Day 8 & 9...

It was a very wet night at Gull Lake, and the band conditions made activating the park quite difficult.  I got absolutely soaked taking camp down the next morning, and was glad to start driving and warm up.  Today I'm off on a trip through the Canadian Rockies.

My first POTA stop today was at CA-0005, Banff National Park.  I made zero contacts in Banff as the noise floor was S9+20 at every spot I tried.  So I gave up and moved on down the road.  I was really looking forward to operating in Banff, perhaps next time!

Second stop today was CA-0117, Yoho National Park.  What a beautiful spot!!!  But of course it was cloudy and raining.

The band conditions, once again, were not the best.  The propagation was: SFI=162, SN=74, A Index=9, and the K Index=2.  Lot's of deep QSB on the bands as well.

I managed to get 11 contacts in an hour before I had to leave and move on to the next park, CA-0028, Glacier National Park.  This was my first failed activation.  I managed to get one contact, Ken N5HA, in Leesville, LA.  That was it, despite calling for an hour, I had no other hunters.

Two hours later I arrived at CA-0061, Mount Revelstoke National Park, another beautiful location. At this park I managed to get the bare 10 required contacts, and it only took 34 minutes.

Personally I'm finding that POTA is very different out west from what I'm used to in the Eastern part of our country.  There does not seem to be as many operators doing POTA here.  Perhaps SOTA is more active here given the mountains around this part of the country.

It's also quite difficult getting a signal out of these deep mountain valleys, which certainly isn't helping my activation count.

Day 6 & 7...

Heading north from Brandon I drove up the beautiful Qu'appelle Valley and really enjoyed the great views.  My destination today was Gull Lake, Saskatchewan.

My first activation of the day was at CA-0628, Touchwood Hills Post Provincial Park.  The park is quite small, and has no facilities at all, but is a great spot to stop and have lunch and play POTA.  

I managed to put 12 in the log while I was there, but conditions on the bands were not the greatest.  Todays propagation was:

SFI=176, SN=97, A Index=10, and the K Index=2.

A short distance down the road was the town of Raymore, Saskatchewan, where I activated CA-2816.  This was an All Time New One, never activated before and I was determined to be the first to activate it.  You see, the number 2816 has a special connotation to me, it was my Dad's WW2 RAF Squadron number, "2816 Squadron, RAF Regiment".....so you just know I had to get this one!!  

This "park" is a bit of a joke.  I'm not sure how it ever became a POTA Park.  Its official name is: "Raymore Recreational Site"....but is simply a 45 meter by 18 meter gravel parking lot where they allow RV's to stop and spend the night.

Twelve contacts went into the log at CA-2816, including my first contact from back home, Steve VE3PTA.  Surprisingly I also worked Jose, EA1BUL, from Spain, who I work a lot from my home parks around Kingston.

The rest of the day was spent driving towards Gull Lake, Saskatchewan, and my next nights camping.

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.