Bandpass Filters...
It was an absolutely beautiful day, blue skies and 23C (74F) and because the site was on the river, the humidity was very low which made it very comfortable.
Propagation was pretty good, SFI=166, SN=119, A Index=3, and the K Index=1. However, there was quite a bit of deep QSB during the day and I know that cost me a couple of contacts by the end of the activation. Stations would be S9+ and a few seconds later would disappear for good.
Because it was a weekend the usual LIDS were out and about, you know.....the tuner-uppers and the whistlers, all of whom seem to come to your specific frequency just to play their silly games. I didn't let them bother me, I just carried on calling CQ and had a blast doing it.
When the SSB contacts died down I made a few contacts with my new portable key. It's made by Putikeeg, a company I had never heard of before. The key is great, it has a very smooth action, and the grip is perfect. I'm enjoying using it, and it wasn't that expensive either.
Contact wise I have done a lot better, but I put 36 contacts in the log. It wasn't a contest, and I took my time and had fun - which is what you're suppose to do.
Here's the contact map:
Stay Safe Out There !!
I've no idea how this thing got on my back, I never felt anything crawling on me that I can remember. The tick has been removed, and placed, alive, in a pill bottle awaiting an appointment with my doctor.
This is the first time I've ever had a tick, so this has opened my eyes to the dangers of these little buggers!
If you're doing POTA or SOTA you need to be aware of these as they can cause several bad health issues.
One of the best websites I can find is this one HERE, produced by the Ontario Government. It's well worth the read, and it may save you some aggravation in the long run!!
If you live in Ontario, you might be interested in the map below:
Stay Safe Out There!!
Our club operated as a 5A QRP station, and did quite well given the lousy propagation we had over the weekend. We put 338 contacts in the log, and used 80m through 10m, minus the WARC bands. CW did 153, SSB did 131, and Digi did 54. Not too bad for a QRP battery powered setup. I guess we'll have to wait until next December, when the ARRL publishes the final scores, to find out how we actually did.
Neys is POTA site CA-0316. I had a good evening activating the park and put 36 contacts in the log....before the bugs won the war, and drove me back into cover.
The next morning I started the long drive to Chutes Provincial Park. It was a beautiful day, with brilliant blue skies, and really enjoyable. It was a 620 km day and it took a little over 7 hours to do, thanks to the roadworks I had to navigate.
Once I arrived a Chutes I was surprised to get the very same campsite I had for my first night on the trip, so setup was a breeze as I knew how everything fit there.It didn't take long to get on the air, and soon had CA-0181 on the air before supper. The campsite was very quiet, I don't think very many people were staying there.
After supper I did a POTA late shift and got many contacts in the log before the inevitable rain hit, and it didn't stop for the rest of the night.
Tomorrow I have another 7 hour day on the road, but at the end of the day I'll be back home.
Stay Safe Out There!!
I did not get an activation done at Gull Lake last night as the campsite had a S9+20 noise floor and I couldn't hear a thing. This means that I have not managed to do a POTA activation in Alberta, west bound or east bound.
Today will be a short day, only 630 km, ending up in Deleau, Manitoba. This is a fantastic little campground that the regional municipality looks after. Well worth a stay, and they ask just a small donation to stay there!
Just before noon I arrived at the small village of Pontiex, this is the home of CA-1138, Notukeu Regional Park, and it had never been activated before. Well, it's activated now! I managed to put 21 contacts in my log in a little over 20 minutes. Propagation was still not the best, but with 10 screaming watts out of the KX3...it was on the air.
Tomorrow is my last day here on the West Coast, so I thought it was time to bring you all up-to-date on what has been happening here. The first five days it rained...typical Vancouver weather! It's only been the last 2 days the weather has become warm and decent.
I had planned to activate 10 parks in and around Vancouver, I've managed to do 8. There does not seen to be very many Hunters in this part of the country. Here there is nowhere near the response to our POTA CQ's as we get in Ontario.Over the last 18 days I have witnessed some of the worst propagation I have seen in my last 20 years in the hobby.....so that certainly hasn't helped.
In the end I finally got fed-up calling CQ on SSB, and switched to CW only. I ended up doing my first CW only activation. It was a bit nervous, and I believe there's a station in New Mexico who won't get credit for hunting me as I screwed up his callsign, but apart from that it went well.
I'm not sure what route I'm taking home yet, but both routes I'm looking at have many parks to activate....and a couple of ATNO's each.
Hopefully I'll be packed and out of here by 0700 tomorrow morning.
Stay tuned for more adventures across Canada!
Stay Safe Out There!!
It was a very wet night at Gull Lake, and the band conditions made activating the park quite difficult. I got absolutely soaked taking camp down the next morning, and was glad to start driving and warm up. Today I'm off on a trip through the Canadian Rockies.
My first POTA stop today was at CA-0005, Banff National Park. I made zero contacts in Banff as the noise floor was S9+20 at every spot I tried. So I gave up and moved on down the road. I was really looking forward to operating in Banff, perhaps next time!Second stop today was CA-0117, Yoho National Park. What a beautiful spot!!! But of course it was cloudy and raining.
The band conditions, once again, were not the best. The propagation was: SFI=162, SN=74, A Index=9, and the K Index=2. Lot's of deep QSB on the bands as well.
I managed to get 11 contacts in an hour before I had to leave and move on to the next park, CA-0028, Glacier National Park. This was my first failed activation. I managed to get one contact, Ken N5HA, in Leesville, LA. That was it, despite calling for an hour, I had no other hunters.
