ARRL International DX Contest

Coming up next weekend is the ARRL International DX Contest.  It starts at 0000 UTC on March 2nd and runs till 2359 UTC March 3rd.

I was starting to sweat last night as a huge windstorm swept across southern and Eastern Ontario with winds 90 kph gusting to 110 kph.  With the snow in my backyard, it would have been very difficult to get a new HF antenna in the air in time for this weekend.

Fortunately for me, the antennas manage to survive and it looks like I have no damage even after twelve hours of very high winds.

Always a great contest, with a huge amount of DX stations calling, it's now one of the few contests I will take part in on a competitive basis.  We will have to see how propagation works out for the weekend, but one can hope it will be good.

Rules for the contest are HERE.

Hope to work you in the contest!

What will the rest of the year bring…

Here we are half way through February and I haven’t really put any solid plans for the rest of the year together yet, and “She Who Must Be Obeyed” has been asking what I’m going to do with all the equipment I have put together……that's never a good sign.

There are a few fixed annual events in my calendar, such as the Rideau Lakes Cycle Bike Tour, and the ARRL Field Day, both held in June. The IARU HF World Championship and the IOTA Contest both in July, and the Lighthouse weekend and Island QSO Party both in August. I also have plans for another trip to New Brunswick in October for the CQ WW DX Contest at the VE9FI contest station.

In between these fixed events will be a couple of islands, and lighthouse activations which I hope this year to do as “micro-DXpeditions”. There are several islands and lights that have never been activated around this area, so perhaps this is the year to get them done. 

Then, as the association manager for VE3SOTA, there will be a couple of SOTA activations to help put VE3 on the SOTA map.

There may be a chance to operate as VE3FI/VE7 in September as I have to be out there for a wedding and you can never waste a trip by taking no radios.

This year I’m hoping to do most of these activations throughout the week to give me a bit more flexibility.

Of course, I’m sitting here planning all this while there’s 70 cm of snow on the ground, and it’s -12C outside without the wind chill factored in.  Perhaps I should re-think this micro-DXpedition idea and just head for Tahiti now and operate there from the beach as FO/VE3FI.

Winter Field Day - The Result.

Absolutely fantastic band conditions for the 12th Annual Winter Field Day, held last weekend.

Operating SSB QRP with 10w I used the VE3UCC club call of the Upper Canada QRP Club.   The FT-897D was dialed back to the allowed 10w, and I used both my 148' Inverted L long wire antenna and my 80m OCF dipole.

The propagation numbers never changed the whole contest.  They stayed at SFI=76, SN=27, A index = 13, and the K index was 2.

There was quite a bit of deep QSB on Saturday, but it didn't really give me that much of a problem.

Washington - East & West, LAX, Orange, and San Francisco were all worked on the grey line late on Saturday.   BC and Alberta were worked early Sunday morning.  I had no issues getting my signal heard with only 10w on wire antennas.

There were lots of new hams on the air, some did very well....including Adonis, a 10-year-old "ham in training" who made 103 contacts by himself (ok, Dad was there) !!!!!  Well Done !!!!!

There is one ham though who deserves to be singled out.  That is Joseph, AC1DD.  He was working on 7.180 and was subjected to the most despicable and deliberate interference everytime he transmitted.    The foul language thrown at him had to be heard to be believed.  The two individuals doing the abuse never gave a callsign, but they did state that one was from GA and the other from AL.   Throughout this Joseph continued to call CQ and never let the abuse affect his work.

Every time I went past this frequency I gave a listen, and it went on over a four hour period.   Of all the abuse I heard, the only, and cleanest piece of it I could write is "No Sumbitch contests on my frequency."  Almost sounds like a challenge to me 😎

Looking forward to next years WFD.

My Contact Map.

Winter Field Day

Yep, it's that time of year again !!!!   Like to play out in the cold?  The 12th Annual Winter Field Day(TM) is upon us again next weekend, January 26 & 27.

The Rules can be found HERE.

Started in 2007 Winter Field Day(TM) has quickly become a firm favorite within the ham radio community.  Think of it as the ARRL Field Day in June, only without the bugs.

If you're looking for more information or help, have a look at the WFD Facebook Page HERE.  There's nearly always an Admin around to answer questions.

Stay warm....and have fun !!

NA QSO Party 2019

Coming up next weekend is the North American QSO Party.

Rules can be found HERE.

Dates and Timings are 1800 UTC January 19 to 0600 UTC January 20, 2019 (third full weekend in January).

We're looking at snow here next weekend so this contest may be a good reason to stay indoors and stay warm.

Not much else going on in the VE3FI shack at the moment.  Too cold to do much outdoor operating, so spring had better hurry up and get here!

Don't forget that Winter Field Day is coming up on January 26th & 27th.  Details HERE.

Happy New Year...

RAC Winter Contest

Had a great day yesterday taking part in the RAC Winter Contest.  It was a good warm up for Winter Field Day.

I managed to work everywhere except VY1, VE8, and VY0.  Strangely, there was no sign of any station out of the north this year.  There was quite a bit of European traffic on the bands, and I did manage to put France and the Netherlands in the log as well.

The score from last year was beaten by a big margin, many more multipliers jumped into the log this year compared to last year.  Yet the propagation was a lot worse.

Contacts were made on all bands except 160m and 10m.  Lots of traffic on 160m, just didn't hear anyone calling CQ Contest, and nobody responded to my CQ's.  And, as usual nothing at all was heard on 10m.  However 6m was very active and I managed a good number of contacts there.

At 1800 UTC on Saturday, the propagation numbers here were: SFI = 68, SN = 0, A Index = 24, and the K Index = 3.  Not the best set of numbers, but the actual activity on the band was out of all proportion to what we should have had given those figures.  So there you have it, get on the air and call CQ.

As a side note, this is my 500th Blog entry.  I never anticipated reaching this number, but now I'm here.........I think we'll keep going 😎

2019 will see some changes, some new radios are coming, and I'm planning a total rebuild of my antenna system.  The current antennas have been up  for six years and it's time for some major maintenance and changes to them.

Merry Christmas

They say the best of all gifts around any Christmas tree is the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other. Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas surrounded by your precious family, and many great blessings for the coming year. 

and

I hope to work you all during the RAC Winter Contest
December 29th, 0001 - 2400 UTC

See You On The Bands!!