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| Jim, VE3ULC, chasing WFD stations. |
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| Getting ready to shoot some antenna lines in the trees. |
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| Don, VE3MNE, chasing Hawaii on 15m. |
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| Our home for the weekend. |
Propagation is not looking good for the next few days. Here's the latest forecast:
Be Well, and Stay Safe Out There!
It was a nice day yesterday....for January, and around this part of Canada. It was a balmy -5C under cloudy grey skies, but it wasn't snowing or raining!
The days propagation was the best I've seen in a long time, and that's what gave me the kick to get out and play radio. The propagation was: SFI=193, SN=180, A Index=6, and the K Index=0. There was a bit of QSB out there, but it wasn't too bad.
First up was Manuel EA2DT, and he was quickly followed by Jose EA1BUL. These two operators always seem to find me when I'm out in a park. I did have one interesting thing happen, I was working KI5MM, Lee in Texas, and I became aware of a very faint station under him also talking on the frequency. Up to now I had had no interference so I was a bit surprised. Then it hit me, I had called for the Texas station by asking for the "Mike" station, and back came Lee. However, David M0YDB must have thought I was calling him. Anyway I finished with Texas and called for any UK stations, and back came David again to make sure he was in my log.
Radio was my usual KX3 set at 10w, and the antenna was a 15m Hamstick on the roof of my truck. I put 37 contacts in the logbook in 30 minutes, so I was very pleased with that. My plan was to go out again today, but an overnight snow storm put an end to those plans. We also have another large snow storm coming in overnight tonight, so it looks like there will be no radio in the park on Sunday either.
Here's the contact map for the day:
Be Well, and Stay Safe Out There!
It's been a long 3 weeks but I'm finally testing negative for covid. I've had a headache and have been coughing for weeks, and while the headache has gone, the coughing remains...just as bad as it has been all this time. However, it's nice to be able to taste food again and my sense of smell has also returned. I guess I'll have a few more weeks from what I have read of the lingering effects....but I sure don't want to go through covid again.
Today I had had enough of sitting around the house, so I decided to go and do a POTA activation at Parrotts Bay, which is about 15 minutes from my home. It has been a very cloudy day with temperatures hovering around -5C, in fact it's just started to snow.
This was my first activation in a month, and I must tell you all that with the covid brain fog that comes with having covid, it was a struggle to remember how to do things at times.....I managed to get through it.
Propagation today was: SFI=153, SN=128, A Index=5, and the K Index=0. Radio was my KX3 set at 10w, antenna was a 15m hamstick on the roof of my truck. I put 20 contacts in the log, all on 15m, and I'm happy with that. By contact number 20 I was ready to go home and have a hot mug of tea, I find I still get tired very fast.
Hopefully I will be able to get out and do more POTA activations over the next week as my health slowly improves, it's good for my soul it seems.
Here's todays contact map:
Stay Safe and Well Out There!!
See you all in a few days.
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!!
Looks like another interesting three days propagation wise is coming up, there are some G2 Solar Storms coming in.....
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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| Today's contact map. |
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:
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| 40m at 0230 UTC, Wednesday, December 6. |
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| 80m at 0245 UTC, Wednesday, December 6. Stay Safe Out There! |
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.
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 24th, 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
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 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:
