Grrrrrr!!!

Here’s my FYBO video:

Our story:

Scott VA3IED gets the oscar for best movie direction …  well, Tom VA2EPR, Michel VE3EMB, Scott VA3IED and myself started up the trail around 10am (erm… sorry for the late arrival at the trailhead, fellas!).

The Wolf Trail in Gatineau Park, Quebec climbs over a small hill, runs up a picturesque valley and finally tops out on a larger hill affording spectacular views down the Ottawa Valley and the frozen Ottawa River.

We enjoyed an invigorating hike (or words to that effect) along a hard packed snow trail among runners, joggers (seriously!) and folks on snow-shoe and distributed ourselves along the side of the large hill, just off the packed trail.

The weather was bright, sunny and -7°C (19°F) with a light wind making it feel like -12°C (10°F) on the exposed hillside but the sun was strong and the compensated a lot.  I didn’t know what temperature to send so I made contact with Michel who sent me 25°F and I decided to send that until it cooled down before sunset in the late afternoon and the sun dropped behind the hill so I switched to sending 20°F.

I was able to make contact on HF with all the others (I switched my antenna and counterpoise wires for those contacts!) so I knew that everyone was successful to get their antennas up and on the air – quite a challenge since the snow off the trail was running to 4′ depth.

I personally had a blast.  I was able to re-connect with several QRP Polar Bears some of whom (including Mark NK8Q) I have not contacted since the last FYBO – you couldn’t get the GGGGGRRRRRRRin off my face if you tried yesterday evening!

I also failed to reach several Polar Bears such as Chuck AF4O who I heard make an extended CQ call and netted an enormous excited pileup for his efforts, my measly 1W just wasn’t cutting over the pack of 5W monster signals HI HI…   but then there’s always next time.

I was also very pleased to have been able to work Guy VE3VCF, Eric VA3AMX and Michael VA2NB who were also taking part in FYBO in the local area, even if we did have to borrow someone else’s frequency to achieve it (thanks, guys!).  Guy called us up on the repeater afterwards to say Hello.

All in all, a tremendously fun and satisfying day on the mountain with incredibly lucky WX and a great way to end a 4 month QRP hiatus.  I am thoroughly enjoying reading about everyone else’s adventures on the PB list and the QRP-L reflector.

Here are my log & summary:

Log

Summary

Field – Yes
Category – Single
Operator(s) – VA3SIE
Alternative Power – Yes
Lowest Temperature – 20
QRPp – Yes (1W)

Score: [(19 QSOs x 15 SPCs)](x 5 Temp Multi)(x 4 Field)(x 2 AltPwr)(x 2 QRPp) + (0 NQ7RP Bonus Points) = 22,800.

Here are photos of Michel VE3EMB’s station:

On the Trail...

VE3EMB Buddipole Station

Michel VE3EMB Station

6 Responses to “FYBO on the Wolf Trail”

1. Mike Baker says:

   February 5, 2012 at 5:18 pm

   Outstanding Video. I am curious, what software are you using to compose and edit the video as well as do the music overlay?
   Sorry I didn’t get the chance to work you guys yesterday but the NQ7RP crew and cooking kept me busy. Best 72, 73
   Mike Baker K7DD
   AZ. ScQRPions Contest Mgr.
2. va3sie says:

   February 5, 2012 at 11:23 pm

   Hi, Mike.

   I enjoyed your NQ7RP write-up on QRP-L. Hope the ankle is feeling better but I’m glad you and the crew showed Murphy who is boss!

   I use Adobe Premier Elements 9 to compose my videos. My camera(s) are just a pair of compact cameras; A Panasonic FZ18 and an Olympus Style Tough 6000 , neither is HD or anything, so the video is fairly low quality. The music, I purchase licenses to use from youlicense.com. They have a wide selection of music available for licensing. Those beans sound yummy

   73
   Martin.
3. VE3WMB says:

   February 6, 2012 at 10:35 am

   Martin .. nice to chat with you on 40m CW. I managed to forget both my watch and my digital thermometer so I also guessed at 24F as a temperature. Fortunately I had my cellphone so I could check the time. It was a beautiful day for FYBO !

   72 & Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

   Michael VA2NB / VE3WMB PB#19
4. Kelly K4UPG says:

   February 6, 2012 at 11:54 am

   Martin,
   Sorry I missed you this year! Not hearing many Canadian stations this year for some reason. Was almost too hot here so it is amazing to see the snow you had! Grrrrrrr! We’ll keep lookin’ for ya!
   72,
   Kelly K4UPG in Orlando, FL
5. va3sie says:

   February 8, 2012 at 9:55 pm

   Yes it was a beautiful day, Michael. I didn’t have a thermometer with me either, well my VX-8r has one but it’s useless – mostly wrong …
6. va3sie says:

   February 8, 2012 at 9:57 pm

   Sorry I missed you this year, Kelly. It was a lively sunny day up here for FYBO… but yes there was some snow around Can’t wait for next year