Its another gig sitting my “Grand Kittens” for my daughter as she and her hubby will be out of town from September 20th for a week. I guess I did a good job when they went to Cuba last January so I got invited back… I will be operating /p from Ottawa from September 21st to September 27th.

Most of my operating will be from September 23rd onwards.

As you can see from the above pic… they like having me around (one cat at least)

This time its a bit different because the car will be going with them to their rental cottage which is about 2 hours north of Ottawa.

However I plan to take both my Portable Station and my Transportable Station with me so I can activate some POTA locations with the Xiegu X5105 and also use my Yaesu FT 891 as I control the Trans Provincial Net for my 11am slot.

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Before we go any further please remember that all my RF Plans you will see below are if the weather is good. I don’t like operating outside in the rain and neither do my radios….

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The closest park to where they live is a City Park and not a POTA park.

The park has two sport fields and they have bleachers so it will be easy as I will have somewhere to sit along with strap my MFJ 33 foot mast to so the EFHW will have some altitude.

That will allow me to act as NCS with a 100w station with a full size antenna.

Once the net is over I will be packing up and heading back to the apartment for lunch. In the afternoons…. Once again if the weather is cooperating I plan to take the X5105 out to one or two of the local POTA Parks for a couple of hours. Check POTA Spots….

Due to the fact of not having access to a vehicle I will be heading out either on foot or public transport. After checking the POTA map it seems there are quite a few POTA sites that are fairly easy to access via the Bus and LRT service. However a few of the “Locals” have mentioned that they might pick me up and we could do an activation as a group so you never know.

They say that “getting there is half the fun” and this might be the case.

Stay tuned…

73bob

Yes its an old picture but the hobby has been fun since the 1990’s

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

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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

With the HF band conditions as they are today:

It might be a good thing that this weekend seems like its going to be a VHF Weekend.

Saturday and Sunday our local repeater group are assisting the Rideau Lakes Cycle Tour on Saturday and Sunday.

Long time readers of this blog (thank you) will remember that this Tour has been running for many years now and 3 Amateur Radio Groups assist by providing communications for it.

The tour starts in Ottawa (Ottawa Amateurs step up) (VE2CRA Repeater)and take the back roads to Perth Ontario (Perth ARES Group) (VE3KJG repeater) and then from there take the back roads to Kingston (where the Frontenac Amateur Radio Club is located) (VE3FRG Repeater) and spend the night at Queens University.

The map is not exact…. Just shows where the tour starts and finishes

Sunday morning they do the trip in reverse…. Depart Kingston for Perth and then arrive in Ottawa on Sunday late afternoon

For my part I will be at the Saturday Finish at Queens University and will be back again at Queens at 6am for the Start of the Return trip to Ottawa.

But (if you read my previous post) this weekend is also the ARRL June VHF Contest so….

Once I get home after the Saturday shift and my Sunday shift of the Bike Tour I will be trying to give out the rare “FN14” grid square on 2m, 6m and 70cm. No beams here but its the best I can get away with here.

Enjoy your weekend and I hope to get you in my log…

73bob

This weekend is the ARRL June VHF contest. Its a fun way to test our your VHF Capabilities and your antenna systems…

The following is a “cut N paste” from the ARRL Website:

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About

Contest Objective: For amateurs in the US and Canada (and their possessions) to work as many amateur stations in as many different 2 degrees x 1 degree Maidenhead grid squares as possible using authorized frequencies above 50 MHz. Stations outside the US & Canada (and their possessions) may only work stations in the US (and its possessions) and Canada.

Dates: The second full weekend in June. (June 8-10, 2024)

Contest Period: Begins 1800 UTC Saturday, ends 0259 UTC Monday.

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Now this is a busy weekend for me (radio wise) as the Rideau Lakes Cycle Tour will be in Kingston during that time and its the only scheduled Public Service Event that our local group does every year.The picture on the left was taken the first year I assisted the Kingston Group on the event. Previous to that I lived in Ottawa and I participated with the Ottawa Group on the same event.

