A Superb Weekend

Another year has past and Chilicon 2012 is now behind us.  What an outstanding weekend of ham radio, not because of the operating we managed to fit in, but because of the learning experience of it.  Many hours were spent discussing the finer points of radios, feedline, and antennas, and it was a delight walking around the sites checking out the amazing array of antennas that the guys were using.

Don VE3MNE and I arrived at the campground at about 1430L and were met by Michael VE3WMB and Jim VA3KV who had already arrived and had set up their camps.  Chris VA3CME was there as well, he had arrived on Wednesday.....obviously in a hurry for the Chilicon experience, and I know Ying VA3YH was there, but I'm not sure if he arrived before us or not.

The afternoon sky did not look too promising, so Don and I hurried and began to set up the site.......and really, we finished not a moment too soon as the rain hit us and continued to come down for the next seven hours.  Luckily the wind never came up and rain just came down straight, not sideways. I'm pleased to report we didn't get wet!

After Friday supper of steak and veggies everyone descended on our site as we had it almost completely tarped off with two 15 by 20 tarps and everyone could stay dry under them.  The single malt arrived with Dave VA3ORP and the radio talk began.  It was a good evening with everyone getting to know each other or catch up with old friends.

Saturday dawned with a good sign - a blue sky!  After a good breakfast of sausage and eggs it was antenna erecting time.  We put up two antennas, the now famous 31' vertical "Chilicon Special" and a 44' doublet, and started to play radio.  The bands were excellent with 15m, 17m, and 20m just hopping with signals.  Just after lunch a good number of the Ottawa area hams arrived including VE3EMB, VE3CBK, VE3EUR, VE3MPG, VA3AMX, VE3GTC, and the star of the show: VA3QV.  It was a Who's Who of QRP.

During the afternoon Chris VE3CBK and Dave VA3ORP changed into WW2 battledress and fired up their No. 19 Radio Sets and a No. 48 Radio Set.  In due course a 1953 Willy's jeep arrived, including uniformed driver, and both Dave and Chris began their No. 19 Set mobile fun.  They managed to work Bob VA3QV on AM, Bobs very frst AM contact.  Both Dave and Chris spent the night in a 1942 army bell tent, and it didn't leak!

The bands were pretty crowded and occasionally we had a bit of interference from the large number of radios on the air at the same time.  However, with a little bit of juggling and changing bands we managed to all have fun.  I'll tell you though, that No. 19 Radio Set has a pretty wide signal.

Just before supper the sky started to turn a bit dark and it did manage to rain for about 10 minutes.  We had all decided to order pizza from Capilano Pizza in Kemptville before hand so Michael collected the money and sorted things out.  It was decided because of the weather and our large tarps everyone came and ate and spent the evening socializing on our site again.  Once again VA3ORP's portable bar arrived with the single malt.

Saturday was September 15th, Battle of Britain Day, and the 72nd anniversary of it as well.  As VA3ORP is ex-RCAF, and I'm ex-RAF and RCAF, we toasted the occasion with a good British Beer, and an appropriate one as well, Thwaites "Lancaster Bomber" brewed in Lancashire.

Yes I know Lancaster's didn't take part in the Battle of Britain, but I did look for Spitfire or Hurricane Beer and couldn't find any.....so it had to do!  I'm sure the few of "The Few" who are still alive really wouldn't mind.

Saturday night was pretty cold and it did get down to +2C, and I for one had to get out of my sleeping bag around 0230L to add a pair of sweatpants and a fleece top in order to get warm.  I've already asked for a new sleeping bag for Christmas as the one I have is just a bit too old, but we survived.

It rained again for a few minutes Sunday morning, just before we started to take down the camp.  Of course that meant that the tarps got wet again and had to be packed away in that state.  Soon the radios were packed away, antennas dropped and rolled up, and the vehicles packed.  About 1130L we departed for a restaurant in Kemptville for a really good brunch, but I didn't write it's name down so I can't share it.  Then it was back onto Hwy 15 for the long drive back to Kingston.

This year's winner of the long distance award went to Eric VA3AMX who had a good CW QSO with a VK7 in Tasmania with 5 watts into a G5RV Junior. 

Chris VA3CME with his new KX3



The center piece of Ying VA3YH's 20m Spider Beam



The homebrewed 20m Spider Beam by Ying





The inside of Dave VA3ORP's WW2 Bell Tent - complete with
Persian carpet !!



The Magnetic Loop built by Michael VE3WMB

It was a fantastic weekend, even with the rain. Many, many, thanks to the Ottawa Valley QRP Society who sponsor this event.  Those of you who do not attend it don't know what you're missing. Only 363 days till the next Chilicon!

CAN-788 Activation

What a difference 24 hours makes!  Today was fantastic, mainly blue skies and a very comfortable temperature, and best of all no rain - either falling or in the forecast.

After breakfast at the Star Diner we left for Prince Edward Point Light, it's about an hour and a half drive from Kingston, including the 15 minute ferry ride at Glenora.  While it was a nice trip, it will be even better in a couple of weeks when the leaves start turning. 

The lighthouse itself is well within the boundaries of the Prince Edward Point National Wildlife Area.  This national wildlife area is nearly 1400 square acres, and hosts many thousands of migratory birds each year.  Since the mid-1960s, this section of the Long Point Peninsula has been recognized as an important area for migratory birds and in 1996 was designated an important bird area.

The area is full of birds and the very few other people that we actually saw there all had $1000 cameras with huge lenses attached. 

When we arrived at the parking lot we were the only people there and we had a great view out over the small harbour.  Because of the low water level most of the boats were high and dry.  The water was extremely shallow.

We set up two HF stations.  The rigs of choice were FT-857D's running 100w from batteries.  One station used a "Chilicon Special Mk2 Vertical", and the other a "Crappie Doublet" fed with 300 ohm twin lead.  Both antennas worked great and pulled in some good European DX.  Both stations were on the air by 1115L.

