ARRL September VHF QSO Party

My next "big" adventure is the ARRL September VHF QSO Party, September 10th & 11th.  The contest begins 1800 UTC Saturday and ends 0300 UTC Monday.  I won't be active for that whole time frame, but hopefully, if the weather cooperates, for a good portion of it.

I'm hoping to round up a few more operators and operate as a multi station, operating on 6m SSB, 2m SSB and 2m FM.  The location we'll operate portable from is Fort Henry Hill, the highest point in Kingston.   That will give us some clear shots in every direction.

The object of the contest is "To work as many amateur stations in as many different grid squares as possible using authorized frequencies above 50 MHz".

As an addition to this contest the Northern New York Amateur Radio Association (NNYARA) is promoting and coordinating FM simplex operations during this contest from either mountain tops or fire towers in the Adirondack Mountains.

The NNYARA have designated the 2 meter FM simplex frequency 146.550 as the primary NNY frequency for this contest. If there is a "pileup" on .55, try .58 or other simplex frequencies. The 2 meter FM simplex ranges are 146.400-146.595 and 147.405-147.585.

So there’s an option for you in case you do not have access to 2m SSB, CW, and Digital modes.

The NNYARA is composed of ham radio clubs in the Adirondack Mountains and adjacent areas of northern New York State stretching from the Canadian border to the Mohawk Valley including Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Fulton, Hamilton, Jefferson, Lewis, Montgomery, St. Lawrence, Schoharie counties.

Hope to work you guys during the contest.  Rules can be found HERE.

International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend - The Story

The International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend is over!!  The day started early with a meet up on the highway with Don VE3MNE and Ron VE3GO at 0630 hrs.  We travelled down Hwy 33 to the Glenora Ferry and easily made the 0730 crossing....in fact we were the first three cars on the ferry.

The weather was awful, with really heavy rain, thunder and lots of lightening crashing and booming around us as we made for the ferry.  In fact it was so bad we started to think we would not be able to activate Point Petre this year.  It was still very bad when we met up with Bill VA3WOW from Belleville as well as Matthew VE3OCC and Doug VE3ZDG from Picton.  We met up, appropriately at the Lighthouse Restaurant in Picton.  The food was great!!

Point Petre Lighthouse

After breakfast it was a mad run through the rain back to our vehicles and off we set through the back roads of Prince Edward County.  It took about 20 minutes to reach Point Petre Lighthouse, and just as we arrived.....the rain stopped.

Lots of changes to the area since we where there last year.  No grass cut this year, and the keepers house is now boarded up and looking a bit neglected.  A few minutes after we arrived one of the Environment Canada guys who look after the weather station there drove up and invited us in to see the lighthouse. 

While some of the guys went off to see the lighthouse, the rest of us started setting up, keeping one eye one the sky for signs of more bad weather.  We put up a 80m OCF dipole, a Buddipole as a 20m vertical, and a 6m hamstick dipole, all with no trouble.  We were on the air by 0930L, and the SFI for the day was sitting at 102, the A index at 3, and the K index at 0.

VE3MNE, VE3CLQ, VE3ZDG,
VA3WOW, and VE3OCC

Don VE3MNE ran the 40m station, using his FT-857D, and ended up on a couple of occasions being quite busy.  It's amazing how many hams where looking for the lighthouses.  Don ended up with 28 contacts for the day.  The 20m station, also using a FT-857D only made 10 contacts, but the band was not very good, the QSB on 20m was very bad.  We did make a couple of contacts with lighthouses in California and a DX contact to Germany.  No contacts were made on 6m, but that was probably due to the height of the antenna above ground.  Ron VE3GO made a couple of contacts on 15m CW as well.  We operated a VE3FCT.

Very large log periodic antenna

The lighthouse is right across the road from the CFB Trenton HF Transmitting site.  There are nine towers on the site as well as two log periodic antennas.  This site is used to talk to RCAF aircraft around the world, but luckily it isn't in use on Sundays.

Don - VE3MNE

At about 1345L we started to hear thunder crashes coming through on our rigs and the sky was starting to get pretty black, and we could hear the thunder off in the distance, so we decided to call it quits. We quickly dropped the antennas and loaded the gear up.  We were about three-quarters of the way loaded when the rain hit, and boy did it pour, and it poured down all the way home to Kingston.

All in all a great day.  Thanks to the Prince Edward Club for the use of their 2m repeater, and to Ron VE3GO for taking the photos. 

Many thanks to the Ayr Amateur Radio Group in Scotland for sponsoring this event, we really enjoy it.

Next year will also activate, hopefully for the whole weekend, we will start looking for a suitable candidate shortly......maybe Prince Edward Point Lighthouse, at the other side of the County.

For alook at what the other half of our group did at Nine Mile Point Lighthouse, click HERE.

All Photo's by Ron-VE3GO © 2011

Royal Canadian Air Force

What a week!!  On the 16th of August my much beloved Canadian Air Force once again became the Royal Canadian Air Force.  Originally the royal honour was granted in 1924 by King George V, and removed from the title by the lunatic defence minister Paul Hellyer in 1968, much to the great disgust of its veterans and serving members.

Is Paul Hellyer really a 100% "fruit and nut bar" you ask???  Well, in 2007, the Ottawa Citizen reported that Hellyer is demanding that world governments disclose any alien technology that they have.   Yep, mad as a frickin' hatter !! 