But lets get back to the contest for a bit:

First of all…. Head over to the ARRL website for the latest update and the full rules for the Contest.

Click on the ARRL logo below for the Rules PDF

Using my Yaesu FT991a I plan to be giving out the “Rare FN14” Grid square on both 2m and 6m SSB.

On Saturday my Bike tour shift will finish around 6pm (EDST) or 2200 (UTC) if I did the conversion correctly… So I plan to operate from 2300 UTC for a couple of hours.

On Sunday my tour will finish around 9am (EDST) or 1300 (UTC) once again if the conversion works and will try again then around 1400 UTC once I get home.

My 2m/70cm antenna will be a simple Halo or loop which will be horizontal at approx 20 feet above ground. The 991a has an output of 50w ssb on 2m. As the loop is “sort of” useable on 70cm I will be able to give some locals an extra multi.

My 6m antenna will be a simple “Buddipole 6m Dipole. The 991a has an output of 100w ssb so it should be able to get a bit of a signal out across the Lake (at least I hope it will).

Later tonight there is a vhf net that starts on 144.250 usb that is based in Eastern Ontario. Check out the West Carleton Amateur Radio Club for more into on that. After that they call the role on 70cm and 6m. I stand a change on 6m and 2m if someone has their beams aimed southwest. More on how this works later.

Lets see who can hear the “Popgun” with the tiny antennas…

73bob

In the realm of IT, there are best practices for managing system outages, and then there are examples of what not to do. The recent actions of the ARRL exemplify the latter. Today, HQ released an update stating that they were “the victim of a sophisticated network attack by a malicious international cyber group” and that they “quickly established an incident response team.” However, it took them 21 days to provide this detailed update.

As an IT professional, I have encountered numerous challenges and learned valuable lessons over the years. One of the most critical aspects of managing an outage is communication—clear, frequent, and transparent communication. It is essential to over-communicate during such times. Additionally, having a visible leader who represents the response effort is crucial. An effective “incident response team” should not only consist of technical experts working behind the scenes but also include individuals who manage communications, reassure stakeholders, and provide key information such as estimated restoration times.

ARRL has often been subjected to unwarranted criticism, but this situation is a result of their own missteps. I question whether the attack was all that sophisticated, sensing that it was a common ransomware attack. We await the final report for details, assuming it is made public. While technical shortcomings can be understandable and even forgivable, the poor communication and lack of transparency in this instance are not. The recurring sentiment from ARRL, echoing past incidents, seems to be, “You don’t need to know.”

This article was originally posted on Radio Artisan.

This is a direct “Cut N Paste” from the ARRL Website with an update on whats happening WRT the recent hack attack

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ARRL Systems Service Disruption

05/29/2024

Updated 5/29/2024

This update includes information about the status of several services as we continue to respond to a serious incident involving access to our network and systems.

The ARRL Volunteer Examiner Coordinator (ARRL VEC) has resumed the processing of Amateur Radio License applications with the FCC. A more comprehensive update on the status of ARRL VEC services is available here.

There has been no interruption to visitor operating at W1AW, the Hiram Percy Maxim Memorial Station. The station resumed voice bulletins on Thursday, May 23. All other scheduled transmissions, including Morse code practice, and code and digital bulletins, will resume on Thursday, May 30. Please refer to the regular operating schedule at www.arrl.org/w1aw-operating-schedule.

After last week’s distribution of the ARRL Letter, our e-newsletter service has resumed. Current editions of ARRL Club News and The ARES® Letter have also been distributed.

ARRL Store orders have resumed shipping. Orders are being fulfilled from earliest order dates to the latest. Please allow additional time for our processing.

There has been no disruption to the @arrl.net email forwarding service, though forwarding email addresses and aliases cannot be modified at this time.

Our telephone system is unavailable at this time.

We appreciate your patience as we continue working on restoring access to affected systems and services.

This story will be updated with new developments.

