IARU Contest 2011

As per the usual for this weekend, Don-VE3MNE and myself headed out for our annual IARU HF World Championship weekend to Don's cottage on Hay Bay.  This year Tim-VA3TIC joined us for a weekend filled with the anticipation of excellent DX.

The bands seemed to be very long with stations from Europe coming in at 20 over 9, but they could not hear us answering their CQ's - on any band, using any of the four available antennas.  We all thought it was going to be a very long weekend when I answered a CQ from Steve-VK6IR in Western Australia and had an almost instant response.  The bands settled down after about 30 minutes and we made lots of DX contacts.

Overall it was a great weekend, and the weather was fantastic.  However, some of the behaviour on the bands could have been a hell of a lot better.  I started to wonder if some of the clowns we heard had ever operated a HF radio before!

Sunset at Hay Bay, Ontario

The LIDS were out in full force tuning up right on top of each other and the weak signal they were all trying to work.  Twice I had to remove my headset quickly due to a LID tuning up right on top of my QSO.  They were so loud it hurt.  Obviously they have no respect at all for their fellow amateurs!

Why is is when a station calls for the "VE3 only" every "W4" or "N9" in creation decides that the calling station actually meant them and not the VE3?  Some of these guys need Elmers in the worse way!

What's with the stations calling "QRZ" over and over and over without ever giving their callsign?  In the end I started to work one of these stations just to see if I could actually get his callsign out of him.....and it took 20 minutes to do so.  Elmers anyone????

What's with these clowns who sit on a frequency and tell you that it's in use, when clearly it isn't?  This happened to me at just as lunch was called on Saturday.  I left the radio on that frequency while I ate lunch and heard nothing for the next 30 minutes.  I went back called CQ and was told the frequency was in use.  In the end I asked the guy how much he had paid for that particular frequency as I'd like to buy one as well!

And finally, what's with giving your callsign at mach 6, so a normal human being could never understand anything you had just said.  Then why do they leave a few milli-seconds in between their CQ's so that stations do not have enough time to get their callsign in?  IO4HQ was an excellent example this weekend on how "not to call CQ".

Tim-VA3TIC working DX

Last contact of the weekend?  0750L Sunday morning I heard 8N8FQ, the HQ Station for the JARL calling CQ....and got him on one call back to him.  Made my day! 

I worked just about every national HQ station I could hear, but I never heard a RAC station on the bands taking part.  Does anyone know if they did?

The IARU contest is an excellent way of working all the DX you can handle in a weekend, we never miss it, and we all had a blast!

Many thanks to the ARRL for running this event for amateurs around the world on behalf of the IARU.

2011 Canada Day Contest

Thursday evening at 2000L I started scanning 40m for the start of the 2011 RAC Canada Day Contest.  First in the log was Greg-VA3KUG from Midland.  For the rest of the evening I bounced between 40m and 80m logging mainly Ontario stations. 

In recent past year the start of the Canada Day Contest aways yielded a feast of VE1's, VE9's, VO2' and VY2's.  Not this year.  Thursday night brought very slim pickin's.  I did manage to log Jean-Pierre-VA3SG, Polar Bear No. 121, an unusual sight on SSB.  J-P is normally on CW.....but with global warming the bears must be heading into new territory J

Saturday morning came pretty early and I drove out to the cottage of VE3MNE at Hay Bay, to use the same antennas we used for Field Day, namely the 160m and 80m OCF dipoles.  It's amazing how quiet those antennas are compared to my dipoles at home.

Both 40m and 20m started the day very long, and I had no problems getting contacts into the Maritimes and out to BC.  In fact all the provinces we had trouble making contact with on Field Day kept popping up all over the place!  How typical!

15m was a pretty big disappointment.  It never really opened all day.  I did make about 10 contacts there, but I worked hard for every one.  15m was also the only band I heard VA3RAC, and of course they never heard me answering them.

I made a good, solid, contact with Martin-JW/DG5NFF in Svalbard...which is an archipelago in the arctic, constituting the northernmost part of Norway.  Bless him, he was even calling "CQ Canada Day"!! 

Other DX for the day included the UK, Poland, Rumania and Spain.  However, the best catch of the day was Jose-KP4EIT in Ciales, Puerto Rico, who I caught on 6m mid-afternoon.

I ended up with only 75 contacts, but to make up for that I had a great day in the country, lots of sun and beautiful scenary.  Next year will be better.......right?

Field Day 2011 - The Results

Another successful field day is over!   This year Frontenac ARES operated as a 5A station, covering all bands from 160m to 6m. 

Our weekend started early Friday morning when myself, Don-VE3MNE, Tim-VA3TIC and Dave-VE3DZE met for breakfast at the Star Diner on Princess Street.  After firming up some plans we left for Don's cottage on the shore of Hay Bay, about 45 Kms west of Kingston.

The gang arrived at the cottage about 0930 hrs and first to go up were the antennas.  We erected a 160m OCF dipole, two 80m OCF dipoles, a 20m Delta Loop, a 15m vertical and a 10m / 6m fan dipole, and we also put up three screen tents, two for operating and the third for eating.   It was a long busy day and we didn't stop to have lunch, about 1900 hrs we left for Picton to have supper at the Texas Grill.  This is the fourth year we have supper there, and this has now become one of our field day traditions.

The weather was hot and sticky on Friday, cloudy and unsettled on Saturday with a little bit of rain during the night.  Sunday was a cloudy day with a little bit of sun....and of course just as we started to take everything down the rain started!