Twenty-Six contacts were made, and here is the breakdown:

6m - 1 VE3 contact in FN14
15m - 5 USA contacts, 2 VE contacts, and 15 European contacts
40m - 1 VE3 and 2 VE2 contacts

Best contact of the day was with Charles - VE2LQ/qrp running SSB with 2.5 watts from St. Jean, Quebec.  Charles had a very weak signal, but we managed to pull him out of the mud and relay some traffic from him to Bill - VE2HG in Val d'Or, Quebec.

Overall it was a good day, bands were in so-so shape with some QSB at times.  SFI was sitting at 123; A index at 5; K index at 1; and the SN at 90.

Of course on the way home we had to stop in at the Black River Cheese Factory and spend some money on the worlds best cheese.  I bought some aged onion and garlic cheddar, and always thinking of a good survival technique......a bag of home made dark fudge for the XYL! 

Prince Edward Point Lighthouse

Prince Edward Point Lighthouse

Late notice, but a number of operators are leaving after breakfast on Sunday, September 9th, to activate the Prince Edward Point Lighthouse - CAN788.  This lighthouse has not been activated for many years and is in a very sad state of repair.

This lighthouse is also known as Travers Point Lighthouse by the locals.  It was built in 1881, and due to its poor state of repair it was replaced in 1959 by a skeleton tower which remains active today.  The old building is still there but it looks very sad, but I guess if you were 131 years old you'd be looking mighty sad as well.

We hope to have at least two HF stations on the air and a 6m station.  Best place to look for us will be 14.250 to 14.260, 7.150, and 50.125.  The stations should be up and running by 1130 local EDT.

Callsign used will be VE3FRG.

We'll be listening, hope to work some of you.

Another Activation this weekend.....

Sent to me by Tom, KC2SFU:

A group from the Adirondack Fire Tower Radio group in Chenango County, NY, will be activating the fire tower at Stamford, NY, this Saturday.

The goal of this group is to promote the idea of operating from current and former Adirondack Fire Tower locations.

The group will be on air starting around 0800L (EDT) and will be on 2M (SSB 144.205), and (FM 146.520). they will also be on HF 40M (7.186 ssb), and may even work a satellite or two.

The group hopes to hear you on the air.  For those of you with an interest in joining in, here's a great page (HERE) that lists most of the fire towers in the Adirondacks.

"A" marks their Tower

Another Island Activation

I received an email from John VE3ISE this afternoon.  John lives in Grimsby, Ontario, and is planning an island activation in the near future. 

His email is below:

Myself and a couple of friends will be activating Byng Island ON-037 on Saturday September 8, 2012

We hope to arrive before Noon on Saturday, set up and be on the air by , no later than 12 noon. All depending on local weather conditions.  All QSL's should go to the operators home call.

Two stations will be running: 

John VE3ISE on 40 Meters 7150 ( +/- 10 kc) from 12 to 2 Pm then switching to 20 Meters 14260 ( +/- 10 kc) running 100 watts to Hustler verticals.

Doug VE3GJ on 20 Meters, HF Back Pack Frequencies running QRP.

This activation has also been listed on the US Islands Award website, and a copy of the email has also been sent to the Canadian Islands Award website.

Point Petre Lighthouse

Glenora Ferry

For a Sunday 0530L came pretty early!!  Luckily I had loaded the truck the night before so the noise was kept to a minimum,  "SWMBO" could sleep in peace, and I wouldn't be in trouble for waking her up at that unGodly hour! 

Once again the weather was just glorious, bright blue sky, with just a few clouds blowing by, and the Timmy's coffee nice and hot. 

Then it was off down Hwy 33 East to Glenora, meet up with Don-VE3MNE on the road, hop on the small ferry over to Picton and a stop for a good breakfast at the very appropriately named Lighthouse Restaurant.

The drive from the restaurant to the lighthouse takes about 30 minutes over some pretty remote country roads through farming country.  Point Petre is at the very tip of the South-West corner of Prince Edward County.  The whole area is a wildlife and bird refuge, and it streches for many miles along the shore of Lake Ontario.  This area has been left as remote as it has because it was, in an earlier life, an anti-aircraft artillery range for the Royal Canadian School of Artillery (Anti-Aircraft) based nearby at Camp Picton.

Camp Picton in 2012

The school provided training for anti-aircraft gunners, gunnery radar operators, technical assistants and artillery instructors. A number of operational artillery units were also located in Picton, including the 127th and 128th Medium AA Batteries, Royal Canadian Artillery (RCA) and the 2nd and 3rd Light AA Batteries of the 1st Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, RCA. The RCAF also maintained a small detachment at the base to provide aircraft targets for the gunners. 

Camp Picton closed in 1969 as it was surplus to DND's requirements.  Today it is used by small private aircraft and the Royal Canadian Air Cadets.

We started to setup as soon as we arrived at the lighthouse, which still looks as pitiful as it did last year, with its supporting building looking shabby and all boarded up.

Don and I both brought our FT-857D's.  I put up a 6m dipole and a 2m four element yagi, and Don put up his "chilicon vertical Mk.2" with 12 radials of various lengths and operated up on the HF bands.

The bands were not in very good shape today as we quickly found out.  All bands seemed to have some very deep QSB, and the conditions were really bad. We managed a grand total of eight contacts in five hours...pretty miserable really.  We had no response to our CQ's on 2m SSB and 6m SSB at all, just empty air.

Our HF contacts included five US lighthouses.  Our small log is as follows:

W4J at Lighthouse US-0025 on 20m
WS1SM at Lighthouse US-141 on 20m
N1NC at Lighthouse US-116 on 20m
N8MR at Lighthouse US-253 on 20m
N2CMC at Lighthouse US-011 on 40m
W9IMS in Indianapolis on 17m
EA8AM in the Canary Islands on 15m
KA4WJR in Ocala, Florida on 20m

The SFI today is 97;  the A index is 11; the K index is 2; and the SN is 56.  Of the three years we have activated this light for the ILLW, this has to be our worse showing ever.  Hopefully next year we can redeem ourselves.

Setting up outside the fence at Point Petre

Thanks to Tim who posted us and our frequencies on the DX Cluster.

