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Upcoming Portable ops

By: VA3QV
12 September 2024 at 15:27

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.


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….


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

Upcoming Portable ops

By: VA3QV
12 September 2024 at 15:27

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.


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….


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

Multi-Tasking from the Park

By: VA3QV
5 September 2024 at 18:32

Life is great IF you can get everything happening when it should. Today was living of proof of having to improvise and adapt….

Liz (the patient one who tolerates/supports this hobby) had a follow up appointment at the Providence Care Health Facility here in Kingston for 1030 am… At 11am I was supposed to be the Net Control Station for the Trans Provincial Net on 7.100.

This is a conflict and I have to give priority to Liz…. But here was the solution and it worked…

I dropped her off at her appointment for 10:15 and then walked out the back door of the Health Facility and into POTA CA-6003 which is the Great Lakes Waterfront Trail.

In the above graphic the Health Care Facility if the Grey building and the Trail is the thin green line right below it.

I had activated from there before and knew which trees would work with what picnic tables.

And yes I had brought my “Transportable Station” with me….

The FT891 was quickly hooked up to the 20AH battery and my “HomeBrewed” EFHW was strung between the trees… I managed to make a couple of POTA Contacts on 40m before the TPN started up at 11am. (thanks for the 2fer Bill) I managed to wrangle up 9 Checkins to the net which is not too bad as I took the summer off from my regular 11 am shift.

After the net ended I managed a couple of POTA contacts on 20m SSB which made it a successful POTA activation along with keeping up with my obligations to the Net. At 12:15 Liz sent me a text telling me she was finished and to meet her in the coffee shop in the facility. At 12:30 I met her in the coffee shop and we headed back home.

All in all it was a busy but fun start to the day…

73bob

Multi-Tasking from the Park

By: VA3QV
5 September 2024 at 18:32

Life is great IF you can get everything happening when it should. Today was living of proof of having to improvise and adapt….

Liz (the patient one who tolerates/supports this hobby) had a follow up appointment at the Providence Care Health Facility here in Kingston for 1030 am… At 11am I was supposed to be the Net Control Station for the Trans Provincial Net on 7.100.

This is a conflict and I have to give priority to Liz…. But here was the solution and it worked…

I dropped her off at her appointment for 10:15 and then walked out the back door of the Health Facility and into POTA CA-6003 which is the Great Lakes Waterfront Trail.

In the above graphic the Health Care Facility if the Grey building and the Trail is the thin green line right below it.

I had activated from there before and knew which trees would work with what picnic tables.

And yes I had brought my “Transportable Station” with me….

The FT891 was quickly hooked up to the 20AH battery and my “HomeBrewed” EFHW was strung between the trees… I managed to make a couple of POTA Contacts on 40m before the TPN started up at 11am. (thanks for the 2fer Bill) I managed to wrangle up 9 Checkins to the net which is not too bad as I took the summer off from my regular 11 am shift.

After the net ended I managed a couple of POTA contacts on 20m SSB which made it a successful POTA activation along with keeping up with my obligations to the Net. At 12:15 Liz sent me a text telling me she was finished and to meet her in the coffee shop in the facility. At 12:30 I met her in the coffee shop and we headed back home.

All in all it was a busy but fun start to the day…

73bob

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