Eastbound - Day Four.....

It was a very strange day today.......it didn't rain!!  Brandon was already far in the rear view mirror by 0730 as I wanted to make the best of the good weather.

The roads today were the best I have driven on all trip.  The scenery was great, I went from the grass lands to the north woods, and 580 Km later I arrived in downtown Dryden, Ontario. 

The final destination was Aaron Provincial Park, 18 km east of Dryden.  It's a nice and clean park, but there's no cell phone service, so back into Dryden I went to Tim Horton's to text home that I had arrived safely.

I'm hoping that the rain is behind me now and I'll have great camping weather ahead of me.

Today I put calls out on the Brandon, Austin, Portage, Elie, Headingley, Hadashville, Falcon Lake, Kenora, and Dryden repeaters......and no contact was made on any of them....Oh well, there's always tomorrow.

Eastbound - Day Three.....

The Cypress Hills on a dry day

Anyone want to guess what the weather was today?  It rained.....all day, all 768 Km of it.  It was a cool 8C when I loaded up the truck this morning.

It was a fairly routine trip down the highway until we got to Waldeck, SK, where a large CP Rail train derailed.  There must have been 50 cars laying on their sides in the slough that runs along the track....or what was left of the track.

I was in Moose Jaw for lunch and met up with an old friend of mine, who although we email on a regular basis, we haven't seen each other for 10 years.  I got the grand tour of the town, it's quite the place really.  Bit disappointing though as the weather kept the aircraft from CFB Moose Jaw grounded today.

On the way through Regina I managed a long QSO with Summer, VE5SDH, and she was my only contact all day on 2m.  No response was had on the Swift Current, Moose Jaw, Wolseley, or Moosomin repeaters.  Perhaps better luck tomorrow in Brandon.

Tonight's stop is Virden, MB.  A nice little town spread out along Hwy 1.  No HF happened tonight as I had to drive past the sched time, but I will be on tomorrow night from Brandon.  We'll see if 17m does the job.

Eastbound - Day Two......

The Roger's Pass on a nice day

Today dawned glorious......and raining!!  Yet another rainy day on the road.  I left Golden, BC, at 0800 local, after having a bite to eat at the Tim Horton's.

Even though it was raining and the low clouds ruined the views, the scenery through the Roger's Pass was still spectacular.  Once through Roger's Pass a short time later you enter the Kicking Horse Pass, another high mountain pass with totally spectacular scenery.

I stopped for lunch and a bit of fuel in Banff.  It's still a pretty little town, even if Parks Canada are a pain in the ass there.

No 2m traffic was heard in Golden, Lake Louise, Banff, or Canmore.  BUT, a contact was made in Calgary.  VE6CCL, Rob, answered by CQ, and we talked for quite some time.  It's always nice to be talking to a local when driving through a strange town.

I made the second 2m contact of the day in Bassano, Earl, VA6RF, kept me company on the repeater for a while.  Earl tells me that the Bassano repeater is really underused.  Well, I can point to him a pile of other repeaters that don't seem to have any traffic on them as well.

Going to attempt an HF contact with some of the Kingston stations tonight at 2000 local Kingston time.  I'll see who I can talk to, or who I can hear.

Tomorrow the night stop will be Moose Jaw.

Eastbound - Day One....

Coquihalla Highway north of Merritt

Left Abbotsford this morning after saying goodbye to the family.  It was great to see everyone, and kinda hard to leave.

Weather, as usual when I'm on the road, was RAIN!!  In fact it rained, and rained heavily, all day.

I did actually make a contact on the VE7RVA repeater in Abbotsford, just after I left.  Unfortunately I did not write down the callsign or name of the gentleman who answered my call.  But that short QSO gives me at least one 2m QSO in every province I've been through.

The trip took me over the Coquihalla Highway, where the weather was pretty bad and cold.  Lunch was in Kamloops and dinner in Golden, BC.  The accommodation's were first class tonight, the gear crowed back of the truck in a Tim Horton's parking lot....no stars and not recommended!!

Apart from the contact on the Abbotsford Repeater, no other contacts were made all day.  The repeaters were very quiet, as was 146.52 simplex.

Tomorrow I'm going to try and make it to Medicine Hat, AB.

Lighthouse Activation.....

Point Atkinson

Plans are underway to activate the Point Atkinson Lighthouse, CAN-400 this coming Monday, September 1st.

Timings will be 1800 UTC till 2200 UTC.

Frequencies will be 7.250 and 14.250 to 14.260 -/+

Callsign in use will be VE3FCT/VE7.

Give a listen and hope the propagation is working.....