Those of us who have served since 1968, and Paul Hellyer's disasterous and controversial integration and unification of the Royal Canadian Navy, Canadian Army, and the Royal Canadian Air Force into a single organization, known as the Canadian Armed Forces, know exactly what an idiot the man must be.  As an example, what other military in the world would post a naval signaller from a naval ship to an army signal squadron and expect him, or her, to be able to function 100% in a strange environment.  Indeed, one that they are not in fact trained for.  Many such strange things happened in the early days of intergration.


So it was not a surprise at all this week when Mr. Hellyer came out against the traditional names of the three armed services being restored to them.  Well, he could hardly be expected to rejoice like the rest of us could he? 

As much as one loves to hate the navy, it's even good to see them become the Royal Canadian Navy once again.   I, of course, never met the standard to join the Navy.  The impediment to my joining the RCN was the fact that my parents were married..................to each other J

The intergration of the armed forces is a failed experiment, provable by the fact that no other country in the world has carried out such drastic measures to their military like Hellyer did to ours. 

My one hope for Paul Hellyer once he passes on is that he be met at the Pearly Gates, not by St. Peter, but by the ugliest and meanest RCAF WO1 drill pig that there ever was, and that ex-Corporal Hellyer spend purgatory marching up and down God's own parade square, repenting the embarrasment, pain and suffering he caused us all over the last 43 years.

Welcome back RCAF........................Per Ardua!

International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend

This coming Sunday, the 21st of August, I'm off, with a few others from the Frontenac ARES Group, to Point Petre in Prince Edward County to activate the lighthouse there for the annual International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend (ILLW).  While this is a full weekend event, we will only be able to activate this light for about 6 hours.

Radios will be two FT-857D's and a FT-817, all on battery power.  Antennas will be an 80m OCF dipole, and various Buddipole antennas.

This event is not a contest.  The objective of ILLW is stated as "to promote public awareness of lighthouses and lightships and their need for preservation and restoration, to promote amateur radio and to foster International goodwill".  The rules can be found here.

The ILLW was started by a couple of guys who were members of the Ayr Amateur Radio Group in 1995 as the "Northern Lighthouse Activity Weekend", and they activated several Scottish lighthouses.  Since then it has grown and grown, and this year there will be 429 lighthouses and lightships activated over the weekend, in 49 countries.

VE3FCT will be QRV on 7.250; 21.350; 14.250-14.260; 28.450; and 50.125, for SSB, and on CW we will be on 7.040 & 7.110; 14.060; 21.060; 28.060; and 50.070.  All frequencies will be +/- 10 Kc or so.

You should also listen out for VE3FRG operating on Simcoe Island by the other half of the Frontenac County ARES group where they will be activating Nine Mile Lighthouse.

We plan on being there rain or shine.  Hope to see you on the bands.

August 7th...on the bands

It was a pretty busy day today on 20m.  Once again VE3MNE and I drove out to Hay Bay, this time to work Lighthouses and the Colorado 14er stations.  The weather wasn't the greatest, overcast with rain showers.  The humidity was high and almost unbearable.......but we survived.

Considering the SFI was at 105, the A index at 27, and the K index at 1, and the two or three earthbound CME's we had last week, the bands rocked.  I was not expecting them to be in the shape they were in. 20m was alive, and from 14.260 to 14.270 it was just jammed with stations working lighthouses all over the USA.  Among others we worked John at USA-262 in New Jersey, and the South West Louisiana ARC station at USA-714 in Louisiana. 

10m was also extremely busy with the 10-10 Club International SSB Contest.  I have not heard so many stations calling on 10m like this for many years.  As I don't have a 10-10 number I stayed clear of them, but it was very nice to see the band so busy again.

However (there always has to be a "However"), speaking of 10m..........the "LID of the Day Award" goes to a N9 station.  Who was screaming over a 10m QSO between a W4 station and my friend Tim, VA3TIC, that "there's no such call as VA3, he's a pirate".  Just how do these uneducated idiots get a license???????????  Perhaps somebody rented out this guys rock for the day?

You always hear that 6m is never active, and most of the time you go there it's very quiet.  Today was no different......but on eight separate occasions today I went to 6m, called CQ and got an immediate response.  Stations worked where in Virginia, Mississippi, Nebraska, and Idaho...as well as Ontario.  But it just shows you that people are listening, and if you call CQ they will answer. 

The other reason we activated today was to work the Colorado 14er Event stations.  Unfortunately we only heard one of them, KB0SA operating from Pike's Peak - 14,115 feet high.  I worked them on 20m SSB at 1616Z.  KB0SA is Boy Scout Troop 6 from Monument, Colorado.  This Troop has 16 licensed Scouts and 16 licensed leaders and parents. 

My hat's off to these guys for bringing youth into this great hobby of ours.  I listened for quite a while to these guys and let me tell you these boys are great operators, very professional in their skills.  They must have some great elmers working with them, and it was a delight to work them and hear them in action.  Well done Troop 6!!!   We, as a hobby, need to hear more youth on the bands. 

There was no sign of WG0AT or N0B, probably the two most sort after calls in this Colorado 14er event....maybe next year.

The RAC Kerfuffle

By now most of you will have read, or heard, of the kerfuffle going on between RAC and the Emergency Communications Ontario Association (ECOA).

