Off to Grafton....

Off to a wood lot near Grafton, Ontario, tomorrow for a day of portable operating with VE3MNE & VE3ULC.  Hopefully the rain will hold off long enough for us to get a tarp ready and get the equipment set up.

The FT-897D will be the radio is use tomorrow as well as the 31' "Chillycon Special" vertical antenna.

Photo's of the day to follow...

Ontario QSO Party

Getting set up here for the Ontario QSO Party, operating from the ever elusive Frontenac County.  It starts at 1800Z on Saturday, April 15th.

Rules can be found HERE.

Hopefully we will have better participation than we have had in the last few years.  This should be a pretty popular contest, especially for Rovers....even if the weather is forecasting rain for the weekend.

I did a little bit of 20m WSPR this morning, just warming up to see how the propagation was doing.  Not too bad in fact, a lot better than the last few days!!

This screen shot was taken at 1615 UTC, April 15th.

20m WSPR screen shot

A wasted weekend.....

There was a bit of SSB operating going on around here this weekend. The bands were not very good from my QTH. Noise levels were just high enough to be very frustrating and I never did manage to work any stations other than on 20 and 17 meters. Twenty was the best band of the day.

Sunday, I worked 20 and 30 … but PSK31 this time. There was a good mix of stations on, but primarily from the east coast and midwest. I worked them until the band petered out and then I just shut it all down, no use getting frustrated.

All in all, it was a good weekend, and it was a lot of fun. There are times it’s nice to have an indoor hobby, since this weekend was wet and even more wet.  But, it was better than the couple of feet of snow we had a couple of weeks ago! Oh, well … summer is just around the corner they tell me…..

New Island Activations....

It looks like this years crop of Canadian Island Activations may end up being a rather good one. Every one on the list so far, will be a first time activation.

Here's a link to the Canadian Island Activators page (HERE), that shows what's been put on the table so far......and I haven't even submitted my list yet!!

These are not IOTA islands, these have their own unique Canadian number.  The link to the main page is HERE, it's well worth going over and seeing what has, and has not been, activated in your local area.  Many a warm summers day has been spent on one of the local islands answering a large pileup of operators all calling for you......there's been a few cold, wet, fall days as well!

London 22 March 2017

Normally I don't do politics....BUT......

CQ WW WPX Contest

Coming up on March 25th & 26th, the CQ WW WPX Contest.   Always good for putting ton on DX in your logbook.   I'm hope to put a few more in my log after my disappointing time on the ARRL International DX Contest this year.

Hopefully the SFI will improve for that weekend and we have better conditions than the last contest.

Rules can be found HERE.

See you on the bands!!

ARRL International DX Contest

Excellent day on the HF bands today as the ARRL International DX Contest got under way.  The propagation numbers didn't look too good, but to be honest the issued numbers didn't match the band performance.  There was a good amount of atmospheric noise, but no QSB on any of the bands.

15m which shows as being "poor", was actually the wide open and I managed to work half of Europe on it.  Over all I made 85 contacts...so far...and of them 38 were on 15m.

20m had great propagation into the Caribbean and South America.  I actually worked Bolivia and Peru today...two brand new ones for me out of the 39 countries I put into today's log.

I even managed to work Aruba and Bonaire on 10m this afternoon.  Both stations were pounding into this QTH at about 20 over 9.

The only band that didn't seem to be performing as advertised was 40m.  Both evenings it has not produced any real good DX, and I've managed only 8 QSO's on the band.

We will have to see what tomorrow brings and see how many more countries I can get in the log.

Family Stuff

The Dwyer girls.

Rest in Peace Aunty Pat......you're all together again now.

God saw you getting tired and a cure was not to be.  So He put His arms around you and whispered “come to me.”  With tearful eyes we watched you, and saw you pass away. Although we loved you dearly, we could not make you stay.  A golden heart stopped beating, hard working hands at rest.  God broke our hearts to prove to us, He only takes the best.

And......more good WSPR

How about this for a good evenings WSPRing on 30m?   This was last night at 2300 UTC on February 21.  Australia and South Africa....not too shabby for 500 Mw in the inverted L long wire.

Amazing contacts....

Just back from our weekly ham radio breakfast and decided to put WSPR on for an hour or two, and the map below show's my first half hour on 30m.  It's not often I get into Africa and Australia in the same hour.

