This Weekend...

This Saturday, September 16th, is the date for this years QRP Afield event, sponsored by the New England QRP Club.

This is one of the few QRP Contests, that I have found, that allows all modes - and it runs from 1500 to 2100 UTC.  Six hours of QRP bliss!

Rules for this event can be found HERE.

Looking forward to working some of you in the contest.

As an added bonus, the weekends propagation doesn't look too bad.....well, after this weeks surprise CME, it couldn't get much worse.  However, here's the forecast for Saturday, the 16th:

Have fun, and Stay Safe Out There!

Back At Lemoine Point...

I had a great day today activating Lemoine Point, VE-5141, for POTA. The extremely high heat and humidity of last week has gone away, and the weather is certainly more autumn like these days - and I'm loving it!

Today's propagation was mediocre at best.  There was lots of very deep QSB going on, and this was coupled with high noise on 20m and 40m. The propagation numbers were: SFI=161, SN=127, A Index=8, and the K Index=1. Having said it was a mediocre day, it was the best day we have had for over a week.

The antenna today was my 29' vertical random wire, with a 9:1 unun, and three 17' ground radials. The radio was my KX3 set at 10w.

While todays contact map is nothing spectacular, I had a pleasant hour and a lot of fun working the park hunters.

Here's todays map:

Stay Safe Out There!!

Not Looking Good...Updated

This weekend is shaping up to be not so good propagation wise.  Here's the official forecast:

"The geomagnetic field is expected to be primarily at quiet to unsettled 
levels on 1 Sep due to weak, positive polarity CH HSS effects. By late
2 Sep to early on 3 Sep, active conditions are expected, with a minor G1
storm level more than likely and a chance for moderate G2 conditions,
when the 30 Aug CME is now predicted to arrive."

Update as of 1111 UTC:



Let's see how this plays out over the next few days.

Stay Safe Out There!

W/VE Island QSO Party...

Coming up this weekend....

Get out and have some fun.......and Stay Safe Out There!!

2m -- the lonely band...

A few years ago I wrote here about the lack of use on 2m in Canada, and today I was thinking about how nothing has changed over the years regarding the use of that band.

Interestingly though, recently I have made a few contacts on both 2m and 70cm during POTA activations, but most of them were pre-planned before I left the house. We are always hearing that if we don't use our allotted frequencies we could lose them, and as I have said before, given the level of corporate greed out there these days, we should take absolutely nothing for granted.

I am a keen follower of the following blogs, Irish Ham Radio, The Radio Rover, and Chris M0RSF. I'm always amazed at the amount of traffic those three gentlemen generate on 2m simplex during their WWFF and SOTA activations.

We have hams here who collect Grid Squares, but it seems only during contests, and it's primarily only done on 6m.  We have SOTA in North America also, but not much is done on 2m simplex, especially here in Ontario.  It’s nowhere near as popular here as it is in Europe.

The UK, and several other countries, also has HEMA, an organization that is similar to SOTA, but for smaller summits.  It’s very popular, but it appears to be only operating in VE3 land here in North America.  We also have the GMA, which also has a summit in VE3 land, hopefully that's just the start.  All of these activities support 2m activity, yet there seems to be very little of it here in Canada and North America in general.

While there are plenty of activities to do on 2m, it would seem, however, the real issue is getting people out of their shacks, and getting involved in some of these activities to make sure we don’t lose our frequencies.

Remember, the Europeans only have 144 to 146 and do all of the above activites.  Here in North America we have twice that amount of frequency, 144 to 148, and apart from a pile of dead repeaters that get used once a week for a poorly attended net, not much else goes on.  

I have just discovered that the Wireless Society of Southern Maine, does in fact hold an annual 2m contest!  Here's the link to the RULES. 

So don't forget about 2m...and 70cm...during your portable operations!

Coming Up August 19th & 20th...

This weekend, as well as the International Lighthouse Lightship Weekend, is the North America QSO SSB Party. The contest runs from 1800 UTC August 19th to 0559 UTC August 20th.  

It's nice to see they have a QRP classification for this contest, I might have to dabble in it.

Rules can be found HERE.

Stay Safe Out There!

Monday at the Park...

As promised there was another POTA activation completed on Monday morning.  The weather was fantastic, a clear sky and a good breeze to keep the bugs away....can't ask for more than that!

This time I used my 33' mast, and a 29' radiator with two 17' ground radials and a 9:1 unun.  It worked very well and contacts on 20m were made to WA, NM, and TX, 14 amongst other states on 40m. 

Propagation was about the same as Sunday, SFI=150, SN=85, A Index=5, and the K Index=0.

This antenna will definitely get used more often.

Monday's contact map:

Stay Safe Out There !!

Good Bands...

The HF bands were not too bad today.....for a change!  For the first time in over a month I went out and did a POTA activation, while I won't win any prizes for the number of contacts I made, it was still fun. My big issue today was learning how to operate in the cab of the new truck, it's not a roomy as my old van, and I can see this might be an issue deep in the cold winter months. But we have time to see how we can best operate comfortably in it.

Propagation numbers today were:  SFI=148, SN=78, A Index=8, and the K Index=0.  There was very, very, deep QSB on all the signals, especially those on 20m and 40m.

I'm hoping to get out again tomorrow and see how things go.  Instead of hamsticks I'm planning on using my new 33' mast, and the new hitch mount I bought for the truck.

This mast will give me several wire antenna options to use, and it should still be usable in the winter with snow on the ground.  Tomorrow I'm planning on using a 29' vertical with a 9:1 unum and a couple of 17' ground radials to see what I can do with that.

Stay tuned for that write up.

Here's todays contact map:

Stay Safe Out There!!