Lucky Activation...

I was up and out the door pretty early (for me) today, as I wanted to get back home before lunch to help my wife....and I accomplished that mission with no problem.

The propagation, as I started my activation, was: SFI=225, SN=171, A Index=8, and the K Index=1. The QSB was hellish, stations were S9 one minute and completely gone in an instant. It was a 2fer I was after today, Lemoine Point and the Waterfront Trail together, and I managed to get 16 contacts in the log in a little over 40 minutes, which was slow for me, but given the state of the bands I was happy with it.

As usual I was using my KX3 set at 10w, into a hamstick on the roof of my truck. SSB only today, CW will have to wait until tomorrow.

Starting on 40m as I usually do, it didn't take too long to get 8 contacts in the log.  Then the band dried up, I called and called with no response, so I moved to 15m.  This band switch got me another 8 contacts, including a solid S8 contact with F4ILH in Ecuras, France....which made my day.

Sixteen was all I could pull out of the hat today, the band seemed to be getting worse, even though it was supposed to be improving.  Well, it turns out we had a surprise G3 solar storm that hit about 15 minutes before I switched everything off.....no wonder I couldn't get contacts.

Here's todays contact map:

You can clearly see the ring of 40m contacts vice the 15m contacts on this map.

Stay Safe Out There!!

A Good Day...

Today was one of those rare days that I get almost totally to myself.  It was sunny, hot, and pretty humid out...so a good day to find a new park to activate!

Recently a new yellow dot has popped up on the POTA map showing a new park in Gananoque, about 35 kms (22 miles) east of my home.  The POTA website showed it had been activated 3 times before, but only with digital modes, never SSB or CW.  

This park, CA-6346, Agnes Maule Macher National Historical Park, is not very big...in fact it's quite small. There is a small gravel parking lot that can hold maybe 8 or 9 cars if they all park correctly. As you can see in the photo on the left, the park is full of tall, mature, trees, all ready for a good wire antenna. I found a solitary picnic table there, and it's located right under a big shade tree. On the downside, there are no toilets there.....at all.

For the few days before this activation the propagation numbers have been almost off the charts, and I did not think I would be able to get this activation done. But the numbers "kind of" settled down overnight and I thought it would be ok to go ahead and get it done while I had the free day.

Today's propagation numbers were: SFI=260, SN=177, A Index=17, and the K Index=1. Definitely not the best, but certainly a lot better than the previous few days. There was also a lot of very deep QSB on all the bands.

No DX was worked, although I could faintly hear a EA2 station trying to call me on 20m, but he was so far below my noise floor I couldn't make out the call. 

I ended up with 26 contacts in the log, 23 SSB and 3 CW. I'm very pleased with this, given todays conditions. Hopefully the conditions will continue to get better and I can get back there and get more contacts another day.

Here's todays contact map:

Stay Safe Out There!!

Coming Up Next Weekend...

It's shaping up for a busy few days next weekend, we have the following big events:

1.  The International Lightship & Lighthouse Weekend.  That runs from 0001 UTC Saturday, August 17 to 2359 UTC Sunday, August 18.

2.  The North American QSO Party SSB.  That runs from 1800 UTC Saturday, August 17 to 0600 UTC Sunday, August 18.

3.  The New Jersey QRP Skeeter Hunt.  From 1700 - 2100 UTC, Sunday, August 18.

Click on the above event names to take you to the relevant rules and information pages.

Let's hope the propagation greatly improves for next weekend so we can get out and really enjoy ourselves on the bands!!

Stay Safe Out There!!

Plugging Away....

Yesterday was a very hot and muggy day here in Eastern Ontario.  The temperature was 27C (80.6F), but felt like 37C (98.6F) with the humidity.....in other words, very uncomfortable, and to top it off we had no breeze at all.

I made the mistake of not looking at the daily propagation numbers before I left home to activate CA-5141, Lemoine Point Conservation Area. If I had I probably would not have left home! The numbers yesterday morning were: SFI=245, SN=182, A Index=10, and the K Index=4. As well, the BZ was an unbelievable -13.5.

