Comments (2)

By va3sie, August 12, 2011 2:56 pm

NOAA Timeline

Michel VE3EMB, Tom VA2EPR and I drove up the the parking lot at the base of Mont Morissette,  VE2/OU-014 in Quebec.  We climbed 150m to the summit on a paved road, steep in places, carrying our gear and beaconing on APRS from a fishing pole supported roll up J-pole attached to my backpack (see out track here).   When I got the the summit, I attached the J-pole to a fence to beacon our position during the activation.

When we got to the summit, Tom set up a 6m dipole and a 2m arrow beam antenna and proceeded to complete a QSO with Bob, VA3QV in Ottawa (read his account here) using 5W from his FT-817.  Tom also called CQ on 2m and 6m SSB for a while but was unable to raise any stations.  Bob was using a couple of loop antennas at roof height and 50W on 2m, 100W on 6m.

I tossed a couple of strings into a pair of tall trees and put up an 88′ doublet (EDZ on 20m) at around 40′ and Michel hooked up his Flex 1500 SDR radio and ASUS Notebook computer powered by 3 duct taped lantern batteries.  I also helped Tom to get his W3EDP antenna up high into the trees elsewhere on the summit.

Video courtesy of Tom, VA3EPR

At the start of the activation (1300Z), the bands were in bad shape, there was a G3 (Strong) solar flare the previous evening (Aug 5th 2200Z) and it was still affecting the bands in the morning (K index = 4).  At the start of the activation, signals on 20m were very very week and subject to persistent fading.  I could not hear a single station on 40m.  Michel was unable to work any PSK stations, so we decided to hook up my KX1 and try CW – I was sure that the chasers would be listening for us and that once we were spotted, the ball would start rolling.

Indeed, after calling CQ on 20m for a while, we were found by chaser NS7P and he was kind enough to spot us on sotawatch as RST 559 into Oregon.  Thereafter, we had the pleasure of working a string of chaser stations, many of whom spotted us on sotawatch.  I would start the QSO, ask the chaser to stand by and then hand over the KX1 to Michel who would make another exchange for this chaser points.  Michel soon got used to the KX1 paddles.  We reached our activation minimum pretty quickly and then we sat back to relax and enjoy the rest of the day at a more relaxed pace.  One memorable QSO was Mike VA6FUN, his signal just went QRT.  We later discovered that he had thunder & lightning and he had to yank the antenna cord out in a hurry

Meanwhile, Tom was working polar bears on 40m      He worked Blackjack Bear (Ken, WA8REI) and Dapper Bear (Micheal, VA2NB).  Ken and Micheal apparently share a psychic connection which means that they’re always on the same band at the same time… HI.  Tom was also working chaser stations who were too close for 20m skip on 40m.

We received a couple of calls on the repeater we were monitoring.  Mike VA3MPM called us up as he was driving home to his cottage near Mont Laurier and we arranged a cross-mode QSO on 20m, Mike was using SSB and we were using CW.  Jim, VE3XJ and Gord VE3XGD also called us and sent us APRS messages.

A little later in the afternoon, 20m was sounding stronger so we hooked up the PSK station and Michel was able to complete a PSK contact.  Then I heard Ed Breneisner WA3WSJ, author of the “Amateur Radio Pedestrian Mobile Handbook“.  He was pedestrian mobile (of course! ) on the beach in Cape Henlopen (the Dover Beached in Delaware).  We’ve vacationed in that park with Ed before.  In fact in the past I was pedestrian mobile on that beach while Ed was set up portable some meters away.  So I could very well picture Ed’s precise operating conditions.

Finally, we got a call from Chuck K4QS who confirmed that he could not hear us on 20m at the start of the activation but now we were coming in RST 559 into Virginia.

Thanks(!) to all the chasers who gave us such a fun day out hiking and participating in Summits on the Air.

Comments (3)

By va3sie, June 20, 2011 8:59 pm

Fariba and I headed for Frontenac Provincial Park this past weekend to do some portaging and canoe camping.  We got beautiful weather!  During the trip, we encountered a swimming snake, a large snapping turtle, sunfish protecting their nests, a chipmunk, four thousand mosquitos, four hundered deerfly, one deer and loads of interesting bugs.  And…  no bears

We had tons of fun canoeing in this beautiful park, we learned more back country skills/lessons, and of course I got to play radio.  After dinner on Saturday night I got a fire going, poured myself a generous 21 year old Scotch and fired up my KX1.  I was able to get my W3EDP up as a sloper up about 45′.   On Saturday night I heard Mike VA3MPM on the 3730 group net so I gave him a call.  Mike reported that my signal was pretty decent up at his cottage in VE2-land.

The bands were quite noisy but I was able to complete QSOs with AA8V Greg in Frostburg, MD…   KB1CL Wilbur near Boston, MA…   and a 2 X QRP QSO with WB9DLC Mike in IN with using his PFR3.   Finally, I did try a QSO with F3NB on 40m and was able to sneak into his log.

