Day 4 & 5...

Another rainy day as I left Dryden, the temperature was -2C (28F).  The road to Kenora was long and boring, miles and miles of trees and granite rocks.......with no 2m repeaters between the two towns.  I was lucky enough to have the company of Rod VE3RYD and Woody VE3JJA on the Kenora YSF repeater for a while.

On the way to Brandon, my next night stop, I stopped and activated CA-2376, the Assiniboine Corridor Wildlife Management Area.  Not the easiest place to find, but it was successfully activated for the very first time, with 20 contacts.  Foolishly, I was in a hurry and didn't take a photo.

After a night in Brandon, it was off to Gull Lake, Saskatchewan.  

Day 3...

Last night was not very enjoyable, today was even worse.  After I grabbed a coffee in Wawa it started...with heavy rain like last night, combined with heavy pea-soup fog.  This continued just about all day, I say "just about" because it started to snow around 1700 local.  Yeah, the white stuff that should have been gone 2 months ago!

Today I managed to make a single 2m contact.  It was in Thunder Bay on the VE3YQT repeater.  Unfortunately I forgot to write down the gentleman's call or name.  

I'm not equipped to camp in 2C (35F) weather, so I continued on from Kakabeka Falls Provincial Park where I was supposed to camp, and pushed on to Dryden, about two hours from the Manitoba border.

Needless to say, no POTA activations took place today, although there should be at least one tomorrow in the Brandon, Manitoba, area.  It's a new one....never activated before, and I can't recall the POTA number at the moment.

I'm not too worried about the parks I missed today, I'll get them on the way home as I'm coming back the same route.

The Wawa Goose this morning, in a rare, rain free, moment!

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!!