I am surprised at the lack of trans-Atlantic traffic though.  Normally Europe is booming in here at this time of day.

These contacts were made on my 148' inverted L long wire antenna up at 60', and using 500 mW.

30m, 1520 UTC on 19 February 2017.

And, here's the propagation for this hour:

WSPR.....again

During these "quiet" times I have been continuing my propagation experiments using WSPR.   The following maps show the results of 500 mW into a 148' inverted L longwire antenna up ay 60'.

I'm hoping to get a 200 mW transmitter using a Raspberry Pi shortly, and then we will see what we can really do.

20m, 1423 UTC on 17 February 2017

17m, 1527 UTC on 12 February 2017

40m, 2154 UTC on 14 February 2017

40m, 2214 UTC on 14 February 2017

Very Quiet Times......

Not much going on around the shack to report.   The weather and propagation have both been pretty bad so not much radio work has been going on.

Hopefully this will change in another month as we get out to activate a few islands and maybe a new lighthouse.

My best buddy, VE3MNE, is retiring at the end of March, so who knows what trouble and adventures we will get up to together.   We are planning a mini-DXpedition to visit VE9FI in Hampton, NB, at the end of October, so we can take part in the CQ WW DX Contest from that QTH.  That will be worth several posts on here alone.

Other planned weekend activities, so far, include the International Lighthouse Weekend in late August, the W/VE Island QSO Party, Field Day, and the Rideau Lakes Cycle Tour in early June.

 

The Weekend and Sunday WSPR

Well, I managed to pull 128 contacts out of a hat for the NAQP on Saturday, January 21st, which triples my score from last year........so I'm pleased.   It was kind of disappointing though, the only Canadian stations heard and worked were from Ontario and Manitoba, the rest of the country had a cone of silence over it.

Over the course of the day I managed to work stations on all bands except 10m, which was far too noisy to work anything if they were there.

Sunday morning, after our Ham Breakfast, I fired up the WSPR and started off on 20m with 500mW.   Lots of stations across NA and Europe reporting hearing me, I was quite surprised actually.

After about an hour I switched to 15m, and while I did make a cross-Atlantic contact into the Netherlands, it was mainly NA contacts.

40m wasn't too bad, but no hits were received from anywhere other than NA.  No cross Atlantic traffic at all.

Just for the record, the propagation at 2146 UTC Saturday was:  SFI-86,  SN-61, A Index-10, and K Index-3.   Sunday, at 0119 UTC was: SFI-86,  SN-61,  A Index-11, and K Index-4.

20m at 1630 UTC, 22 January

15m at 1730 UTC, 22 January

40m at 1810 UTC, 22 January

Winter Field Day

The highlight of the winter season is taking place next weekend.......Winter Field Day!!  

The event runs for 24 hours - from 1900 UTC on January 28th to 1900 UTC of January 29th.

The Rules can be found HERE.

This event was started by SPAR, who gave up running the event last year when the Winter Field Day Association took it over.

This is a chance to practice our Emcomm and deployment skills under cold weather conditions, instead of the bugs and oppressive high heat of June.  As the association states: "Not all emergencies happen in the good weather".

If you're on Facebook, have a look at the WFD Page...HERE.  There's over 1500 members to exchange notes and ideas with.

Gently Chastised......

I was very gently chastised last night for slacking off on my blog by one of the members of the Kingston amateur radio fraternity

I must admit, over the past few months I have not been too active here, and even my time on the bands has not been as much as what I would have liked.....But........sometimes life gets in the way.

Over the past few months I, and three others, have been pretty busy getting organized to run this years basic ham course.  We have redesigned it from the ground up, and this has meant producing hundreds of powerpoint slides for the lectures.    This has been my priority, and I make no apologies for that, getting new young blood into this hobby has been the priority and will remain so.

We had our first class last Wednesday evening.  The classroom, which holds 28, was full of eager and enthusiastic people, many of them from the College that is kindly hosting the course.   It was really great to see and hopefully the course can become an annual event here.

Now all I need to do is get back in the habit of posting here.......

Basic Ham Course

I can not begin to tell you all how many "doom & gloom" articles I have read over the past 10 years on the subject that Amateur Radio is a dying hobby.  I've read it's for "old farts" only, that you must have one foot in the grave before you will be accepted into the hobby......you name it, I've read it.....all of it was total BS.

