Well the RAC Canada Day Contest is over for another year.
As with all the RAC Contests I set certain goals for my self and for this one was no different.
The goals were as follows:
HAVE FUN- This is a must. I am a casual operator and not a “dyed in the wool” contester. The main thing is to have fun and keep it friendly… This was not an issue and I had a blast working across Canada.
TRY AND WORK CANADA COAST TO COAST TO COAST-
Well almost… I had contacts in:VE1, VE2, VE3, VE4, VE5, VE6, VE7, VE8, VE9 and VO1. East Coast to the West Coast and the North West Territory.
Unfortunately this time VO2,VY0, VY1 and VY2 escaped me.
HAVE A SCORE IN THE TOP 50% OF MY CATAGORY. Needless to say that this time its not going to happen. I made contacts on 15m, 20m and 40m and they were good contacts…. I just needed more of them.
After about 9 hours of radio stretching it out over a 24 hour period it was all over. One of the lowest scores I will not be submitting but it was still fun.
Onwards and upwards so…. Happy 4th of July to my American Friends…. I’ve already gotten 7 of the 13 Colonies station in the log and I started chasing them today.
Check out their website for more information.
.
Then it looks like its back to “Playing Pota” again ….
73bob
If you remember my previous post where I commented:
“Onwards and upwards so…. Happy 4th of July to my American Friends…. I’ve already gotten 7 of the 13 Colonies station in the log and I started chasing them today.“
“Check out their website for more information.”
So it would seem that last evening I was lucky/skillful enough to get the remaining 6 colony stations in the log along with the WM2PEN Bonus Station in the log.
Last night I did hear the GB13COL Bonus Station on 20m ssb and could not break the pile up.
This morning I did hear the TM13COL Bonus on 15m cw but once again was unable to break the pile up.
So far out of the 14 contacts ( 13 colonies and 1 Bonus station) 3 contacts were made in CW and 11 were made using SSB.
Power levels are 90w for SSB and 40W for CW.
I’m (foolishly) feeling confident that before the event ends on July 7th I should be able to complete the SWEEP including the 3 bonus stations.
After all I only need 2 more…..
The last time I was able to do this was in 2022.
Once again Happy 4th of July to my Neighbors to the South
73bob
Well the RAC Canada Day Contest is over for another year.
As with all the RAC Contests I set certain goals for my self and for this one was no different.
The goals were as follows:
HAVE FUN- This is a must. I am a casual operator and not a “dyed in the wool” contester. The main thing is to have fun and keep it friendly… This was not an issue and I had a blast working across Canada.
TRY AND WORK CANADA COAST TO COAST TO COAST-
Well almost… I had contacts in:VE1, VE2, VE3, VE4, VE5, VE6, VE7, VE8, VE9 and VO1. East Coast to the West Coast and the North West Territory.
Unfortunately this time VO2,VY0, VY1 and VY2 escaped me.
HAVE A SCORE IN THE TOP 50% OF MY CATAGORY. Needless to say that this time its not going to happen. I made contacts on 15m, 20m and 40m and they were good contacts…. I just needed more of them.
After about 9 hours of radio stretching it out over a 24 hour period it was all over. One of the lowest scores I will not be submitting but it was still fun.
Onwards and upwards so…. Happy 4th of July to my American Friends…. I’ve already gotten 7 of the 13 Colonies station in the log and I started chasing them today.
Check out their website for more information.
.
Then it looks like its back to “Playing Pota” again ….
73bob
If you look at the above map you will be able to relate to the data I am giving you.
According to the data available from Parks on the Air there are (as of the time of writing this) there are 5896 Pota locations spread across Canada.
According to the data available from the Canadian Government there is a total of 88,876 Amateur Radio Licenses issued. However that does not mean that they are all active hams. Some are Club Calls, some are Repeater Calls, some people have more than one call (I hold VA3QV and VA3RCS), some are inactive and some are silent keys whose Callsign(s) have not been returned yet.
Here is the breakdown of the Call Districts along with the number of Licenses issued in that Province:
VO1/VO2 1581
… The Choice had to be made…
Field Day 2024 will be starting in 3 hours. In previous posts I had mentioned that I was either going to be operating as a 1B station or a 1D stations depending on the weather. “Mother Nature” helped me make the choice and its not nice (or smart) to argue with Mother.
The choice is “1D” and if you read the following from The Weather Network you will see why.
Special Weather Statement
Issued at Sat 8:59 AM Jun. 22
Issued by: Environment and Climate Change Canada
Description:
Significant rainfall possible this afternoon into Sunday.
Hazard:
Rainfall amounts of 30 to 50 mm. Locally higher amounts possible.
Timing:
This afternoon into Sunday.
Discussion:
The potential exists for multiple rounds of showers and thunderstorms this afternoon into Sunday. Local amounts exceeding 50 mm are possible. A rainfall warning may be required for some areas.
For information concerning flooding, please consult your local Conservation Authority or Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry office. Visit Ontario.ca/floods for the latest details.
Heavy downpours can cause flash floods and water pooling on roads.
Watch for possible washouts near rivers, creeks and culverts.
###
So there you have it….