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Thanks to the ARRL for the update

73 bob

Unfortunately, a few days after Carl W3HC (ex-W3HCW) celebrated his 100th birthday, he fell ill, declined rapidly, and passed away. We can’t complain as he lived a full life and got to enjoy a beer at his birthday party.

Photo credit: Karen Vibert-Kennedy, Williamsport Sun Gazette

Carl was an avid photographer all his life. The Williamsport Sun Gazette featured an article and video on his time in Berlin during World War II, taking photographs. While in a bombed out home, he found a roll of film which he took home and later developed. He was shocked to discover the photos were taken by a German photographer and even included pictures of Himler, who was the #2 in Germany at the time. Many of his photos are featured on his Flickr site.

I owe my grandfather a lot of gratitude as he’s the one who got me into amateur radio which led to me getting my first two jobs in wireless and communications, and laid the foundation for a rather successful career. I continue to be active in amateur radio, with QRP, field operation, circuit design, open source software development, and homebrewing equipment being my favorite activities.

Carl was first licensed in 1956 as WN3HCW, back when Novice calls had the WN prefix. After upgrading to Technician, the FCC dropped the N and he became W3HCW. Later in the 90s when he upgraded to Extra he shortened his call to W3HC. During my time with him as a youngster and teenager, he operated nearly all HF phone and enjoyed DXing, but he also did a lot of 6 meter AM work in the 60s. He operated the W3HCW QSL Fund which funded QSL cards for DX stations, and he was a QSL manager for about 130 stations over the years.

Carl McDaniel, W3HC, SK at 100 years and 6 days. dit dit

This article was originally published on Radio Artisan.

Mount Tamalpais is a 2,571 foot landmark situated above Marin County in California’s coastal mountain range. Known locally as Mt. Tam, the mountain has been a refuge from busy city life in San Francisco for more than a hundred years. The Coast Miwok people, who lived around the mountain prior to European settlement of the Bay region, gave the mountain its name which roughly translates to “coast mountain.”

Earlier this year, in March 2024, it was my intention to activate Mt Tamalpais State Park (US-1178), however foul weather prevented me. Today the mountain was more inviting with lots of blue skies and mountainside grasses still green from Spring rains.

Just off West Ridgecrest Boulevard there is a picnic area set on a forested hilltop that offers a little elevation and tables to set up a field radio station. Though I had a 20 meter EFHW antenna, it seems the arborist throw line didn’t make it into the kit, so those good looking trees would not be able to support my antenna today.

Plan B for the antenna was a ground mounted vertical on a tripod. Winds were fairly light, and the trees surrounding the site offered some shelter to help keep the 17 foot telescoping whip from toppling over.

I’d forgotten how difficult the vertical antenna can be to tune up over the rocky, low conductivity ground on the mountain. In fact, without an antenna analyzer I was really having a hard time getting the MFJ whip to tune up. Eventually, I switched out the whip for the Gabil GRA-7350T loaded whip vertical which gave me better control over the tuning.

Up to this point, I’d taken the QMX radio on several POTA activations conducted from my vehicle at the Presidio of San Francisco National Historic Site (US-7889) but this would be the first time it saw use in the proper out of doors environment.

Knowing that cell service can be very spotty up on Mt. Tam I scheduled the activation ahead of time on pota.app. I was beginning to think the RBN was not going to pick me up so I took advantage of Sotamat to spot the activation using the Garmin inReach service.

The QMX performed well and after about an hour of operating, the activation was complete with a total of 13 QSOs spread across 20m, 17m, 15m, and 12m. I would have moved up to give 28 Mhz a try but signals weren’t all that great and it was starting to get a little chilly.

The wooded hillsides and grassy meadows of Mt. Tam are home to deer, elusive mountain lions, soaring hawks, and even wild turkeys. The rocky outcrops of Serpentine provide ample opportunity for a multitude of lizards to warm themselves in the strengthening springtime sun.

Here a single California Poppy, the official State flower, thrives in a crevice of Serpentine, the official State rock.

Mount Tamalpais offers colorful and surprising vistas of San Francisco and the Bay Area.