The birth of ECOA was brought about by the recent change to the RAC
national liability insurance policy whereby non-affiliated clubs are no longer eligible to gain access to the RAC insurance policy, and the individual members of those non-affiliated clubs are also no longer eligible to access the RAC insurance policy. So ECOA was setup in order to allow for individuals and non-affiliated groups to access the RAC insurance program by having ECOA become a RAC affiliated club.

I must point out that gaining access to RAC insurance was not the only reason ECOA was formed.  They have managed to bring together, in a remarkably short time period, many emergency organizations in Ontario, such as the Salvation Army, Red Cross, and the St. John Ambulance.  In fact if you look at who ECOA's Directors are you will note that they come from these organizations, including a Director appointed from the EMO.  What a great thing to see, the very people who will need our emergency communications support serving as directors.  Ever see that happen in RAC?

One must ask the question that if the restriction being enforced that a club must be a RAC affiliate to gain insurance coverage, and that an individual must belong to an affiliated club to gain insurance coverage, has been imposed by the insurer, why would RAC agree to such a stupid requirement?

Anyway, you've probably guessed by now that RAC has thrown a hissy fit and has refused to accept ECOA as an affiliate, and has refused them insurance coverage as well. Nice one eh? And here I thought RAC was supposed to be encouraging new membership!

Just think about how many clubs across this country are not incorporated
and therefore not able to be a "RAC affiliated club" and therefore are
not eligible to have club insurance? Incorporation costs money and a
lot of clubs can't afford it, nor do they have the membership base to
support it. What about them? Why are they being disenfranchised?

How many hams are members of clubs who are not RAC affiliated clubs and
are now not eligible to have RAC insurance coverage? The other side of
the coin is not every ham wishes to belong to a club, affiliated or not,
so why should they be penalized?

In my ARES District we have four ARES groups. Two of those groups are
not incorporated, and are no longer eligible to get RAC insurance either
for their group or for their individual members. Is it fair to ask ARES members to react to an emergency, yet allow RAC to deny them insurance coverage to do so? 

The big question here is does RAC have a legal duty to protect us when we are called out?  If they have already authorised the formation of an ARES group, and that group is not incorporated.....as that is not a requirement to form a new group, surely we should be grandfathered under the new rules?  Because let me tell you, if I'm called out and I get injured, the first two people I intend to sue is the President of RAC and the VP Field Services for voting to deny me RAC insurance coverage, even though I'm operating in a RAC authorized ARES group.

RAC touts itself as the "Canadian National Organization" and that it "represents Canadian amateurs".  It doesn't.  RAC actually represents ALL Canadian amateurs, RAC members or not, and if it will not do that, or accept that fact, then they cannot be the national representative for amateur radio in this country.  Think about it - you represent everyone or nobody, you can't pick or chose - does Industry Canada only ask them questions about hams who are RAC members, or are the actual issues being discussed of national interest and ones that effect every ham in this country?

RAC needs to get its collective head out of its ass and get with the program.  Because sooner or later a group of hams will get together and decide enough is enough, and form a new national association, that WILL represent ALL Canadian amateurs........what a novel thought!

New Toy!

Last week I splurged and bought myself a new FT-817nd to play with.  It was ordered at 10:30 Tuesday, and I had it in my sweaty little hands at 11:00 Wednesday......great service from Radioworld.....and Canada  Post.

I can't believe how small it is, and it makes you wonder just how small radio can eventually go!

I'm looking forward to experimenting with it over the next few weeks and getting my CW up to speed.

Now I can take it to work and operate at lunch time daily from Fort Henry Hill using my Buddipole system.  This is going to be a good summer.

IARU Contest 2011

As per the usual for this weekend, Don-VE3MNE and myself headed out for our annual IARU HF World Championship weekend to Don's cottage on Hay Bay.  This year Tim-VA3TIC joined us for a weekend filled with the anticipation of excellent DX.

The bands seemed to be very long with stations from Europe coming in at 20 over 9, but they could not hear us answering their CQ's - on any band, using any of the four available antennas.  We all thought it was going to be a very long weekend when I answered a CQ from Steve-VK6IR in Western Australia and had an almost instant response.  The bands settled down after about 30 minutes and we made lots of DX contacts.

Overall it was a great weekend, and the weather was fantastic.  However, some of the behaviour on the bands could have been a hell of a lot better.  I started to wonder if some of the clowns we heard had ever operated a HF radio before!

Sunset at Hay Bay, Ontario

The LIDS were out in full force tuning up right on top of each other and the weak signal they were all trying to work.  Twice I had to remove my headset quickly due to a LID tuning up right on top of my QSO.  They were so loud it hurt.  Obviously they have no respect at all for their fellow amateurs!

Why is is when a station calls for the "VE3 only" every "W4" or "N9" in creation decides that the calling station actually meant them and not the VE3?  Some of these guys need Elmers in the worse way!

What's with the stations calling "QRZ" over and over and over without ever giving their callsign?  In the end I started to work one of these stations just to see if I could actually get his callsign out of him.....and it took 20 minutes to do so.  Elmers anyone????

What's with these clowns who sit on a frequency and tell you that it's in use, when clearly it isn't?  This happened to me at just as lunch was called on Saturday.  I left the radio on that frequency while I ate lunch and heard nothing for the next 30 minutes.  I went back called CQ and was told the frequency was in use.  In the end I asked the guy how much he had paid for that particular frequency as I'd like to buy one as well!

