Chinese.  The first time I use it will be spent with my analyzer trying to figure out the coil and whip setting for the various bands....I have looked on line to see if anyone has already done this, but have found nothing.

Given the weather we are currently having here ( -35C here today ), it will be a while before I can get it out into the field and test it.

Here are some pictures of it in the case:

Until next time, Stay safe out there!!

After Winter Field Day...

A good weekend was had, but the weather could have been a lot better though as it snowed for most of it.  This year I did a combined POTA / WFD event, so I had the best of both worlds.  This was possible because the new WFD Executive has allowed a new class, that of "Mobile".

This allowed me, over the weekend, to go to seven different local POTA spots, setup, and take part in both POTA and WFD...and a good time was had!

I had originally made plans to take my 31' collapsible mast and a 40m EFHW antenna, but to be honest I don't think it would have stayed vertical with the wild wind we had.  So it was back to the old standby of hamsticks and a mag-mount.   My KX3 worked great, with no issues at all.

Was I happy with my results?  Not really, but given the fact I only operate QRP and use a severely compromised antenna system, I like to think I could certainly do better.  The other factor was the fact that while the propagation numbers looked good, in reality - not so much.  The numbers were: SFI=145. SN=76, A Index=9, and the K Index=2.   We also had a lot of deep QSB to contend with.

Operating in the back of my van at night causes some problems.  I like to stay as stealthy as I can at night, as you never know who's about, or what they are up too.  So I don't like using bright lights.  Last week I found a small, USB rechargeable light, it's supposed to be used to read a book in bed, but I used it to illuminate my log book so I could see to write.  It worked great, and it was pretty stealthy as it's not too bright.

All-in-all it was a good weekend, apart from the 37cm of snow we received that is.  

Here's the weekends contact map:

Stay Safe Out There!