This time there seems no other way to describe it…
According to the RAC Membership database I have been a member of RAC since December 2003 in the 7 complete years since I have never read an issue of The Canadian Amateur magazine that I found as interesting as I found the Jan/Feb 2011 issue.
Just take a look at the cover and you can see a good part of why I am so happy with the publication this month…
Two Amateur Balloon Stories
A story about operating Portable QRP
A story about Contest Roving
So now lets open up the magazine and see what goodies can be found inside… And for the record… my defination of “goodies” would be stories that interest me… These topics might not “crank your tractor” so to speak but then I’m the one writing the story so it should interest me… So here we go…
In the pages before the presidents message on page 9 we see some interesting news items. Some of those had been mentioned in the RAC Bulletins and on the RAC Blog but it was good to see that if you missed it earlier you now had a chance to get informed…
RAC President Geoff VE4BAW monthly column peaked my interest in a few places with the first being when he described the changes to the TCA magazine. I have commented on the past about how good TCA is with clear crisp colour pages and articles but if the content stays as good as it did in the past then I can take a newsprint style publication.
The other great piece of news is the start of the RAC Report which will be an electronic PDF style publication which will be published every 2nd month so we will now recieve TCA in Jan, March, May, July, September and November. To compliment TCA we will now recieve the RAC Report in February, April, June, August, October and December. Every month RAC Members can look forward to getting news and information from RAC.
Geoff also made mention of the RAC Social Media side of things (RAC Blog, Twitter and Facebook) so that (for obivious reasons) also got my attention
Its no secret that I’m also the RAC Social Media Guy and I am pleased when my little area gets noticed or mentioned by the RAC executive and board in a positive way…
In his next paragraph, Geoff mentions another item that I enjoy and thats the Nationial Traffic System (NTS)
Now to make the story more interesting is the fact that the story he mentions takes me back to my hike up the King Mountain Trail back in October 2011. Martin VA3SIE, Ante VA2BBW got me out of the relative safety of a city park and got me hiking up to the summit of a local Mountain. Rest assured it was a hike and not a climb but it was a new experience for me and I had a blast playing radio from the summit. One of the things I did while up there was check into a couple of NTS Nets and I sent some NTS messages out to the board and executive of RAC from King Mountain reminding them of the need for NTS as everywhere in Canada still does not have Cell Phone Service. King Mountain was one of those locations and till we got on the summit some repeaters were not the best either…
I guess the idea of sending the RAC President a message via HF NTS from an area with poor to no cell coverage was not lost on him as he mentioned it two months later in his message
The above two pictures show the view I had as I sent Geoff the message
As I leaf through the pages of TCA I find an excellent article on Bill VE3CRU’s roving mobile. The year I moved my daughter Erika home (for the 2nd last time) from Barrie I worked Bill on several different bands during the Ontario QSO Party. He was operating as a “Rover” and I was just driving to Ottawa from Barrie and giving out contacts on HF and VHF as we motored back to Ottawa. I think Bill was actually following me for a while about 10 miles or so behind me and every time I hit a new city he was looking for the points… It made the trip go alot faster… Also found out that Erika could multitask as she was reading her book at the same time she was logging for me… She did a good job… Now if I could only convince her to get her amateur ticket…
Stopping on page 22 I hit jackpot… An article about QRP Portable operations and the author VE3LNU even does it with a FT817… Double Jackpot!!!
There is no other way to describe it… Its a fantastic article and should be required reading for any amaters who are thinking of getting into QRP Portable operations. He covers a lot of the issues I have had over the years with this mode and I found it really informative…
A shot of my FT817/Buddistick/LDG Auto Tuner combo taken November 2010 in Ottawa on the Beach at Mooneys Bay Park.
Further in the issue on Page 45 we see Allan VE7BQO and his setup in an area slightly more rustic than Mooneys Bay… After my recent close encounter with frostbite operating from Pig Island seeing his picture operating from two tents on what appears to be a glacier puts my meager efforts to shame… But if you look at his picture of his station of the FT817 (page 46) in a bag does it look that much different than my FT817/Tuner in the bag (below)?