And finally, what's with giving your callsign at mach 6, so a normal human being could never understand anything you had just said.  Then why do they leave a few milli-seconds in between their CQ's so that stations do not have enough time to get their callsign in?  IO4HQ was an excellent example this weekend on how "not to call CQ".

Tim-VA3TIC working DX

Last contact of the weekend?  0750L Sunday morning I heard 8N8FQ, the HQ Station for the JARL calling CQ....and got him on one call back to him.  Made my day! 

I worked just about every national HQ station I could hear, but I never heard a RAC station on the bands taking part.  Does anyone know if they did?

The IARU contest is an excellent way of working all the DX you can handle in a weekend, we never miss it, and we all had a blast!

Many thanks to the ARRL for running this event for amateurs around the world on behalf of the IARU.

2011 Canada Day Contest

Thursday evening at 2000L I started scanning 40m for the start of the 2011 RAC Canada Day Contest.  First in the log was Greg-VA3KUG from Midland.  For the rest of the evening I bounced between 40m and 80m logging mainly Ontario stations. 

In recent past year the start of the Canada Day Contest aways yielded a feast of VE1's, VE9's, VO2' and VY2's.  Not this year.  Thursday night brought very slim pickin's.  I did manage to log Jean-Pierre-VA3SG, Polar Bear No. 121, an unusual sight on SSB.  J-P is normally on CW.....but with global warming the bears must be heading into new territory J

Saturday morning came pretty early and I drove out to the cottage of VE3MNE at Hay Bay, to use the same antennas we used for Field Day, namely the 160m and 80m OCF dipoles.  It's amazing how quiet those antennas are compared to my dipoles at home.

Both 40m and 20m started the day very long, and I had no problems getting contacts into the Maritimes and out to BC.  In fact all the provinces we had trouble making contact with on Field Day kept popping up all over the place!  How typical!

15m was a pretty big disappointment.  It never really opened all day.  I did make about 10 contacts there, but I worked hard for every one.  15m was also the only band I heard VA3RAC, and of course they never heard me answering them.

I made a good, solid, contact with Martin-JW/DG5NFF in Svalbard...which is an archipelago in the arctic, constituting the northernmost part of Norway.  Bless him, he was even calling "CQ Canada Day"!! 

Other DX for the day included the UK, Poland, Rumania and Spain.  However, the best catch of the day was Jose-KP4EIT in Ciales, Puerto Rico, who I caught on 6m mid-afternoon.

I ended up with only 75 contacts, but to make up for that I had a great day in the country, lots of sun and beautiful scenary.  Next year will be better.......right?

Field Day 2011 - The Results

Another successful field day is over!   This year Frontenac ARES operated as a 5A station, covering all bands from 160m to 6m. 

Our weekend started early Friday morning when myself, Don-VE3MNE, Tim-VA3TIC and Dave-VE3DZE met for breakfast at the Star Diner on Princess Street.  After firming up some plans we left for Don's cottage on the shore of Hay Bay, about 45 Kms west of Kingston.

The gang arrived at the cottage about 0930 hrs and first to go up were the antennas.  We erected a 160m OCF dipole, two 80m OCF dipoles, a 20m Delta Loop, a 15m vertical and a 10m / 6m fan dipole, and we also put up three screen tents, two for operating and the third for eating.   It was a long busy day and we didn't stop to have lunch, about 1900 hrs we left for Picton to have supper at the Texas Grill.  This is the fourth year we have supper there, and this has now become one of our field day traditions.

The weather was hot and sticky on Friday, cloudy and unsettled on Saturday with a little bit of rain during the night.  Sunday was a cloudy day with a little bit of sun....and of course just as we started to take everything down the rain started!

On Saturday morning the rest of the crew showed up, George-VE3SIQ and Martin-VA3AKY, and got their stations put together.  Once everyone was ready we installed our notch filters and tested for interference from each other.  Everything worked well except for the 10m notch which had to have emergency surgery performed on it, but we eventually had everyone up and running.

The SFI hovered about 96 all weekend with the 'A' index around 6 and the 'K' index at 2.  The bands where, for the most part, quiet, but not really good.

The 160m and 80m station didn't fair too well.  The 160m band never opened up at all and hardly any stations where heard on it, and the 80m band was only a little better.  The 40m station, while busy with stations on the eastern seaboard, never opened up and went long to the west coast.

The 15m and 20m stations carried the load with plenty of activity and many contacts between the two stations.  Our 10m station did very well, making over 100 contacts.  Six meters was a bust however.

I would be very remiss if I did not mention that this year was the very first field day for Tim-VA3TIC.  In fact Tim (now known as the "Duke") has only been a ham for about 6 months.  We put Tim on the 20m station, and stood back in amazement as he racked up 425 contacts!  It's great to see that his many years as a CBer were good training for him as a contester!  

Overall we did 1014 contacts on five bands, and we're happy with that score.  After all the main thing is to get out there, do the set up, fix any interference issues, operate and have fun.......and we did that.  Many thanks to Don for the use of his property and for doing the cooking.

Oh yeah, the only thing with Tim is to keep him away from the trees at all cost.  He has a really nasty habit of attracting falling tree branches when we were putting up the antennas.



Rideau Lakes Cycle Tour 2011

Another great weekend playing radio!!  This weekend, June 11th and 12th, was the 40th year the Rideau Lakes Cycle Tour has been run, and this year we had 2,115 registered riders on the different routes.