Two hours later I arrived at CA-0061, Mount Revelstoke National Park, another beautiful location. At this park I managed to get the bare 10 required contacts, and it only took 34 minutes.
Personally I'm finding that POTA is very different out west from what I'm used to in the Eastern part of our country. There does not seem to be as many operators doing POTA here. Perhaps SOTA is more active here given the mountains around this part of the country.
It's also quite difficult getting a signal out of these deep mountain valleys, which certainly isn't helping my activation count.
My first activation of the day was at CA-0628, Touchwood Hills Post Provincial Park. The park is quite small, and has no facilities at all, but is a great spot to stop and have lunch and play POTA.
I managed to put 12 in the log while I was there, but conditions on the bands were not the greatest. Todays propagation was:
SFI=176, SN=97, A Index=10, and the K Index=2.
A short distance down the road was the town of Raymore, Saskatchewan, where I activated CA-2816. This was an All Time New One, never activated before and I was determined to be the first to activate it. You see, the number 2816 has a special connotation to me, it was my Dad's WW2 RAF Squadron number, "2816 Squadron, RAF Regiment".....so you just know I had to get this one!!
This "park" is a bit of a joke. I'm not sure how it ever became a POTA Park. Its official name is: "Raymore Recreational Site"....but is simply a 45 meter by 18 meter gravel parking lot where they allow RV's to stop and spend the night.
Twelve contacts went into the log at CA-2816, including my first contact from back home, Steve VE3PTA. Surprisingly I also worked Jose, EA1BUL, from Spain, who I work a lot from my home parks around Kingston.
The rest of the day was spent driving towards Gull Lake, Saskatchewan, and my next nights camping.
Last night was not very enjoyable, today was even worse. After I grabbed a coffee in Wawa it started...with heavy rain like last night, combined with heavy pea-soup fog. This continued just about all day, I say "just about" because it started to snow around 1700 local. Yeah, the white stuff that should have been gone 2 months ago!
Today I managed to make a single 2m contact. It was in Thunder Bay on the VE3YQT repeater. Unfortunately I forgot to write down the gentleman's call or name.
I'm not equipped to camp in 2C (35F) weather, so I continued on from Kakabeka Falls Provincial Park where I was supposed to camp, and pushed on to Dryden, about two hours from the Manitoba border.
Needless to say, no POTA activations took place today, although there should be at least one tomorrow in the Brandon, Manitoba, area. It's a new one....never activated before, and I can't recall the POTA number at the moment.
I'm not too worried about the parks I missed today, I'll get them on the way home as I'm coming back the same route.
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The Wawa Goose this morning, in a rare, rain free, moment! |
My only 2m contact to date has been with Bob, VE3YX, in Deep River. I passed a pleasant 20 minutes chatting with him on the Point Alexander repeater on Highway 17. I guess nobody monitors repeaters these days.
My first night stop was at Chutes Provincial Park just outside of Massey, Ontario. This park is conveniently also a POTA park, CA-0181. After camp was set up I managed, under very bad propagation conditions to get 11 contacts in the log. Between local QRM from RV generators and the QSB it was a tough activation.
Very early the next day say me activate CA-1329, Brennan Harbour Conservation Reserve, near the town of Spanish. This was my first early shift activation, and this was the very first activation for the park. It's difficult to find. Again, the propagation wasn't the best, and once again only 11 contacts went into the log.
The drive that day was pretty uneventful, not much traffic at all on the roads. My lunch stop was at Batchawana Bay Provincial Park, CA-0147. Things had improved and while eating lunch put 17 contacts in the log.
My second night was spent at Lake Superior Provincial Park, but the weather was so bad no radio was attempted. The wind and rain howled all night, luckily I didn't get too wet.
Today I'm off to Kakabeka Falls Provincial Park, outside of Thunder Bay. It is a POTA park, so I will attempt to get it on the air tonight.
Off we go!
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Camp, the first night |
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The view of Batchawawa Bay |
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Batchawana Bay beach |
There are 10 days left before the "Great Trek West" occurs. So far I'm on track to leave on May 20th. A few pieces of equipment have made their way into my gear box for the trip over the past week.
First up was a new 40m EFHW antenna made for me by Jim, VE3ULC. I had a commercially made version for many years, and I could never get a good match with it. I think it was made with the wrong type of core to be very honest.This version is made with SOTA Beams yellow wire, thin, yet quite strong, and capable of handling 100w if needed.
So far this one had worked perfectly and has given me some great SWR matches.
Next up is a version of K4OGO's "Coastal 20", as made by Bob, VA3QV. This is an interesting antenna,
only 17.5' long with a 17' radial. I haven't used this yet, but Bob has used it on SSB and had QSO's with hams in Turkey, Alaska, and Hawaii with it.According to Bob it works from 40m through 10m.
I'm planning on using this antenna with my SOTA Beams Tactical Mini Mast, and I will be using more than one 17' radial with it. This will probably be my "go-to" antenna while I'm camping in provincial and national parks on the way across, due to its very small footprint.
Today I cleaned out the back of the truck, re-installed the floor and carpet, and got the bed back inside. I'm having a small leakage issue in the corner were the bed is, so I have had to install a length of tarp along the front and side to help protect the mattress from getting wet.
I still have to get the curtains installed, but that will wait for this weekend. There is also a string of LED lights to put in as well for nighttime operating back there.I'll do one more report once everything is loaded and ready to go. Once again I'm looking at following the Red Coat Trail across Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta. However, having said that, this years trip will be dictated by Forest Fire warnings and their posted detours.
Stay Safe Out There!!