Day 1 & 2...

Unlike my previous trips to the West Coast, this trip started in brilliant sunshine!  I chose my departure day to coincide with people returning home after the May long weekend here.  There was very little west-bound traffic, as opposed to the miles of cars returning home.

My only 2m contact to date has been with Bob, VE3YX, in Deep River.  I passed a pleasant 20 minutes chatting with him on the Point Alexander repeater on Highway 17.  I guess nobody monitors repeaters these days.

My first night stop was at Chutes Provincial Park just outside of Massey, Ontario.  This park is conveniently also a POTA park, CA-0181.  After camp was set up I managed, under very bad propagation conditions to get 11 contacts in the log.  Between local QRM from RV generators and the QSB it was a tough activation.

Very early the next day say me activate CA-1329, Brennan Harbour Conservation Reserve, near the town of Spanish.  This was my first early shift activation, and this was the very first activation for the park.  It's difficult to find.  Again, the propagation wasn't the best, and once again only 11 contacts went into the log.

The drive that day was pretty uneventful, not much traffic at all on the roads.  My lunch stop was at Batchawana Bay Provincial Park, CA-0147.  Things had improved and while eating lunch put 17 contacts in the log.

My second night was spent at Lake Superior Provincial Park, but the weather was so bad no radio was attempted.  The wind and rain howled all night, luckily I didn't get too wet.

Today I'm off to Kakabeka Falls Provincial Park, outside of Thunder Bay.  It is a POTA park, so I will attempt to get it on the air tonight.

Off we go!

Camp, the first night

The view of Batchawawa Bay

Batchawana Bay beach

Wow!!!...

I've never seen a propagation forecast this bad.  It looks like it's going to be a rough weekend on the bands!!

Stay Safe Out There!

Getting Ready: D-10...

There are 10 days left before the "Great Trek West" occurs.  So far I'm on track to leave on May 20th.   A few pieces of equipment have made their way into my gear box for the trip over the past week.  

First up was a new 40m EFHW antenna made for me by Jim, VE3ULC.  I had a commercially made version for many years, and I could never get a good match with it.  I think it was made with the wrong type of core to be very honest.

This version is made with SOTA Beams yellow wire, thin, yet quite strong, and capable of handling 100w if needed.

So far this one had worked perfectly and has given me some great SWR matches.

Next up is a version of K4OGO's "Coastal 20", as made by Bob, VA3QV.  This is an interesting antenna,

only 17.5' long with a 17' radial.  I haven't used this yet, but Bob has used it on SSB and had QSO's with hams in Turkey, Alaska, and Hawaii with it.

According to Bob it works from 40m through 10m.

I'm planning on using this antenna with my SOTA Beams Tactical Mini Mast, and I will be using more than one 17' radial with it.  This will probably be my "go-to" antenna while I'm camping in provincial and national parks on the way across, due to its very small footprint.

Today I cleaned out the back of the truck, re-installed the floor and carpet, and got the bed back inside.  I'm having a small leakage issue in the corner were the bed is, so I have had to install a length of tarp along the front and side to help protect the mattress from getting wet.

I still have to get the curtains installed, but that will wait for this weekend.  There is also a string of LED lights to put in as well for nighttime operating back there.

I'll do one more report once everything is loaded and ready to go. Once again I'm looking at following the Red Coat Trail across Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta.  However, having said that, this years trip will be dictated by Forest Fire warnings and their posted detours.  

Stay Safe Out There!!

This weekend...

Most of you will know that the propagation over the last 2 weeks has been pretty dismal.  Well, don't expect anything to change over the next few days.  

Here's the forecast until Saturday...

Stay Safe Out There.

Not A Bad Weekend...

Against all good common sense I decided to try and complete my 100th activation of Lemoine Point, CA-5141, on Sunday afternoon.  

Propagation wasn't that good, and the QSB was really bad, and to be very honest, it was probably not the day to do it with 10w SSB and a Hamstick antenna.

Well, Lemoine Point has three parking lots, and there was not an empty parking spot in any of them. So it was off to Parrott's Bay and try an attempt to activate CA-5142.

I ended up with 12 contacts in 90 minutes, and had to use 40m, 15m, and 10m to get those contacts. You can see from the contact map that a good proportion of the contacts were from the west coast.

Not a wasted day, just not what was planned.

Monday morning saw me heading back to Lemoine Point, CA-5141, in an attempt to have a successful 100th activation of the park........and when I arrived, nobody else was there, what a difference a day makes! The place was totally deserted, so I quickly parked and got my radio and antenna set up.

Like the day before the propagation was terrible, and I had to fight for every contact I made. Starting on 15m I made a grand total of one contact, after 10 minutes of calling with no response I moved to 40m, which was very noisy, and was full of static crashes from the storms in my area.

It still took me 60 minutes to get 13 contacts in my log, but the job was done, and the 100th activation was a great success. Many thanks to K1WIT, Shannon, who was number 10 in the log to complete the activation, and best of all she too was in a park, US-0324, so I received credit for a Park 2 Park for the same QSO.

I am still figuring out what the next POTA Challenge I will be doing. There are so many options, and that's the beauty of the POTA program.

Stay Safe Out There!!

QRP to the Field...

This Saturday, April 20th, is the day for the 2024 QRP to the Field Event. 

The Rules for the event can be found HERE.

Last year, 2023, I was the only Canadian station to submit a log, and from the results page, it looks like I was the only SSB station as well.  The event allows both CW & SSB.  CW is 5w, and SSB is 10w.

If you're out doing SOTA or POTA, those contacts can be submitted to QRP to the Field.

Get outside and have some fun.

Stay Safe Out There!!

Getting Ready - D-35...

Just over a month until I depart on a 30 day, 10,000+ km cross Canada trip.  This is the first of a couple of updates before my departure day.  I'm planning on activating over 70 POTA parks, including quite a few that have never been activated yet.  If you chase parks you can follow me on POTA Spots during the trip and catch a few new ones.

Jim VE3ULC, and I spent Monday afternoon analyzing some antenna systems to make sure they were acceptable and usable on the new mounts.  It took a little bit of tweaking but all three of them look really good now.

First up was my 40m Hamstick that I plan on using on the rear antenna mount, at night, for my WSPR station.  I'm not planning on using APRS on the trip, as there are currently huge holes in the Canadian APRS coverage map.  Friends and family can log into the WSPR Page each evening and see where I have made it to.  

The 40m hamstick was ok, but we still ended up trimming about 1" off the whip and it came down to 1.1:1 SWR, which is very acceptable.

I initially tried four 17' radials with the hamstick, but found that when I used just two radials you couldn't see the difference.

We also had a look at my Slidewinder coil, that I have never used before, and set it up as it will be used on

the trip.  I'm using the Buddipole Versahub system along with three 33' radials to support it and get it off the ground.  It tuned up on 20m & 40m with no trouble at all (I didn't look at any other bands), and I'm looking forward to making some contacts with it before the trip.

Lastly, we measured and cut the wire for a new 40m EFHW antenna.  This will be used with my SOTABeams Tactical-Mini Mast.  After trimming it, the EFHW tuned up on all bands, 40m through 10m, with no issues at all.  

Later this week I have to start booking provincial and national park camping sites to make sure I have a place to sleep each night.  Next Monday we will be removing the canopy from my truck and re-sealing it to make it water tight.  At the moment it leaks in heavy rain, and I need to keep my sleeping bag and the rest of my equipment nice and dry.

This trip I will not have access to wifi on a regular basis, unlike the other trips I have done, so I will update the page when I can.  

Stay Safe Out There!!

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!