This is my 4th year as coordinator for the Frontenac County - Kingston section of the race and it was by far the best.  This year the weather actually cooperated......well, it did for the most part!  Mainly warm and sunny with just a little bit of rain late Saturday, but by then the vast majority of the riders where already safely at Queen's University.

The way the route is laid out it's about 356 Km for the round trip. The tour starts Saturday morning at Carleton University in Ottawa and returns their Sunday afternoon after an overnight stop at Queen's University in Kingston. The Frontenac County - Kingston section looks after Perth Road Village to Kingston, about a 33 Km section of the highway, manning communications check points at Queen's University, Glenburnie, Inverary, and Perth Road Village.

This year our section had 13 operators involved over the two days, including two guest operators from Belleville, Bill-VA3WOW and Bob-VE3QWB.  I'd also like to specially thank Ron-VA3ACZ from Ottawa, who stepped in at the last minute and helped out as a mobile unit on Sunday morning. 

We also had two operators working from home, keeping us up-to-date with weather reports and standing by to make phone calls as required.  Many thanks to Ron-VE3GO and George-VE3GWS for doing this for us.

Saturday the first rider came through Perth Road Village at 1045, not a bad time at all considering the distance they had ridden, and they arrived at Queen's University at 1145, so not a bad run for them.  Most of Saturday was pretty cloudy, though warm, but at about 1600 local the heavens opened and we had huge downpour for about 45 minutes.  It could not have been too nice being on the road in that, and it was a good thing that 98% of the riders had already arrived at Queen's by that time.

Sunday was a very early start, we had to have an operator at Queen's by 0530 to advise the check points down route when the riders left and how many remained.  Unfortunately the first rider left at 0500, and we past him on the highway about 18 kms north as we travelled to Perth Road Village to set up there.  He eventually went through Perth Road Village at 0610 flying down the highway at great speed back to Ottawa.....he shouted that he had a date in Ottawa for noon.......I hope he made it!

Perth Road Village Store

This was the first year we operated using the VE3FRG repeater, owned by the Frontenac Radio Group, and it worked a real treat.  No problems and a solid performance far beyond the footprint we thought we had with it.  I think everyone was very pleased with it.

For the past 38 years Keith Fish-VE3XKF and his XYL Sally-VE3YSF, have coordinated the communications for this tour.  They starting out with just a couple of CB radios provided by the Ottawa XM11 club, to this year where we had 62 ham radio operators using three separate repeater systems.  This year is their last year doing this job as next year is their 50th wedding anniversary as they will be away over the dates of the tour on a well deserved cruise, and they have both decided that this is a good time to call it quits.

Sally and Keith I don't know what we will do without you guys out their on the course next year, but because of what you have both built and put together over the past few decades I'm sure we will do OK......but we'll be thinking of you guys!

Wanted: A "hug patrol" replacement.  Must be cute, cuddly, and give out great hugs!  Please apply to Don-VE3MNE, Official Hug Tester for Frontenac Radio Group.

Field Day 2011

Field Day is nearly upon us again and we have had to change our plans for this year.  Instead of going to Whispering Pines Scout Camp near Perth, we will be going to Hay Bay to the cottage of Don-VE3MNE.

This year we will operate as a 6A operation covering all bands with SSB, CW stations, as well as an all band Digital station.  This will be the first time in a number of years that we have had that many stations operating on the property.

Antenna wise we will have a 160m OCF, a 80m OCF, a 40m-15m vertical as well as dipoles for 20m, 15m, 10m, and 6m.

Hopefully the SFI will improve so we can get into places we have not been able to over the past few years.  We're also praying for good weather given all the rain we have had this month!

So far we have 8 amateurs lined up to attend so it should be a good time.

A Different Antenna

Early Monday morning saw Tim-VA3TIC and myself back up on Fort Henry Hill......rumour has it that we're up there so often that the Fort is about to issue us both scarlet tunics!!  The weather was great, but the wind was up and gusting to about 40KPH.

It was a disappointing morning for myself as I chose to operate 2m SSB and did not hear a thing anywhere on the band.  I even tried 2m CW and still didn't get a response to my CQ's.  In the end I went back to the FM portion and checked into local and distant morning nets.  It's amazing just where you can get into from that location.

VA3TIC/Mobile

Tim, on the other hand, was trying out his new "sputnik antenna".   He has homebrewed a magnetic mount that enables him to have a 102" whip for 10m as well as hamsticks for 15m, 17m, 20m, and 80m.  It tunes up nicely on all bands, and he managed to make a solid contact into central Kansas, about 1600Km away.  So not to shabby. 

We all know hamsticks are a comprimise antenna and will never replace dipoles or other portable antennas, but in an emergency we'll take what we can get.

Hopefully the bands will start to pick up again before too long. It's not nice being back down with an SFI of 84 after what we have had in the last month.  Let's hope it improves a great deal before Field Day.

Fort Henry Hill

For the past couple of weeks a group of us have spent "very early" Saturday morning up Fort Henry Hill, set up in the parking lot, playing radio.   For the past two Saturdays I have used my Buddipole as a 20m vertical.  I use the versatee with two 22" arms and a 12' military whip with a single 17' counterpoise.   In this configuration it has a great match right across the SSB portion of the band, and I do not need to use a tuner with it at all.



