A Different Antenna

Early Monday morning saw Tim-VA3TIC and myself back up on Fort Henry Hill......rumour has it that we're up there so often that the Fort is about to issue us both scarlet tunics!!  The weather was great, but the wind was up and gusting to about 40KPH.

It was a disappointing morning for myself as I chose to operate 2m SSB and did not hear a thing anywhere on the band.  I even tried 2m CW and still didn't get a response to my CQ's.  In the end I went back to the FM portion and checked into local and distant morning nets.  It's amazing just where you can get into from that location.

VA3TIC/Mobile

Tim, on the other hand, was trying out his new "sputnik antenna".   He has homebrewed a magnetic mount that enables him to have a 102" whip for 10m as well as hamsticks for 15m, 17m, 20m, and 80m.  It tunes up nicely on all bands, and he managed to make a solid contact into central Kansas, about 1600Km away.  So not to shabby. 

We all know hamsticks are a comprimise antenna and will never replace dipoles or other portable antennas, but in an emergency we'll take what we can get.

Hopefully the bands will start to pick up again before too long. It's not nice being back down with an SFI of 84 after what we have had in the last month.  Let's hope it improves a great deal before Field Day.

Fort Henry Hill

For the past couple of weeks a group of us have spent "very early" Saturday morning up Fort Henry Hill, set up in the parking lot, playing radio.   For the past two Saturdays I have used my Buddipole as a 20m vertical.  I use the versatee with two 22" arms and a 12' military whip with a single 17' counterpoise.   In this configuration it has a great match right across the SSB portion of the band, and I do not need to use a tuner with it at all.



Old Fort Henry

Last Saturday I worked a pile of caribbean stations as well as a couple of Portugese.  The weather was great and the sunrise spectacular.  In fact things went so well we decided to do it again this weekend.

So this Saturday, instead of lying in bed enjoying the sleep in as I would have like to, it was up at 0500 hrs and drive back to the hill.  Once again the sunrise was spectacular, but the damn mayflies were out in full force. 

The SFI was down a bit from last week and the activity on the band showed it.  Tim-VA3TIC, worked 17m and made some good contacts, he also made a couple on 20m as well.  I stayed on 20m and spun the VFO up and down the band trying to work the odd piece of DX that popped up. 

Finally at 1200Z I heard a loud station and went after it.  It was JA2FJP, Ken, in Tokoname, Japan.  He had a very loud and solid signal into Kingston, a good 59 +20.  I didn't think I had much of a chance to work him as I was only running 50w into the Buddipole.  But.....at 1217Z I managed to work him. 
10,400 Kms on 50w and a Buddipole............not too shabby!!

VE3FRG Repeater Install

Sunday the 1st of May was brilliant day, the weather was great - blue skies and no wind or rain. Perfect for getting the VE3FRG repeater installed in the John Orr Tower here in Kingston. This is the end of a lot of hard work and testing to get us to this point, and it's all thanks to Don-VE3MNE.


Don VE3MNE

Eleven hams showed up at 1330 hours and by 1530 it was all installed and operational. The John Orr Tower is near the intersection of Union Street and Sir John A. MacDonald. The tower is 16 stories high with another two floors of mechanical rooms above that.

The repeater is in the electrical room on the roof with the antenna mounted 30 feet above that. So the antenna is about 230 feet above ground.

It seems to have a large footprint - Belleville and Trenton in the west to Brockville in the east and south to Watertown. We haven't figured out how far north it will go yet, but we plan on a few road trips over the next few weekends to see how far we can get.


Bill VE3CLQ and George VE3SIQ
Put the pieces back together again
after they had been transported to the site

 Over the past two years we have had IRLP Node 2088 set up on 146.205 with a 151.4 hertz tone.  We had a lot of problem with interference from the N2HLT Bath, NY, repeater, which is on the same frequency, and is amazing when you realize that it is over 250 kms from Kingston, Ontario to Bath, NY in a straight line. We have had to change the PL tone to 203.5 hertz, but due to the interference issuses with the repeater in Bath.

VE3FRG will be able to operate as a 2m repeater, and will also be able to operate crossband from 70 cm to 6m at the same time without interfering with the 2m operation. Or, alternately you will be able to link the 2m, 6m, and 70cm radios together and operate as a crossband repeater on all frequencies.

Tim VA3TIC getting ready
to install the 70cm antenna

This repeater now has IRLP Node 2088 operating on it, which will be available on all the repeater frequencies. The frequency and tone details are as follows:

The 2m frequency is 146.805 (-) with a 203.5 hertz tone;
The 6m Frequency is 53.130 (-) with a 203.5 hertz tone; and
The 70 cm frequency is 434.800 simplex with a 203.5 hertz tone.

The codes to turn the crossband capabilities on and off will be made available over the next few days.

Thanks to VE3SIQ, VE3MNE, VE3DZE, VE3DNR, VA3AKY, VE3GO, VE3OCC, VE3ZDG, VA3TIC and VE3VJF for coming out and getting the job done.

Thanks to Martin VA3AKY for taking the photo's used on this article.

Footprint of VE3FRG

Iroquois Hamfest

It was a good day to go for a drive.....so Dave-VE3DZE and Don-VE3MNE and I decided to get up early and go to the Iroquois Hamfest, as none of us had been there before.  The drive there and back was great, spring has sprung and nobody was complaining about the +8C sunny weather we had to put up with.  Thanks to Dave for doing the driving.

