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By va3sie, June 19, 2013 8:16 pm

Climbing up to the summit at Cairn Pat

On June 17th I set up my alexloop indoors to test out my SOTA station and make sure I had remembered to pack everything.  From indoors in Girvan I was able to complete a QSO with VE2DH in Montreal, Quebec (my report RST 339) at 2100Z and also with Ber, OH9NB in Rovaniemi, Lapland who gave me RST 569.   The radio was working!

This afternoon (June 19), Fariba, my mum and myself headed out for summits on the air activation at Cairn Pat which is summit reference GM/SS-218.  It’s only a one point summit at only 182m in height.   It was very easy to access, we drove down through Cairnryan and Stranraer until we came upon a paved access road which led about half the way up the hill.

At the summit, Martin & Fariba with the Alexloop

The weather was spectacular.  The weather report said 16°C but it felt much warmer in the hot sun, felt like mid twenties.   I got a bit of sunburn… yay!

The climb up was easy…  just the job for a relaxing holiday!

There was nowhere to park that would not have impeded either the water board (there’s a water facility there) or the farmer’s tractors so my mum decided to drop us off and meet up with us later after the activation.  Fariba and I crossed the gate and walked up the rough track towards the broadcast tower at the top of the hill.

I was able to fit the entire station into a Briggs & Riley Exchange 26 duffle bag which meets the international carry-on regulations for air travel and which converts into a backpack. 

My station consisted of:

• Elecraft KX3
• Alexloop (walkham version)
• Buddipole 4S2P 4.6Ah lithium iron phosphate  battery
• Heil BM-10 boom microphone

I unpacked the station components, set up a tripod and attached the Alexloop then I tuned up on 40m.

Sitting at the radio, making contacts with my headset and KX3 radio

I heard a pair of stations just finishing up a QSO.  Bob MI0RGN was a booming S9+20dB signal from Northern Ireland and he was chatting with Charlie MM0GNS/P who was around an S9.  I called in with 10W SSB using the alexloop and both Bob and Charlie were hearing me so the equipment was working.  Conditions were not the best, there was deep fading present on all signals, the remnants of a recent solar flare but I was able to rotate the loop to peak up signals.

It turned out that Charlie was at a caravan park just up the coast and in fact I could see the caravan from my location!  The view was great from the summit, down to Stranraer and looking out over Loch Ryan.  It was a surprise to have bumped into someone so close to me!

I parked the radio on 7.112MHz at 1320Z and recorded an SSB CQ call, “CQ SOTA, CQ for Summits On The Air from GM/VA3SIE Portable” and I set the radio to repeat this recorded message automatically with 20 seconds of delay between transmissions.  I like this feature which I picked up in the latest firmware update very much I was able to eat a cheese sandwich my mum made me while calling CQ.

Waving to Fariba

The first station to return my call was GW3XHG at 1334Z, he gave me a 4×5 signal report.    I had bought a 25MByte international data roaming plan for the trip so I switched on data on my phone briefly and sent out a spot.  Shortly thereafter I got a call from an MW3Z?T but that station faded out quickly before I could peak up the loop and I wasn’t able to complete the QSO.

After another few minutes of munching on my sandwich, I got a call from Don G0RQL at 1358Z in Devon.  The last time that Don called me, I was on VE2/ES-009 Mont Sutton which is an 947m 8 point summit in Quebec so it was nice to work him from Scotland this time 8-).  It was tough copy due to the fading.  Don was able to give me a 4×4 report.  Don dropped in a little later to tell me my signal had improved somewhat.

Next up and still on 40m SSB was Phil, G4OBK. in North Yorkshire followed by Dave, G0DRM in Crewe wrapping up my 40m operating.  David was able to give me a 4×6 report. 

I set up the station close to the trig point

I switched over to 20m around 1400Z and tuned the loop up on 14.062MHz CW and to my surprise I heard a CQ call from a SOTA summit.  It was Jeff G4ELZ/P and he was portable on Christ Cross (G/DC-005), a 261m summit in the Devon & Cornwall region of England.  I was very pleased to have made a summit-to-summit contact on my first SOTA outing in Europe!!  Jeff was able to give me an RST 569 report from his summit.  I have previously made contact with Jeff from VE2/ES-009 Mont Sutton in Quebec also as well as other summits.

What a coincidence!

The remainder of the activation was a run of European stations and one contact into Nova Scotia.   OK1MLP gave me a RST 569 from the Czech Republic.  EA1DFP was an ear-splitting RST 599 from Coruna, Spain.  DJ5AV in Heiligenberg, Germany was also very loud.  and gave me an RST 569.  At 1429Z, YO2LIW in Timisoara, Romania gave me an RST 559 report.  Hans DL6UHA gave me an RST 539 report.  My report from S58AL in Slovenia was RST 567.  At 1433Z, Friedrich DL1FU in Biedenkopf, Germany made contact and provided an RST 569 report.  EA5YI in Valencia, Spain had RST 569.

My next contact was Phil VE1WT in Nova Scotia.  We exchanged RST 559 both ways.  I was very pleased to be able to have a contact with Canada on this outing.

Contacts with OM7OM in Slovakia (RST 559 both ways) and Sake, PA0SKP (who was RST 599) in the Netherlands rounded out the operation at 1440Z.  I was RST 559 into the Netherlands.

Thanks for all the contacts and for making this a very memorable SOTA expedition for me!