Old Fort Henry

Last Saturday I worked a pile of caribbean stations as well as a couple of Portugese.  The weather was great and the sunrise spectacular.  In fact things went so well we decided to do it again this weekend.

So this Saturday, instead of lying in bed enjoying the sleep in as I would have like to, it was up at 0500 hrs and drive back to the hill.  Once again the sunrise was spectacular, but the damn mayflies were out in full force. 

The SFI was down a bit from last week and the activity on the band showed it.  Tim-VA3TIC, worked 17m and made some good contacts, he also made a couple on 20m as well.  I stayed on 20m and spun the VFO up and down the band trying to work the odd piece of DX that popped up. 

Finally at 1200Z I heard a loud station and went after it.  It was JA2FJP, Ken, in Tokoname, Japan.  He had a very loud and solid signal into Kingston, a good 59 +20.  I didn't think I had much of a chance to work him as I was only running 50w into the Buddipole.  But.....at 1217Z I managed to work him. 
10,400 Kms on 50w and a Buddipole............not too shabby!!

VE3FRG Repeater Install

Sunday the 1st of May was brilliant day, the weather was great - blue skies and no wind or rain. Perfect for getting the VE3FRG repeater installed in the John Orr Tower here in Kingston. This is the end of a lot of hard work and testing to get us to this point, and it's all thanks to Don-VE3MNE.


Don VE3MNE

Eleven hams showed up at 1330 hours and by 1530 it was all installed and operational. The John Orr Tower is near the intersection of Union Street and Sir John A. MacDonald. The tower is 16 stories high with another two floors of mechanical rooms above that.

The repeater is in the electrical room on the roof with the antenna mounted 30 feet above that. So the antenna is about 230 feet above ground.

It seems to have a large footprint - Belleville and Trenton in the west to Brockville in the east and south to Watertown. We haven't figured out how far north it will go yet, but we plan on a few road trips over the next few weekends to see how far we can get.


Bill VE3CLQ and George VE3SIQ
Put the pieces back together again
after they had been transported to the site

 Over the past two years we have had IRLP Node 2088 set up on 146.205 with a 151.4 hertz tone.  We had a lot of problem with interference from the N2HLT Bath, NY, repeater, which is on the same frequency, and is amazing when you realize that it is over 250 kms from Kingston, Ontario to Bath, NY in a straight line. We have had to change the PL tone to 203.5 hertz, but due to the interference issuses with the repeater in Bath.

VE3FRG will be able to operate as a 2m repeater, and will also be able to operate crossband from 70 cm to 6m at the same time without interfering with the 2m operation. Or, alternately you will be able to link the 2m, 6m, and 70cm radios together and operate as a crossband repeater on all frequencies.

Tim VA3TIC getting ready
to install the 70cm antenna

This repeater now has IRLP Node 2088 operating on it, which will be available on all the repeater frequencies. The frequency and tone details are as follows:

The 2m frequency is 146.805 (-) with a 203.5 hertz tone;
The 6m Frequency is 53.130 (-) with a 203.5 hertz tone; and
The 70 cm frequency is 434.800 simplex with a 203.5 hertz tone.

The codes to turn the crossband capabilities on and off will be made available over the next few days.

Thanks to VE3SIQ, VE3MNE, VE3DZE, VE3DNR, VA3AKY, VE3GO, VE3OCC, VE3ZDG, VA3TIC and VE3VJF for coming out and getting the job done.

Thanks to Martin VA3AKY for taking the photo's used on this article.

Footprint of VE3FRG

Iroquois Hamfest

It was a good day to go for a drive.....so Dave-VE3DZE and Don-VE3MNE and I decided to get up early and go to the Iroquois Hamfest, as none of us had been there before.  The drive there and back was great, spring has sprung and nobody was complaining about the +8C sunny weather we had to put up with.  Thanks to Dave for doing the driving.

VE3CLQ with Santa - aka VA3QV

The Hamfest was another matter, nothing of interest there at all!  I had a wallet full of cash and not a decent rig in sight to buy.  Pretty disappointing really.

Here's a hint for all the vendors next year....it's called a "Hamfest", that means people attend to look for amateur radio items........not old used flashlights, computer parts, old VCRs, or 30 year old CBs.

However, it wasn't a total loss.  I did get to see Bob-VA3QV and Bob-VE3MPG, and that is always a delight!  Bob-VA3RCS told me that it looks like the Ottawa QRP Societies "Chilicon" will happen again this year.

Is it just me or have Hamfests gone down the toilet since EBay came on the scene?  It sure seems that way.

CQ WPX 2011

Well, another great contest is over!  This past weekend saw a fantastic weekend for catching DX on the bands.  The SFI was up at 115 with the A index at 2 and the K index at 0......a good recipe for good DX.

I used the Kenwood 570D into my 80-40-20m fan-dipole for the contest, giving the FT-857D a rest.   Amongst the 400+ contacts I made using the VE3FCT callsign, there where a few new ones put in the log, V3M in Belize, 3V1A in Tunisia, TG9NX in Guatemala, and VP2EH in Anguilla. 

15m seemed to be the place to be as it was extremely active both days from almost dawn to late evening. There were some good 10m openings as well. I managed to have QSO's with Argentina, Brazil, Cape Verde, Germany, and Belize all on 10m late Sunday afternoon.

