This will be my first contest under my new call - VE3FCT, which I'll be using for contesting as the phonetics are easier to get across than CLQ......at least that's the theory!
Hope to work you on the air this weekend!
Wednesday 12 January 2011
NA QSO Party
Don't forget, this weekend is the NA SSB QSO Party! You can find the rules here.
This will be my first contest under my new call - VE3FCT, which I'll be using for contesting as the phonetics are easier to get across than CLQ......at least that's the theory!
I'll be working all bands on low power, and hopefullt the SFI will improve a wee bit for the weekend.
Hope to work you on the air this weekend!
This will be my first contest under my new call - VE3FCT, which I'll be using for contesting as the phonetics are easier to get across than CLQ......at least that's the theory!
Hope to work you on the air this weekend!
Thursday 6 January 2011
The Fifth Annual SPAR Winter Field Day!
I'm looking forward to the 2011 Winter Field day, which is being held over the weekend of 29th/30th January. This will be the fourth year I have taken part in this event.
Now I'm not a fan of winter, and I hate the cold with a passion....but I do believe that SPAR has it right, emergencies and disasters do not always happen in the "good months". And it is because of this that ARES members must train and operate in less than ideal conditions.
This year six of us will be deploying to Leggat Lake, about 7 kms north of Parham (40 kms north of Kingston). We have the use of by brother-in-laws uninsulated summer cottage, that thankfully does have an operating woodstove, and you'll find me very close to it.....if not sitting on top of it for most of the weekend.
The rules for the SPAR Winter Field Day can be found HERE. We plan of having three HF stations on the air - 2cw and 1 ssb. We have a 80m OCF dipole, a 20m loop, and a Buddipole system ready to go.
Hope to work you guys on the air that weekend.
Now I'm not a fan of winter, and I hate the cold with a passion....but I do believe that SPAR has it right, emergencies and disasters do not always happen in the "good months". And it is because of this that ARES members must train and operate in less than ideal conditions.
This year six of us will be deploying to Leggat Lake, about 7 kms north of Parham (40 kms north of Kingston). We have the use of by brother-in-laws uninsulated summer cottage, that thankfully does have an operating woodstove, and you'll find me very close to it.....if not sitting on top of it for most of the weekend.
The rules for the SPAR Winter Field Day can be found HERE. We plan of having three HF stations on the air - 2cw and 1 ssb. We have a 80m OCF dipole, a 20m loop, and a Buddipole system ready to go.
Hope to work you guys on the air that weekend.
Monday 20 December 2010
The Worked All Neighbours Award
The other weekend Don, VE3MNE, and I built an 80m OCF dipole to replace my current 80m-40m-20m fan dipole. We had built several of the OCF dipoles over the past 12 months, and had used two of them, an 80m and a 160m, at Don’s cottage for field day and the IARU World Championships last summer….all with no problem. In fact this year we had the best field day score we have had in years. The plans came from the Bux Comm website.
So, on a cold Sunday (why do it in the warm weather…right?) we hauled down the fan dipole, which had given me sterling service for nearly five years, and put up the new 80m OCF dipole. It took us a while to tune it, this antenna works on 80m-40m-20m-10m and 6m, and when tuned properly can give you a 1.5:1 SWR across the bands. We could not quite get 1.5:1, but we did get close to that.
I fired up the rig and found that the ATU wasn’t required, and proceeded to call CQ. Well, it wasn’t too long before the XYL was in the shack complaining that I was playing hell with the TV. So, looking around to see what I had missed I found the low pass filter which I had neglected to reinstall. On went the low pass filter and off I went again calling CQ.
Within minutes I had a neighbour knocking at the front door and the XYL back in the shack, both complaining of interference with their respective TV’s. Off went the rig for the night and I sat and contemplated what the hell could be wrong.
The rig sat idle for about a week, and during that time I replaced every bit of coax in the shack with brand new pieces. On went the rig, called CQ, more complaints came from the neighbours, and off went the rig.
What to do and more to the point, what the hell is going on. We know these antennas work, and all my neighbours are on cable. Could it be the 4:1 Balun? Nope, checked that out and it works fine, and it was back to contemplating this issue for a few more days.
I had to do something fast as the RAC Winter Contest was coming up, and I needed a working antenna that wasn’t going to get me strung up by my neighbours. So, I did what any good ham would do…the damn thing came down, the old one went back up, and we’re back on the air with no complaints!
And that’s how I earned the “Worked All Neighbours Award”.
