Winter Field Day

After a week of temperatures in the -20C's, and as far down to -34C with the wind chill, it seems quite insane to be going away this weekend to take part in the SPAR Winter Field Day.  We will have to see what weather the weekend brings. 

This will be the fifth year our ham group has taken part in Winter Field Day. But, this is Canada, and they don't call us the crazy Canucks for nothing I guess!!

Myself, Don-VE3MNE and Bill VA3WOW will be going to Leggat Lake in Central Frontenac County Saturday morning to a completely un-winterized summer cottage, that thankfully has electricity and a woodstove.......but no wood we have been told.  We will survive!

We plan to operate two HF rigs, both FT-857D's, one on SSB and the other in digital mode.  Antennas will be a homebrew 33' vertical into a 4:1 Balun, and an 80m OCF Dipole.  This will give us coverage from 80m to 6m, and should cover all bases.

The rules for Winter Field Day can be found HERE.  Hope to work you on the bands.

NAQP

Going great guns on the NAQP Saturday afternoon.  Lots of contacts to be had, especially on 10m.   It looks like the new antennas are really working well, with lots of great signal reports (not your usual 59).

Best signal on the band this afternoon was John - HK3C from Bogota, Columbia.  However,  why do the lids have to tune up right on the frequency?  Then, there was the N4 station who kept calling John over his QSO's, and good for John for not going back to him. 

Overall a good afternoon.  Off for supper and then back at it.

UPDATE........

Yesterday evening the bands seemed to be in pretty good shape with lots of east-west propagation.  Lots of calls from California and Washington states, funny though, I never heard a VE7 or a VE6 all day. 

Ten and twenty meters stayed open for quiet a while, and then pretty rapidly I had to move to 40m and eventually 80m.  I even managed a single 6m contact during the day as well.

Today the bands didn't seem to want to work.  I actually made very few contacts., and those that I did where all in Europe. 

Now that NAQP is over it's time to get the gear ready for this coming weekends Winter Field Day.  More on that later.

 
 

A surprise in the mail......

Normally I don't submit my log sheets after a contest, for me a contest is just a fun thing to do, and I don't collect "paper'.   However, I might have to start collecting now!

Today, a certificate arrived in the mail from the ARRL for the 2011 10m Contest (I don't even remember submitting my log!!), awarding me 4th place in Canada in the QRP category.

 



This was totally unexpected.......and it's going to look nice on my wall!

Contest Coming Up!

It's that time of year...when the weather keeps us closed up indoors, so it's a perfect time to take part in the North American QSO Party. 

The following dates should be in your calendar:

CW: 1800Z January 12 to 0600Z January 13, 2013 (Second full weekend in January)
SSB: 1800Z January 19 to 0600Z January 20, 2013 (Third full weekend in January)

The Contest Rules can be found HERE.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to everyone!! 

Mary and I hope you all have much happiness and a fantastic 2013.

Great RAC Winter Contest!

The RAC Winter Contest is over for another year, and once again it was a real blast.  I managed to work every RAC station, including VE8RAC in Yellowknife.  In fact I got some RAC stations on three bands,

The only spot in Canada I did not make a contact with was Nunavut (their only local ham had gone south for the winter!).

The band conditions were excellent for nearly the whole 24 hour period, and many good contacts were made with VE7's.  I even managed to make a number of VE7 and VE6 contacts on 10m during the afternoon. 

Not many VE9, VY2, or VE2 stations were heard, but I managed to make at least two contacts in each of those provinces, it took a lot of time to do that though.  The other interesting thing was the number of non-Canadian stations taking part.  I heard many Europeans in there looking for points.

It always amazes me what a different type of contest the Winter Contest is.  It's very nice to hear operators taking time out, in the middle of a pile up, to say a few nice words with an old friend, and even new friends.

The highlight of the contest, for me, was having my very first QSO with a station in Yukon.  I've never heard a VY1 station before.  I'm not sure if it was the propagation of the day, or my new antenna doing the work for me.  Whatever it was I'm a happy camper!

RAC Winter Contest - 2012

Coming up on us pretty fast is the RAC Winter Contest.  Contest starts December 29th, 2012, from 0000 UTC to 2359 UTC.

This is always a good contest to enter, it's not as fast paced as others, and everyone seems to stop and have a good QSO instead of just a quick "59 Ontario".  It's also a very good way of collecting all the provinces and territories in a single day.

The contest rules can be found HERE.  Hope to work you all during the contest.

And......the snow came

The view from our front door.

It's -17C here in Kingston this morning with the wind factored in, lots of snow too!  The wind is 30 gusting to 50 KPH.

We had an inpromptu net this morning while everyone "attempted" to get to work.  None of the roads here in Kingston had been plowed, and the commute to work was a nightmare for some.

The prize for the most determined to get to work goes to Don-VE3MNE, who walked four Kms through knee high snow to get there, he was sure blowing into his HT mic by the time he got there.

I can't imagine what Bob VA3QV in Ottawa has got over the last 14 hours, I can't wait to read his Blog report on the storm. I'm sure they got hammered more than we did.

It looks like it's going to be an indoor radio day.....chasing DX.