Saturday in the Park...

Saturday was a brilliant day around here, no humidity and the daytime high was only 23C (73F). There was not a cloud in the sky. It was also the day before my wife came home from her trip out West, so I had to make the most of it. It was the perfect day for playing radio in the park......but which park?

It turned out that Foley Mountain Conservation Area was having an open day, and all entry fees were waived for the day. It also turns out that I had never activated the conservation area for either POTA or VEFF. So it was off to CA-5542.

It's a pleasant drive up to Westport where the park is, and it takes about 55 minutes at the most from my home.

On top of this, propagation was pretty good as well. The numbers were: SFI=123, SN=145, A Index=7, and the K Index=2. Radio was my FT-891 set at 40w, and the antennas in use were my usual hamsticks.  At this activation I made contacts on 40m, 17m, and 15m.

As I got there fairly early in the morning I scored the perfect parking spot, back in the trees with 100% shade...doesn't get better than that. First up was Bob W2FN, in Williamsville, NY. On 17m I put two Austrian Stations in the log, George OE4JHW, and Mike OE4MXB, and on 15m Jose EA1BUL from Spain made a solid contact with me. 

The only downside to the day was the very deep fading on many of the signals which made some contacts pretty difficult. 

It started to get very busy at the park, especially as it was free entry, so I managed to get 25 contacts and then packed up and headed home.  This allowed other people to park and enjoy their day as well.

Here's the days contact map:

Stay Safe Out There!

My Second Three Park Rove...

Tuesday dawned bright and early as they say, and I had plans. My wife was away visiting her family and that left me with some spare time to disappear and play radio.

Propagation was not the best, and I was determined to get all three parks I had chosen to activate done in one day. The answer of course was to up my game and take my FT-891, and set it at 40w, instead of the usual KX3 at 10w, which is exactly what I did. The FT-891 was matched with my various hamsticks.

The first park, CA-1045, Puzzle Lake Provincial Park, took just under an hour to get to, it's north-west of my home QTH in a very rural area. I put 12 contacts in the log in about 18 minutes, all of them on 40m. The band wasn't bad, but it was noisy and the QSB pretty bad.  I was sure glad to get the extra 30w behind my signal.

First in the log for the day was Martin AC1LL, in Bremen, Maine.

It was off to my second park, CA-1514, Mellon Lake Conservation Reserve, about 30 minutes from my first stop. This one is difficult to get into, and the first thing I saw in the parking lot was a shot up canoe sign.....never a good thing!

This park saw me on both 40m and 20m. First in the log for this park was Dave W4DMH, in Paw Paw, West Virginia. The noise had settled down and the QSB was not as bad in this park. The surprise of the day was getting Larry F5PYI in the log from Maclas, France. In this park I put 19 contacts in the log in 30 minutes.

Then it was off to the small town of Tweed, in Hastings County, for lunch and a coffee before I attempted the third and final park of the day.

The third park as CA-0404, Stoco Fen Provincial Park, about 10 minutes east of Tweed. There are no facilities here at all, just 20 million mosquitoes...all heading for you! You must park on the side of a pretty narrow gravel road, and hope nobody comes past you.

This park I only used 20m, as it was pretty busy with POTA activations and I knew it wouldn't take long to get activated on that band. First in the log here was Ted N0TTZ, in Cheyenne, Wyoming. He was followed quickly by Jose EA1BUL in Asturias, Spain, and Larry F5PYI again for a second park. I had 17 contacts at this park, and it took 24 minutes to activate.

Propagation for the first 2 parks was: SFI=146, SN=146, A Index=17, and the K Index=2.

Propagation for the third park was: SFI=146, SN=152, A Index=17, and the K Index=3.

The temperature was 35C (95F) by noon and very high humidity. I was glad to get the engine running after each activation to get the air conditioner turned on so I could cool down. I also went through 3 litres of water during the day.

It was an excellent day, and I have another three (maybe 4) park rove planned for late next week....if the propagation holds good!

Below is the contact map for the third activation of the day at Stoco Fen.

Stay Safe Out There!

A Beautiful Day...

It was a beautiful day here last Wednesday, blue sky, and not a cloud to be seen. It was far too nice to spend it indoors in the shack chasing DX. Instead I decided to head to the Frontenac Biosphere, CA-0023, and activate it.

The Frontenac Biosphere is a huge area covering most of southern Frontenac Country and Leeds-Grenville County. There are an unlimited numbers of spots to pick to operate from, although I tend to favour a site near the old K&P Rail trail. That ensures there's parking nearby.

Propagation was pretty good for a change that day: SFI=152, SN=128, A Index=8, and the K Index=1. Radio used was my KX3 with 40m and 20m Hamsticks.

You can see from the picture on the left that the temperature was extremely uncomfortable. At 1510 UTC it was 37C (98.6F), way too hot to operate for too long.

The answer of course is lots of water, and being able to turn on the trucks air conditioner every once in a while to cool things down.

As it turned out after 12 contacts the bands turned off and the signals simply disappeared, giving me an excuse to go QRT and get home to a cool house.

I don't think I'll be going out again in those kind of temperatures.

Stay Cool Out There!!

Saturday's 3 Park Rove...

Saturday started with high temperatures and humidity, and continued like that all day. So it was decided that it would be a good day to go for a long drive and activate a couple of parks along the way.

Traffic along the 401 corridor was terrible. I have no idea why people have to drive like such idiots on that highway, weaving in and out of lanes, and doing twice the posted speed limit. Needless to say not a single Police car was seen all day.

First park of the day was the furthest away, that was Richardson's Lookout Conservation Area  CA-5649 in Northumberland County, about 175 km to the west of my home QTH. This spot is located on top of a lonely hill that sticks up from the surrounding flat farmland by about 120 metres. 

Propagation here was: SFI=148, SN=125, A Index=8, and the K Index=3. Radio was my KX3, and 40m and 20m hamsticks for the antenna.

I was on the air with the first contact in the log at 1546 UTC, W1BAP had that honour. Only 14 stations made it into the log before I decided to move on the my second park. Best contact of the whole day was a 50 km 2m simplex contact on 146.520 with Chris VE3OZG.

The second park was CA-5645, Ball's Mill Conservation Area, near the village of

Baltimore. This was not the easiest place to find, and it took me an extra 15 minutes messing around to find the site as my GPS took me to the wrong place. 

There were no changes in the propagation numbers at this park, and I continued to use the KX3 and hamsticks with good results.

Band conditions then started to definitely get worse with very high band noise and QSB. I ended up finishing this activation with just the minimum 10 contacts on the log, I just couldn't pull anymore contacts out of the noise.

It was a 30 minute drive to the third and final park, CA-5637, Goodrich-Loomis Conservation Area. Unfortunately by the time I got there and set-up, conditions had deteriorated to the point the bands were almost dead. So that activated never even got off the ground.  

All-in-all it was a good day out with 2 of the 3 parks activated. I got to play radio while the bands stayed open, and I got to see part of the province I haven't seen before. 

I'm already planning a return to the area and working some more new parks. Stay tuned!

Stay Safe Out There!

The Summer Support Your Park Event...

Last weekend was the POTA Summer Support Your Park Event, an event held 4 times a year, and one I look forward to.

These SYP Events are held once per season, and encourage us to get out into nature and operate from the big shack under the big blue sky, and that is exactly what I did this weekend.

It's no secret that over the past 3 months the bands have been absolutely terrible, and for those, like myself, who choose to operate QRP only, contacts have been hard to get. Regardless of that fact, I set myself a goal of doing a minimum of 6 activations over the weekend. 

Over the course of 2 days I managed to activate the following parks: CA-4877, CA-4872, CA-6003, CA-4882, CA-0023, and CA-4864. It was difficult to do, as between very noisy bands and deep QSB, contacts were hard to come by over the weekend. It was not unusual to call CQ for 10 minutes with no responses, and then get 2 or 3 contacts in a row.

Propagation over the weekend was:

Saturday: SFI=156, SN=167, A Index=12, and the K Index=2.

Sunday: SFI=153, SN=139, A Index=7, and the K Index=1

Best contact over the event was with Rubens IU1HJF, in Northern Italy on 20m SSB, at 0029 UTC on Saturday. He was my one and only DX all weekend. While I was getting 52 and 53 from North American stations, I received a 57 from Rubens. Needless to say, it made my night, that was my first DC in nearly 3 months. 