But what was even more enjoyable this weekend was the good behaviour on the bands.  I didn't hear anyone tuning up on top of another station, pile-ups seemed to be pretty orderly, and everyone seemed to be in a great mood. 

Hopefully the SFI will continue to rise so we can have a very successful "QRP to the Field" weekend on the 30th April - 1st May weekend.  That weekend is also the "International SOTA Weekend". 

This coming weekend (April 2nd) I'm going to the Iroquois Hamfest for the first time as there are a few things I need to pick up.  If you're going I hope to see you there!

ARRL International DX SSB Contest

What a weekend!  This was my best DX weekend for many years.  Saturday morning the  SFI was 127, A Index=11 and K Index=1, and the bands just rocked!  Twelve hours later at 2130L the SFI was 135, A Index=5 and K Index=1 and it was wall-to-wall DX on all bands. 

On both Saturday and Sunday around 1600L the bands swung from North-South propagation to North-South.  I worked most of Europe and South America on 15m over the weekend, and a few more on 20m and 40m.  15m was just incredible, I haven't heard it that busy for a long time.  I went up and down the band and never stopped working stations.

80m was filled with the usual nets and "hillbilly roundtables" all weekend, but I did manage to catch both Poland and the UK on the band.

It was also amazing how many countries I worked on 10m. I can't even remember the last time I worked anyone on 10, but it was working well for most of the weekend.

The three big catches for me this past weekend was PZ5P in Surinam and HL3K in South Korea, both on 20m, and ST2AR in Khartoum, Sudan on 10m.

The downside of the weekend?  Well, that would have to be the many LIDS who just have to tune up right on top of the station calling CQ.  Why do these idiots do this?  Can't they understand that if you move off frequency 10Kc either side that it won't affect your tuning? 

I'm not the "perfect" operator, but I do understand the rules that make operating a great experience for all. So thanks to those few idiots who ruined our QSO's, I hope you all had a good time, and next time, please...try and use some common sense on the bands!

As I write this Monday evening I notice that the SFI has risen to 153, A Index=9 and K Index=2.  Hopefully the minimum is now behind us and it will continue to rise for the CQ WW WPX Contest on the 26th and 27th of March.

Field Day 2011

Well it's that time of year again....when the boys start dreaming of Field Day....antennas, radios and BBQ!!  This week the ARRL brought out this years Field Day Package (Click here) and there does not seem to be many changes to the rules. 

Field Day is the highlight of the year for most hams, 24 hours of non-stop radio, and for some people it can't come soon enough.

One interesting change, shown at the bottom of page 43, is that "Non US stations should be logged as DX".  This statement concerns me on several levels.  Last year the group I "do" Field Day with, when answering CQ Field Day calls, where told that on many occasions that "Field Day was for Americans only", and they would not log a contact with us.  This happened on both CW and SSB.  So needless to say the statement on page 43 concerned me somewhat.

In fact it concerned me to the point I contacted Dan Henderson, the ARRL Field Day Manager via email, and asked for an explanation (Dan's email here) of this statement.  Dan came back to me within hours and stated that "The wording you cite was to instruct people how to log the non ARRL/RAC Field Organization areas.

OK, fair enough.  BUT, we all know that not everyone reads the rules, and those that do this year will read that if you are not a US station, you are considered DX.  Therefore according to what is actually written, Canadian stations will be considered DX which is not the way it is supposed to be.

I went back to Dan and wrote "Perhaps to make things more clear, the statement: 'Non US stations should be logged as DX' should actually read 'Non North American stations should be logged as DX' "  So far I have not had a response to my suggestion, I guess we'll wait and see what happens.

QSO Parties

Looking for something to do this coming weekend instead of shoveling snow? There are two State QSO Parties this weekend that will keep you busy.

First up is the Louisiana QSO Party. This takes place from 1500Z February 12th to 0300Z February 13th. For the rules, click here.

Then we have the New Hampshire QSO Party from 1600Z February 12th to 0400Z February 13th and 1200Z to 2200Z February 13th. For their rules, click here.

The forecast propagation looks promising for the weekend.  If you hear VE3FCT calling CQ, give me a shout.

Winter Field Day - - - - - - The Aftermath

Well it was a great weekend for Winter Field Day. VE3FRG operated as a multi indoor station. On Saturday we had light snow and -5C and on Sunday we had heavy snow and -18C, and luckily there was very little wind.

The narrow road into the cottage was interesting as it was not properly ploughed out, and the “slide all over the road” factor was high, but we all made it safely, including Bill-VA3WOW, who arrived from Belleville.

Once we unloaded the small mountain of gear into the cottage and got the wood stove going it was back outside to string up the antennas. It took us a little over two hours to get two dipoles in the air and run the coax for them. Dave-VA3ORP erected his vertical and radial system on the lake ice and that took him over an hour to do. 

It really is amazing just how much longer it takes to do simple things in the cold weather, and with heavy gloves on.

It took a good five hours for the cottage to warm up to a comfortable level, but after seeing the photo’s of Bob VA3RCS standing out in the cold operating I shall not complain…….because I know Bob would never let me forget it :-)

Don-VE3MNE made his normal field day supper...."Gilroy's Gourmet Road Kill Chilli", and as usual it was superb, Bill-VA3WOW contributed a very nice bottle of cabernet merlot, called "Cape One", it's a blend of Canadian and South African red wines and was outstanding. 

