Remember yesterday when I mentioned the latest addition to my POTA setup, the Xiegu 5105 QRP rig….

Well this morning I decided to test it out and see how much work I would have to do with setting the parameters such as mic gain, processor, to make it sound like me… I was also testing out my EARCHI 9:1 unun with a 29.5 foot random wire to see how it would play with the built in AT of the 5105.

I figured I might as well do the testing at a POTA location just in case I was able to turn the test into an activation.

For this I chose Fort Frontenac POTA CA-5303. Its fairly easy to get there via the Kingston Transit system and its also close to downtown and all the amenities I might need. In the North East corner of the picture you will notice some white lines on the ground.

They are actually the walls of what’s left of that part of the Fort. Also the only parts of the Historic Site that is open to the public.

I leaned my MFJ 33 foot mast (supporting the 9:1 and wire in the vertical configuration) up against the tree.

And then ran the COAX over to the remains of the wall and set up my radio there and started operating.

My first contact was on 7.255 with the NCS of the ECARS net. He did hear me and considering I was QRP I was pleased. He did tell me that my audio seemed hot as if I was overdriving things. Lowering my voice seemed to help.

After that I looked at POTA Spots and managed to get W2IDG and VE3FI into the log from their parks and then finished up with the NCS of the MidCars net on 7.258.. All contacts were made on 40m SSB. I tried 20 SSB and was hearing lots of stations including a POTA Activation in VO1 but no luck breaking any of the pileups.

Then I figured it was time to get home and try to re configure the radio to my liking… I turned off the Speech Processor and lowered the Mic Gain from 60 to 40. Over the next few days I will get out again and see what else I have to do to get things sounding right.

Till then

73bob

People who know me have heard me say that after all these years there are 3 radios I have sold that I actually regret selling. Well now there are only 2 radios that I regret selling…

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Welcome the Xiegu X5105 back into my portable shack…

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Between my FT991a and my FT891 there was a bit of a gap. The Yeasu FT891 Portable Station was a bit too heavy for my old bones. I needed something in a lighter backpack to make it easier to carry if I was to choose to activate one of the local POTA Parks here in Kingston.

The above pic shows my old X5105 with the Bandspringer attached

The Xiegu X5105 fills that gap. With the built in battery pack, the built in automatic antenna tuner along with the contest keyer and the built in CW Decoder it makes it a dream portable station.

My antennas are a 40m EFHW made with 28ga wire and a QRP AMAZON 49:1 unun. I also can use a 29foot end fed random wire using a QRP EARCHI 9:1 unun.

I also have the SOTABeams Bandspringer antenna that plugs right into the antenna input and uses the built in tuner to operate between 10m and 60m.

So what’s the other two radios you might ask?

Above is my first QRP setup. FT817, LDG QRP Autotuner.

If I could work a deal for a Yaesu FT817 and a Flex 1500 it would complete the list. However used rigs are pricy and it seems most hams think that radios seem to appreciate with age so like I mentioned above it has to be a good deal for both the seller and myself.

73bob

People who know me have heard me say that after all these years there are 3 radios I have sold that I actually regret selling. Well now there are only 2 radios that I regret selling…

.

Welcome the Xiegu X5105 back into my portable shack…

.

Between my FT991a and my FT891 there was a bit of a gap. The Yeasu FT891 Portable Station was a bit too heavy for my old bones. I needed something in a lighter backpack to make it easier to carry if I was to choose to activate one of the local POTA Parks here in Kingston.

The above pic shows my old X5105 with the Bandspringer attached

The Xiegu X5105 fills that gap. With the built in battery pack, the built in automatic antenna tuner along with the contest keyer and the built in CW Decoder it makes it a dream portable station.

My antennas are a 40m EFHW made with 28ga wire and a QRP AMAZON 49:1 unun. I also can use a 29foot end fed random wire using a QRP EARCHI 9:1 unun.

I also have the SOTABeams Bandspringer antenna that plugs right into the antenna input and uses the built in tuner to operate between 10m and 60m.

So what’s the other two radios you might ask?

Above is my first QRP setup. FT817, LDG QRP Autotuner.

If I could work a deal for a Yaesu FT817 and a Flex 1500 it would complete the list. However used rigs are pricy and it seems most hams think that radios seem to appreciate with age so like I mentioned above it has to be a good deal for both the seller and myself.

73bob

Last night around 9pm I was browsing Amazon and found the same 64:1 unun that I use with my 40m EFHW. This antenna is my primary antenna for my “Transportable/POTA” setup with my FT891.

I decided that the last one worked so well for me that it was time to see if the 1st one was the real deal or a fluke.

Around noon today I checked my front door and found the Amazon Fairy had magically made the new 64:1 unun appear sometime between 10am (last time I checked for it) and noon.

I had a spare 100 foot roll of Princess Auto 18ga insulated wire in the shack and as a bonus for my home environment is was even green.

I quickly measured out 64 feet and then did the connection things. As with most of Eastern North America it was a rather wet day.

