Merry Christmas....

I'm still ill with Covid, but I would just like to take this opportunity to wish all my readers a very Merry Christmas and a very safe and Happy New Year.

There's lots more adventures planned for next year.  Several first time POTA activations, and other POTA locations will be on the air that haven't been activated for a couple of years, are all on the cards, as well as a few surprises.

 

Have a safe holiday everyone!

Really??

Well, the bands may be getting better, and the propagation improving, but it'll be a while before I get out to play radio again.  I tested positive for Covid today....so I'm not a happy camper.  I thought I had escaped the plague by now, but apparently not.

See you all in a few days.

It's Getting Better...

After a pretty rough week for propagation, things are finally starting to get better.  

I set my WSPR transmitter (on the left) up to transmit on 80m, 40, and 30m overnight, using 200mW.  The antenna in use was a 80m EFHW, up at 45' in the maple trees, and using a 49:1 transformer.

Unusually for me, I did not record the propagation numbers for the evening.  Oh well, there's always next time.

I was pleased to see stations reporting my signal from as far a way as Antartica...another first for me.  80m was not that good last night, in fact very few stations reported my signal.  40m was also so-so, but 30m was the big winner, all the DX reporting hearing me was for my 30m signal.  

The next time the propagation goes in the toilet I'm planning on getting the WSPR beach on the air and see who can hear me in very poor conditions, I think that will be an interesting experiment.

Here's last night's WSPR reporting map:

Stay Well and Safe Out There!!

Propagation...

Looks like another interesting three days propagation wise is coming up, there are some G2 Solar Storms coming in.....

 

Stay Well and Stay Safe!

Saying Goodbye...

Friday morning I left Kingston around 1000 local and heading towards Ottawa.  

I had to be in Ottawa for the funeral of Kieran, VA3KS.  My plan was to meet up with Eric VE3DN at his QTH, and he would drive us to the funeral home for the service as I don't know downtown Ottawa...it's been 37 years since I last lived there.

I made good time on the roads as they, for the most part, were clean and dry, but we had had a significant snow fall over the previous few days.

There was a quick stop for a coffee in Smiths Falls and then it was on to Eric's place.

The funeral was held at Hules, Playfair & McGarry funeral chapel in downtown Ottawa.  Both Eric and I were shocked when we arrived.  It was so full of people that they were standing up at the back as they ran out of seats, a quick count showed about 260 people were there to remember Kieran.   Listening to the stories of how he had affected other peoples lives in such positive ways, certainly helped ease the pain of losing my old friend.

After a night in a local hotel, Saturday morning saw me heading for Smith's Falls to meet up with another friend, Ranson VE3RCD, for lunch and then to activate in Kieran's memory, a new park, VE-6199 - the Smith's Falls Bascule Bridge National Historical Site. The band conditions were excellent, although I had an S7 noise floor on 40m the whole time I was activating.

The propagation numbers today were:  SFI=133, SN=122, A Index=4, and the K Index=0.  Radio was the KX3 at 10w and, as usual, the antenna was a 40m hamstick. I called it day after 34 contacts as I still had an hours drive home and it was already starting to get dark out.

During the activation I mentioned several times why we were activating today, and I was surprised at the number of VE3 stations that worked us who had worked Kieran in the past.  It was nice to talk to them about him.  

Kieran was known locally as the "POTA King", and I like to think he would have appreciated our activation in his honour today.

Good bye old friend, I miss you.

Today's contact map.

WSPR...

I haven't dabbled with WSPR for a few years now, but on the advice of Kieran VA3KS (SK) I decided to buy a Zachtek WSPR Desktop Transmitter. It's a nice piece of gear, and it took no time at all to get it on the air.

My plan is to use WSPR instead of APRS on my Western Canada trip next spring. I find APRS set up to be a real pain in the behind with the FTM-500, but I can set up the WSPR each evening from my camp and the guys back home can see where I am that day.

Here's tonights initial operating of the transmitter:

40m at 0230 UTC, Wednesday, December 6.

80m at 0245 UTC, Wednesday, December 6.

Stay Safe Out There!

G3 Solar Storm...

We have a G3 solar storm heading our way for Friday, December 1st, and a K7 level is expected.  Needless to say this will have a negative impact on any portable operating this coming weekend I had planned.

Stay Safe Out There!

Devastating News Yesterday...

I'm very lucky in my life to have some of the best friends ever.  They're scattered all over Canada, and I know if anything bad was to happen I could count on them 100%.

Kieran Shepherd, VA3KS, was one of those friends.  We share an interest, POTA, that we both enjoy very much.  We both like doing portable operating in quiet places away from the intense RF noisy areas we live in, and we both enjoy camping and hiking.  

