July? Already?

It's definitely true that the older you get the faster time moves.  I can't believe we're already in July!  Over the weekend I did manage to complete two POTA activations, although on Saturday the propagation was not very good.

On Saturday I drove west to Trenton and then south to Carrying Place, where the Murray Canal runs through Prince Edward County.  This is part of the Trent-Severn Waterway National Historic Site, or as we know it, VE-4889.  I managed to put only 10 contacts in the log for this one, and every contact was hard fought for.  

When I looked at the propagation numbers before I left home, they looked pretty good.  SFI=94, SN=72, A Index=5, and the K Index=1.  However, I didn't see the small note about the X1.5 Solar Flare which caused a major bump in the propagation.  

I had also planned to activate Carrying Place National Historic Site, but could find no place to park so I could operate.  This is one I don't think I will be back to, it just isn't conducive to activate safely.

The third planned activation was supposed to be Lake on the Mountain Provincial Park.  This also didn't take place, not because of bad propagation, or lack of parking, but because there were just too many people wandering around and I didn't think it was safe to setup my station.  I will be back for this one, but I'll do it very early on a weekday when the crowds will not have gathered yet.

Sunday arrives and I think I had better stick close to home as it's my 34th wedding anniversary, and I would like to live to see my 35th........but the XYL asked me if I was going to go out and "play radio", well, needless to say I took a chance, said yes, and drove to activate the Frontenac Arch Biosphere, VE-0023.

Once again the propagation numbers looked good, SFI=90, SN=81, A Index=4, and the K Index=1.  But, they had fooled me yesterday so I checked them a few times to make sure I wasn't going to get fooled again.

It was early and there were not too many Park Hunters around, but this time the numbers held and I did a successful activation of VE-0023.  It was done only on 20m, normally I do it (no idea why) on 40m.  But today I reached out and 11 stations who had never worked it before got a chance to do so.

So it was a great anniversary weekend, I got to "play radio" and the XYL got some much deserved peace and quiet......a win win situation 😆

Stay safe out there!!

Sunday's 20m contacts from VE-0023