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:

Why not join us next year?

Here’s the internet home of the Ottawa Valley QRP Society:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ov-qrp/

We meet for supper on the second Wednesday of every month at Donnas Pizza Express.

All are welcome.

The Bloomfield Bicycle Co isn’t your ordinary bike shop.  Rick & Katy have a passion for cycling and it shows!  They offer a full range of services from thier funky store in Bloomfield:  guided tours, club rides, minor mechanical miracles, rentals, beautiful bicycles and accessories and much more.  The range of bikes in the rental fleet is astonishing.  From tandems to recumbants, from mountain bikes to high end road bikes.

How great are they?  Check this article or listen to this podcast.

We had set our sights on cycling out to the County Cider Company.  Many times we stopped at Culinary Conspiracy across the street from our home to pick up home made muffins or scones and coffee to take to work.  We were often greeted and served by Darcy.  Darcy moved out to Prince Edward County this summer to work at the County Cider Company so it was a good chance to drop in and say, ‘Hello!’.

The weather on Canada Day (July 1st) couldn’t have been more perfect for cycling.  A nice hot summer day, peaking around 30°C in the mid afternoon.

Rick at the Bloomfield Bicycle Co recommended a 27km route (one way) which took us south of Bloomfield, a short climb up a hill to Picton Airport.  We had to use the lowest gear in the Shimano Ultegra shifters for that hill.  The route then crosses over some of the highest ground in Prince Edward County, beautiful roads perfect for cycling through picturesque country, not too many cars, loads of birds and trees, coming out at a lookout on a cliff overlooking Waupoos Island.  From there, we join a tarmac road which winds down a cliff to the Waupoos Marina.  The speed we were able to achieve down that hill was astonishing!

The route then tracks along the southern coastal road of North Marysburgh adjacent to farms and forested hills, we passed berry farms and just after the Waupoos Estates Winery we climbed another small hill to arrive at the County Cider Company.  We had ridden at a leisurely pace and completed that portion of the journey in 90 minutes.  We relaxed at the restaurant and enjoyed a couple of tall glasses of dry cider, some roasted garlic hummus and a pizza prepared in a wood fired oven, served to us by Darcy 8-)  … it was great to meet with Darcy and steal a few minutes out of her busy day to catch up.  It’s obvious why Darcy chose to move to Prince Edward County.  The view from the Cider Company is just lovely, it’s a different world from downtown Ottawa

County Cider Company

From there, we rode inland, North over the top of North Maysburgh to the North coastal road, which we then followed West, back towards Picton.  That road was a gentle climb up through pastoral farmlands including a steeper section of road which had been blasted through a hill.  Again, we had to select the lower gears.  The Provincial Park at Lake on the Mountain was teeming with visitors, picnicking and enjoying the view of this astonishing Lake.  This beautiful turquoise lake has no visible water source and lies 62m above the Bay of Quinte only a few hundred meters away!

After the lake, we were rewarded for all that previous uphill cycling by a glorious slope down to the Bay of Quinte.  Again, we were able to reach stupendous speed on those bicycles   Finally, we rode back into Picton where we enjoyed the on-street activities laid out for the Canada Day festivities and finally a short ride back to Bloomfield.

The ride took us 3½ hours and 53km.  It was SUPER FUN !!   Huge thanks to the Bloomfield Bicycle Co…

ARRL FIeld Day 2011 (Eric VA3AMX and Ying VA3YH)

This year I’ll be heading over to Hampton Park and meet up with members of the Ottawa Valley QRP Society to play in the ARRL Field Day.  I’m looking forward to trying out my KX3 bicycle portable station from the park.  I’ve just got to solder some Anderson Power Pole connectors and then I will have enough portable power to run at 10W for the entire day using an A123 battery pack from buddipole.

Here’s my video from last year…   hoping we have as much fun this time around!

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.

Mont-Mégantic national park is an international dark sky preserve, the first of it’s kind.

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!)
• Monitoring the 80m ONTARS SSB net,
• Chatting on the 40m Trans Provincial SSB net to a couple of local stations,
• Finally, a 20m CW conversation with Guy N7UN using his KX3 to my KX3  illustrating CW decoding…
• Auto-spotting a 20m CW station (CW Tuning Aid).

SOTA Activation

Bob VA3QV and I activated Mont Morissette VE2/OU-014 – I took my KX3 along to try it out from a “mountain”…

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.

I LOVE this radio!!

First up was Steve, WI2W, booming in my 88′m EDZ @ 30ft.