During Sunday morning breakfast (Outrageous Outback Oatmeal and Re-hydrated blueberries) I called into the Pot Hole Net.  Ed VE3GX was the net controller.  Unfortunately, Ed could not hear me well enough.   Mike VA3TJP jumped in and offered to relay me into the net but he was not acknowledged, I guess no one was hearing him either. I did enjoy listening along though…  I especially enjoyed Ernie’s comments about my University Town – Edinburgh, Scotland.  After the net officially closed I had a brief chat with Bob VA3QV and José VA3PCJ who were hearing me though not strongly.   I also tried to check in to the Pot Lid Net but I guess I missed the QNI call and Ed wasn’t hearing me in the last QNI call either

I heard all the stations, a couple of the net participants (VE3EJJ and VE3BNO) were actually painfully strong.  There’s absolutely no man made electrical noise in the park interior   …I did some antenna analysis and I think I know what I did wrong.  On 80m I had a 2.7:1 SWR when I had both my 16′ and 32′ counterpoises extended.  I coiled up the 32′ counterpoise and my SWR improved to 1:1 so I figured my signal would be stronger.  I just crunched the numbers in EZNEC and actually the antenna gain would have been -1.5dB *less* than if I had left the counterpoise extended. 

Anyway here are some detailed SSB signal reports for those stations I was receiving:

VA3PCJ 32 peaking 44
VE3EMB 22 peaking 33
VE3GX 43 peaking 55
VE3EJJ 58 peaking 59+
VA2BBW 56 peaking 58
VE3YY 59 peaking 59+
VA3TJP 59
VA3QV 32 peaking 44

After both nets I enjoyed another 2 X QRP contact, this time with Will K9FO who was running 5W from a Flex 1500 SDR.

All in all, a very fun camping trip!

Comments (1)

By va3sie, January 8, 2011 4:02 pm

I saw a tweet from Bob VA3QV this morning:

Bob's Tweet

Hmm, that sounds like fun!   But I had a boxing class so I could not go out and play in the snow.

Then I saw that Bob is going to return to the island another time and take along a different antenna configuration.  So a quick exchange of tweets later and I am signed up to join Bob for the next hike.  Yay!

We will operate as VA3RCS (VA3‘s in a Really Cold Spot)   using a couple of field-portable QRP HF stations (vertical antennas – it’s a tiny island), and we will monitor VE3MPC repeater on 147.150(+) and 444.4 (+).  Likely we will be participating in the Pot Hole Net from 1300Z to 1400Z and thereafter on 40m & 20m SSB & CW.  Look for our spot frequencies on qrpspots.com.

C.IS.A. stands for the Canadian Islands Award.  This program, administered by the Maple Leaf Radio Society, encourages island activity and island hunting in Canada and helps to stimulate operating activity around the world on the shortwave amateur radio bands.  When an island is activated for the first time, the operator should make a minimum of twenty-five contacts with amateur radio stations in two countries before a new number can officially be used.  That is the objective of tommorow’s activation.

Update: There was some confusion about the CISA rules but that has been resolved now. Our plan to make 25 QSOs in order to activate the island was perfectly legitimate, although there are some things we could have done better, we could for example have provided some notice so that island chasers would have known we were about. I will blog separately about how things went suffice to say it was *huge* fun … and I will be returning to Pig Island in future for another attempt. Details to follow!

Pig Island is the headquarters of the virtual archipelago of The Virtual Noocracy of the  Virtual Archipelago of Pig Island.  It is an island in the Rideau Canal in Ottawa which becomes the Rideau Canal Skateway.  The Rideau Canal Skateway holds the Guinness World Record as the world’s largest Heritage Site and the World’s Largest (no longer Longest) skating rink.

Here is an aprs.fi tracking map, and all going well VA3RCS will show up here on Sunday at 1430Z (9:30am Eastern):

Comments (0)

By va3sie, December 14, 2010 12:46 am

Mark VA3UMP had a great idea… and so… for the 2010 Radio Amateurs of Canada Winter Contest (RAC), and the December Polar Bear Moonlight Madness (PBMME), a group of polar bears including myself will set up a portable QRP station in and near the ‘Pines Cabin’ in Gatineau Park, Quebec. We will be using Ante’s callsign during the RAC contest: VA2BBW/P.

• Ante VA2BBW
• Martin VA3SIE
• Marc VA3UMP
• Scott VE3VVF
• Eric VA3AMX

We will hike in and carry the equipment in pulks.

Looks like we will have a range of transceivers:  Yaesu FT-817, Ten Tec ??, Yaesu FT-897, Hendricks PFR-3, Elecraft KX1.  We will have a number of different antennas on the go:  Fuchs EFHW, 88ft douoblet, Windom OCF dipole, PAC-12, wire antennas.  Lots of QRP toys to play with

We will be monitoring local repeaters VE2REH (IRLP 2018) and VE2CRA (IRLP 2040) as well as simplex FM channels 146.520MHz and 146.550MHz.

We will be beaching APRS from VA3SIE-7 and VA2BBW-7.

Weather forecast is looking pretty sweet (touch wood!!)

Weather Forecast

Real-time APRS Map

Photos of my gear, map & cabin

Gear Packed & Ready

Map showing hiking trail & cabin

Cabin in the Woods

Cabin Interior