POTA SYP Summer Event

This coming weekend, July 19/20, is this summers Support Your Park Event, where a frenzy of POTA operators try to activate, or hunt, as many parks as they can over the weekend.

Many activators use these events, held once each season, to go for the POTA Rover Award, not as a contest, but as a personal challenge to see how many parks they can activate in a 24 hour period. My best, so far, is 10 parks in 24 hours.

I haven't seen any long range propagation forecasts yet for the weekend. Hopefully it improves and we get a weekend of good weather and good propagation. It's been a long time since that combination happened around here. 

I'll be out Friday evening for a late shift activation, and again Saturday morning. I'm hoping for an easy time this event, and plan on only activating 5 parks which is very easy to do.

This is a world-wide event, so get out and make some contacts!

Stay Safe Out There!!

Field Day 2025 - The Aftermath...

Field Day this year can be summed up in three words: "Hot and Humid". Between the heat and lack of decent propagation it was not a good weekend. 

I managed to give myself a dose of mild heatstroke while we were setting up on Saturday....apparently I still haven't learned, at my age, to wear a hat and drink plenty of water on hot sunny days. That set me up for an even worse weekend than I was going to have.

I manned the 40m SSB station, and my antenna for the weekend was a 29' (9m) EFRW vertical, with a 9:1 Balun and four 17' radials. This worked well, and tuned 6m through 40m with no issues. Now it will tune on 80m, but I'm not too sure it would be very effective there. The only difference between the way I use this antenna, and the way Salty Walt uses his, is the fact he only uses one 17' radial and I use four.

The propagation on Saturday: SFI=118, SN=103, A Index=21, and the K Index=1

The propagation Sunday: SFI=122, SN=104, A Index=9, and the K Index=2.

On top of this the Solar Wind was up to over 550 kps all weekend, and that was causing lots of deep, and unwanted, QSB for everyone. 

We operated QRP, with five stations working on batteries, and we had eight of our club members out for the event, and many thanks to Jim VE3ULC for the use of his property.

I managed to put a rather pitiful total of 67 contacts in the log, all weekend, and most of them I had to really work to get. 

Did I enjoy myself? No, not really. The company and food was great, but I think doing POTA has spoiled me for portable operating in a relaxed environment. Too many participants of this year's Field Day were contesting, instead of treating it as an emergency operating event that it is supposed to be, according to the ARRL. And of course, with POTA, everyday is Field Day so it is no longer special. Will I continue to participate in Field Day? Probably, but not in the way I have done in the past.

Here's a few pictures from the weekend:

Eric, VE3DN, our CW guy!

VE3FI's station

Don, VE3MNE's home for the weekend

Stay Hydrated and Safe Out There!!!

Rideau Lakes Cycle Tour 2025...

This past weekend saw the 52nd running of the Rideau Lakes Cycle Tour. As usual, our club provided the VHF communications throughout Frontenac County. This was our 19th year providing comms for the event.

We look after nine locations over two separate routes, and this year we only managed to have seven of those locations up and running due to a few technical issues. Part of the issue is the fact that we have had to relocate our 2m repeater this year, and the new site does not cover the whole are as we would like.

For the fourth year in a row the number of riders was down, we hope this will improve next year with a change in the tour management. 

The weather was extremely hot and humid both days, and shade was at a premium at the authorized rest areas. You cannot imagine the amount of water the cyclists drank on route. 

I was operating from the Perth Road Village Community Hall. The ladies auxiliary from the local church sold snacks and coffee there, and they did a roaring trade. I hear the homemade apple pie was to die for.......I stayed strong and didn't eat any!

The quiet before the storm.

They're Here!!!

Are We On An Upturn?...

It was a rough week propagation wise this week. The bands were in terrible shape and very noisy with incredibly deep QSB.  

In spite of this, I decided on Tuesday to head out and try and activate Lemoine Point. The propagation numbers didn't look too bad actually, SFI=151, SN=138, A Index=24 and the K Index=3. I gave up after 40 minutes with no contacts in the log at all. 

On Wednesday I headed out again, this time to Parrotts Bay, and once again the propagation numbers didn't look too bad, SFI=139, SN=112, A Index=9, and the K Index=3. This time I spent an hour calling CQ, both on SSB and CW, and once again I put zero contacts in my log. Pretty discouraging I thought. 

Thursday dawns bright and clear, and I decide to go out and try to operate portable once again. This time it was off to the Frontenac Biosphere. Here's the propagation numbers: SFI=137, SN=113, A Index=13, and the K Index=1. Success!! First in the log was Pierre VE2EH, and I ended up with 13 contacts on 40m, and 2 on 20m. 

Conditions were terrible. The QSB was very bad and some signals completely disappeared in seconds, never to be heard from again. I was just glad to be making a few contacts!

What was very strange is that I, as a 10w QRP SSB station, was getting S6 to S9 signal reports, yet I was hearing them, the 100w home based stations, at about S3 to S4. Very strange conditions.

Here's Thursdays contact map:

Stay Safe Out There!

Let's Get Out and Support This!!...

I'll be out tomorrow to support this!!

 

Finally, A Break...

We woke up this morning to decent temperatures, a big blue sky, and no haze or smell of smoke from the wildfires. A decent day for an activation I thought, and that was before I looked at the daily propagation numbers.

Although I had my KX3, battery, and logbook with me, it wasn't until after the local clubs coffee meet-up that I decided to give it a try as the numbers looked workable. 

The propagation numbers were: SFI=151, SN=138, A Index=24, and the K Index=3. The bands were very noisy and every one of them had bad QSB. But signals were there.

I started on 40m SSB and first in the log was Elliot KC1WFL. This was a special contact as Elliot is only 6 years old, but a very professional sounding operator. It was great to work him. Only 6 contacts on 40m made it into my log before the band dried up. I then tried 10m and 15m, but had no luck on either of them.

The next 11 contacts were made on 20m SSB. It took a little under an hour to get them in my log, and it was great to get out and activating again. Contacts were made in 15 different Provinces and States.

Hopefully this coming week I'll be able to get out again and get a few more parks in my log book.

Here's todays contact map:

Stay Safe Out There!

Weekend Propagation...

Well, the propagation certainly isn't looking too good for this weekend. I was hoping to be able to take a new antenna out into the field and do some testing.....but apparently not.

I've actually lost count of how long it's been since we had decent propagation. Hopefully this foolishness will sort itself out shortly and we can all get back to operating our radios with good results.

Here's how it looks:

Stay Safe Out There!!

A Little Improvement...

After nine days of mediocre to poor propagation, today was a little better. I decided to go to Lemoine Point Conservation Area and see how bad it was.

It took an hour and fifteen minutes to get 11 contacts in my logbook. The QRN and QSB were pretty bad, signals were really up and down, and contacts hard to make. I really appreciate the 11 hams who made the contacts with me, and persevered through some brutal band noise.

No DX today, furthest contact was with Tom, W6IJL, in Arizona on 20m.

I'm hoping things continue to improve so I can try and get out again tomorrow, and do it all over again.

Here's today's contact map:

Stay Safe Out There!