RAC membership and the Great Leader

Deciding whether or not to renew my RAC membership was an easy decision this year…..I didn’t, and let me explain why.

Last year I chose to get the electronic version of the TCA as it was a few bucks cheaper than the standard paper version.  Over the course of the past 12 months I have managed to download and read the grand total of one copy of the electronic version of the TCA, the rest wouldn’t even download, or they stopped half way through the download process and crashed.  I should point out at this time that I do have a new computer, not an old clunker that might have some issue downloading. 

Several times during the year I have contacted the RAC office and complained about not being able to download and read my electronic version of the TCA.  And of course in true RAC fashion, nothing was done about it, and no help was given at all….ever!!  I have heard from many other hams that they too have had issues downloading the electronic TCA, so it's not like this was just my issue.  I know RAC likes to keep their members in the dark, but this is ridiculous!!

Over the past four weeks I have received four emails from the RAC office, all of them informing me that my valued membership is about to expire and they hope I will continue to support them…..REALLY ?????   What about their support to ME ????    

At the same time I have been receiving these emails I have also received three renewal letters from the Great Leader, Comrade Bawden, the current appointed Grand Pooh-Bah of the RAC organization.  Each of these letters has cost RAC 75 Cents to mail out……why do I need three of them ??  I guess Comrade Bawden really does need my $$ to help pay for his junkets around the country shaking hands and kissing babies.

So the question is, just what tangible product did I receive last year for my $54.25 RAC annual membership fee??  Because from my point of view, and regardless of the bullshit propaganda in Comrade Bawden’s letters to me, my answer would have to be a loud and hearty SWEET FUCK ALL!!!

John Quincy Adams is quoted as saying "If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader".    Comrade Bawden has inspired me to take a out a two year membership with the ARRL.   Thank you Great Leader for showing me the way.

Section Manager Resigns!

It came as a bit of a shock on the morning of October 1^st to read that George Duffield, VE3WKJ, had resigned his RAC appointed position as the Section Manager of the GTA. 

It’s no secret amongst those who closely follow the ARES goings on that George Duffield was the only one of the three current Ontario Section Managers who seemed to have his head screwed on properly, and he certainly wasn’t full of himself...as some are.

I’ve spoken with George many times on the phone, and he always struck me as intelligent, full of knowledge and common sense, and an absolute gentleman.  He is exactly the type of ham we need as one of our Section Managers.

George was proactive in his leadership style, and certainly didn’t seem to have any issues with getting people to do the jobs he needed doing….I would have worked for him in a heartbeat if I lived in the GTA and had been asked to help.

This is yet another abject failure of the RAC senior leadership team to step in and get things sorted out before it reached this result, and they wonder why RAC is imploding.

Thank you very much for your dedicated service George, you'll be greatly missed.

The UN-CHILLYcon

What a fantastic QRP weekend!!  Most of the usual crowd assembled for this years Chillycon at the beautiful Rideau River Provincial Park, a 30 minute drive south of Ottawa.  This was the last weekend the park is open this year, so it was very quiet there, not too many people there at all.

The weather Friday night was cold, it went down to about 4C.  Saturday night it rained a bit and the temperature hovered around 17C.  However, Michael VE3WMB, and Ying VA3YH, both arrived on Thursday and told us that Thursday night was terribly cold, and that we had the warm nights!

VA3QV's mobile Shack

The highlight of course was that Bob VA3QV did in fact arrive safely in his new "Mobile Love Palace".   Not much room in it, but it's fine for what he want's to do with it......and it will give him another project to work on.  Bob had an exciting weekend, he spent a few moments trying to teach his FT-817 to fly.......but perhaps we could entice him to post a blog entry on his own Blog to describe what happened with the airborne 817!!  It was really good seeing him and Liz there.

The radio in use this weekend, keeping with the QRP theme, was my Icom 703.  I used a 31' wire erected in an inverted 'L' as my antenna.  The antenna went up only 20' and then 11' over to a tree.  Not the best of antennas, but I had some success with the DX over the weekend using it.

