Saturday 29 February 2020

ARRL International DX Contest

Coming up next weekend is the ARRL International DX Contest, SSB.  I'm really looking forward to this event this year as it will mean my antenna is finally back in the air!!

I have not made a single HF contact for the whole month of February.  The rest has been great, but it's time to get back on the bands.  Hopefully the weather will cooperate and the antenna will get in the air tomorrow after the club breakfast.

There is always tons of great DX during this contest which runs from 0000 UTC March 7 to 2359 UTC on March 8.  A full 48 hours of contesting.

Rules can be found HERE.

The bands are getting better...slowly, but they are improving.  Hopefully next weekend will have some good propagation for us all to enjoy a bit of that DX.

Hope to work some of you on the bands!!

Thursday 20 February 2020

Mobile Radio Exemption...

This news just in tonight:

The Ontario Ministry of Transportation has “made permanent the exemption under Ontario Regulation 366/09 (Display Screens and Hand-Held Devices) of the Highway Traffic Act for hand-held two-way radios for commercial drivers and Amateur Radio operators.” 

This is about time, it's been a long time coming.  We should never have been under threat of losing our mobile privileges at all....but that's another story.

Tuesday 18 February 2020

2020 Plans...

So far it's been a quiet month, I haven't turned a radio on other than my 2m rig.  My 80m OCF Dipole is still down, and with the amount of snow in the back garden it's going to be a hard fix until the melt.

Sitting here writing this it is snowing again, and the wind is steady at 40 kts, not a pleasant day out there at all.

As usual at this time of year I have been planning my operating event schedule, and it's starting to fill up.

In the plans so far...

In April the North America SOTA Spring Activity Weekend on the 18th & 19th, QRP to the Field is the same weekend, so that's two for the price of one.

July 18th & 19th is the CQ WW VHF Contest.  Never done it before, but this year it's on the calendar.

August, no dates yet, will see a small DXPedition head up into Northern Ontario to activate some rare grids and get some rare parks on the air.  I've been invited, and I have the wife permission to go...... but haven't made my mind up on that one yet.

August is also Lighthouse Weekend and the W/VE Island QSO Party, both being held on the same weekend this year, the 22nd & 23rd.

September of course is Chillycon, where the cries of "Beat Eric" sing out amongst the trees.  This year it is being held on the 19th & 20th.

Plans are also afoot to activate a new island in early October.  I'll update that closer to the event.

Well that's it so far, much more to do and plan, but "She Who Must Be Obeyed" needs to be consulted first.

Stay warm everyone!!