Here's an idea for all the doomsayers out there.....how about approaching your local community college about hosting a basic course?  You might be pleasantly surprised.

Here in Kingston, the Frontenac Amateur Radio Club approached St. Lawrence College about hosting a ham radio course and they couldn't do enough for us!  

Starting on the evening of January 18th, we will be running a course at St. Lawrence College, and it's full, all 28 seats in the electronics lab we have the use of have been filled........and the average age of the students is 23.  So much for being an "old farts" hobby!!

Many Thanks go out to St. Lawrence College for their great support and help in getting this course off the ground!

More WSPR

As the propagation slips away on its downward slide to the solar minimum I plan on keeping a record of my daily WSPR'ing so we can see the effect.

Power output today was 5w on all bands.   Here's todays 20m picture:

As you can see, as of 1717 UTC we had lots of activity across North America, not so much across the Atlantic.   As of 2116 UTC the propagation numbers were: SFI-74, SN-0, A Index-10, and K Index-2.

I also spent some time having a look at what 40m was producing, the following picture is of 40m as of 1817 UTC today:

No hits outside of the eastern side of the continent, and nothing trans-Atlantic at all.

If you're interested in taking part in the WSPR beacon project, their website can be found HERE.

WSPR

Spent another good afternoon on the WSPR frequencies.  It never ceases to amaze me what you can do with a lowly half watt, a wire antenna, and crappy propagation.

Here's todays 20m map:

Not sure how that Norwegian station was hearing me, he must have one hell of an antenna farm!!

Happy New Year

Well, it's that time of year again, time to make New Year Resolutions.  I'm not going to bother this year, I made a resolution four years ago and so far I haven't broken it, so why ruin things.....

As Albert Einstein said: "Learn from yesterday, live for today, and hope for tomorrow."

I hope you all have a great New Years, and a great 2017.  Stay safe out there!

Oh yeah, the resolution I haven't broken?  Not to drink cheap Whiskey on Wednesday nights.......

Back on the Air with Digi

While Santa didn't bring a new radio or antenna to the VE3FI Shack, I did get my small laptop fixed so I'm finally back on the air with FLDigi, mainly using PSK31.  Thanks to Jim, VE3ULC, for doing that for me.

Due to poor band conditions most digi contacts have been fairly local, but I did manage a good "DX" contact all the way from Saskatchewan........ Given the crappy SFI numbers I'll take anything west of Thunder Bay !!

I hope everyone had a good day yesterday, our house was filled with family, and I can't believe the amount of food we went through.

Now to build up strength to get through the New Years celebrations !!!

WSPR

I did some 40m WSPR tonight, the first time in a few months.   Below is the map from 0130 UTC.  The lonely Brazilian station must have a good set of ears !!

Christmas 2016

The snow is on the ground, and the last contest of the year is done and logged.  I have no idea where the past 12 months went, it seems like only last week I was writing Christmas wishes for 2015.  Hopefully 2017 will take a bit longer to get through!

Christmas is the perfect season to be reaching out to others when laughter and good tidings are in the air.  Here's hoping that your Christmas will find you amongst friends and family, sharing the spirit of the season.

Merry Christmas Everyone!!

ARRL 10m Contest

This weekend we have more fun and games on the bands with this years edition of the ARRL's 10m contest.

Not sure how the contest will pan out this year, 10m has not been in good shape for a good couple of months now and the propagation numbers certainly don't give me any hope to celebrate.

My antennas seem to be in good shape, so we will forge ahead and see what we can do.

Rules and other information can be found HERE.

Not much has been going on in the VE3FI shack for the past few weeks.  The Ford Ranger that I have travelled about in for the past 9 years has been sold, and a 2014 Dodge Grand Caravan has been bought to replace it.

So far so good, the ride is comfortable and the gas mileage seems to be far better than the old Ranger.   The only issue seems to be interference from the on board computers with my Icom 2m rig I have had installed.  The only way I can comfortably operate is with the squelch turned full on, otherwise the constant noise drives me insane.

November Sweepstakes

Time to get those antennas tuned up and ready.

Coming up this weekend is the 2016 edition of the November Sweepstakes.  US and Canadian stations, working on 160m through 10m, try to work as many callsigns as possible.

Always a good contest, this year is shaping up to be a good one as well.

Let's hope the propagation improves somewhat.  At the moment (Friday) solar levels seem to be stuck at some pretty low levels.  The large coronal hole that caused the major issues in September and October is now rotating back into view on the face of the Sun.  Hopefully we'll get through the weekend first.....

