Its getting close to the end of the event… but for me it was a fun day so it was a good day…
Thanks to SPAR for running the event.
Although its my traditional lousy picture…. I might have a “Smart Phone” but the operator is still me so its a lousy picture… Shown is the Park Bench I was operating as VA3RCS from on Saturday. The City removed the Picnic Tables for the winter so I needed to use the park bench. The black bag is an old padded camera bag I got at a yardsale and my complete portable station fits inside it. On top of the bag is my FT817/LDG QRP Autotuner combo and the 10ah battery was inside the camera bag in an attempt to keep it warm. Being secured with a Bungee Cord to the park bench is one end of my Par End Fedz QRP (10-20-40m) end fed long wire. It will work on 15m (along with 12 and 17) using the autotuner but was not used on those bands yesterday. The purple thingy is just a padded device I use to insulate my butt from the cold wooden park bench… its called a cushion… The tree I mention later in the post is just out of picture range to the left of the cushion…
Anyway if you check yesterdays posting you know where I operated from and that I operated as VA3RCS for the event…
Heres what happened at Weston Park operating as VA3RCS ….
I departed my home at about 1115hrs EST and walked over to the park. Its been a while since I’ve been there and I found out that this year the City removed the picnic tables for the winter time… Oh Well …. they used to be there…. The Park Benches are not removable so I still had someplace to operate from…
I got my weighted line over a tree line about 35 feet or so up. When I swung the bottom end of the antenna over to the park bench the line was tight so all was good. The antenna was mostly in a vertical configuration with very slight sloper aimed south west. The SWR was good and the tuner not needed so as the time approached 12 noon EST which was the start of the Winter Field Day all was good…
In hindsite it might of been a smarter move to start a hour or so after the contest started as most of the operators were having a bit of a problem with the exchanges (especially the honest signal report and getting the temps right as some were in F and others were using C). It did make the pileups longer as some just had a great problem hearing the reports. This I really find confusing as every time I operate from a park location I seem to find a very quiet location to work from… Hearing the stations is never a problem… getting them to hear my QRP Signal sometimes is a problem… Can’t understand why someone setting up in a portable location would pick a noisy location to play from… Maybe its just me…
Anyway…. I started to call CQ and my first contact was on 40m was wtih WG3J (Eric in MD) and he had a great signal. He gave his temp as 45deg F so for him its more like a “Spring Field Day” compared to us up here… I also managed to work Eric on 20m later that hour… I also managed to check in with Shawn VE3PSV who was running the Trans Provincal Net and got all the details for the exchange from him. I also managed to work N8UO (Warren in Minnesota) who at a balmy 23 deg F was even colder than my temp here in Ottawa (0 deg C)… Along with a local contact on 2m thats about as good as it got here in the park and the reason for that was…
The last few days in Ottawa we have had a mixed bag of weather… Freezing Rain and snow…. The branches of the trees were covered with freezing rain and now in the afternoon the sun was coming out and warming things up slightly… Normally this would of been fantastic for a winter outing but my park bench (along with all the other park benches) seem to be underneath trees. Something about shade for the summertime I guess…. But now the branches are warming up and the ice is melting… Its like operating in the rain… My log book is getting wet… I am getting wet and I am forced to take off the outer shell of my coat to keep the radio dry… Then the wind blows…. Its like being in an ice storm all over again… Pieces of Ice falling all around and also on top of me and for some silly reason I have no hardhat in my go kit…
At this point I’ve been outside for about 90 minutes so far and am starting to lose my sense of humour… I’m not really freezing yet and the batteries are still good but … enough is enough…. So I pack up and head home…. After stopping for a coffee at Starbucks I’m back home warm and dry just after 1400 eastern… I put the gear away after drying it and then had to head out for some non amateur stuff. Returned about 1600 and got back on the air under the VA3QV call.
My score (as silly as it seems )was not too bad for less than two hours…
Operating as VA3RCS Class 1 O operating temp 0 deg c
5 contacts on 3 bands for a total of 15 points.
1000 pt bonus for operating outdoors
1000 pt bonus for operating from a park
1000 pt bonus for operating battery power
Gave me a whopping score of 3015 points. Which is not a bad score till you figure that if I did not make a contact I still would of made 3000 points… Oh well it was fun till the tree leaked…
Now its operating time for VA3QV… After heading back home I found myself back in the shack… I spun the dial on 40m and managed to find VE3OKV operating Winter Field Day for the Oakville ARC. I then jumped up to 20m and worked VE3JJF in Kenora. Justin VE3XTI was the radio operator and they were in an Ice Fishing shack on Lake of the Woods. It sounded like they were having a great time. I also managed to work VE3JJF on 80m later in the evening at a distance of just under 1500kms .
Although i don’t think they were part of the contest I did also manage to work HK0NA into the log on 20m. This makes the third band for me with this DXPeditions with earlier contacts on 80m and 17m.
Operating as VA3QV I was just trying to give out contacts for the Winter Field Day but it seems the bands were starting to close up… Not hearing much on 20 and 40 was open for DX but nothing close in I decided to call it a night and shut down…
Sunday morning I went hunting for Bill VE3CLQ who was participating in WFD with the Frontenac ARES Group. I was able to work their station on 40m… but missed Bill as he was operating 20m at the time and the distance between Ottawa and Kingston was a little short for a 20m contact.
So all in all (despite the ice falling on me) it was a great weekend for radio… How was your weekend…
73bob
Some Amateurs have been asking about distracted driving so here is a status report on the exemption that RAC is seeking for Ontario Amateurs. You will remember last year Steve Pengelly, VE3STV, Jeff Stewart, VE3WXM and I made a presentation to MTO officials requesting an exemption for Amateurs from Ontario Legislation 366/09. The MTO officials asked for some time to think this through and made a commitment to contact us in early 2012. We expect to hear from them in the next several months. At the moment we are advising all Ontario Amateurs to wait for a reply from MTO. If the reply is in our favour, end of story. If not we have several ideas in the works. They include but are not limited to, targeting MPP’s, and a letter writing campaign from 3rd party groups, who we support with our province wide communications infrastructure at no cost to the taxpayer. Stay tuned.
Starting Saturday (tomorrow) at noon eastern time comes the 