In 62 minutes I managed to put just 10 contacts in my log, just the bare minimum to get the activation done, 7 SSB and 3 CW. Now I'm well aware that the propagation we had was not conducive to QRP operating, but that's what I did......10w and a 40m hamstick on my truck roof.  

Given the conditions I was very happy to get the minimum 10 contacts, no DX was worked of course, but you wouldn't expect to on a day like that.

I'm looking forward to the cooler weather that is coming, and some much improved band conditions.

 

The days contact map.

Stay Safe Out There!!

Incoming Solar Storms...

Strong (G3) Geomagnetic Storm Watch.

Not just one....but a series of coronal mass ejections (!!!!) are predicted to possibly merge and contribute to a combined impact by July 30th. Moderate (G2) to Strong (G3) geomagnetic storm conditions will be possible within the next 48-72 hours.

Going to be a fun few days on the bands.

Stay Safe Out There!

Farewell to the FT-950...

After 15 years of sitting on my shack bench I have officially retired my FT-950. I'm going to miss the old beast, it never let me down, and it has done well over 21,000 SSB & CW QSO's since I bought it new.

I started to realize that the new rigs had much better roofing filters....and just about everything else. So it was time for it to go to another home. In its place will be a much smaller FT-891. It's all I really need in the shack as 90% of my operating is POTA, lighthouse, or island activations, and this means a huge rig wasn't really needed.  The plus side is I now have much more room on the bench for more junk!!

My thoughts so far on the FT-891? What a royal pain in the 'backside' the menu system is, and the manual that comes with the radio is just about useless.  I've always used Yaesu or Elecraft......this may be my last Yaesu. I can't figure out why I must set the band settings for each individual band, instead of just doing it once, and allowing the on board computer to assign those setting to all bands. 

I'll give it a while and try to really learn this rig....but I can't promise it'll be around for another 15 years!

Stay Safe Out There!

Support Your Park Event - Summer...

It's been a busy first 24 hours of this summers Support Your Park Event. So far I have 5 successful activations completed, and a couple more planned for tomorrow. The five completed parks so far are: CA-5142, CA-6003, CA-4872, CA-4864, and CA-5143.

The weather last night and today was superb, comfortably warm, with a light breeze and blue skies. Great weather for being outside playing radio.

Propagation wise it was good on Saturday until 1530 UTC, after that contacts were very hard to get as the conditions started to deteriorate.  The numbers were: SFI=202, SN=197, A Index=5, and the K Index=1. However, there was very deep QSB on the bands which certainly didn't help me.

One of the issues I'm finding here in the parks around Kingston is the fact that they are so busy in the summer. I know we're a tourist town, and it's good for business if the town is busy, but it gets difficult to find a parking spot in the parks unless you're there at the crack of dawn. Because they are busy it's also difficult to put up a wire antenna, I certainly don't want a lawsuit because some person, not watching where they're going, tripped over my radials or coax.

As my regular readers will know, my go-to antennas - for a long time - has been hamsticks, mounted on my truck's roof with a 5" mag-mount. I'm always surprised at how well they do, especially with 10w SSB. Last night, for a change, I dug out my Slidewinder coil with the 9.5' Buddipole whip, and used that. While it makes changing bands very easy, and it works very well, I didn't notice any significant improvement over my hamsticks.

We'll see how they do tomorrow....if the bands are usable again.

Stay Safe Out There!!

Bandpass Filters...

A bandpass filter is a device that passes frequencies within a certain range, and rejects frequencies outside of that range. These items are particularly useful in Field Day settings or when a POTA or SOTA activation has two or more stations operating at the same time.

After suffering through some minor interference during this years Field Day I decided to invest in a set of filters from K9DP.com, as did another member of our club. These are for QRP operations, up to a maximum of 20w, and they are only available for 15m, 20m, and 40m at the moment. I'm hoping a 10m and 80m version becomes available in the near future.

Here's a picture of the set that arrived today:

Stay Safe Out There !!