On Saturday morning the rest of the crew showed up, George-VE3SIQ and Martin-VA3AKY, and got their stations put together.  Once everyone was ready we installed our notch filters and tested for interference from each other.  Everything worked well except for the 10m notch which had to have emergency surgery performed on it, but we eventually had everyone up and running.

The SFI hovered about 96 all weekend with the 'A' index around 6 and the 'K' index at 2.  The bands where, for the most part, quiet, but not really good.

The 160m and 80m station didn't fair too well.  The 160m band never opened up at all and hardly any stations where heard on it, and the 80m band was only a little better.  The 40m station, while busy with stations on the eastern seaboard, never opened up and went long to the west coast.

The 15m and 20m stations carried the load with plenty of activity and many contacts between the two stations.  Our 10m station did very well, making over 100 contacts.  Six meters was a bust however.

I would be very remiss if I did not mention that this year was the very first field day for Tim-VA3TIC.  In fact Tim (now known as the "Duke") has only been a ham for about 6 months.  We put Tim on the 20m station, and stood back in amazement as he racked up 425 contacts!  It's great to see that his many years as a CBer were good training for him as a contester!  

Overall we did 1014 contacts on five bands, and we're happy with that score.  After all the main thing is to get out there, do the set up, fix any interference issues, operate and have fun.......and we did that.  Many thanks to Don for the use of his property and for doing the cooking.

Oh yeah, the only thing with Tim is to keep him away from the trees at all cost.  He has a really nasty habit of attracting falling tree branches when we were putting up the antennas.



Rideau Lakes Cycle Tour 2011

Another great weekend playing radio!!  This weekend, June 11th and 12th, was the 40th year the Rideau Lakes Cycle Tour has been run, and this year we had 2,115 registered riders on the different routes.

This is my 4th year as coordinator for the Frontenac County - Kingston section of the race and it was by far the best.  This year the weather actually cooperated......well, it did for the most part!  Mainly warm and sunny with just a little bit of rain late Saturday, but by then the vast majority of the riders where already safely at Queen's University.

The way the route is laid out it's about 356 Km for the round trip. The tour starts Saturday morning at Carleton University in Ottawa and returns their Sunday afternoon after an overnight stop at Queen's University in Kingston. The Frontenac County - Kingston section looks after Perth Road Village to Kingston, about a 33 Km section of the highway, manning communications check points at Queen's University, Glenburnie, Inverary, and Perth Road Village.

This year our section had 13 operators involved over the two days, including two guest operators from Belleville, Bill-VA3WOW and Bob-VE3QWB.  I'd also like to specially thank Ron-VA3ACZ from Ottawa, who stepped in at the last minute and helped out as a mobile unit on Sunday morning. 

We also had two operators working from home, keeping us up-to-date with weather reports and standing by to make phone calls as required.  Many thanks to Ron-VE3GO and George-VE3GWS for doing this for us.

Saturday the first rider came through Perth Road Village at 1045, not a bad time at all considering the distance they had ridden, and they arrived at Queen's University at 1145, so not a bad run for them.  Most of Saturday was pretty cloudy, though warm, but at about 1600 local the heavens opened and we had huge downpour for about 45 minutes.  It could not have been too nice being on the road in that, and it was a good thing that 98% of the riders had already arrived at Queen's by that time.

Sunday was a very early start, we had to have an operator at Queen's by 0530 to advise the check points down route when the riders left and how many remained.  Unfortunately the first rider left at 0500, and we past him on the highway about 18 kms north as we travelled to Perth Road Village to set up there.  He eventually went through Perth Road Village at 0610 flying down the highway at great speed back to Ottawa.....he shouted that he had a date in Ottawa for noon.......I hope he made it!

Perth Road Village Store

This was the first year we operated using the VE3FRG repeater, owned by the Frontenac Radio Group, and it worked a real treat.  No problems and a solid performance far beyond the footprint we thought we had with it.  I think everyone was very pleased with it.

For the past 38 years Keith Fish-VE3XKF and his XYL Sally-VE3YSF, have coordinated the communications for this tour.  They starting out with just a couple of CB radios provided by the Ottawa XM11 club, to this year where we had 62 ham radio operators using three separate repeater systems.  This year is their last year doing this job as next year is their 50th wedding anniversary as they will be away over the dates of the tour on a well deserved cruise, and they have both decided that this is a good time to call it quits.

Sally and Keith I don't know what we will do without you guys out their on the course next year, but because of what you have both built and put together over the past few decades I'm sure we will do OK......but we'll be thinking of you guys!

Wanted: A "hug patrol" replacement.  Must be cute, cuddly, and give out great hugs!  Please apply to Don-VE3MNE, Official Hug Tester for Frontenac Radio Group.

Field Day 2011

Field Day is nearly upon us again and we have had to change our plans for this year.  Instead of going to Whispering Pines Scout Camp near Perth, we will be going to Hay Bay to the cottage of Don-VE3MNE.

This year we will operate as a 6A operation covering all bands with SSB, CW stations, as well as an all band Digital station.  This will be the first time in a number of years that we have had that many stations operating on the property.

Antenna wise we will have a 160m OCF, a 80m OCF, a 40m-15m vertical as well as dipoles for 20m, 15m, 10m, and 6m.

Hopefully the SFI will improve so we can get into places we have not been able to over the past few years.  We're also praying for good weather given all the rain we have had this month!

So far we have 8 amateurs lined up to attend so it should be a good time.

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