Nine Mile Lighthouse

Dave VE3DZE antenna

Today the Frontenac Radio Group activated the Nine Mile Lighthouse on Simcoe Island for the International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend.  The lighthouse is number CA-0031, and the island is ON-022

Dave Ve3DZE and Tim VA3TIC both went over early this morning on the ferry to Wolfe Island and then onto the very small cable ferry to Simcoe Island.

They had superb weather, with beautiful blue sky and a cool breeze, and not a cloud to be seen. 

The bands however were not in the best of shape with the SFI sitting at 97, the A index at 11, the K index at 4, and the SN at 42.

The two of them hung in there and between them they made over 70 contacts on the two HF stations.  Interesting to note that all of the contacts were either Canadian or American, no DX at all.  I managed to work both of them on 20m and 40m at 0930L, and then went on to work a pile of other lighthouse who were also on the air.

Nine Mile Point Lighthouse from the road.

This is the first half of our weekend Lighthouse activations, tomorrow, Don VE3MNE and myself are leaving at 0600L to drive to the south western corner of Prince Edward County to activate Point Petre Lighthouse, CA-0026.  Hopefully we wil have the same weather, but better SFI numbers!

I'll post our report tomorrow evening.  Look for us tomorrow on 20m between 14,250 and 14.260, or on 40m at 7.250 +/- 10 Kc.

The 31' Homebrew Vertical

Several people have asked me to post the results of our field test of the homebrew 31' vertical antenna.  Here it is:

Background –


At Chilicon 2011 some of the members of the Ottawa QRP Society arrived with a homebrew vertical antenna. It had a 28’ radiator, one 16’ ground radial, one 31’ ground radial, and a 4:1 Balun, all designed by Martin-VA3SIE. It intrigued VE3CLQ with its simplicity, and its possibility as a ground-wave antenna for emcomm work.

VE3CLQ built one at Chilicon 2011 using a MFJ-1910 collapsible mast, a 28’ radiator, four 16’ ground radials, and a 4:1 Balun. This antenna was not analyzed before use, but with 40w output from a FT-857D it worked VK3MO in Victoria, Australia and VK2KRR in New South Wales, Australia from his campsite.

Further Development –

Richard-VA3VDP played with the design using the EZNEC antenna design computer program for a few weeks and came up with the result that a 31’ radiator would work best with the 16’ ground radials. A rebuild of VE3CLQ’s antenna ensued and it was soon sporting a 31’ radiator, this antenna is now known as the Chilicon Vertical Mk.2.

VA3VDP bought the commercial version of this antenna, made by LDG, and called the S9v31 and is advertised to be good for 6m through 40m.

Over the past 12 months the antenna has been used, both the commercial and the homebrew versions, with good success from a variety of locations and grounds. A great deal of DX has been worked to date with it.

The only change to the Chilicon Vertical Mk.2 has been with the number of and the length to the ground radial system. 

Testing –

In order to find out which Balun, either a 4:1 or a 1:1 was more efficient, a test was designed. The antenna was set up at Lamoine Point, in a gravel parking lot.

The antenna was set up with the 31’ radiator, six 16’ground radials, and a 4:1 Balun. Frequencies where chosen close to the centre of each band for operating SSB. With exactly the same set-up we switched to a 1:1 Balun and the same test run again. The results were:

The 4:1 Balun
Frequency        Result
3.800                6.5:1
7.150                3.5:1
14.150              2.5:1   
21.200              1.8:1   
28.500              2.1:1   
53.0                  1.1:1       


The 1:1 Balun
Frequency         Result
3.800                12.1:1
7.150                2.6:1
14.150              6.3:1
21.200              1.6:1
28.500              4.5:1
53.0                  1.3:1

The antenna was set up for a second test with the 31’ radiator, six 16’ground radials, a 4:1 Balun and the addition of two 31' ground radials. Frequencies where chosen close to the centre of each band for operating SSB. With exactly the same set-up we switched to a 1:1 Balun and the same test run again. The results were:

The 4:1 Balun
Frequency           Result
3.800                  6.1:1        
7.150                  3.1:1        
14.150                2.4:1        
21.200                2.1:1        
28.500                2.1:1        
53.0                    1.1:1        

The 1:1 Balun

Frequency          Result

3.800                 12.1:1
7.150                 2.8:1
14.150               6.3:1
21.200               2.4:1
28.500               1.3:1
53.0                   1.4:1

The results show that the addition of the two 31’ ground radials did very little to change the feedpoint impedance of the antenna.

We then checked the resonance of the antenna using both a 4:1 Balun and then the 1:1 Balun. The results are:

The 4:1 Balun
Frequency          Result

9.500 MHz        1.0:1
19.700 MHz      1.0:1
42.600 MHz      1.0:1
61.900 MHz      1.0:1
132.000 MHz    1.0:1

The 1:1 Balun
Frequency           Result

7.500 MHz         1.0:1
35.000 MHz       1.3:1
64.500 MHz       1.1:1

On Air Test -

The antenna was quickly reconfigured to the 31’ radiator, six 16’ground radials, two 31’ ground radials and a 4:1 Balun. The antenna was then connected to an IC-703 10w QRP transceiver and a 12v 35Ah gel cell battery.

The results of the on air test are:

1901UTC    20m   G8A           57/55    Brian, Great Sutton, UK
1907 UTC   20m   VY2TT      58/56    Ken, Bloomfield Stn, PEI
1921 UTC   15m   CM8AKD  57/56    Jose, Las Tunas, Cuba

The SFI for that time was:

SFI = 129;  A index = 5;  K index = 3; and SN = 91.


Conclusion –

In its present configuration as the Chilicon Vertical Mk.2 it works very well and is especially good when hunting DX.

Further testing is scheduled to be done with more radials of different lengths.  If there is suffient interest I'll post the results.

Brewers Mill Island

As we went to breakfast this morning Noah was putting the finishing touches on the Ark as the torrential rain fell.  It soon looked more like Bangladesh during the monsoon season than Princess Street in Kingston.....of course some people were just upset because they have not had to mow their lovely and crisp golden brown lawns in six weeks.

