Chillycon is an annual event organized by the Ottawa Valley QRP Society. Camping and QRP amateur radio at the Rideau River Provincial Park about30 minutes drive south of Ottawa. Lots of fun. I wasn’t able to attend this year but here’s an excellent video from Chris VA3CME which I am sure you will enjoy!
Why not join us next year?
Here’s the internet home of the Ottawa Valley QRP Society:
This event is open to all and if you would like to join us, please contact me (va3sie at rac dot ca) and I will make sure you’re on the email list. If you’re booking tent camping accommodation there are two sectors: Franceville and Grande Ourse. Grande Ourse is rustic (access is 3km hike), no showers, pit toilet. Franceville is more comfortable You can book those through SEPAQ here. There is also an option to book here which may be better suited to families. It’s around 25km from the park.
There are two 10 point SOTA summits in the park, the main summit is Mont Mégantic VE2/ES-003 and its twin mountain is Mont St-Joseph VE2/ES-020. I plan to activate one of those summits on Saturday. This will be a challenging hike (for me), 10 points is the maximum score for a summit and reflects the size of this hike! I expect that the activation itself will take most of the day (2 hours ascent, 3 hours playing SOTA, 2 hours descent).
On Saturday evening, we plan to get together for a group meal somewhere, a good chance to meet and share tall tales with fellow VE2 summiteers.
I drove up to the Étienne Brûlé Lookout in Gatineau Park and thew an 88′ doublet into the trees. I operated the KX3 from a picnic bench. It was a beautiful afternoon, just me and black fly #1, black fly #2, …, black fly #1,000,000. This was a good chance to put the KX3 through its paces.
Or watch full screen in High Definition:
I tried:
Scanning the receiver through a quiet band (20m SSB),
Through a busy band (40m SSB), demonstrating how well it deals with strong QRN,
Receiving 10m propagation beacons (28.174MHz is VE3TEN, a local beacon),
Transmitting through a 10m FM repeater located in the US (don’t know which one!)
This was Bob’s first SOTA activation… I think he enjoyed himself
Or watch full screen in High Definition:
We operated for one hour and then we ate lunch during a thunderstorm as rolling thunder and lightning passed overhead. After a light rain shower, the sky cleared and we were able to put another hour of operating in before the main storm came thundering in…
First Hour
As I was trying to throw a weight over just the right tree branch… Bob VA3QV picked up the husband and wife team of Herm KB1RJC and Merle KB1RJD with his FT-817 quick-deploy station featuring a PAR end-fed.
I then picked up the video camera and taped Bob pulling in Rich N4EX and Dennis WA2USA to make Bob’s *FIRST* SOTA activation official.. thanks for being there, guys!!
I videoed Bob pulling in NS7P Phil, W7CNL Jack, AJ5C Bob and WI2W Steve … all on 20m SSB.
As Bob was rounding things off, I put down the camera and fired up my new KX3 and tried some 20m SSB (a new mode for me as I had a KX1 with me on previous outings) with 5 Watts (I’m using a tiny wee battery for now). I got some excellent audio reports, so I had good mic gain & compressor settings I guess.
Steve was 5×9 +20dB, he gave me a 4×6 report from New Jersey. Not bad for 5W SSB. Bob had received a 4×4 report earlier so I guess the EDZ was performing a little better into NJ than the end fed.
Guy N7UN in NY showed up next. Guy was 5×9 and gave me a 5×3 report. I think this is the first time that I have worked Guy on SSB (Thanks, KX3!) – I’ve hiked with Guy before on the Appalachian Trail (a short day-hike up to the Catfish fire tower from the Mohican Outdoor Center in the Delaware Water Gap in NJ…)
Finally, Rich N4EX gave me 5×5. Rich was 5×7 with me. This is the exact same report which Bob exchanged with Rich which is interesting. The EDZ appears to be on a par with the end fed vertical for longer paths and slightly better for shorter paths, I guess that makes sense since the EDZ is horizontal and it was quite low (1 wavelength).
A storm was approaching… I only had 3 QSOs in the log… was this to be a FAIL for VA3SIE??
I called and called CQ on SSB… I didn’t hear anyone reply but then again the storm was producing some massive QRN (though the KX3 was filtering most of it out).
I switched over to 20m CW as the sky got very dark and rumbles started and then spotted myself on SOTAWatch. Just as fat raindrops started hitting my KX3 (ouch!) I got a call from Barry N1EU.
Woo hoo! I managed to exchange signal reports and then send ‘TSTORM QRT’ and yanked the antenna connector out just as a huge rumble emitted from the clouds… so the activation was official. Sorry for disappearing on you, Barry!
I had exchanged a QSO both with Barry and Guy the day before during the KX3 Maiden Voyage. In both cases, I got a better signal report the day before
Propagation was a little different into NY/NJ on 20m today I guess.
While the storm passed, we ate lunch.
After a light rain shower, the skies cleared and we had bright hot sun once again, though there was another, bigger storm approaching.
The Second Hour
Bob called CQ on some of the other bands and then made a 6m contact while I opted to stay on 20m CW.
I got an RST 449 report from Woody WD9F in Springfield, IL and then Jack W7CNL gave me an RST 559 (Jack was RST 569). That’s marginally better than the 4×4 report that Bob got on SSB but the bands could have changed and after all CW comes through stronger than SSB.
I got a call from Fred (Cloud Runner) KT5X and Bob managed to get that on video … Fred gave me an RST 229 from New Mexico; Fred was RST 579 into VE2. Not surprising that signal reports from NM were poor when I was receiving NY & NJ so strong. Band was short today.
For the remainder of the activation, I managed contacts with AB0BM in IA, VA1WT Phil in Nova Scotia (I was just vacationing in Nova Scotia last week, we drove around the Cabot Trail… Beautiful!), an RST 539 from DJ5AV in Heiligenberg, Germany, Phil NS7P gave me an RST 339 from Elmira, OR (again the same signal report that Bob received – Phil was an RST 569) and finally, just as the next storm was making itself kown (THUNDER!)
N4LA was my last contact of the day, RST 449 from NC, Todd is a QRP Polar Bear… GRRRRRR, Todd !
This was my first experience of SSB doing SOTA and I must say I enjoyed it immensely. CW SOTA can be a little bit like contesting, especially at slow speed like mine… as the summit activator, you don’t want to spend too long on each QSO so you often end up just exchanging signal reports. With SSB there’s more time to chat… more relaxing too… perfect for a lazy 1 point summit!
Thanks to all the chasers, this was FUN FUN FUN!!!
Comments (2) 
You can book those through SEPAQ 
This was a good chance to put the 
illustrating CW decoding…
I managed to exchange signal reports and then send ‘TSTORM QRT’ and yanked the antenna connector out just as a huge rumble emitted from the clouds… so the activation was official. Sorry for disappearing on you, Barry!
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