Picture courtesy Russ Gladden (http://gladden.org)
Russ was a visitor at my SPAR 2010 Winter Field Day event and he took much better pictures than I ever could dream of. He was kind enough to send some of them to me for use on the blog.
So now this is at the TRIPLE JACPOT Level. Two stories in the same issue about QRP Portable and FT 817s…. I gotta rush out a buy a lotto ticket now for sure…
A couple of pages past Allan’s article we get into the first article on Amateur Ballooning. Barrie Crampton VE3BSB has a fantastic article on the LASA Launch and recovery which I covered extensively here back in November 2010 and I even get a nice mention as well. In addition right after the article from LASA we get taken to Winnipeg where Robert VE4SHS has quite a nice write up about his High Schools flight which I also covered here.
So as you can see… For me at least it was just a wealth of interesting information. I don’t think I can honestly say that I have ever read a magazine that had so many different articles on topics that I really had an interest in (that did not have a centerfold pictorial …) in one issue. Every 2nd month the articles are good…
Its just this time for me at least…. JACKPOT…
73bob
Tags: amateur radio, FT817, Portable QRP, RAC, RAC Blog, RAC Report, RACTWEETS, Radio Amateurs of Canada, VE4BAW
January 12, 2011 at 9:21 pm |
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January 19, 2011 at 4:44 pm |
Hi Bob,
From time to time I have checked your blog and I always find interesting comments on here. I was very flattered by your kind comments regarding my TCA article on HF QRP operation. I’m happy that you enjoyed it and that you are a kindred spirit and fellow FT 817 enthusiast! Perhaps down the road you could do your own article on your successes with the Buddistick/LDG tuner combination – it looks very interesting.
Keep up the great job with your blog.
73 and Happy New Year,
Joe, VE3LNU
January 19, 2011 at 5:59 pm |
Hi Joe,
Thanks for your visit and your comments… Over the years I have been accused of being a Yaesu Fan. Dunno why??? 847, 897,857 and 817 … But when it comes to the FT817 I am a Yaesu Fanatic… I have had so much fun with that rig and opearted from so many interesting areas that I can’t say enough nice things about it…
Its been with me on Island Activations, mini DXPeditions and even on the air as a Special Events (Lighthouse) station…
To be honest I am not a QRP Fan… I just love the 817 because the batteries are lighter…. I could lug my FT897 and a 30ah battery to the park with the same antennas from the parking lot to my operating position in 3 trips or everything fits in my backpack and its a leisurly stroll to get where I am going…
If you want to work 40m- 80m and 160m with your FT817 I recommend the W3EDP Antenna which is basically a end fed 84 foot longwire with a 17 foot counterpoise. It needs a 4:1 balun and a tuner but works good on the lower freqs … Very easy and cheap to build…
for 6m to 40m I use the buddistick for vertical and a Par ends fed for horizontal… both work great depending on the band conditions of the day…
Thanks again for the visit and all the best
73bob
January 27, 2011 at 7:27 pm |
Good stuff, Bob! Now that you’ve given me these suggestions on other antennas and operating configurations, I will have to try them sometime.
I also own an FT 897 and I hadn’t thought about taking that out in the field, but I see you’ve done that, too.
Great tips on low-band antennas to use with the FT 817. One of the great things about this hobby is running into people like you and sharing ideas.
Again, thanks for everything and hopefully we’ll have a QSO one of these days, maybe even FT 817 to FT 817.
73
Joe
January 27, 2011 at 8:47 pm |
Hi again Joe,
Give a listen for VE3RAM in the Winter Field Day event on Saturday…. I will be operating with my FT817 (no tuner) and the Par Enz fed… Mostly on 40m above 7.150.
Other station will be an 857 with a 10-15-20 vertical….
Hope to work you….
73bob