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By va3sie, October 15, 2012 11:18 pm

Hiking

Fariba and I drove to the Eastern Townships in Quebec for the Thanksgiving long weekend.  We intended to hike to the summit of Mont Sutton and set up a portable radio station for ‘Summits on the Air‘.  We had intended to hike on Saturday but the weather was atrocious;   Heavy rain and high winds.  So we spent Saturday at the BALNEA spa instead

On Sunday the weather was much improved so we got ourselves to the base of the mountain nice and early.  Mont Sutton was running a ‘Fall Colors Festival’ encouraging folks to ride the chair lift up the mountain to view the colors.  Worried that we would be faced with a very busy summit, we were relieved to discover that the chair lift which was operating only went about ⅓ of the way to the top.

We hopped on the chairlift (since we still had a considerable hike left to us) and started our climb.  It wasn’t very busy though there were some others coming up the trail with us at the beginning.  By the time we were into the forested area surrounding the peak, we had lost everyone and we were on our own… yay! We got a little snow and hail during the hike…  I’m glad that we had our paclite shells in our backpacks.

Colors

I was beaconing APRS on the hike up and there is a digipeater nearby so I had a nice consistent track on aprs.fi.  My track is here.    When I got to the top of the mountain we started setting up the equipment.  A large group arrived to take lunch as we were setting up (sigh) but I had already planted my packs and seat in the critical places so we had our operating position.   I got the inverted-L W3EDP antenna up and tossed the weighted end high into some nearby trees.

I updated my APRS status, tuned up the radio, found a clear frequency and started sending CQ.  I also used APRS2SOTA to send a SOTAWatch spot.  I was surprised to get an acknowledgement APRS message from the system     I settled down in my chair with the KX3 on a clipboard on my knee and started making CW QSOs.  Fariba did a great job of ‘Public Relations’, describing what I was doing with the Jackite pole, launching the weights into the trees, tuning up the radio, etc.   She even explained what the morse code was, the pileup, etc.   Left me free to get on with the radio operating – that can often be the toughest part when I am on my own.   People don’t realize that your fingers are talking and so they chat to you while you are sending or receiving morse code and I just ‘aint good enough to be able to do that and talk at the same time.

Fariba

The hail got stronger so I packed up the radio back into my backpack and waited it out.  After 10 minutes or thereabouts I got back on the air on 40m and we able to make some closer in contacts, some with other VE2 activators which was great!!   I was feeling a bit guilty about subjecting the 15 or so folks who were watching to a barrage of CW so I switched over to single sideband.  I was amazed at how easily I was able to complete SSB contacts into Europe with only 10W of output

The summit slowly got more and more crowded and I realized that taking down the antenna was going to be tricky with a lot of people around.  So I pulled the plug.  At the last minute I asked Fariba if she had her blackberry with her.  She did and I checked SOTAWatch only to discover that there was another summit on the air at the same time.  So I plugged the antenna back in, re-tossed the counterpoise wires over the side of the mountain, tuned over and heard Kevin “Forehead of Steel” Kleinfelter / K4KPK stating that he was going QRT because of rain on Stratton Bald (a mountain in North Carolina at 5360′).

I immediately yelled ‘Summit to Summit, Summit to Summit’ into the microphone.   Kevin stayed on the air for a few moments more to complete the QSO. 

When I got home I realized that this was Kevins first contact with a station in Canada and also Kevin’s first summit-to-summit QSO.   So I was glad that I checked SOTAWatch at the last minute.

Not surprising since on this same outing, Kevin also had his first QSO with his KX3.  And his first QSO.  Ever.  Kevin is a newly minted general class amateur radio license holder.  What a great way to start the hobby – a summit expedition to a 5360′ summit with his son.  Congratulations to both Kevin and his son.

Here is Kevin’s story:

http://www.kleinfelter.com/content/stratton-bald-radio-expedition

Finally here is my video of this activation (or click the ‘High Definition’ button to view in HD):

Or watch full screen in High Definition:

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By va3sie, July 21, 2012 6:17 pm

I was planning to go camping in Mont-Mégantic national park but I was not able to go in the end.  I did set up my antenna on my balcony and I was able to make contact with Tom VA2EPR, Michel VE3EMB and JP VA2SG … yipee   Michel said they are having a lot of fun and the summit is beautiful.  I was very happy to have been able to complete a QSO.  It was tough going, the noise floor here was around S7 but the guys were peaking S8 and thanks to the Noise Blanker of the KX3 we were able to complete the QSO(s) with little trouble.

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By va3sie, January 31, 2012 10:17 pm

Much to my surprise, I am front & center in the FYBO trailer video this year.

Freeze Your B___ Off is a run QRP contest which the colder you are, the higher you score

I’m planning to snow shoe up to the summit of Mont O’Brien in the company or Tom VA2EPR, Michel VE3EMB and Scott VA3IED. 

Change of plans…  we will be hiking or snowshoeing on the Wolf Trail (#62) in Gatineau Park instead… 

We will be using the VA2OTA special SOTA (Summits on the Air) callsign.

Would you like to join us?   We’d love to have more company  8-)  … 

We’ll be monitoring the VE2REH repeater network on the day and sending APRS beacons too so you can get in touch with us to arrange a sked or just to see if we have turned into human popsicles!

Various HF frequencies will likely be used throughout the day.  We should be on around mid day and stay on the air for a couple of hours.  We may end up returning near dusk.  Certainly we will be near 14.060 MHz & 7.040 MHz with the other ‘CQ FYBO’ stations…   Check qrp spots & aprs.fi to see where we’re at.

Check out the trailer !!   —–>