New Piece of Gear...

I picked up a new piece of equipment last week, an ABR Industries RF Choke.  I'm very happy with the choke, it's built extremely well - like a tank, it's about 18" long and has seven series 31 Current Ferrites. The Ferrites are covered with tough heat shrink, and it does the job as advertised......but I'm NOT happy with the hidden costs to get it here.

When I purchased this item from ABR Industries they charged me an additional $30 for shipping, which was almost two-thirds of the base price.  OK, I need the gear, so I'll swallow the cost and purchase it.

What I did not count on was that they shipped it via UPS, and that company charged me an additional $47.95 to deliver it to my door, after I'd already paid ABR for delivery! Delivery charges have now come very close to being twice the actual cost of the piece of equipment. So this is the last piece of gear I will get from ABR Industries as they seem to only ship via UPS.

As I stated, it's a well built piece of equipment, and does a great job, but it's not worth anywhere near the total price I have had to pay to get it.

Stay Safe Out There!

Sweden....

It was a good day on the bands yesterday....for a change!!  The last few days have been particularly bad after the double CME hit, but things are improving.  Hopefully today I will catch some DX on the CQ WPX Contest.

I had a first today, I was at Lemoine Park doing a POTA activation (as usual), and I was hunted by Thomas, SM3NRY, a Swedish station.  This is the very first time I have worked Sweden doing POTA.   Thomas gave me a 58 report, not too bad for 10w into a 15m Hamstick!

Propagation yesterday was: SFI=175, SN=90, A Index=7, K Index=1.

It was a quick activation, only 18 contacts were made, but it was great to be out in the sunshine and a park for even a short time.  Just enough to relax and enjoy things.

Here's the contact map:

Stay Safe Out There!

More Poor Propagation....

Not a good day on the bands today.  It's not too often you see a K Index of 8....and it's not looking too good for tomorrow either!  Here's the latest numbers:

 

Stay Safe Out There!

Rough Day on the Bands...

Parrott's Bay

While the propagation numbers looked ok this morning, the reality of the situation was the bands were total garbage, this was coupled with extremely deep QSB wiping out signals completely.

Today was the first time, ever, it's taken me over an hour to activating a park. I made contacts on 12m, 15m, 20m, and 40m to make 10 simple contacts, it was just insane.....and no DX stations were worked. 

This mornings propagation numbers were:  SFI=131, SN=86, A Index=6, and the K Index=2.

It wasn't all bad, it was a beautiful day to be in the park, +10C under blue sky.  It was great!

Here's todays contact map:

Be Well, and Stay Safe Out There!

Testing Out the New POTA Prefix...

Over the last weekend POTA decided in its infinite wisdom to change a number of countries prefixes that lead off the individual park numbers.  Canada originally used "VE", as of Saturday we now use "CA". Yes, lots of confusion and grinding of teeth, and I certainly do not like the fact it was thrust upon us as a total surprise, and that the powers that be did not give anyone a heads up that this was happening, but we will get through it. 

One of the problems we all thought we would have is that our logging programs wouldn't accept the new prefix, but that has been disproved today with the activation of CA-5141 and CA-6003, and the successful uploading of the logs with absolutely no issues.

It was a gloriously sunny day today with the temperature sitting at +10C under blue skies.  I did the whole activation with the windows open in my truck, just like a summers day.....in early March, unheard of.

I took my time today and made 31 contacts in 50 minutes. I put 13 on 40m in the log, and another 18 on 15m.  There were 7 DX contacts into Europe, and 8 park-2-park contacts. It was just a great day, and I enjoyed myself and the slow pace of this activation.

The bands were in decent shape, but the QSB was very deep and signals very quickly disappeared forever. The propagation numbers were: SFI=140, SN=112, A Index=10, and the K Index=1.

As usual it was the KX3 at 10w, and Hamstick's on a mag-mount on the roof of my truck. Here's todays contact map:

Be Well, and Stay Safe Out There!

A Cold Day...

After a couple of fairly warm days, today was bitterly cold again. The cold, coupled with a strong north wind, was not at all pleasant to be out in. But, and there's always a 'But', it's the 29th February and this day only comes every four years, so I thought that was a good enough reason to go to a park and operate.

I went back to Lemoine Point, VE-5141, as I'm close to completing 100 activations there, and want to get that milestone behind me.

Propagation was good, today's numbers were: SFI=180, SN=109, A Index=6, and the K Index=1.  There was also, I found out, some QSB.

I had a look at the solar-terrestrial data before I set-up and realized that once again 15m was going to be my go-to band, so out came the 15m hamstick and mag-mount.

In 25 minutes I put 28 contacts in the log, including 6 Spanish stations, 2 in England, and 1 each from Germany, Austria, and France.  In other words, a great day on the bands for a QRP SSB station!  It never ceases to surprise me what can be done with 10w and a hamstick antenna.

Here's todays contact map:

Be Well, and Stay Safe Out There!

Good Day Today...

Today I complete my 68th trip around the sun, and while it sucks getting old, it definitely beats the alternative.  As a way of celebrating I decided to return to Lemoine Point, and do another POTA activation, my 89th at that location.

Propagation numbers looked pretty good today, and I thought I would do well on 15m as I have done the last few times I'm been at the park.  The numbers were: SFI=173, SN=101, A Index=3, and the K Index=1.  The Bz was sitting at -0.3, but I've operated with a lot worse than that.

The bad part of today was the fact it was -17C (1F) out, but felt like -21C (-6F) with the wind chill factored in.  As I operate from my truck I figured I would be fine.

The radio of the day was my KX3 set at 10w, and as usual I used a 15m hamstick. I've learned to leave the truck running with the heat blasting away while I set up my antenna, as the door must be open in order for me to reach the roof properly.  

It turns out 15m was good, but it wasn't great.  I managed a total of 19 QSO's before I had to close down due to a failing battery due to the cold. I did get a 2m simplex contact with Jelle VE3THI, who was activating Parrott's Bay, VE-5142, which is about 6.5 km to the west of Lemoine Point.  The lesson of the day was to make sure you also have 70cm simplex frequencies programmed in the radio as well.

Here's todays contact map:

Be Well, and Stay Safe Out There!

WSPR...

I’ve been playing around with my WSPR transmitter again. I thought with the bad propagation we had forecasted over the past few days, that it would be a good idea to see how my antennas do under those conditions.

After 24 hrs of beaconing I was very surprised where my Zachtek 200 mW transmitter managed to get a signal to. This test was done using an 80m EFHW antenna. The antenna is vertical for the first 45’ and then is horizontal for the remainder of its length, and it’s orientated North-East to South-West.

For those of you who do not know what WSPR is used for, it was introduced back in 2008 as an application for testing antennas, and testing propagation paths on LF, MF, and HF among other things.

I'm also planning on using my WSPR beacon on my trip out west this spring as a way of letting everyone know where I am each night, instead of using APRS.  This idea worked very well for my good friend Kieran VA3KS (SK) last spring on his trip across the USA. I'll set it up each evening after supper and let it beacon for a few hours before I go to bed.

Here's the map from last night (February 13):

Be Well, and Stay Safe Out There!