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.
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.
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