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!!!

A huge smile!… 

I got back from a vacation in Nova Scotia on Thursday and there was a note on my door from UPS.  A package was waiting for me to pick up.  A package with ‘Elecraft‘ written on the side.

Woo hoo!!  My KX3 has arrived.  It is serial number 238.

Elecraft KX3

I don’t have much of a battery to drive it at the moment, I have ordered a couple of large capacity portable power packs from buddipole but they have not arrived yet.

So for now, to familiarize myself with the radio, I hooked it up to a 2Ah li-poly battery pack which I use for my KX1.  This pack did not have enough current capacity to supply the KX3 at 10W output for more than a few seconds but it was good enough to operate at 5W for a couple of hours.

I don’t have any permanently installed antennas at home, so I set up a pair of verticals attached to the balcony.

Verticals

This works reasonably well. 

I set up two antennas;  A 31′ pole onto which I wound 36′ of wire, tightly wound at the top (½″ pitch), loosely wound in the middle (2″ pitch) and then large windings toward the bottom. (6″ pitch)  and a loading coil at the base.  I was able to resonate this antenna on 80m and 40m against a single 16′ counterpoise made from RG-174 coax shield by selecting tap points. 

The second antenna was 19′ or wire supported by a 20′ pole.  This antenna was naturally resonant on  12MHz and the the KXAT3 internal ATU was able to resonate it on all the higher bands:  30m, 20m, 17m, 15m, 12m, 10m and 6m against the same single 16′ counterpoise.

The longer antenna is naturally resonant at 3.6 MHz against a 16′ counterpoise wire when the full length of the base loading coil is in-circuit and at 8 MHz when the base loading coil is bypassed. Feeding the antenna through 50′ of RG-174 coax makes no difference to the resonance when the loading coil is bypassed but it does lower the resonant frequency with the full length of the loading coil in-circuit to 2.7 MHz.

The antennas pick up a lot of electrical noise from all the electronics around the neighborhood so I had to deal with an S5 to S8 noise floor but it was sufficient to get to know the radio

Loading Coil

The first thing I did (after tuning the loading coil for 40m) was to send CQ on 40m and have a listen to my own signal as received by the web SDR radios in Kingston, Rhode Island and  at K2SDR in Sea Girt, New Jersey.  I tried both the 10W and 5W settings and I could detect only a small difference in signal strength.  I tried to listen to my SSB signal but for some reason I was not able to hear myself when talking.  I checked mic gain and compression and both the RF and ALC meters were showing output.   I guess voice is that much weaker than CW.

I spotted myself on QRP Spots and within a few minutes the first QSO was in the log book.  Dennis K1YPP was kind enough to give me a call from Newton, NH.  I wish I had known that Dennis was an Appalachian Trail (AT) hiker (learned that from QRZ.com after the QSO) – I’ve visited the AT and hiked upon it just one time but I thoroughly enjoyed the trip.

I operated from the AT with Ron WB3AAL who has completed more than 1000 QSOs from the AT and administrators an amateur radio awards scheme for completing QSOs from the AT and others from the QRP Polar Bear club.  After the hike, they bestowed upon me a ‘trail name’ (and ‘bear name’) – Dittie Bear.  Hence the name of this blog!

 The 2nd  QSO was with Randy KB4QQJ in MT.  Randy was also using a KX3.  So much fun!  This QSO was both 2 X QRP and 2 X KX3

I will be getting to know this new radio over the next few weeks, so far I am deeply impressed!!

Using KX3

CQ CQ CQ... Erm... Munch Munch Munch...

Isn’t this a fun Birthday Cake for a Radio Amateur?? Thanks, Claire!  

The natural beauty of Québec  in this video is so stunning that it nearly brought tears to my eyes!

I am sure you will enjoy this video so I am sharing it with you here on my blog.  Be sure to check out escapadeboreale.com too!

I strongly recommend you hit the ‘Full Screen’ button () when playing this video!

E’WEEWACH [cri] Là d’où originent les eaux from Samuel Pinel-Roy on Vimeo.

Expédition exploratoire d’Escapade Boréale (escapadeboreale.com) dans les Monts Otish et la rivière Témiscami au nord de Chibougamau. Six aventuriers à la découverte de quelques 300 km de canot et 50 km de trekking dans une région sauvage et peu explorée du Québec.

Vivre le plein air pour soi, le vivre avec les autres, vivre.

Produit par escapadeboreale.com.