Kieran and I have done many shared activations over the past 3 years, travelling to meet up at remote spots, so we could spend a few hours together "playing radio".  Portland Bay Conservation Area was one of our favourite spots, a few hours activating the conservation area, Fish and Chips and a Pint for lunch at the Portland Restaurant, a few more hours on the radio, and then we each head for home.  A perfect radio day.

Next spring I'm planning a 30 day road trip to activate some of the remote, and not so remote POTA parks in Western Canada. At the same time Kieran was planning a trip to Nevada to visit his son and grandkids, we were trying to figure out how to meet up in Alberta and drive the return trip in convoy, activating more parks as we travelled.

These plans, and future plans came to a screeching halt early yesterday morning when I received an email from Jennifer, Kierans wife, letting me know he had passed away suddenly, and totally unexpected, during Thursday night.  He was 64 years old.

Kieran was a great friend to me, and I learned a great deal from him about portable operating and POTA. I valued his advice. He was a prolific POTA activator with 563 activations completed. His last activation was on the morning of Thursday, November 23rd, the day we lost him.

His passing serves to teach us that any one of us could go at any time, we have no control over that. So don't wait to start doing your bucket list, time is valuable, and short.

Goodbye old friend.

Kieran Shepherd

VA3KS

January 30, 1959 – November 24, 2023

10m was rocking!!

Yesterday, November 15th, I decided to do a mid-morning activation of VE-5141, Lemoine Point Conservation Area, a local to me, POTA spot.   

The weather, for this area, at this time of year, was spectacular.  Sunny, +7C (44.6F), and a deep blue sky.  Not a drop of rain or snow in sight.  It was just an absolutely beautiful day.

The day before during an activation of VE-5142, Parrott's Bay, I had great success on 10m, so today I decided to do the whole activation, if I could, on 10m.  Many of my activations have been done only on 40m, but I had never tried to do this on another band.

Luckily for me 10m was just alive with good signals.  First in the log was F4FTJ, and in rapid succession PU1JSV, 2E0VRX, OE4JHW, F4ILH, IK1GPG, EA1BUL, and F4HZR followed.  This was the first time I made POTA contacts with Brazil and Austria, that just made my day.  The Brazilian station was S9 +20 to me, just an outstanding signal.

The radio was my KX3 set at 10w.  The antenna of the day was a 10m Hamstick on the roof of my truck using a 5" mag-mount.  

The day's propagation was: SFI=124, SN=40, A Index=6 and the K Index=3.  There was no, to very little QSB, and the LIDS and deliberate QRM'ers stayed away for a change.

Hopefully if this run of good weather and decent propagation holds for a few more days, I can get out and do a lot more portable operating, because you know before long the snow will start to fly around here.

Here's the days contact map:

Keep Well, and Stay Safe Out There!

Remembrance Day 2023

In Loving Memory of the

Officers, NCO's, and Men

of

2816 Squadron, RAF Regiment

December 1941 -  June 1946

LEST WE FORGET

Another CME Headed Our Way......

Yesterday we had a Halo CME ejection at 1000 UTC that is headed directly towards earth.  This means another weekend of bad to mediocre propagation.

Here's the 3 day forecast for the weekend in 6 hour blocks:

Stay Safe Out There!

Saturday at Portland Bay...

I had four great POTA activations last Saturday. The weather was nice and dry in Portland, and the propagation even behaved for a few hours. I had arranged to meet up with Kieran VA3KS there, and we had a great time, and lots of good radio contacts.

I started the morning on 40m, and surprisingly I worked my usual "customers", and even with the 45w amp in use, it didn't seem to make that much of a difference to who I was working distance wise. After 15 contacts on 40m Eric VE3DN, texted me and told me to get up on 10m, and what a time I had there.  

In the end I finished up with 11 European stations in the log, all on 10m. IK1GPG in Italy, SP8DJY in Poland, EA2CCG, EA4TL, and EA1BUL in Spain, 2E0VRX and M7CBI in the UK, F4ILH and F4FTJ in France, DL3LJ in Germany, and PD1CW in the Netherlands. That's my best day of DX in a long time. So it looks like the small amp is working very well indeed when it comes to DX, and it looks like it really does allow me to punch my signal out that bit further.

Then it was off to Mill Pond Conservation Area, a small site about 15 minutes further north of Portland. This is a very strange site, and it gives off some creepy vibes....everyone who has operated there has said the same thing. It was after lunch by now and contacts were getting harder to get. It took me about 20 minutes to get 16 contacts in the log, after which I packed up and started the hour long drive back to Kingston.