It was nice to work a lot of my "regulars" over the weekend. These are the guys and girls who hunt we activators, without them it would not be possible for us to get the job done. 

I'm already looking forward to the Fall SYP event that is held on the third full weekend of October. 

Stay Safe Out There!

What's with the bands?

Today was a quiet day around the house, so I decided to get out to a park and do an activation. It's been a week since I have managed to escape and play radio. Way too much going on around here during the summer months for my liking.

Parrotts Bay was my go-to park today, I thought it would be cooler down by the lake, but In was wrong. The 30C (90F) temperature was a killer with no wind to help cool things down. It was also extremely busy with people parking there and crossing the road to go swimming in Lake Ontario.

Propagation today was: SFI=139, SN=155, A Index=23, and the K Index=1. The band noise and deep QSB were brutal and I'm sure they cost me some contacts. Today's activation was a mixture of CW and SSB on both 20m and 40m. Neither band was very good.

Radio today was my KX3, and I used my JPC-12 vertical antenna with the new 40m coil. It seems to work fine, it's certainly no worse than a ham stick. After an hour I packed up with 12 contacts in the log.

I wonder how long it will be before the sun settles down, the bands open up, and the DX re-appears?

Here's todays contact map:

Stay, cool, hydrated, and safe out there!!

POTA SYP Summer Event

This coming weekend, July 19/20, is this summers Support Your Park Event, where a frenzy of POTA operators try to activate, or hunt, as many parks as they can over the weekend.

Many activators use these events, held once each season, to go for the POTA Rover Award, not as a contest, but as a personal challenge to see how many parks they can activate in a 24 hour period. My best, so far, is 10 parks in 24 hours.

I haven't seen any long range propagation forecasts yet for the weekend. Hopefully it improves and we get a weekend of good weather and good propagation. It's been a long time since that combination happened around here. 

I'll be out Friday evening for a late shift activation, and again Saturday morning. I'm hoping for an easy time this event, and plan on only activating 5 parks which is very easy to do.

This is a world-wide event, so get out and make some contacts!

Stay Safe Out There!!

Field Day 2025 - The Aftermath...

Field Day this year can be summed up in three words: "Hot and Humid". Between the heat and lack of decent propagation it was not a good weekend. 

I managed to give myself a dose of mild heatstroke while we were setting up on Saturday....apparently I still haven't learned, at my age, to wear a hat and drink plenty of water on hot sunny days. That set me up for an even worse weekend than I was going to have.

I manned the 40m SSB station, and my antenna for the weekend was a 29' (9m) EFRW vertical, with a 9:1 Balun and four 17' radials. This worked well, and tuned 6m through 40m with no issues. Now it will tune on 80m, but I'm not too sure it would be very effective there. The only difference between the way I use this antenna, and the way Salty Walt uses his, is the fact he only uses one 17' radial and I use four.

The propagation on Saturday: SFI=118, SN=103, A Index=21, and the K Index=1

The propagation Sunday: SFI=122, SN=104, A Index=9, and the K Index=2.

On top of this the Solar Wind was up to over 550 kps all weekend, and that was causing lots of deep, and unwanted, QSB for everyone. 

We operated QRP, with five stations working on batteries, and we had eight of our club members out for the event, and many thanks to Jim VE3ULC for the use of his property.

I managed to put a rather pitiful total of 67 contacts in the log, all weekend, and most of them I had to really work to get. 

Did I enjoy myself? No, not really. The company and food was great, but I think doing POTA has spoiled me for portable operating in a relaxed environment. Too many participants of this year's Field Day were contesting, instead of treating it as an emergency operating event that it is supposed to be, according to the ARRL. And of course, with POTA, everyday is Field Day so it is no longer special. Will I continue to participate in Field Day? Probably, but not in the way I have done in the past.

Here's a few pictures from the weekend:

Eric, VE3DN, our CW guy!

VE3FI's station

Don, VE3MNE's home for the weekend

Stay Hydrated and Safe Out There!!!