Back in town and I see that Michel VE3EMB has sent me the photos he took when were at Mt Rigaud for the SST (Super SOTA Thursday) activation today…
Michel picked me up at 0730 am and we left Ottawa for Rigaud QC to activate Mount Rigaud for Summits on the Air (SOTA)
And we arrived just after 9am and started to get stuff set up so we could get on the air. Rigs of the day (as expected was my FT817 with a 1/4w dipole for 6m and my Par end fed QRP 10-20-40m antenna. Michel brought his nice new KX3 along with a Par end fed antenna (same model as mine)..
I set up in the top right of the picture and Michel was set up in the top left…
The area was nice and radio friendly and although the towers were there …. The area was very quiet. I can’t speak for the KX3 but the FT817 had now static issues or noise issues…
And you can see I was fairly close to the towers…
And for that matter there were Towers (circled in red) all around us including the site of Amateur Repeater VE2RM. We were operating from the site below VE2RM and slightly to the right… As you can see its a busy neighborhood…
This was the tower below RM to the left…
But so much for sightseeing….
Once we got set up Michel started on 20m ssb and CW and I started out on 2m ssb…
My first contact on was with VE2NRG Sean on 144.205 usb. Sean lived in Mirabel QC and he was spinning the dial and answered my QC. I don’t honestly know who was more shocked him for hearing someone new calling CQ or me when he replied with a really booming signal…
I then worked Sean on 50.130 usb and he signal was even stronger…
And he was nice enough to spot me on the cluster…
After that I called CQ again and I found VE2DQO Mike in Point Claire QC. I made my call and I got a confused QRZ???? in return… Once again … whats that new call I hear on 6m…
It was fun… I tried a few more times on 6m then switched back to 2m and had no luck… I decided that I had used up all my luck with finding people on VHF and decided to call again on 6m and hope for an opening or that a local had seen the spot on the cluster…
Well my next 6m contact was not a fluke or a spot… K3KYR had found Michel on 20m and Michel told him I was looking for business on 6m. Well Jeff lived across from Cornwall Ontario in New York State and fortunately had enough horsepower to get his ssb signal to me and enough antenna to hear my booming 5w signal… Jeff was my last 6m contact of the day…
Just before noon I checked in with Shawn VE3PSV who was doing the 11am -noon spot as NCS on the Trans Provincal Net on 7.055 and he asked me to fill in for the noon to 1pm slot… Its hard to turn down a friend so I quit my SOTA Stuff for an hour and put on my NCS Hat… However the hour was not busy and at 1pm I finished talking to my self and decided to search and pounce and try and get a couple of contacts in the log… I managed to find K9UA on 20m and although the bands were not that good (his words) he did manage to hear my QRP Station in Wisconsin USA… A little after 1pm we decided to pack things up and we headed into Rigaud for lunch and then return to Ottawa…
I had a great time …
Thanks to the stations who I made the contacts with. For the records its concidered an activation as I made more than the required number of contacts and thanks to Michel for providing the transport and the company…
It was a GREAT DAY…
73bob
Tags: amateur radio, Mount Rigaud, SOTA, Summits on the Air
August 3, 2012 at 1:46 am |
I spent about an hour looking for you today…of course the last place I would have looked..7.055…was where you were hiding out at that time!!
Glad to read you had a good time.
August 3, 2012 at 1:56 am |
Sorry I missed you Bill….
I was not planning to do the NCS thing but Shawn sounded like he needed a break ….
its a great place to play radio from… The vhf/6m contacts were a blast… actually unexpected….
73bob
August 14, 2012 at 9:30 pm |
Glad i could help out Bob!
September 4, 2012 at 12:22 pm |
[...] The last time Michel and I headed out to play we went up to Mt Rigaud for a SOTA Activation. [...]