We have been hit with a pretty good heatwave here in Eastern Ontario for the past week, and when we decided to do the Big Island Activation we had no idea it would be this hot. So, having sent out notices to half the world's ham population about it, it was a go.
It was an early breakfast and VE3FI, VE3ORY, and VE3MNE were on the road by 0830. Big Island is about 75 minutes west of Kingston, and we had scheds to make by 1100. The drive there was very uneventful, traffic was really light, and the banter on 2m simplex helped the drive go quickly. We did hear K9NQ break into our QSO, but it was very difficult to work him. We manage a brief exchange of callsigns and that was about it.
We were heading for the boat launch site on the west end of the island. It has a large field and a couple of large trees to hang antennas from.
You can imagine our surprise when we arrived there and found the site 74 cms underwater. This was a problem as there is nowhere else on the island where you can operate from, there are no public areas other than this one.
After talking it over we decided to set up along the side of the road, next to the boat launch, and do the best we could. We manage 14 QSO's on CW, SSB, and JS8 Call. Not as many as we would have liked, but given the circumstance it wasn't too bad. All contacts were on 20m, 30m, and 40m. While we could hear traffic on 2m and 6m SSB, we were unable to make any contacts on those bands.
Propagation today was: SFI=66, SN=0, A Index=3, and K Index=1. The outside temperature was 33C...luckliy with a gentle breeze blowing in off the lake.
Here are the photos.......
 |
| The operating location |
 |
| The sign that ruined our day....... |
 |
| It was a good swim to use the toilet!!! |
 |
| The entrance to the site. |
 |
| VE3MNE adjusting his whip. |
 |
| The VE3FI operating position |
 |
What's left of the picnic field
|
 |
| I'm not sure what VE3ORY was doing here !! |
No comments:
Post a Comment