Rules can be found HERE.

Robert (Bob) Goyetche, VE2PDT - SK

Just received the very sad news this morning that Bob, VE2PDT, became a Silent Key on November 10th.

Bob was part of the VE2 contingent that attended ChillyCon.   He will be missed.  My thoughts are with his family and friends, his sudden passing is a great shock.

Robert (Bob) Goyetche, VE2PDT

1969 - 2016

The memory of a good person is a blessing

Proverbs 10:7

Remembrance Day 2016

In Loving Memory of the

Officers, NCO's, and Men

of

2816 Squadron RAF Regiment

1941 - 1946

"PER ARDUA"

In Memory of

LCol David "Doc" Purich

Maj Colin "Turk" Fisher

MWO Ben Lemarbre

Cpl JC Smith

Gone, but never forgotten.

CQ WW Contest

It was an interesting weekend on the bands.  The propagation was not the best to say the least, and that led to some issues.  The LIDS were out in force, bitching and swearing at the contesters....you know it's very important that people use 1500w to talk on 20m across town discussing their most recent hemorrhoid medication.

I would really like to meet the American clown who was jamming me on 7.191 on Saturday afternoon because I was on "his" frequency....and he had a net to do on it in 2.5 hours!!!!!!!  The audacity of me to use that frequency.....I could tell he was foaming at the mouth about it and I thought he was going to declare war.   Who knows, maybe the FCC are now selling "personal" frequencies to help raise money........

Saturday morning saw the numbers at SFI=78, SN=16, A Index=26, and the K Index=3.  The bands were very noisy, and had some deep QSB issues.

One of the big issues was that there was very little east-west propagation, it was nearly all north-south.  It was relatively easy to work South America and the Caribbean, Europe was another matter all together!

Things were a little better on Sunday and I did manage to get Spain, Wales, Slovenia, Portugal, Finland, and Iceland in the log.  Best catch of the day was 6W1RY in Dakar, Senegal, on 15m mid-afternoon on Sunday.  I had been calling him on and off many times over the contest and finally broke the pileup.   New Zealand also got in the log as well as a couple of other unusual places.

Even with the idiots causing issues, I managed to put 82 countries in the log with 234 contacts....BUT..... I can tell you that I had to work for every one of them.

Next up is the ARRL Sweepstakes on November 19/20, and I have to get a better 15m antenna up ready for that contest.

NVIS Operating

Coming up next Sunday, October 16th, is the NVIS Event sponsored by the Peel ARC.  This event has had a lot of interest raised about it in Eastern and Southern Ontario.

Details on the event can be found HERE.

Timing for the event is 1300 to 1600 Local.

Frequencies are:  3.700 to 3.750.  7.060 to 7.070, and 5.357.

Stations taking part should call "CQ NVIS Ontario".

Hope to see you on the bands!

Hurricane Matthew Emergency Nets

Active for the past 2 days in response to the threat posed by Hurricane Matthew, the Hurricane Watch Net (HWN) now has ramped up to its Alert Level 5 — “Catastrophic Response Mode.” As the dangerous category 4 storm has begun battering Haiti and threatens eastern Cuba, states along the US Eastern Seaboard now are taking serious notice. 

Emergency operations centers in Florida, Georgia, and Virginia are at full or partial activation, and the governors of Georgia and North Carolina have declared states of emergency. 

Matthew made landfall near Les Anglais in western Haiti at 1100 UTC. 

The following Frequencies are now in full time use and should be kept clear for emergency traffic:

Hurricane Watch Net: 14.325 & 7.268

Salvation Army SATERN Net: 14.265

Cuban Net: 7.110, 7.120, 7.045, 7.080, 3.740, and 3.720

Dominican Republic Net: 7.065

Be advised that Jamaica and Haiti also have nets running full time, but no frequencies have been made public yet.

New rig in the shack.....

There's a new rig in the VE3FI shack these days, an "almost" new FT-897D.  There's not a scratch on it!

This rig will replace my FT-857D as my main portable rig as it's getting a bit old, in fact it was the very first rig I ever bought when I was very first licensed.

It's really the same radio as the FT-857D, with some very slight differences.   I've made a good number of solid contacts today into both Europe and to the west coast with no issues using a 148' long wire.   So far I'm using a manual tuner with it, but a new LDG tuner is in the works for it.

