Recently a new yellow dot has popped up on the POTA map showing a new park in Gananoque, about 35 kms (22 miles) east of my home.  The POTA website showed it had been activated 3 times before, but only with digital modes, never SSB or CW.  

This park, CA-6346, Agnes Maule Macher National Historical Park, is not very big...in fact it's quite small. There is a small gravel parking lot that can hold maybe 8 or 9 cars if they all park correctly. As you can see in the photo on the left, the park is full of tall, mature, trees, all ready for a good wire antenna. I found a solitary picnic table there, and it's located right under a big shade tree. On the downside, there are no toilets there.....at all.

Today's propagation numbers were: SFI=260, SN=177, A Index=17, and the K Index=1. Definitely not the best, but certainly a lot better than the previous few days. There was also a lot of very deep QSB on all the bands.

No DX was worked, although I could faintly hear a EA2 station trying to call me on 20m, but he was so far below my noise floor I couldn't make out the call. 

I ended up with 26 contacts in the log, 23 SSB and 3 CW. I'm very pleased with this, given todays conditions. Hopefully the conditions will continue to get better and I can get back there and get more contacts another day.

Here's todays contact map:

Stay Safe Out There!!

The weather last night and today was superb, comfortably warm, with a light breeze and blue skies. Great weather for being outside playing radio.

Propagation wise it was good on Saturday until 1530 UTC, after that contacts were very hard to get as the conditions started to deteriorate.  The numbers were: SFI=202, SN=197, A Index=5, and the K Index=1. However, there was very deep QSB on the bands which certainly didn't help me.

One of the issues I'm finding here in the parks around Kingston is the fact that they are so busy in the summer. I know we're a tourist town, and it's good for business if the town is busy, but it gets difficult to find a parking spot in the parks unless you're there at the crack of dawn. Because they are busy it's also difficult to put up a wire antenna, I certainly don't want a lawsuit because some person, not watching where they're going, tripped over my radials or coax.

As my regular readers will know, my go-to antennas - for a long time - has been hamsticks, mounted on my truck's roof with a 5" mag-mount. I'm always surprised at how well they do, especially with 10w SSB. Last night, for a change, I dug out my Slidewinder coil with the 9.5' Buddipole whip, and used that. While it makes changing bands very easy, and it works very well, I didn't notice any significant improvement over my hamsticks.

We'll see how they do tomorrow....if the bands are usable again.

Stay Safe Out There!!

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.

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!!

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.

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.

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.