The 10 screaming watts of the IC-703 netted me HK3C, John in Bogota, Columbia; 9A9RR, Petar on Pucisca Island (EU-016), Croatia; SV3AQR, John in Patra, Greece; HA3NU, Laszlo in Szekszard, Hungary; and OP2A, Ivo in Boortmeerbeek, Belgium.  These stations as well as a dozen North American stations made it a successful weekend.

VA3ORP's portable bar

As usual Dave VA3ORP, and his valet Chris VE3CBK, erected their bell tent, complete with Persian carpet, cots, and all sorts of other creature comforts....including a portable bar!  You just never know what these QRP guys will get up to next!

Saturday was a great day weather wise.  Very comfortable temperature, the only downside was the fact that the mosquitoes were all in full force, which made things just a little itchy.

The annual DX completion started as soon as Eric VA3AMX arrived on Friday, at 1911 local that evening we thought Eric had won the contest with an early CW contact with a Mongolian station, a tie ensued an hour later when Michael VE3WMB also had a CW contact with the same Mongolian station.  BUT, in a surprising development, on Saturday evening, Chris VE3CBK, has a SSB QSO using his FT-817, with a VK3 station.  Five watts to Australia on a 70 year old Radio Set No. 19 antenna ain't too shabby any day!!  Congratulations to Chris on winning this years honour.

The Chillycon Survival Kit:  Analyzer, spare parts box,
and a mug for the Scotch!

Details of VA3VDP's radial plate.

We held our traditional Pizza supper on Saturday evening, and managed to get it over before the rain started.  Numerous bottle of single malt were in attendance, and all of it was mighty fine stuff.

Sunday morning nine of us trooped off to the New Rideau Restaurant, just down the road from the Provincial park for a great breakfast.  It's under new management since we were there last year (It was called "Charlie's Place" then).  The food was excellent and a decent price. 

So it's all over for another year.  It was a great shame that more of the local QRPers didn't get out this year, even the number of Saturday afternoon visitors was down.  I saw only Bob VE3MPG and Chris VE3CME.  I say it every year, Chillycon is a great educational weekend, and this year was no different.

It was really great to see everyone again, and as usual the sense of fraternity was outstanding.  Hopefully next year we will see a lot more of the QRP fraternity out at this event.

Chillycon

 

VA3QV & VA3ORP arrive at Chillycon 2014

Yet another Ottawa Valley QRP Society Fall Camping Weekend, known as Chillycon, is upon us. 

This coming weekend, starting Friday afternoon, QRP fanatics from all over Eastern Ontario descend upon Rideau River Provincial Park for this annual gathering.  The park is just across the Rideau River from Kemptville.

Always a great time, this will be my sixth year attending this event.  Not once have I ever returned home without learning something about radios or antennas.  It's a really great time, educational, and the company is fantastic.  It really is a fixed event on our calendar these days.

A lot of the participants come for the whole weekend, others just come for Saturday afternoon as well as the single malt whiskey and traditional pizza supper we hold.  If you're planning on bringing any whiskey to the event.....please.....no blended stuff !!

Four of us from Kingston, VE3MNE, VA3ORP, VA3VDP and myself, will be attending this year. 

As usual Bob, VA3QV will be there.  This year Bob will be bringing, on it's inaugural trip, his new (to him) RV......we've christened it "Bob's Mobile Love Palace"....photo's will follow!!

Hopefully the weather and propagation will behave themselves.  I'm going full out this year to beat Eric, my arch rival, for the "Upper Canada Cup for QRP DX Excellence at Chillycon"....now if we could just afford to buy the trophy things would be really great!!

Stay tuned for the post-event wrap-up.

September ARRL VHF Contest & SOTA Weekend....

The September ARRL VHF Contest is coming up this weekend, September 13 - 15. 

I'm going to try and take part in it, not sure for how long, but we will give it a try.  The Rules can be found HERE.

The problem we have here in Kingston is that we have very few clear high points that we can operate from, and for a VHF contest, you need some height.