The rain continued during breakfast and then during the long ride up Highway 15 to Brewers Mill.  Noah must have finished the Ark on time because as we parked our vehicles the rain stopped and the sun came out from behind the black clouds.......and the rain continued on to Ottawa.

George VE3SIQ quickly set up his 20m dipole and a 15m and 10m dipole, and after sorting out a power problem he was on the air and spotted on the DX Cluster................remember George, the black wire is ground and the red is hot!!

Many thanks must go to the guys who run the US Islands Award website for very promptly posting the announcement of our island activation.  It was posted on their website within one hour of my sending the announcement to them.......and did I mention that after sending three emails, over a two week period, to the Canadian Islands Award webmaster, that we're still waiting for the announcement to make it onto their website? 

I put up my 31' vertical and numerous 16' radials on the ground, connected the FT-857D, and got stuck into 15m.  First station in the log was Tim VA3TIC, next up was John VE3OMA.    I then switched over to 6m to give John VE3ISE in Grimsby a call...with no success at all.  Unfortunately 6m did not want to play today.  Several other station went into the log in quick succession after that, but the QSB was pretty bad at times.

In the afternoon I switched to my IC-703 and made good solid contacts with Frank EA5HJV in Spain, and Rumen LZ1MS in Bulgaria.  Not too shabby for 10w SSB.

The island is a nice spot to operate from and the Lock Master was very accomodating to us. We will have to do this again!

Chilicon 2012

VE3CHILI

Plans are now well underway for this years annual Chilicon gathering of QRP enthusiasts in Eastern Ontario.

Chilicon is held at Rideau River Provincial Park, just across the river from Kemptville over the weekend of September 14th & 15th........Rain or Shine.  Group organization is minimal, so this weekend is a pretty casual QRP camping experience.....but we have fun!

Chilicon is an annual event of the Ottawa Valley QRP Society and has quickly become a fixed event on my calendar.  Lots of good discussions on radios and antennas to be had there, and if you come away from the weekend without learning a thing or two you didn't try hard enough.

Held the same weekend as the QRP Afield event which is sponsored by the New England QRP Club, we have lots of on air activity, and normally a couple of different modes on the air as well.

Come for the weekend or just come for the Saturday.........occasionally you get to meet celebrities there like Bob-VA3QV!!!

Saturday on the Bands

It was off to Hay Bay after our club's regular Sunday breakfast today to use the high dipoles we have set up out there at Don-VE3MNE's cottage.

Today was the Colorado 14er's big day, and it was for that event that I primarily wanted to use the high antennas.  However, the Gods didn't smile and I didn't make a single contact with any of the Colorado stations.  Better luck next year....as the saying goes.

I did manage to work five stations before I closed down the station:

KD0ETC and KD0EFW who were both activating US lighthouses;
W8COD who was activating the submarine USS Cod;
XL31812, a special event station celebrating our glorious victory in the war of 1812; and
9A208DX, a special event station celebrating 20 years of the 9A callsign.

So not a wasted day on the bands.

Next two weekends.......

There's a couple of busy weekends coming up in August.  Next Sunday, the 12th August, our club will be activating Brewers Mill Island, just south of Seeley's Bay on Hwy 15.  This Island has never been activated before, and is not listed on the Canadian Islands Award Site, so it doesn't have an official number yet.  We plan on having at least three stations up and running, all on battery power.  I'm going to assume two HF and one 2m/6m stations.

We have sent emails to the Canadian Islands Award website asking for this activation to be listed but as they have already ignored three requests so far for islands this summer.....we're not holding our breath.  You will be able to read about this activation on the US Islands Award Scheme website....along with other Canadian hams who have long since realized that sending activation notices to the Canadian website is a waste of time.

The weekend after that, the 18th & 19th August sees our club taking part in the International Lighthouse Lightship Weekend.  Once again we will be activating two lights, the first at Nine Mile Point on Simcoe Island, which is CA0031, and will be using the VE3FRG callsign. 

The second site is the light at Point Petre in South West Prince Edward County.  This is CA0026, and will be using VE3FCT as its call.  The Nine Mile Point light will be active on Sunday only, but we are hoping that the Point Petre light will be active on both days.

The event evolved from the Scottish Northern Lighthouses Award Weekend a biennial event which was first held in 1993 and became the ILLW in 1998. Over the years it has continued to grow and to date more than 450 lighthouses and Lightships in some 50 countries around the world are participating in the event each year.

The event is always held on the 3rd full weekend in August starting at 0001 UTC on Saturday and finishing at 2359 UTC on Sunday.

VE3FCT will be QRV on 7.250; 21.350; 14.250-14.260; and 50.125, for SSB depending on the band conditions.  All frequencies will be +/- 10 Kc or so.

Radios for VE3FCT, for both events, will be an FT-857D, and the antennas will be an 80m OCF Dipole and 31' homebrew vertical.  A Buddipole 6m antenna will also be used.

The Madmen of Colorado

This Sunday sees the annual "Colorado 14er" event.  This is a unique ham radio event were sane men and women hike up 14,000' peaks in order to operate their ham radios.............don't ya wish we had a few here in Eastern Ontario?!?!?!?!?! (Yes Bob, I'd carry your oxygen bottle for you!)

The goal of this event is to see how many of the mountaintop stations you can contact. The prime operating hours are from 1500 to 1800 UTC.

Last year I took part in the event as VE3FCT and had a blast, but the highlight for me was to be one of the 104 contacts made by KB0SA - Boy Scout Troop 6 from Monument, Colorado from the summit of Pikes Peak. 

What is really great about this bunch of Scouts is that everyone of them has a ham ticket, as do their leaders. 

Troop 6 will be back up in the 14,000' peaks this coming Sunday for the 2012 Colorado 14er event and I hope to make contact with them again.  It's always good to support the kids in this hobby of ours.

The website is HERE, and the suggested frequency list HERE.  This year for the first time they have agreed to combine the event with the SOTA program to encourage participation in it.

Hope to hear you all on the bands this Sunday encouraging these guys.





Islands on the Air

This weekend is the annual IOTA weekend.  Lots of great DX should be on the air for this, including CY9M from St. Paul Island...look for them on 14.185. 

The contest runs from 1200Z July 28th to 1200Z July 29th.  The rules can be found HERE.

As I can't operate from my shack this weekend I'm going to have to find somewhere local to operate portable from, and someone to come along and give me a hand.  It's going to be very nice just to have nothing to think about and to be able to just play radio.

Fort Henry Hill is no longer an option thanks to the new visitors interpretation centre recently built on the east side of the parking lot.  The new centre is equipped with 25 or so plasma information screens being used entertain the visitors and the noise floor has duly risen from S0 to S8 and S9.

Antenna of choice will be my MFJ-1910 mast with a 31 foot radiator taped to it, and six 16 foot radials and two 31 foot radials.  This antenna works very well for collecting DX with a 4:1 Balun, and it's very light weight and easy to put up.  I have a drive on mast base for it.

Hopefully the SFI Gods, and the weather Gods, will be shining on us.

IARU - - - the aftermath

Things did not go the way I wanted them to....but when do they ever?  Selling our house, and looking for a new one got in the way of going to Hay Bay and using the high antennas.  Oh well, "She who must be obeyed" is happy at least.

So instead I stayed at home and operated in bits and pieces, closing down, and leaving the house, when we had a showing. 

On top of this I did another couple of goofs, the first one was my AF Gain was turned down and secondly I spent half of my operating time at 10w because I didn't check my power setting.  Obviously there's still more to learn with this radio.

The antennas used at home were a 40m off center fed dipole at about 30 feet, and a homebrew 31 foot vertical with 10 radials spread out on the grass.  Both antennas worked perfectly and I had great results with them.  A total of 120 contacts were made:

66 SSB on 20m
40 SSB on 10m
14 SSB on 40m

Contacts where made with stations in Europe, South America, North America, Africa, and the Middle East.

The bands were up and down with some very deep QSB at times, and the SFI, A, and K indexes were nothing to write home about either.....in fact this morning they're bloody awful:

SFI = 148
A index = 17
K index = 6
SN = 120

It was 30C here in Kingston yesterday with "a lot" of humidity, seems to be cooler today though.

All in all I'm happy with my score, considering I was only a part-time operator.

We'll see what happens next weekend for the VHF Contest.

IARU HF Contest

This coming weekend will see the 2012 IARU HF World Championships take place.  Should be a great weekend out at Hay Bay.....if the bands cooperate!

This contest is designed to have hams contact as many other amateurs, especially IARU member society HQ stations, around the world as possible using the 160, 80, 40, 20, 15 and 10 meter bands.

Timings for the contest is beginning 1200 UTC Saturday and ending 1200 UTC Sunday.

In the past few years it has been possible to work all of Europe in a few hours of the contest start time, so hopefully this year will be outstanding.

Radio being used will be the FT-950 into a 160m Off Center Fed Dipole up at 100 feet.   There will also be a 31 foot ground mounted vertical with multiple ground radials laid out. 

Here's hoping for a good weekend!

Busy July.......

It's looking like it will be a busy summer for portable operating this year, I'm hoping the weather is going to cooperate! 

'Tis the season to be outside playing radio, not cooped up indoors in the shack.  Try some antenna experiments, find a hilltop to work from, activate an island, activate a lighthouse.....there's always something to do when the weather is good....and some of us "nutcases" even do this in the winter!

So far there does not seem to be a free weekend in July!  So far we have:
July 1st - Canada Day Contest
July 8th - Iroquois Island Activation (ON271)
July 14/15th - IARU HF World Championships
July 21/22nd - CQ WW VHF Contest
July 22nd - 4 Mile point Light Activation (CAN823)
July 28/29th - RSGB IOTA Contest

Tucked in with all those dates is July 4th which just happens to be my 25th wedding anniversary.  How she puts up with me is one of lifes big mysteries!! Anyway......we'll see if I'm still alive at the end of the month!

The Field Day Report - 2012

What a superb weekend!!  Don-VE3MNE, Tim-VA3TIC and myself drove out to Hay Bay, about 45 kms west of Kingston, around noon on Thursday. We were joined by Richard-VA3VDP late Friday, and Derek-VE3HRW on Saturday.  We were operating at the cottage of VE3MNE, and a beautiful location it is.

The view from the 20m station

The weather was fantastic.  Lots of sunshine and blue skies for most of the weekend.  We did get a small amount of rain and some heavy wind on Thursday evening, but it didn't last long and the Hay Bay Amateur Radio Club was soon back at it laying out coax and preparing the antennas.

On Friday we sorted through our miles of coax fixing connectors as required, giving our notch filters some much needed maintainance and sorting out the operating positions.  As per our well established field day tradition, we went out for a steak dinner at the Wellington Grill in Prince Edward County and really had a good time. 


While at the Grill we all gave a farewell toast to our good friend John Snasdell-Taylor VA3GST, who sadly became a silent key a few days previously.  John, who was an engineer on the design and development team for the Canadarm, the space shuttle remote manipulator system, was an absolute gentleman.  He'll be missed by us all very much. 

By early Saturday morning we had seven antennas in the air, two 80m and one 160m off-center fed dipoles (two of which are up at 100 feet), a 20m Delta loop at about 50 feet off the ground, three 31 foot verticals with multiple radials, and a vintage WW2 No. 19 radio set 32 foot antenna for use on 40m and 15m.....and by 1130 we were pacing up and down awaiting the start time!

80m and 160m didn't provide us with much business and those bands had extremely high noise levels, but we still managed over 150 contacts on them.  The 40m band was a complete zoo with stations on top of stations all calling "CQ Field Day!!!".  I have to admit that it took a while for my ears to get used to the over abundance of signals and to be able to sort them out in my head.

After a few hours we had to do an antenna change for the 20m station.  The 20m Delta Loop wasn't working as efficient as it should have been.  With seven antennas in the air it was an easy job to switch things around without disturbing too many operators.

15m came, went and came back again.  When the band was working it was hot, and we managed to get most of the western US and Canada on it.  We even had a station from Northern Serbia answer our CQ.