Around 4pm locally the rain stopped and I was able to remove the old wire and install the new antenna, once again using the fir trees on the edge of my yard for camo as not draw attention to the antenna.

The SWR is pretty good especially for a wire hidden in the branches:

6m – 2.5:1, 10m – 1.7:1, 12m- 1.2:2, 15m – 1.6:1

20m – 2.0:1, 40m – 1.3:1, 80m – 3.0:1

The bands are not the best, but signal reports (90w output pwr) were fairly well (S7-S9+) with the stations that I was able to contact.

All in all for what it is…. I’m impressed and the best part is that using the built in auto tuner on my Yaesu FT991a I can easily bring it down to 1:1 on all the bands listed above.

The results are the same on my Yaesu FT891 with the same style of balun and a 64 foot length of quality (Red) Princess Auto 18 ga automotive wire. The only real difference is that as I use the 891 with no tuner I have to be careful on some of the bands.

As the new install gets more use I will let you know if there are any “issues” with its performance.

73bob

Last night around 9pm I was browsing Amazon and found the same 64:1 unun that I use with my 40m EFHW. This antenna is my primary antenna for my “Transportable/POTA” setup with my FT891.

I decided that the last one worked so well for me that it was time to see if the 1st one was the real deal or a fluke.

Around noon today I checked my front door and found the Amazon Fairy had magically made the new 64:1 unun appear sometime between 10am (last time I checked for it) and noon.

I had a spare 100 foot roll of Princess Auto 18ga insulated wire in the shack and as a bonus for my home environment is was even green.

I quickly measured out 64 feet and then did the connection things. As with most of Eastern North America it was a rather wet day.

Around 4pm locally the rain stopped and I was able to remove the old wire and install the new antenna, once again using the fir trees on the edge of my yard for camo as not draw attention to the antenna.

The SWR is pretty good especially for a wire hidden in the branches:

6m – 2.5:1, 10m – 1.7:1, 12m- 1.2:2, 15m – 1.6:1

20m – 2.0:1, 40m – 1.3:1, 80m – 3.0:1

The bands are not the best, but signal reports (90w output pwr) were fairly well (S7-S9+) with the stations that I was able to contact.

All in all for what it is…. I’m impressed and the best part is that using the built in auto tuner on my Yaesu FT991a I can easily bring it down to 1:1 on all the bands listed above.

The results are the same on my Yaesu FT891 with the same style of balun and a 64 foot length of quality (Red) Princess Auto 18 ga automotive wire. The only real difference is that as I use the 891 with no tuner I have to be careful on some of the bands.

As the new install gets more use I will let you know if there are any “issues” with its performance.

73bob

There has been lots happening and no time to keep you in the loop and so here (once again) is the “Coles Notes” version.

The POTA Support your Parks event went better than I expected.

There were some family issues that kept me from taking my FT891 out into the local parks for activation.

However I did manage (as a hunter) to get 35 activators in my log with resulted in 6 new parks in my log as I slowly (very slowly) get towards the 3000 unique Parks in my log.

A bit of a “shucks” happened when a deal I had made for some new equipment for the shack fell through.

The other party (to his credit) cancelled the deal when he found out there was problem with the radio I was about to acquire from him.

It will need major repairs and most likely will not be finding its way into my shack.

And the final “downer” for the week happened yesterday. I entered a contest at our local FM broadcast radio station with the prize being a trip for 2 on a River Cruise along the St Lawrence River and last week they informed me that I won the trip for 2. Liz and I started to make plans

Yesterday I got given notice that the cruise had been cancelled and on the Radio Stations website I found this:

The radio stations, and its TV affiliate has laid off most/all of their on air staff as their Parent Company Corus Entertainment tries to restructure so they can stay afloat (no pun intended).

This is part an an email sent to me (the day after I got notified by the ticket agent that they had cancelled) by Corus which reads as follows”

“I want to thank you for supporting 96.3 BIG FM, and for purchasing tickets to the boat cruise.  Due to recent staff changes, we don’t think it’s the appropriate time to be holding a party boat cruise and have decided to cancel the event.“

Liz was looking forward to the evening out and we will still go somewhere but our feet will stay dry. (a small pun intended here)

Thinking about an earlier “3 Hour Cruise” from the past…has me thinking that keeping dry might be a good thing .

This would be the Punny side of life I guess…

73bob

There has been lots happening and no time to keep you in the loop and so here (once again) is the “Coles Notes” version.

The POTA Support your Parks event went better than I expected.

There were some family issues that kept me from taking my FT891 out into the local parks for activation.

However I did manage (as a hunter) to get 35 activators in my log with resulted in 6 new parks in my log as I slowly (very slowly) get towards the 3000 unique Parks in my log.

A bit of a “shucks” happened when a deal I had made for some new equipment for the shack fell through.

The other party (to his credit) cancelled the deal when he found out there was problem with the radio I was about to acquire from him.

It will need major repairs and most likely will not be finding its way into my shack.