Setting up in a Park to operate 1B in a Monsoon is one way to ruin my almost new FT891 seeing that as a general rule they don’t like water.
And to be honest it would not be fun for me either.
I still will be participating and hope to give out the rare exchange of 1D ONE to as many stations I can contact during the event. At home I have the chance to operate VHF, 6m, and the HF Bands that the Field Day rules allow.
So have fun, stay safe and make lots of contacts
73bob
… The Choice had to be made…
Field Day 2024 will be starting in 3 hours. In previous posts I had mentioned that I was either going to be operating as a 1B station or a 1D stations depending on the weather. “Mother Nature” helped me make the choice and its not nice (or smart) to argue with Mother.
The choice is “1D” and if you read the following from The Weather Network you will see why.
Special Weather Statement
Issued at Sat 8:59 AM Jun. 22
Issued by: Environment and Climate Change Canada
Description:
Significant rainfall possible this afternoon into Sunday.
Hazard:
Rainfall amounts of 30 to 50 mm. Locally higher amounts possible.
Timing:
This afternoon into Sunday.
Discussion:
The potential exists for multiple rounds of showers and thunderstorms this afternoon into Sunday. Local amounts exceeding 50 mm are possible. A rainfall warning may be required for some areas.
For information concerning flooding, please consult your local Conservation Authority or Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry office. Visit Ontario.ca/floods for the latest details.
Heavy downpours can cause flash floods and water pooling on roads.
Watch for possible washouts near rivers, creeks and culverts.
###
So there you have it….
Setting up in a Park to operate 1B in a Monsoon is one way to ruin my almost new FT891 seeing that as a general rule they don’t like water.
And to be honest it would not be fun for me either.
I still will be participating and hope to give out the rare exchange of 1D ONE to as many stations I can contact during the event. At home I have the chance to operate VHF, 6m, and the HF Bands that the Field Day rules allow.
So have fun, stay safe and make lots of contacts
73bob
I had been having some issues with SATPC32 and my iCOM IC-9700. Whenever I was running SATPC32 and RS-44 was active, for some reason if I used the rig’s VFO knob to tune around the passband, it would sometimes caused the Doppler adjustments to stop working. All the other satellites were just fine.
I went back to the recommended settings from the SATPC32 documentation and discovered I was twice their recommended baud rate. So I lowered things to 57600 baud. On my first test, that seemed to fix the problem with RS-44.
However, I also use that radio with WinLink and VARA FM. I knew that I was using CAT for PTT, so I needed to drop the baud rate down on that as well. Imagine my surprise at finding that 57600 baud didn’t exist as a valid value.
The fix was simple; change from PTT CAT control to COM control. I used the same COM port as I had used for CAT control (COM4 in my case), and selected the PTT pin as RTS. That worked just fine.
…. A “new” POTA Park…
For those of you not certain where Uxbridge Ontario is…. Look up for a map.
From the info given on the Global TV site (see above link) I am led to believe that this will be a “Day Use” Park but it will be a “Provincial Park” which means that when the work is complete and the park is opened to the public it will qualify as a POTA entity once it gets assigned a POTA Number.
Looking forward to getting another new park in my log
73bob
…. A “new” POTA Park…
For those of you not certain where Uxbridge Ontario is…. Look up for a map.
From the info given on the Global TV site (see above link) I am led to believe that this will be a “Day Use” Park but it will be a “Provincial Park” which means that when the work is complete and the park is opened to the public it will qualify as a POTA entity once it gets assigned a POTA Number.
Looking forward to getting another new park in my log
73bob
Sunday afternoon after I got home from the Rideau Lakes Cycle Tour I set my Buddipole up on my back deck.
Above pic shows the configuration but that’s not my deck…
It was set up as 6m dipole and was approx 20 feet off the ground. Using my Yaesu FT991a (my shack radio) I fired things up and spun the dial….
In a 30 minute time period I managed to get 9 Stations in the log. All of them were SSB contacts and they all were to the South West of my location.
Grid Squares EL87,EM31, EM53, EM73, EM90, EM94, EM98 were logged. And for the record Kingston Ontario (my home) is in FN14
I also tried 2m ssb with the 991 and my 2m halo but no luck hearing and being heard.
But still getting 9 contacts into the log using a simple dipole antenna in a small time period shows us why they call 6m the “Magic Band”
73bob
Sunday afternoon after I got home from the Rideau Lakes Cycle Tour I set my Buddipole up on my back deck.
Above pic shows the configuration but that’s not my deck…
It was set up as 6m dipole and was approx 20 feet off the ground. Using my Yaesu FT991a (my shack radio) I fired things up and spun the dial….
In a 30 minute time period I managed to get 9 Stations in the log. All of them were SSB contacts and they all were to the South West of my location.
Grid Squares EL87,EM31, EM53, EM73, EM90, EM94, EM98 were logged. And for the record Kingston Ontario (my home) is in FN14
I also tried 2m ssb with the 991 and my 2m halo but no luck hearing and being heard.
But still getting 9 contacts into the log using a simple dipole antenna in a small time period shows us why they call 6m the “Magic Band”
73bob
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