Operating wise we made 70+ contacts, 35 on SSB, 1 on PSK31, and the remainder on CW. For the most part the daytime propagation on the bands went from “bad” to outright “bloody miserable”. But on Saturday evening 160m was just hopping with CW signals, but no SSB was to be heard. George VE3SIQ operated 20m to good success, and Don VE3MNE and I operated 80m and 40m SSB and PSK.

We made a number of good DX contacts on Sunday morning including, EC2DX, Imanol in San Sabastian, Spain, YT1A, Vladan in Kraljevo, Serbia, PI4DX a club station in Walsoordeu, Netherlands, and IK6CWQ, Lou in Torrebecchia, Italy. We also completed a QRP CW contact to Paris, France, but I do not have the CW log to note the callsign.


VE3MNE & VE3SIQ working the bands

Sunday morning I checked into the Pothole Net and had three short QSO's with ED-VE3GX, Glenn-VE3XRA, and Ernest-VE3EJJ.  I was hoping to have a short contact with Bob-VA3RCS or Martin-VA3SIE, but they where nowhere to be found.

The antennas all worked as advertised, so Bob-VA3RCS can share the glory :-)


View over Leggat Lake

VA3ORP setting up the "Blue Pill" vertical
Photo by VA3WOW



VE3CLQ and VE3MNE checking out the digital station
Photo by VA3WOW



View over the lake and the 80m OCF dipole
Photo by VA3WOW

Another view of the digital station
Photo by VA3WOW

VA3ORP's car and operating position

W3EDP Antenna

Next weekend is Winter Field Day and the group which is taking part from the Frontenac Radio Group decided today which antennas we will be using.  So, the choices are: a 80m OCF Dipole, a 20m Delta Loop, a W3EDP, and a 20m Buddipole Vertical.

(See updated article HERE)

(See another W3EDP article HERE)

We had everything but the W3EDP...but that got built tonight.  Many thanks to Bob, VA3QV, for his comments and thoughts on this antenna............and I'm sure you'll agree that it's also nice to have somebody else to blame if it doesn't work :-)

Everyone I have spoken to who has used this antenna speaks highly of it.  We'll give it a try and see how it works out.

We are already planning several Lighhouse activations next summer and this type of antenna will be very useful on those trips....when it's -30C it's always nice to dream of next summer's fun when it will be +30C !!

For all of you going out next weekend to take part in the Winter Field Day, be careful, dress warm, stay safe, and please remember that it takes four times as long to do tasks in the cold as it does in the warm weather, so take your time.

NA QSO Party is over!

This years NA QSO Parties, both CW and SSB are now over.  Lots of fun, but the propagation just wasn't there.  The SFI was down to 80 with the A and K indexes not very good either for the SSB party.

There did not seem to be the participation we have seen in the past for the SSB weekend.  It seemed to start slow and never really picked up.  I did manage to work stations on 80m, 40m, 20m, and 15m, but I never heard a soul on 10m everytime I had a look around there.

One item that did work out well for me was using my second call sign - VE3FCT.  Unlike when I use VE3CLQ, VE3FCT seems to punch through phonetically.  Normally I'm asked to repeat "Charlie Lima Quebec" several times before the other operator gets it, but this did not happen using "Fox Charlie Tango".  Not once was I asked to repeat my call this time.......I may have a winner!

My Log
Time(Z) Band  Call        RST      Name    QTH
1812      40m    KJ4ADN   56/56    Bill        Axton, VA
1832      40m    K4HTA     59/59    Pat        Vienna, VA
1834      40m    W4PV      57/56    Pat        Knoxville, TN
1837      40m    NA2M      59/59    Bill        Mohegan Lake, NY
1840      40m    WA2TPU  59/59    Don       Afton, NY
1845      40m    KW3A     59/59    Steve     Springfield, PA
1913      40m    K4VV      58/58    Jack       Paeonian Springs, VA
1916      40m    KB2AMY  59/59    Evan      Westbury, NY
1919      40m    KC2SNV  58/58    Ken        Black Wood, NJ
1922      40m    KG2GL    59/59    Tony      Nutley, NJ
1925      40m    KC9CDW 59/59    Gary      Kiel, WI
1931      20m    K4AB      59/59    Tom      Hazel Green, AL
1933      20m    VE3CX    59/59    Matti      Kaministiquia, ON
1942      20m    KT4ZB    55/56    Mark      Savannah, GA
1947      20m    AG5Z     59/58    Larry      Purvis, MS
1955      15m    WA7NB  56/55    Art         Tuscon, AZ
2002      15m    WR7Q    55/55    Bob        Murray, UT
0108      40m    K9JF      59/59    Jim        Vancouver, WA
0120      40m    N1SNB   59/59    Jeff        Haverhill, MA
0135      40m    W5WMU 59/59    Pat         Lafayette, LA
0145      80m    W4YCC   59/59   Bob        Rock Hill, SC
0146      80m    VA2OP    59/59   Jay         St. Colomban, QC
0150      80m    K9CT      59/59   Al           Trivoli, IL
0152      80m    W1SJ     59/59   Mitch       Essex, VT
0155      80m    WA7NB  58/57   Art           Tucson, AZ
0201      80m    KW8N    58/59   Bob          N. Ridgeville, OH
0209      80m    K0RH     56/57   Jim          Valley Center, KS

All in all an enjoyable day.  Lets hope that the SFI starts to improve in a hurry!

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!

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.