Propagation for the day was: SFI-156, SN-82, A Index-4, and the K Index-1. The weather, while sunny, was pretty cold, it was 3C so it was a good job I was dressed warmly. Well, at least it wasn't snowing!

Below are my contact maps for the day.

North American Contacts

European Contacts

Stay Safe out There!

Rough Day...Updated

It looks like it may be a rough couple of days propagation wise coming up.  Here's the three day forecast:

Here's the update showing the K Index levels for the past few days:

Stay Safe Out There!!

A Couple of New Toys...

This week a couple of new toys showed up in the shack, both of them are on the list of wanted gear for my 30 day, 61 POTA Parks, west coast trip I have scheduled for next spring.....more about that later.

Both items were picked up from eBay, and several friends also have these items...so I know they work.  I was concerned that the 15w maximum of the KX3 may not be enough to get a good signal out of some of the deep valleys I'll be in.  So first to be bought was a MX P50M 45w amplifier to help push my signal out a bit further.

I'm also building a new 20m/40m linked dipole for the trip which will also help get a signal out better than my 40m EFHW or Hamsticks.

Next to arrive was a ATU-100 external antenna tuner, this is needed as I mainly use non-resonant antennas, and the amp will need to find a good match.  This tuner works on 10m through 80m, so it will cover all the options I need.

One last item has still to arrive, the PTT/Switching control cable for the KX3.  The tuner comes with the cable for the FT-817, which is no good to me as I have just sold my 817.

Once I have all the parts I can start testing how it will work for me.  It will be interesting to see how the extra power changes my normal contact area that you see in the QSO maps I publish every once in a while.

Now it's off to tidy up the maps for the routes I have chosen.  

Stay Safe Out There!

15m Rocks!!

I decided at the last minute to do a POTA activation at Parrotts Bay Conservation Area this morning. After looking at the propagation forecast I thought it would be ok to give it a try, and I wasn't sorry I did.

While looking at the POTA Spots page I noticed that 15m was working well, so I decided to start there.  In the end I ended up with 21 contacts on 15m and another 3 on 40m.  It took 20 minutes to get the 24 contacts in my log.  

The propagation this morning was: SFI=122, SN=34, A Index=3, and the K Index=1.  As usual I used my KX3 at 10w, and the antenna was a 15m hamstick on the roof of my truck.

I was really shocked to get a Park-to-Park call from Florian, DK5FF in Northern Germany, and then a good solid S9 contact with Jose, EA1BUL in Northern Spain.  It was also nice to get Jerry, VE8GER back in the log again from Inuvik in Canada's Northwest Territories.  Jerry has hunkered down now for the long cold winter that happens in his part of the country.  It'll be a few months before he sees sunlight again. 

Overall it was a great QRP day!!

Here's today's contact map:

Stay Safe Out There!!

This Weekend...

Coming up this weekend is the POTA Support Your Parks Fall Event.   The event runs from 0001 UTC 20 October to 2359 UTC 21 October.

All bands are usable as this is not a contest.

I have plans in place to activate both Portland Bay, and Mill Pond Conservation Areas on Sunday, hopefully along with a couple of other hams, so keep your eyes on POTA Spots or VE3FI.  

The WX doesn't look too good at the moment with lots of rain in the forecast, it's not going to be very warm either.  I will have do deal with a wet activation when I arrive at the first park, although sitting in a wet jacket and pants in my truck isn't how I want to spend my day.

Stay Safe Out There!

Fall Activating....

It was a good day to be on 20m this morning, not so good if you were looking to get on 40m.  I understand that 17m, 15m, 12m, and 10m, were also very good, but I didn't have the time to check them out today.

Propagation today was: SFI=164, SN=133, A Index=4, and the K Index=1, with lots of QSB as well. Some stations just disappeared after giving their callsign....never to be heard again.

Today was the first time I've managed to get out to play radio in a week, and it felt good to get on the bands, even for a short time.

Radio, as usual, was my KX3 set at 10w, and the antenna was a 20m hamstick on the roof of the truck using a 5" mag-mount.

The weather is starting to get cool during the day, so I am making sure I can operate comfortably from the cab of the truck, especially for when the snow starts to fly.......which I'm sure won't be that long.

Here's todays contact map:

Stay Safe Out There....

Monday at the Park...

The weather and propagation forecasts didn't look very promising when I first looked at them in the morning, it was supposed to be cool and poor propagation.  By the time I had finished my daily walk, things had improved.  So it was home to grab my radio gear and off to Parrotts Bay and another activation.

