Colorado 14er Event, 2023...

This weekend sees amateur radio operators from around the State of Colorado climbing their high Summits On The Air (SOTA) peaks and communicating with other radio amateurs across the state and around the world. 

Feel free to join in on the fun during the annual event by activating a summit or contacting (chasing) the mountaintop stations. Be aware that many mountaintop activators will hit the trail early with the goal of being off the summits by (1800 UTC) noon due to lightning safety concerns.

This event is normally held the first full weekend in August. Again this year, we will add two bonus days to the Colorado 14er Event. The main two days remain Saturday and Sunday (Aug 5 & 6), while the bonus days are Friday Aug 4 and Monday Aug 7th, for those SOTA enthusiasts that need more than two days of SOTA fun!

The 14er event includes Summits On the Air (SOTA) peaks, which provide over 1700 summits to activate. The Colorado 14er Event was started in 1991, about 19 years before the SOTA program was set up in Colorado. As SOTA grew in popularity, this event expanded from just the 14,000-foot mountains (14ers) to include all of the SOTA summits in the state. They still call it the Colorado 14er Event because, well, that's where it all started and the 14ers are the iconic summits in the state.

Important: The recommended 2m FM frequencies have been changed to 146.58, 146.55, and 146.49 MHz, to align with the use of the North America Adventure Frequency for SOTA (146.58). The National Simplex Calling Frequency (146.52) may be used as appropriate. There will be plenty of action on the HF ham bands, especially on 20m. 

Stay Safe Out There....and SOTA & POTA On!!

Not Looking Good...

It's been mighty quiet around the VE3FI property for the past month.  I haven't done a POTA activation, or any portable radio during July.....just taking a break.  Some days the propagation around here has been so bad we couldn't talk across the street....never mind across the big pond!

However, the propagation over the next few days sure doesn't look too good.

A K Index of 4 or 5 does not make for happy band conditions.  

Stay Safe Out There!

More Propagation Woes...

So far this month I have not done a single outdoor activation, in fact I've hardly been on the radio at all. Between the very high heat and humidity, and the lousy propagation, I just haven't felt the "love"....and that's OK, sometimes a nice break is a good thing.

Another reason for my lack of radio activity is that I have sold my van and bought a new truck. Before I can get the truck set up for operating I need to wait for the new canopy to arrive, hopefully that will be in a few more weeks.

While I enjoyed working from the van it was getting old and starting to show its age.  I'm looking forward to many new adventures in the new vehicle, including a cross-country POTA trip next year. Details to follow.

And my last excuse for the lack of operating and posts here is this.....what seems to have become a typical day around here propagation wise:

Stay Safe Out There.......and try and stay cool!!

IARU HF World Championships...

Coming up this weekend is the IARU HF World Championships.  One of the premier contests of the year...if you run power...it's not a particularly good contest for QRPers, but there's always good DX to be found.

The contest runs from 1200 UTC July 8th to 1159 UTC 9th July.

The rules can be found HERE.

Best Day in Weeks...

Today was my best day on the air in many weeks.  It seems the bands and the propagation Gods got their act together and gave us a decent day to play radio!

At 1430 UTC today the propagation numbers were: SFI=158, SN=119, A Index=8, and the K Index=2.  The bad news was that there was still some very deep QSB happening.  After seeing the propagation forecast for the next few days, I'm glad I got out today and operated portable.  Hopefully it will improve considerably in time for Field Day next weekend.

In 50 minutes I managed to get 39 contacts in my log, including a good contact with Mike, CU3HY, in the Azores.  That was my first QSO with Mike since December of last year.  Todays breakdown was 5 contacts on 40m, and 34 contacts on 20m.

Radio was my KX3, the antenna was a 20m or 40m Hamstick, and I was transmitting a whopping 10w.  

Here's todays contact map:

Stay Safe Out There!

Field Day is Coming!! ...

Get ready....coming up on June 24th & 25th is this years edition of Summer Field Day.  

I'm not a huge fan of the new rule changes that the ARRL has made over the past two (3?) years, in fact I think they are really ridiculous. So this year I'm taking part more on a social basis than a serious contesting basis.  And, as I did last year, I'll be operating QRP.

Don, VE3MNE, and myself have been invited down again by the Northumberland County QRP Club.  This is our second year taking part with them.  

We have plans this weekend to refurbish our collection of notch filters that we haven't used in the past 3 years.  I think they probably need a good looking over after sitting in my garage for that long.  The rest of the equipment I'll be taking, masts, antennas, and the camping gear, will also need a good inspection to make sure it is all serviceable for the weekend.

Rule for Field Day 2023 can be found HERE.

Stay Safe Out There!!

Messing with Antennas...

With the Ottawa - Kingston Bike Tour cancelled last weekend, and having a lot of spare time, I took the time to dig out some of my antenna parts and try an experiment.

The one band I have issues with operating portable is 80m. Most of the spots in and around Kingston are not large enough to string up an 80m dipole.  And those that are large enough are normally far too busy with dog walkers, or kids running around to safely use one.  So what is the answer? Well, I threw some Buddipole parts in the van and headed out to the local park to find out.

I took my Buddipole Versahub and tripod legs, the large Buddipole coil, a 17' MFJ collapsible whip, and two 66' radials.  Using these parts I guessed would allow me to get on both 40m and 80m.  Not that I needed another 40m vertical, but this version does have more metal in the air, so that must be a good thing.

Don, VE3MNE brought out his analyzer and had a look at the 40m variant.  We used two 17' ground radials for this antenna. It looked great right from the start, we but tweaked it a little more and got it closer to a 50 ohm match.  The reactance was sitting at +4 when we finished, so I didn't think we could get any better, so on the air we went.

Bob, VA3RCS, told us it sounded very good on air and to leave it alone, he gave us an S9+ report, so we decided to take his advice and not change things, and then we moved to the 80m version.

The 80m version with two 66' ground radials is not so good.  While the analyzer certainly gave us good numbers, and everything looked really good, our quick QSO with Bob didn't go so well.  After giving us S9+ on 40m, he gave us a S3 on 80m, and told us we were right in his noise floor.  Pretty disappointing, and the bottom line is I'm still searching for a solution to get on 80m in the parks.

Here's a few more pics:

Don VE3MNE in action with the analyzer.

A close up of the large coil and the band clips.

More experiments to come......Stay Safe Out There!

A New Day...

Yesterday the band conditions were not very good, and I struggled to get the POTA site activated.  Today, operating at exactly the same time as yesterday, it was a bit different.

It took 42 minutes to put 23 contacts in my log, nine on 40m, four on 15m, and ten on 20m. I was really surprised when Charles, VA6CHK, answered my CQ on 15m.  It's been a long time since I worked any station from Alberta, that's almost as rare as Europe.  Charles was 2774 Km from me, not bad for 10w and a Hamstick!

Todays propagation numbers were:  SFI=164, SN=148, A Index=4, and the K Index=1.  The very deep QSB was a lot worse than yesterday, and I had a number of reports of my signal completely fading away in the middle of a QSO.

Here's todays contact map:

Hopefully band conditions will start to improve soon.

Stay Safe Out There!