VA3VDP

Richard-VA3VPD, the newest member of the Hay Bay Amateur Radio Club, operated our digital and CW station.  This was his very first field day, and what a superb job he did.   Richard operated on all bands and had the use of two antennas, a 80m OCF dipole and a 31 foot vertical, and he used both of them to his advantage.

All too soon Field Day was over and the bands magically went silent....well, the Sunday hemorrhoid nets were still in full swing complaining about the damn contesters, and the hillbilly nets from the deep south were swopping moonshine recipes, complete with their usual colourful language, but apart from them the other 35,000 hams went quiet.

The lack of contacts from Florida was very noticeable this year.  It wasn't until we got home and saw the news about the the bad weather they are having that we realized that they had other things on their minds than taking part in field day over the weekend.  Our thoughts and prayers go out to them all and we hope they and their families are safe and dry.

As a final thought the Hay Bay ARC would just like to point out to a couple of dozen hams that there is no prize, or certificate, for the station who can say their callsign the fastest and that we are sorry we could not understand your callsign well enough to establish contact.  Perhaps next year you could slow down?

It was a fantastic weekend, and as Don VE3MNE said as we left - "363 days to go till we do it all over again next year!".

Congratulations!!

I received the following email in my inbox this morning from the Prince Edward County Radio Club: 

New Ham - Aaron Wiik - VE3UDA - 10 years old!!
Posted by: Mike Papper ve3vmp
Date: Wed Jun 13, 2012 12:10 am ((EST))

I am pleased, honoured and excited to announce that Aaron Wiik VE3UDA,
10 years old, has passed the Basic Amateur Radio exam with a score of 74%.

Both Aaron VE3UDA and his dad Peter VA3ORU (passed with honours) were students of our Fall 2011 course. They live in Cherry Valley. So please welcome our new Hams to the Magic of Radio when you hear them on the air in the coming months.

Congratulations to Aaron-VE3UDA, and well done!!

RLCT 2012 - The Wrap Up

This past weekend saw the 41st annual Rideau Lakes Cycle Tour run between Ottawa and Kingston......and a great time was had by one and all.

For the seventh year running the Frontenac EmComm Group (FECG) provided the communications for the southern part of the route, between Perth Road Village and Kingston.  Ottawa ARES looks after Carleton University to Black's Corner's, and Lanark-North Leeds ARES looks after the middle section.  This year, all three groups, had over 40 operators working over the weekend.

Don-VE3MNE running the net
from his "command post"

FECG looked after the radio check points at Perth Road Village, Loughborough Lake, Inverary, Glenburnie, McAdoo's Lane, and Queen's University.  Both myself and Don-VE3MNE manned the Perth Road Village radio check point.  We ran net control for the southern portion on the VE3FRG repeater, and a liaison station with Westport net control on the Christie Lake repeater.

Establishing comms was pretty easy this year using the VE3FRG repeater, none of the stations required a lot of power to reach it.  VE3FRG has a huge footprint and we used an awful lot of it.

However, trying to hit the Christie Lake or Lavant repeaters was another matter.   It seems my Ringo Ranger has an issue, and as a result has an SWR of 4.1:1 and was pretty much unusable.  So, using typical ham ingenuity, we put up a 5/8 mag-mount, but we had to mount it on a cast iron frying pan for a ground plane as it was the only item we had that the magnet would stick to.  We then put the frying pan on top of the village sign to get enough height to reach the Christie Lake repeater.......and I've no idea why Don carries a frying pan in his truck!!

Riders at Perth Road Store

We arrived on scene at 1030L, and the first rider went through our location at 1140L - flying faster than Bob-VA3QV's electric Vesper!!   Everything was going smoothly until we were informed of a memorial service being held in the village church, just across the road from where we were set up.  I think they expected us to close up shop and disappear, but with 2200+ cyclists coming through the village there was nowhere else for us to go.  In the end we simply turned down the radios so they were not blaring away, and asked the riders to be quiet and slow down by the church, which they all did with the utmost of respect, and that calmed the situation. 

We ended up having some pretty heavy rain from about 1500L till 1630L.  The last rider blew through our location about 1730L and then we started the drive down to Queen's to play "tail-end Charlie" and pick up radio equipment there.

Sunday was a very early start for our portion of the event.  Out of bed at 0500L and on the road to Perth Road at 0525.  I past the first rider heading north at 0540L just past Hwy 401.  The fog on the Perth Road was very thick and visability was less than 50m at times.....kind of scary early in the morning with the deer out on the roads.

The weather was very hot and muggy, the Perth Road General Store was a hot spot for topping up on water and food for the long slog ahead.  The terrain around Perth Road is fairly hilly and the muggy weather must have made it pretty tough for some of the riders.

Lots of hams involved besides those manning the radio check points.  We had five or six mobile in various vehicles, doing pick-ups for riders who opted out, or the repair trucks.  It was nice to see the amateur community come together and doing some worthwhile community service.

For a look at how things played out from the Ottawa end, have a look at my old friend Bob's page - HERE. 

'Twas a great weekend all-in-all, looking forward to next year, especially with the proposed changes.

Government Cutbacks......

We've all heard about it, everytime you pick up a newspaper or read the news on the Internet, all you see are articles on the federal cutbacks and provincial cutbacks.

Apparently the cutbacks have also impacted the Ontario Provincial Police!  You'll notice their new cruiser in the picture below.....

This picture was taken today on the campus of Queen's University here in Kingston.

This new model must be very good on gas...not sure how good it will be in a high speed highway chase.

Actually, all kidding aside, the Special Olympics are being held here in Kingston this weekend at the CFB Kingston Sports Complex, and police forces from all over the Province are here looking after, and mentoring, the kids, and this car was here for that event.  I'm sure it gave the kids as big a chuckle as it did me.

In fact the parking lot at Queen's looked like a police convention as there were cars from just about every police force in Ontario parked there.  Nice to see the boys in blue looking after the kids.

