Happy Canada Day 2011

Seeing as I plan to operate in the RAC Canada Day Contest and I got good feedback from last year’s Canada Day post I have decided to “Recycle” and just edit out a few things to reflect the new date 2011.

I hope to work you in the Canada Day Contest  and I will be operating from home on 2m to 160m and at this time I believe if the weather is nice the rig will be the FT817 (QRP) from the Patio but if it rains then it will the the same radio from the dryness of the shack.

The rest of today will be spent making sure the batteries for the 817 are charged and that the BBQ Tanks are filled and that the Canada Day Contest Software is installed on the Netbook.  If I manage any “Rare Contacts” I will be updating the blog with my brag list…

This is being posted a little early but later tonight time will be a factor with family, the BBQ and the Canada Day Contest all demanding my time… and I can only be in one place at one time…

73bob

Follows is a reblog of last years Canada Day Blog Entry:

HAPPY CANADA DAY

Here is a screen shot from the Hill Cam at Parliament Hill

It is being updated on a reqular basis so every time you come back to this page the view should change.

The following updated to reflect Canada Day 2011<If you watch around 1300 hrs local on Canada Day you might see HRH Prince William of Wales and his bride as they are scheduled to be at the ceremonies around that time.>

The above picture is a capture from the same cam in 2006

CANADA

1867 to 2011

Happy Birthday Canada

And with many more to come

Canada’s Sport is Hockey…

Canada’s symbol is the Maple Leaf…

Its on our Flag…

Its on our Money

And as you can see its just about everywhere…

Canada’s Nationial Animal is the “Beaver”…

No not that one…

This one…

And we are a proud people…

So in honour (not honor) of the Birthday of Canada, our national holiday please excuse me for making a non amateur radio related post today when I say…

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY CANADA”

Happy Birthday Canada from a Proud Canadian…

73bob

Unexpected Results from the ONTARIO QSO PARTY 2011

Well you would have to go back to April 2011 and see a few of my posts for this really to sink in but I will give you the shortened version…

First of all if you don’t submit your score you can’t win…  and every now and again a score that you really don’t think is any good but you submit anyway can really suprise you….

This year I participated from home (City of Ottawa) in the SOLP Phone Catagory (Single Operator Low Power )  For those of you not totally in sinc with the power thing…  low power would be concidered above 5 watts output (QRP) up to I believe 100 watts output which by strange coincidence is the maximum power that my FT 847 (recently sold) had.  In addition the Phone means Voice Mode (not Morse Code or Digital)

My Score as claimed and as accepted was:

86 contacts for a total of 123 points with a total multi of 53 for a grand total of 6466 points

Now as some of you serious contesters are now rolling on the floor laffing as loud as you can….  Lets remember my simple contest goals…  These are the reason I do this…  Other than to give you serious contesters about 86 contacts this year….  Without guys like me who would you serious types talk to???

Back to the Goals

1.  Have fun.    It has to be fun or why am I doing it?

2. Try and finish in the top 50% in whatever catagory I participate in.

So lets look at things….  I did have fun…  I sat in the shack for about 12 hours or so over a two day period and made 86 contacts.  It was fun…  Now my 2nd goal was also more than achived as my meager 6466 points managed to be the High Score in my Catagory (SOLP Phone) for the City of Ottawa (sub catagory) it was also good enough for 4th place for the Province of Ontario in my Catagory (SOLP Phone).

So once again while those serious types are still laffing….  it goes back to the idea that if you submit your scores you stand a chance of winning.  This is the third year my score has been good enough for High Score SOLP Phone (City of Ottawa) but in 2010 I did not submit the score,  so I won in 2009 and 2011 and could of won in 2010 if I had thought to submit that very poor score…

But I did have fun so thanks to the 86 operators who had a good enough station to hear my 100w though my W3EDP antenna and also thanks to the Contest Club Ontario for sponsoring the contest on a yearly basis…

For those of you who are interested the results from this years event and previous events are on line here…

73bob

Remember Murphy??? He came back…

Its been a few days so heres the latest update to the Renovation/Makeover Station Project…

I did sell my FT847 and my FT857 is out on a test drive with its soon to be (hopefully) new owner…

I went to set up my Ft897 with the loops as the primary VHF Rig and found out that somewhere along the way I lost a powercable…  The FT897 uses the same DC  Powercable as the FT847 and FT857 so I did not notice the missing cable for the FT897 till after the FT847 and 857 had left my house.  Despite all the numbers what it really means is that I was not able to set up the FT897 as I have no way to power it…  I did clean up the shack quite a bit looking for the missing cable but other than having less junk in the shack… no luck…  As I spent most of my free time looking for the cable I did not get the VHF/6m loop antennas up…

Also it seems that my 2m fm rig… the FT2900 has failed.  According to the power meters its transmitting fine but the recieve is not there…  This is a bit of an issue because its a rig that retails new for $200.00 and I bought mine used a year ago for much less… OH BOTHER…

So I figure that when Murphy visited he stole my power cable and perhaps did something to the FT2900….

But back to reality….  I still have to do the musical antenna thing for the VHF Loops but I have some award certificates to get ready for the OVMRC Meeting on Thursday then we get into Field Day preparations…  Right after Field Day comes the RAC Canada Day Contest so it looks like I’ll get back to the renovations sometime in August…

The way my lousy time management thing is going ….  Look for VE3RAM 3A ON in Field Day or VA3QV-7 on APRS because you probally won’t hear me on HF till I find time to order and install the new toys….

73bob

The shack makeover starts

If you remember back to a previous posting I was planning to change out some gear in the shack….  Well that process has started and heres what has happened so far…

My FT847 has been sold and will most likely replaced by a Yaesu FT450 as I scour the swap nets looking for a good deal on one…  My FT897 will take over as my Home HF Rig till I find a FT450 and then will become my VHF/6m rig. 

As far as antennas go I will be taking down the W3EDP and replacing it with a vertical for 10-20m or 10-40m depending on whats available locally and I am also going to stretch out some wire which will be fed by the FC40 auto tuner which works with the FT897 and will work with the FT450 when I finally get it.  I have also picked up a 2m loop and a 6m loop.  Both loops are made by KB4AB

Above picture shows both loops

I am going to be mounting both loops on a telescopic masting that will get both antennas just above roof height when in use but well below roof height when not in use to keep the neighbors and landlord happy…  I will keep a 2m JPOLE on a short (10 foot) mast for the local repeaters with the FT2900 and I have a discone type antenna I will have up for APRS.

With some luck the loops should be installed in time for this weekends VHF Contest…(June 11-12)

In addition my FT857 is leaving on Wednesday for a test drive and as it works great should be leaving the collection shortly….  I am still concidering the new Elecraft KX3 early next year once I find out if they work as smooth as they look…

I really like some of the specs and features of this new rig and if anything could convince me to put the FT817 on the shelf it might be this one…

I’ll try to update you on how things are going as they get going…

73bob