So, on a cold Sunday (why do it in the warm weather…right?) we hauled down the fan dipole, which had given me sterling service for nearly five years, and put up the new 80m OCF dipole. It took us a while to tune it, this antenna works on 80m-40m-20m-10m and 6m, and when tuned properly can give you a 1.5:1 SWR across the bands. We could not quite get 1.5:1, but we did get close to that.
 |
| From the Bux Comm website |
Within minutes I had a neighbour knocking at the front door and the XYL back in the shack, both complaining of interference with their respective TV’s. Off went the rig for the night and I sat and contemplated what the hell could be wrong.
The rig sat idle for about a week, and during that time I replaced every bit of coax in the shack with brand new pieces. On went the rig, called CQ, more complaints came from the neighbours, and off went the rig.
What to do and more to the point, what the hell is going on. We know these antennas work, and all my neighbours are on cable. Could it be the 4:1 Balun? Nope, checked that out and it works fine, and it was back to contemplating this issue for a few more days.
I had to do something fast as the RAC Winter Contest was coming up, and I needed a working antenna that wasn’t going to get me strung up by my neighbours. So, I did what any good ham would do…the damn thing came down, the old one went back up, and we’re back on the air with no complaints!
And that’s how I earned the “Worked All Neighbours Award”.
Sunday 21 November 2010
Winter Field Day
For the past 4 years the Society for the Preservation of Amateur Radio (SPAR) has sponsored an annual Winter Field Day, always held the last full weekend of January.
Not only during Field Day in June, do the bands come alive with improvised signals proving the ability to respond to emergencies. Since emergencies and natural disasters don't always happen in the summer, during Winter Field Day, frigid winds, icy limbs and bitter cold replace the thunderstorms and blistering heat of summer. In 2007 SPAR established a Winter Field Day event and invited all Amateur Radio operators to participate. The event was repeated in 2008 and was considered a success, so it was then designated an annual event to be held the last full weekend each January. In 2007 - 2010 the event was enjoyed by many, but it is time to issue the invitation for the Fifth Annual SPAR Winter Field Day!
The 2011 Winter Field Day will be held from 1700 UCT (12:00 noon EST) Saturday January 29, 2011 through 1700 UCT (12:00 noon EST) Sunday January 30, 2011.
The object of the event is familiar to most Amateur Radio operators: set up emergency-style communications and make as many contacts as possible during the 24 hour period. The rules encourage as many contacts on as many bands and modes as possible, because during a real emergency, the most important factor is the ability to communicate, regardless of band, mode or distance.
Mark it on your calendars, it's too much fun to miss!
Not only during Field Day in June, do the bands come alive with improvised signals proving the ability to respond to emergencies. Since emergencies and natural disasters don't always happen in the summer, during Winter Field Day, frigid winds, icy limbs and bitter cold replace the thunderstorms and blistering heat of summer. In 2007 SPAR established a Winter Field Day event and invited all Amateur Radio operators to participate. The event was repeated in 2008 and was considered a success, so it was then designated an annual event to be held the last full weekend each January. In 2007 - 2010 the event was enjoyed by many, but it is time to issue the invitation for the Fifth Annual SPAR Winter Field Day!
The 2011 Winter Field Day will be held from 1700 UCT (12:00 noon EST) Saturday January 29, 2011 through 1700 UCT (12:00 noon EST) Sunday January 30, 2011.
The object of the event is familiar to most Amateur Radio operators: set up emergency-style communications and make as many contacts as possible during the 24 hour period. The rules encourage as many contacts on as many bands and modes as possible, because during a real emergency, the most important factor is the ability to communicate, regardless of band, mode or distance.
Mark it on your calendars, it's too much fun to miss!
Friday 12 November 2010
Understanding Propagatation
Alan Melia-G3NYK and Steve Nichols-G0KYA wrote a series of feature articles for the RSGB magazine, RADCOM, these articles have now been put together into an ebook, which is available as a free download at: http://www.infotechcomms.co.uk/Understanding_LF_and_HF_propagation.pdf
The ebook explains to the reader the propagation modes behind each band and explaining some of the technicalities of ionospheric propagation It looks at the at the D, E and F layers, Sporadic E, the MUF/LUF, using solar data, propagation programs, NVIS and much more.
These two amateurs have managed to persuade the RSGB to allow me to put them together into a single document, which is now freely available for amateurs worldwide to download.
This is an excellent resource for hams, of all experience levels. Well done to these two guys for making this happen!
These two amateurs have managed to persuade the RSGB to allow me to put them together into a single document, which is now freely available for amateurs worldwide to download.
This is an excellent resource for hams, of all experience levels. Well done to these two guys for making this happen!
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