VE3CLQ with Santa - aka VA3QV

The Hamfest was another matter, nothing of interest there at all!  I had a wallet full of cash and not a decent rig in sight to buy.  Pretty disappointing really.

Here's a hint for all the vendors next year....it's called a "Hamfest", that means people attend to look for amateur radio items........not old used flashlights, computer parts, old VCRs, or 30 year old CBs.

However, it wasn't a total loss.  I did get to see Bob-VA3QV and Bob-VE3MPG, and that is always a delight!  Bob-VA3RCS told me that it looks like the Ottawa QRP Societies "Chilicon" will happen again this year.

Is it just me or have Hamfests gone down the toilet since EBay came on the scene?  It sure seems that way.

CQ WPX 2011

Well, another great contest is over!  This past weekend saw a fantastic weekend for catching DX on the bands.  The SFI was up at 115 with the A index at 2 and the K index at 0......a good recipe for good DX.

I used the Kenwood 570D into my 80-40-20m fan-dipole for the contest, giving the FT-857D a rest.   Amongst the 400+ contacts I made using the VE3FCT callsign, there where a few new ones put in the log, V3M in Belize, 3V1A in Tunisia, TG9NX in Guatemala, and VP2EH in Anguilla. 

15m seemed to be the place to be as it was extremely active both days from almost dawn to late evening. There were some good 10m openings as well. I managed to have QSO's with Argentina, Brazil, Cape Verde, Germany, and Belize all on 10m late Sunday afternoon.

But what was even more enjoyable this weekend was the good behaviour on the bands.  I didn't hear anyone tuning up on top of another station, pile-ups seemed to be pretty orderly, and everyone seemed to be in a great mood. 

Hopefully the SFI will continue to rise so we can have a very successful "QRP to the Field" weekend on the 30th April - 1st May weekend.  That weekend is also the "International SOTA Weekend". 

This coming weekend (April 2nd) I'm going to the Iroquois Hamfest for the first time as there are a few things I need to pick up.  If you're going I hope to see you there!

ARRL International DX SSB Contest

What a weekend!  This was my best DX weekend for many years.  Saturday morning the  SFI was 127, A Index=11 and K Index=1, and the bands just rocked!  Twelve hours later at 2130L the SFI was 135, A Index=5 and K Index=1 and it was wall-to-wall DX on all bands. 

On both Saturday and Sunday around 1600L the bands swung from North-South propagation to North-South.  I worked most of Europe and South America on 15m over the weekend, and a few more on 20m and 40m.  15m was just incredible, I haven't heard it that busy for a long time.  I went up and down the band and never stopped working stations.

80m was filled with the usual nets and "hillbilly roundtables" all weekend, but I did manage to catch both Poland and the UK on the band.

It was also amazing how many countries I worked on 10m. I can't even remember the last time I worked anyone on 10, but it was working well for most of the weekend.

The three big catches for me this past weekend was PZ5P in Surinam and HL3K in South Korea, both on 20m, and ST2AR in Khartoum, Sudan on 10m.

The downside of the weekend?  Well, that would have to be the many LIDS who just have to tune up right on top of the station calling CQ.  Why do these idiots do this?  Can't they understand that if you move off frequency 10Kc either side that it won't affect your tuning? 

I'm not the "perfect" operator, but I do understand the rules that make operating a great experience for all. So thanks to those few idiots who ruined our QSO's, I hope you all had a good time, and next time, please...try and use some common sense on the bands!

As I write this Monday evening I notice that the SFI has risen to 153, A Index=9 and K Index=2.  Hopefully the minimum is now behind us and it will continue to rise for the CQ WW WPX Contest on the 26th and 27th of March.

Field Day 2011

Well it's that time of year again....when the boys start dreaming of Field Day....antennas, radios and BBQ!!  This week the ARRL brought out this years Field Day Package (Click here) and there does not seem to be many changes to the rules. 

Field Day is the highlight of the year for most hams, 24 hours of non-stop radio, and for some people it can't come soon enough.

One interesting change, shown at the bottom of page 43, is that "Non US stations should be logged as DX".  This statement concerns me on several levels.  Last year the group I "do" Field Day with, when answering CQ Field Day calls, where told that on many occasions that "Field Day was for Americans only", and they would not log a contact with us.  This happened on both CW and SSB.  So needless to say the statement on page 43 concerned me somewhat.

In fact it concerned me to the point I contacted Dan Henderson, the ARRL Field Day Manager via email, and asked for an explanation (Dan's email here) of this statement.  Dan came back to me within hours and stated that "The wording you cite was to instruct people how to log the non ARRL/RAC Field Organization areas.

OK, fair enough.  BUT, we all know that not everyone reads the rules, and those that do this year will read that if you are not a US station, you are considered DX.  Therefore according to what is actually written, Canadian stations will be considered DX which is not the way it is supposed to be.

I went back to Dan and wrote "Perhaps to make things more clear, the statement: 'Non US stations should be logged as DX' should actually read 'Non North American stations should be logged as DX' "  So far I have not had a response to my suggestion, I guess we'll wait and see what happens.

QSO Parties

Looking for something to do this coming weekend instead of shoveling snow? There are two State QSO Parties this weekend that will keep you busy.

First up is the Louisiana QSO Party. This takes place from 1500Z February 12th to 0300Z February 13th. For the rules, click here.

Then we have the New Hampshire QSO Party from 1600Z February 12th to 0400Z February 13th and 1200Z to 2200Z February 13th. For their rules, click here.

The forecast propagation looks promising for the weekend.  If you hear VE3FCT calling CQ, give me a shout.