Early morning activities

It may be Saturday but I was still up at 0500 local to get ready to go to Fort Henry Hill to play radio and test out a new antenna that Tim, VA3TIC had made.

The first news about the "new" Fort Henry is that it is terrible.  They have now paved the parking lot making it almost impossible to use at any other time than very early morning, we should be OK between 0500 and 0800, but not later than that due to vehicle traffic on the site. 

Secondly they now have a "rent-a-cop" on site who came over to ask what the hell we were doing, and thirdly the new visitors center built on the east side of the parking lot is filled with a dozen or so huge plasma screens, and we now have a noise floor level of S7 on all bands.

Back to Tim's new antenna........it's a homebrewed 31 foot aluminum vertical made with salvaged parts from long dead antennas.  It has four 31 foot radials and four 16 foot radials, and he has it mounted on his trailer hitch and uses a homebrew 4:1 balun with it.

It works very well and we were getting out with no problem.  First station worked with it was PI9SRS, a Scout Troop radio club in Spijkenisse, Netherlands, on 20m who gave us a 54. 

Next up was a check into Ontars on 3.755 who gave us a 59.  The best contact of the morning was with ZL2WL, Wayne in Hastings, New Zealand, also on 20m who gave us a 55.  Not too shabby for a antenna made up of scrap aluminum.

So now the journey starts to find a new, quiet, hassle free early morning operating spot in or around Kingston.  Makes me wish I was back home in BC operating up in the mountains again. Oh happy days!!

Rideau Lakes Cycle Tour 2012

The Rideau Lakes Cycle Tour is THE Spring cycling event in the area with about 2000 riders going from Ottawa and Perth to Kingston on Saturday and back on Sunday. Four routes of varying difficulty are offered. The Tour is wholly organized and supported by Ottawa Bicycle Club volunteers.

The majority of riders come from Ontario and Quebec but there are also entrants from many of the other provinces, the United States and occasionally, even from abroad.

This year is the 41st year the ride has taken place and the 38th that amateur radio has provided communications support for the ride.  The Frontenac Radio Group provided comms from Perth Road Village to Queen's University, and has done for 5 years.

This year we will be operating five radio checkpoints, Perth Road Village, Loughborough Lake, Inverary, Glenburnie, and Queens University.  These locations will be manned for both Saturday and Sunday.

This year we are trying something different.  The Station at Perth Road Village will have two radios, one on the VA3TEL 2m repeater at Christie Lake and the other on the VE3FRG repeater using the 70cm link.  Hopefully this will stop any interference between the two radios.  In the past these two radios have both been on 2m, and we have had several interference issues.

Here's hoping the weather cooperates this year.

Memory Lane........

Today is a non-ham radio blog entry……which I do every once in a long while.

Some of you may have noticed the photo of the Chinook Helicopter at the top of this page. That photo was taken at a small gravel airstrip on Ellesmere Island called Eureka in the high Arctic. I had the pleasure of spending three summers there during the 1980’s flying as a Loadmaster on board the Chinooks of 450 Transport Helicopter Squadron.

In 1996 Canada retired its Chinooks and sold them to the Royal Netherlands Air Force where they continue to soldier on and fly today. In fact until we bought our own, Dutch Chinooks actually carried Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan…..kind of ironic!

Canada disbanded 450 Squadron and went without heavy lift helicopters until 2005 when we purchased several ‘second hand’ Chinook airframes from the US Army, and used them with great success in Afghanistan. They filled a need, and probably saved the lives of numerous Canadian soldiers who could now fly safely into camps and the out-stations instead of driving in vehicles on the IED infested dirt roads.

So why am I writing about this today? Good question. Today, a day I never thought I would see, the Minister of National Defence announced the reformation of 450 Tactical Helicopter Squadron. The squadron will be based in Petawawa, Ontario, and will have 15 F-Model Chinooks. These Chinooks will have a heavy lift capability to carry up to 40 personnel or 11 363 kilograms of cargo. 

I’m also extremely pleased, and proud, that LCol Duart Townsend will be the first Commanding Officer of the reborn 450 Tactical Helicopter Squadron. LCol Townsend was the very last Chinook pilot to be trained as part of the original 450 Tactical Helicopter Squadron before it was disbanded in 1996. We veterans of the original Squadron can rest assured that our customs and traditions will be passed on to the new Squadron by the new Commanding Officer.

For those ex-members of 450 Squadron, today’s announcement is a great thing. It ensures that the history we made in our youth will not be forgotten. To the ex-members it also means that the aircrew, and support crew, who died in the flying accidents aboard Chinook’s 147001 and 147002 will be remembered and honoured by the Squadron, and not just by those who remember them.

May the new 450 Squadron only have 'Fair Winds and Blue Skies'!

By Air To Battle!

The "Chillicon Special" Antenna

A couple of years ago I read an item on the blog of Martin VA3SIE on his latest canoeing adventure on Joeperry Lake in Frontenac Provincial Park. He was using two antennas on that trip, one was a 28’ vertical and the other was a 90’ inverted-L. It was the 28’ vertical that caught my attention as being a city dweller, space is at a premium on the antenna farm out back.

I emailed Martin a couple of times about it and Martin told me that it wasn’t the best of antennas, but would do in a pinch. Still intrigued about it but busy with other things, it went on the back burner for a while. It wasn’t until the Ottawa Valley QRP Societies annual “Chillicon” gathering of September, 2011 that I finally with the help of Jim-VA3KV made one. I used a 31 foot MFJ collapsible fiberglass pole as the support.


Picture from VA3SIE Blogsite
of the original design

 Originally Martin made his with only one 16 foot and one 32 foot radials, and I made my “Chillicon Special” using only four 16 foot radials. Right off the bat it worked very well - allowing me to check into the Trans-provincial Net on 40m and Ontars Net on 80m as well as numerous DX contacts around the world.

Last weekend I was cleaning out the garage, getting ready for the upcoming big move, I dragged it out and set it up again. This time I added two 32 foot radials to the original four 16 foot radials. What a difference that made! Using my IC-703, the first SSB contact was on 20m with W4P, a special event station in St. Petersburg, Florida, who gave me a nice 58 report.

Mainly I have been working 40m, 20m, 15m and 10m with it, but it will also tune up on 80m and 6m with no issues. 

Since then I have worked Kuwait, Dubai, Sweden, and Morocco with this antenna. I have a suspicion it’s going to get a lot more use up on Fort Henry Hill this summer on our very early Saturday morning get-togethers. I might even add another two 32 foot radials and see how that improves the overall performance.

This one is a keeper.

Field Day 2012

It's getting to be that time of year when we start thinking of Field Day, that joyous weekend of 24 hours of non-stop ham radio.  This year it falls on the weekend of June 23 and 24.....mark it on your calendar right now.  The full set of rules for 2012 can be found HERE.

Now normally the radio club I belong to drives out to Hay Bay to the cottage of Don, VE3MNE, and spends a delightful weekend at his cottage.  Last year, according to the scores published in QST we came third in North America and first in Canada in the 5A category.

So this year we find ourselves in the position of having out grown Don's cottage and in need of a second operating location.  There really are not that many good locations around Kingston where we can conduct Field Day.  But this year we have hit the jackpot of all Kingston locations.

Many thanks must go to Ron, VE3GO, who has managed to get us permission to conduct Field Day from aboard the retired Canadian Coast Guard Ship Alexander Henry, currently tied up next to the Maritime Museum of the Great Lakes here in Kingston.

CCGS Alexander Henry is a former Canadian Coast Guard light icebreaker and buoy tender on the Great Lakes.  Built by the Port Arthur Shipbuilding Company in what is now Thunder Bay, she was launched in 1958 and retired in 1984.  She has been laid up in the drydock at the Maritime Museum for a number of years and is actually run during the summer months as a Bed and Breakfast location.

So give a listen for VE3FRG this Field Day, the station will be operating from the actual radio room aboard the ship.

2m SSB

This morning, Saturday, April 28th, was my first activation of Fort Henry Hill for 2012.  Lots of construction still going on and the general area of the parking lot is still a real mess.  The construction is for the new multi-million dollar visitors center.  Kingston locals are wondering why we are spending $3.9 million on a building that actually detracts from the historical beauty of the fort it's there to explain.

Anyway, back to ham radio...... local VHF propagation was excellent this morning, and the prop charts were showing many good paths, so up to the hill I went. 

I decided to use my FT-857D today as I have not used it much lately, it just sits there beside the FT-950 looking rather lonely!  The antenna of choice was an Arrow II back pack portable four element Yagi.  This is a great little antenna, I had it up on a 16 foot painter pole and it really works well.

Four contacts were made today, two in Kingston, Tim-VA3TIC and Dave-VE3DZE, and two from the US.  Luther-N2SLN and Tom-KC2SFU who were on top of Rondaxe Mountain, near Old Forge, NY.  Booming signal from them.

We'll have to see if we can't work that ever elusive VA3QV next weekend on 2m SSB....if we can get him out of bed early enough ;-)

The DX Gods.......

What a great night on the HF bands!!  Tonight has to be the best night I've had for DX in a very long time.  Within minutes I had two from Kuwait, Dubai, and Israel in the log and all 59++.  Superb signals from the middle east tonight!  The other thing that was amazing was listening to one of the Kuwait stations working the different countries calling him.....and he had one heck of a pile up going, and switching languages as he went.  I must have heard him talk in 6 different languages in the course of 5 minutes.  Very impressive and a great operator!

I also managed to work the YW5PI DXpedition on Isla de Patos, SA-048, off the coast of Venezuela.  Not a strong signal, but enough to work them and get them in the log.  They had some deliberate jamming going on and it made it somewhat difficult to make the QSO.

The numbers tonight were SFI=142; A Index=7; K Index=1; and the SN was 122.  Let's hope it continues to improve!

1812 Special Event Station

On June 18, 1812, American President James Madison declared war on Great Britain and the Americans then tried to take Upper and Lower Canada. The Canadian Governor General, Georges Prevost had very few means to defend the colonies, a few British Regiments and the “rag-tag” Canadian Militia of the day.

Anyway, to wrap it up quickly........we won, the Americans lost, and the Whitehouse got burnt.

So, two hundred years later we are celebrating the War of 1812, and in true ham radio style we will have a special event station on the air.

The members of the Manotick Amateur Radio Group will be operating special event station - VX3W - from Fort Wellington in Prescott, Ontario, on Saturday, May 19th from 10:00 EDT to 16:00 EDT (1400Z to 2000Z) to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812, and of course our glorious victory.

The boys from Manotick will be operating on various HF bands, depending on the conditions. Local operators may be able to find them on simplex VHF and/or UHF. While most operations will be voice, they may also be operating some digital modes.

LED Lights

Yesterday I received a rather disturbing email from one of the local hams here in Kingston on the subject of the new LED lights that are currently coming on the market.

After watching this video (HERE) I'm sure you will agree that this is the type of thing our governments and our national amateur radio organizations should be addressing on our behalf. I really hope that they are as the local noise level is already getting out of sight with all the new electronic devices households are now using.  Perhaps this is why QRP and portable operating is getting more and more popular?

The reality of this matter is that pressure is always being shoved on us from eco-groups, the big box stores and paid lobbyists to introduce and use these kinds of products without any concern for proper testing, government regulations, or any harmful side effects that these might have.

I certainly hope that our national amateur radio organizations are fully aware of these concerns, plus similar ones such as the interference that plasma TV does to our ability to operate. How much our associations are doing or are able to do, I do not know. But the big questions is, does anyone know?

Lousy Contact

Tried to work Bob-VA3QV this afternoon on 40m but the propagation Gods were against us......again.  Even with all the filters on and the headset on, the best I could do was to give Bob a 43 signal report. 

Bob was at a park between the Ottawa airport and the Rideau River, and as usual was operating QRP with FT-817, and I "think" he was using his long wire antenna.


I guess we'll just have to keep trying until we manage a QSO between us!

Bob has posted a good account of his activity.  Have a look at: http://va3qv.wordpress.com/2012/04/06/friday-in-the-parks/