Parrott's Bay is named after James and Marie Parrott, who arrived there in 1784 as United Empire Loyalists fleeing New York in the aftermath of the American Revolution.

Considering how nice the day had turned out, I was very surprised to find I was the only person at the Conservation Area, and the trails and parking lot were all empty.  It was a very peaceful spot, and the scenery wasn't too bad either.

By the time I finally got myself setup  and ready to go on the air, it had reached a temperature of 21C, under a deep blue sky.  I had to remind myself that it is now October and this type of weather here is highly unusual.  

Radio of the day was my KX3, and my antenna was a hamstick for whatever band I was on.  I could have put up a wire antenna....but I was too lazy 😎

The propagation numbers were: SFI=159, SN=92, A Index=10, and the K Index=2.

I setup first for 40m and managed a total of 7 contacts there before the band went quiet.  I then moved to 20m and didn't make a single contact - between a very noisy band, deep QSB, and it being far too busy to find a quiet spot to operate on, I was wasting my time.  In the end, in a last ditch effort to save the activation I moved to 15m, and what a ride that was.

15m was wide open and busy with signals.  First up was Neal 2E0MNG, closely followed by Jose EA1BUL.  Next up was Steven AC6DX in California......and the rest of the activation went just like that, a non-stop pileup.  

Here's the days contact map:

The Fall Colours are starting to pop out these days.

Stay Safe Out There!!

Mohawk Island....

This Saturday weather permitting, there will be four operators kayaking to activate the old Gull Island Lighthouse on ON314 Mohawk Island and VE-0058 Mohawk Island National Wildlife Area.

The island is a couple miles off the northeast shore of Lake Erie in Ontario, Canada. 

Keep your eyes on the POTA spotting page on Sept 30 for K2EAG/VE3 (CW), N3ARB/VE3 (SSB), VE3GKT (SSB/FT8/4) and VE3JZT (CW/SSB). 

They will operate phone, digital and CW, on as many bands as possible.

Chillycon 2023 - the Aftermath...

Another Chillycon has come and gone, and what a camp it was this year!  We could not have asked for better weather, five days of brilliant sunshine with decent temperatures in the high 20's most days, and not a drop of rain.

A number of the usual regular campers did not attend, although two of them did in fact come and spend most of a day with us. Obviously the change of dates from purely a weekend event to a mid-week event didn't suit some people.  I understand next year it will go back to a weekend event only.

The propagation forecast for the week did not look too good at first, but actually things worked out very well, and we had a few days in a row of really good propagation for a change.  

Eric VE3DN, last years winner of the DX Trophy couldn't make it to the camp, but did show up for a few hours on Friday to do some operating - and try to save his winning reputation.........unfortunately it wasn't to be.  The winner of this years Upper Canada Trophy for DX Excellence is Eric VA3DXP, a first time attendee, with a 6w CW contact with YC2VOC in Indonesia, 15,000 km away, or 2500 km per watt.  Well done Eric!!  It's great to see somebody give the other Eric some serious competition!

I managed to put 155 contacts in my log over the three day period, operating very casually, and I really enjoyed myself.  This event is a great way to get rid of the stress in your life, and this year I needed the break.  

Below are some pictures of the event....

The winning DX Contest Station

Don VE3MNE and Matt VA3UMM building an antenna

 

The gathering of the minds....

Eric VE3DN presenting the DX Trophy to Eric VA3DXP

Eric VE3DN with Eric VA3DXP.

Good day on the Bands...

Yesterday was a great day to be out doing portable radio.  It was dry, warm, and very sunny.....and yes, the propagation wasn't too bad.

Propagations was: SFI=139 SN=86 A Index=7 and the K Index=1.  

I went to Lemoine Point and did two activates at the same time, I activated it for POTA, and I took part in the QRP Afield Contest for a few hours.  There did not seem to be too many QRP'ers about, but I still managed to get 22 in the log.

I started off on 40m and it wasn't too bad, there was a bit of QSB, but nothing that couldn't be worked around, and all of the contacts were within the usual 40m range.  The band soon dried up and after 14 in the log I decided to move to 15m and see what I could do there.  First up was Jose EA1BUL, from Asturias, Spain, he gave me a 59 signal report.  He was immediately followed by two back-to-back K6 stations out of California.  The band seemed to change and I finished the day with 3 contacts into Florida. Not too shabby for a KX3 at 10w and a Hamstick!

Here's the days contact map:

Stay Safe Out There!

This Weekend...

This Saturday, September 16th, is the date for this years QRP Afield event, sponsored by the New England QRP Club.