Looking forward to operating portable with it.

Chillycon.......the tale

VE3ORY & VE3MNE

Chillycon is over for another year and much fun and merriment was had by one and all.  The weather wasn't too bad, Friday and most of Saturday were fine with lots of blue sky and sunshine.  But....and there's always a "but".....about 2100 local on Saturday night it started to rain, but it did stop about 0100 Sunday morning......but man did it rain, Indian Monsoon type rain.   Luckily no tent was flooded out and everyone remained dry and survived.

We had eight campsites in use with 17 members of three clubs in attendance this year...The Ottawa Valley QRP Society, The West Island ARC from Montreal, and Frontenac Radio Group from Kingston.

The annual Chillycon DX Championship took place with many attendees vying for ownership of the "Upper Canada Cup for Chillycon DX Excellence".  I'm please to announce that this years winner was Don VE3MNE, with a contact into Moscow on a 20m Hamstick mounted on his truck.

Saturday night supper was the usual Pizza dinner around the campfire with the single malt scotch flowing.   Sunday morning saw many of us troop over to the local restaurant we always go to and had a great brunch, and lots more conversation before we returned to the camp to take down all the dripping tarps and tents.

Lots of time was spent working and building portable antennas over the weekend.  I spent some time building a W3EDP Jr, the idea came from the Blog of VA3PCJ 

The W3EDP Jr.

The antenna worked exactly as advertised on the Blog with many stations being worked in Europe and the USA.  The propagation really wasn't that good so the DX results I did get, Switzerland, Belgium, Holland, and Anguilla, impressed me.  The antenna was up in a tree about 25 feet and certainly didn't go up in a straight line.

Overall it was a great time and time was spent with many friends and many new friends were made.

Already looking forward to next year....hopefully it will not rain !!

Rick VE3ORY fixing his "secret weapon" antenna

Breakfast for the Chipmunks !!!

Coming Up Soon - Chillycon 2016

Coming up next weekend is the Ottawa Valley QRP Society's annual Chillycon Event at the Rideau River Provincial Park, near Kemptville, Ontario.

So far the long-range weather forecast is predicting sunny times for the weekend......a welcome change after two years of rain at this event.  Hopefully we will see a few more people out this year if the good weather shows up.

I'm looking forward to the weekend, it's always a highlight on my annual calendar......even if VA3QV is not going to put in an appearance this year and I won't have a chance to bug the hell out of him in person.

The gear is cleaned and ready to pack next Friday morning.  I'm planning on taking my FT-857D and two heavy duty 12v batteries.  The antenna for the weekend will be my 20m Buddipole vertical, with several added elevated radials, as well as a home-brewed W3EDP Jr antenna.  Jose, VA3PCJ, built this antenna.  Details of it are HERE on his Blog.  I'm very interested in comparing these two antennas and seeing which one performs best.  The winner will be my go-to portable antennas for future portable activities........well, until something better arrives!!

Place your bets on who will win this years DX Challenge......I'm sure a few of the previous winners are secretly plotting to win the prize this year.

Get Ready For.........

As the trustee for this callsign I want to let people know that coming up next year, XM3CARF will be on the air from 03 June 2017 to 03 July 2017 to help us celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the founding of The Canadian Amateur Radio Federation.   

CARF was Canada's first successful national amateur radio society and existed between 1967 and 1993, when it was amalgamated with the Canadian Radio Relay League to form the Radio Amateurs of Canada.

CARF was founded here in Kingston, Ontario, by Art Blick VE3AHU, Doug Burrill VE3CDC, and Ken Rollison VE3CRL.  These three fine gentlemen are all now Silent Keys.  

XM3CARF is sponsored by the Frontenac Radio Group and plan on having the call on the air everyday we have it, including Field Day and the Canada Day Contest.

A Change in the Shack......

Some of you may have noticed that "The Adventures of VE3CLQ" title above has been changed to "The Adventures of VE3FI".  This is because I recently managed to get this two letter callsign......thanks to Russ, the original VE3FI - who is now VE9FI.

Many thanks need to go to the Amateur Radio Service Centre in Sault St. Marie, who's help and patience were fantastic......they couldn't have helped more if I had asked them to.

Russ had some great luck using this call, so let's hope it rubs off here in this shack as this years Contest Season prepares to kick off.