And the final “downer” for the week happened yesterday. I entered a contest at our local FM broadcast radio station with the prize being a trip for 2 on a River Cruise along the St Lawrence River and last week they informed me that I won the trip for 2. Liz and I started to make plans

Yesterday I got given notice that the cruise had been cancelled and on the Radio Stations website I found this:

The radio stations, and its TV affiliate has laid off most/all of their on air staff as their Parent Company Corus Entertainment tries to restructure so they can stay afloat (no pun intended).

This is part an an email sent to me (the day after I got notified by the ticket agent that they had cancelled) by Corus which reads as follows”

“I want to thank you for supporting 96.3 BIG FM, and for purchasing tickets to the boat cruise.  Due to recent staff changes, we don’t think it’s the appropriate time to be holding a party boat cruise and have decided to cancel the event.“

Liz was looking forward to the evening out and we will still go somewhere but our feet will stay dry. (a small pun intended here)

Thinking about an earlier “3 Hour Cruise” from the past…has me thinking that keeping dry might be a good thing .

This would be the Punny side of life I guess…

73bob

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This weekend is the Summer Support your Parks event. Basically get on the air and Hunt Activators from the comfort of your shack and/or Activate some parks and let the Hunters find you.

Below is a “Cut N Paste from the POTA Website

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Support Your Parks

This event happens seasonally, on the 3rd full weekend of the month (Saturday & Sunday UTC). These are ‘activity weekends’ where the main purpose is to get out in the parks, and have as much fun as possible.

• Winter – 3rd Full Weekend of January. January 18-19, 2025
• Spring – 3rd Full Weekend of April. April 19-20, 2025
• Summer – 3rd Full Weekend of July. July 20-21, 2024
• Autumn – 3rd Full Weekend of October. October 19-20, 2024

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For myself the plan (remember plans can change without notice) is to spend some time on Friday night as a hunter and then on Saturday as an activator spread some RF out in a couple of the local Kingston Parks.

The below map shows the local parks (Yellow Dot)

If the band conditions co operate I hope to hear you on the air and also get you in my log.

Keep an eye on the POTA Spots pages

73bob

Traditionally held on “The Last Rainy Weekend” in June but for the sticklers for the rules its actual date is the 4th weekend in June…

This year it would be on June 22nd and ending on June 23rd

So what will VA3QV be doing???? Its safe to say that my Field Day Station will look a bit like this:

or like this from back in 2017….

So I plan to be operating as a 1B Battery Station from the RAC Ontario East Section (ONE)

The actual location has not been determined yet but there is a good chance the location could be one of the Parks on the Air location in the City of Kingston.

That’s the plan for good weather… and so far the long range forecast is calling for nice (dry). If the weather is not dry then the plan is to operate as a home station in the 1D catagory just to give out points to the participants

If you are new at this then the rules can be found here:

Years ago Field Day was considered a test of our emergency operating skills specifically to set up and operate a station for 24 hours and somehow it has morphed into more of contest with groups of operators putting up equipment that would not be used in a real emergency at power levels that could not be maintained unless you had a generator and an endless supply of gasoline.

I’m a little more primitive by setting up my QRP (5w of power) radio with a wire antenna and using a solar panel to top up the battery as needed.

I will have the option of being under cover (see above pic) as protection from the sun and/or rain most likely be needed at some time . Not sure how long I will be operating but it won’t be for the full 24 hours.

Overnight all I would be doing is listening to static and feeding the mosquitoes…

No egos to stroke…. Just operate and make some contacts with the emphasis of having fun and not taking myself too seriously.

Hope to hear you and be heard by you during the event

73bob

The weather this weekend was not nice enough (for me) to seriously consider taking the Portable Station out any of the local POTA Parks as I had previously mentioned. Although the temps were above the freezing mark I find the cold harsher now and it was a bit too cold for me to be sitting at a picnic table.

Now it was not as bad as the above but it sure felt like it so…

So my Plan “B” was to just operate from the shack and give out contacts….

So starting on Saturday (0000hrs utc) I started spinning the dial and giving out contacts to whoever I could hear in whatever contest/event they were participating in. Contacts were made in the following contests/event:

POTA Support Your Parks, Ontario QSO Party, Michigan QSO Party, Nebraska QSO Party and the Quebec QSO Party. A few Special Event Stations were also in the log as well.

All the contacts were given a 5/9 ON exchange with the Ontario QP Participants getting a “5/9 FRO (Frontenac County)”.

I managed to give out 40 OQP exchanges .

The POTA activators were really busy and I found (in some cases) hard to break the pileups. That part of our hobby is growing in leaps and bounds. I hope that some of the newer operators were not discouraged by the sheer numbers of stations calling.

According to my records I managed to raise my Unique Parks worked count to 2565 logged. Slowly heading towards the 3000 mark which is my next goal.

With the promises (would the Weather Person lie to me?) of better (warmer/dryer) weather in the next week I am still planning to give the Portable station’s new 17 1/2 foot vertical a testing out from the field. Don’t know which day (yet) as the band conditions have to cooperate along with a bit warmer weather from “Mother Nature”

Hope to get you in the log soon

73bob

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