This is one of the few QRP Contests, that I have found, that allows all modes - and it runs from 1500 to 2100 UTC.  Six hours of QRP bliss!

Rules for this event can be found HERE.

Looking forward to working some of you in the contest.

As an added bonus, the weekends propagation doesn't look too bad.....well, after this weeks surprise CME, it couldn't get much worse.  However, here's the forecast for Saturday, the 16th:

Have fun, and Stay Safe Out There!

Back At Lemoine Point...

I had a great day today activating Lemoine Point, VE-5141, for POTA. The extremely high heat and humidity of last week has gone away, and the weather is certainly more autumn like these days - and I'm loving it!

Today's propagation was mediocre at best.  There was lots of very deep QSB going on, and this was coupled with high noise on 20m and 40m. The propagation numbers were: SFI=161, SN=127, A Index=8, and the K Index=1. Having said it was a mediocre day, it was the best day we have had for over a week.

The antenna today was my 29' vertical random wire, with a 9:1 unun, and three 17' ground radials. The radio was my KX3 set at 10w.

While todays contact map is nothing spectacular, I had a pleasant hour and a lot of fun working the park hunters.

Here's todays map:

Stay Safe Out There!!

Not Looking Good...Updated

This weekend is shaping up to be not so good propagation wise.  Here's the official forecast:

"The geomagnetic field is expected to be primarily at quiet to unsettled 
levels on 1 Sep due to weak, positive polarity CH HSS effects. By late
2 Sep to early on 3 Sep, active conditions are expected, with a minor G1
storm level more than likely and a chance for moderate G2 conditions,
when the 30 Aug CME is now predicted to arrive."

Update as of 1111 UTC:



Let's see how this plays out over the next few days.

Stay Safe Out There!

W/VE Island QSO Party...

Coming up this weekend....

Get out and have some fun.......and Stay Safe Out There!!

2m -- the lonely band...

A few years ago I wrote here about the lack of use on 2m in Canada, and today I was thinking about how nothing has changed over the years regarding the use of that band.

Interestingly though, recently I have made a few contacts on both 2m and 70cm during POTA activations, but most of them were pre-planned before I left the house. We are always hearing that if we don't use our allotted frequencies we could lose them, and as I have said before, given the level of corporate greed out there these days, we should take absolutely nothing for granted.

I am a keen follower of the following blogs, Irish Ham Radio, The Radio Rover, and Chris M0RSF. I'm always amazed at the amount of traffic those three gentlemen generate on 2m simplex during their WWFF and SOTA activations.

We have hams here who collect Grid Squares, but it seems only during contests, and it's primarily only done on 6m.  We have SOTA in North America also, but not much is done on 2m simplex, especially here in Ontario.  It’s nowhere near as popular here as it is in Europe.

The UK, and several other countries, also has HEMA, an organization that is similar to SOTA, but for smaller summits.  It’s very popular, but it appears to be only operating in VE3 land here in North America.  We also have the GMA, which also has a summit in VE3 land, hopefully that's just the start.  All of these activities support 2m activity, yet there seems to be very little of it here in Canada and North America in general.

While there are plenty of activities to do on 2m, it would seem, however, the real issue is getting people out of their shacks, and getting involved in some of these activities to make sure we don’t lose our frequencies.

Remember, the Europeans only have 144 to 146 and do all of the above activites.  Here in North America we have twice that amount of frequency, 144 to 148, and apart from a pile of dead repeaters that get used once a week for a poorly attended net, not much else goes on.  

I have just discovered that the Wireless Society of Southern Maine, does in fact hold an annual 2m contest!  Here's the link to the RULES. 

So don't forget about 2m...and 70cm...during your portable operations!

Coming Up August 19th & 20th...

This weekend, as well as the International Lighthouse Lightship Weekend, is the North America QSO SSB Party. The contest runs from 1800 UTC August 19th to 0559 UTC August 20th.  

It's nice to see they have a QRP classification for this contest, I might have to dabble in it.

Rules can be found HERE.

Stay Safe Out There!

Monday at the Park...

As promised there was another POTA activation completed on Monday morning.  The weather was fantastic, a clear sky and a good breeze to keep the bugs away....can't ask for more than that!

This time I used my 33' mast, and a 29' radiator with two 17' ground radials and a 9:1 unun.  It worked very well and contacts on 20m were made to WA, NM, and TX, 14 amongst other states on 40m. 

Propagation was about the same as Sunday, SFI=150, SN=85, A Index=5, and the K Index=0.

This antenna will definitely get used more often.

Monday's contact map:

Stay Safe Out There !!