Also this weekend is the annual North American SOTA Weekend.   This event is a casual event involving portable battery-powered radios on mountain summits. It is not a contest but is intended to introduce “Summits on the Air” to newcomers with home stations who try to work summit operators during one or two days. There are no rules regarding power levels, modes or number of bands worked, but please be courteous when more than one station is trying to talk to a SOTA operator on a summit.

The SOTA operators can be found on the usual QRP frequencies.

Hopefully the weather and propagation will be on our side for these events.

Eastbound - Day Seven

The Bonnechere Valley

I was on the road by 0730 this morning under....wait for it......brilliant blue skies!!!  Well, it would be a nice day, it's my last one on the road for this trip!!

Highway 17 was a real pain today, lots of construction and widening of the highway.  It was stop and go for quite a while.  Eventually the construction disappeared and the road became a scenic ride.

First stop today was CFB Petawawa to visit a number of friends.  First up was a group of women that I used to work with in Kingston that have all been posted to "downtown" Petawawa.  It was great getting to catch up with them.  Then it was off too see my old Sergeant Major to drop off a package to him.  Had a great visit with everyone, and a new project handed to me.....all is good.

From Petawawa I drove down Highway 17 to Highway 41, turned south, and enjoyed the drive down through the Bonnechere Valley.  What a great drive, over 150 km of freshly paved road that was as smooth as a babies bum!  This had to be the best day's drive of the trip.

Just south of Kaladar I finally switched to the VE3FRG repeater and gave a call.  Lots of the guys in there calling me, Richard VA3VDP, Tim VA3TIC, Mark VE3EOG, and a few others.  It was nice to be back on the home repeater, at least here you know somebody will answer you on it.

Grand total of km's driven was 12,653 - I haven't tallied up how much I spent on gas....I'm almost afraid to!  2m repeater contacts were made in every province, and the portable HF gear worked as expected.

All in all, a great trip....now to start planning that trip to the east coast.......

Eastbound - Day Six.....

Hey, it's raining....are you surprised???   It was a very long day today, 11 hours driving, Terrace Bay to North Bay - 913 Km.  There was lots of construction on the road today, I think every bridge is being rebuilt or improved.

Stopped for coffee and breakfast in White River this morning and met a very interesting gentleman.  Jack was an airline pilot for over 40 years and has retired to White River.  He recognized my ham plates and wanted to know how he can get his license.  A big package will be mailed off to Jack with study material soon.

Of course White River is a pretty famous town in Canadian history.  It was here that in 1914 Captain Harry Colebourn stepped off his troop train as it stopped for coal, and purchased an orphaned bear cub........and that bear came to be known as Winnie the Pooh. 

The drive today was through miles and miles of rolling hills covered with forest. 

White River

Not sure what was going on around Massey and Espanola but there were no campsites or motel rooms available.  So, I kept driving towards Sudbury, and eventually pulled into North Bay around 2030 hrs.  A really long day on the road.

There are very few 2m repeaters on the north shore of Lake Superior and as usual no contacts were made today on the radio. 

Tomorrow I'm heading to Petawawa to meet up with some people, should be an interesting day.

Eastbound - Day Five.....

 

Lake Superior at Terrace Bay

Another rain free driving day, looks like I've left the wet stuff far behind.

This morning I left Aaron Provincial Park after a pretty wet night.  The tent is soaked, but all the other gear is fine.  The rain stopped around 0400.

The goal for tonight is Terrace Bay, about 540 Km away.  I drove through miles of forest today, and the road was in excellent condition.

Just outside of Ignace a small car passed me, and as it went by I noticed it had ham plates on.  I put out a call on the Ignace repeater but had no luck.  Then about five minutes later Glenn-VE3CJG called me on 146.52 simplex.  He was driving home from a visit to BC with his wife, Sandra-VE3HON.  The funny thing is Glenn and Sandra live in Belleville, about 80 Km from me.

We all stopped for coffee together in Upsala, where the price of gas today was an eye opening $1.69.9 !!

Terrace Bay has its very own Lighthouse in the middle of the town, needless to say it was on the air tonight even though it's a fake one and has no number.

Terrace Bay Lighthouse

Tomorrow I'm off to Massey, Ontario, for the night.  Hopefully the rain will continue to go else where.