Continued from Part 1…
… After saying our goodbyes Michel and I packed up our stations and pointed south to meet up with the Ottawa Valley QRP Society in Kemptville for the Chilicon event…
After a quick stop in Kemptville for lunch we made our way over to the Rideau River Provincal Park which was the scene of Chilicon 2012. This is an informal Camping/QRP Radio event held by the Ottawa Valley QRP Society…
We arrived at the park around 1:30 pm after stopping in Kemptville for some fast food… We parked in the Beach parking area and walked over to the camping area where everyone was set up…
The smaller circle is the covered area on the beach that I set up and operated from. The larger circle shows the approximate are where all the “Hearty Radio Types who chose to camp were staying…”
Once there we found VE3WMB Micheal, VA3CME Chris, VE3CLQ Bill, VE3MNE Don, VA3AMX Eric, VA3KV Jim, VE3EUR Pat, VE3CBK Chris , VE3ORF Dave, VE3GTC Graham, VE3MPG Bob and VA3YH Ying
I walked around looking at the various setups and drooled a bit…. VE3WMB was using a Elecraft KX1 along with a G5RV Jr, VA3CME was using an Elecraft KX3 along with a Buddistick Vertical, VE3CLQ was using an IC 703 and a homebrewed vertical, VE3MNE was using a Yaesu FT 857 and a homebrewed vertical, VA3AMX was using a Elecraft K2 and a G5RV jr, to be honest don’t remember what VA3KV , VE3MPG or VE3EUR was using, VE3CBK and VE3ORP were using quite a collection of old military radios, VE3GTC was using his homebrewed vertical mentioned in Part 1 and a FT450 and although I don’t know what VA3YB was using for a radio his 20m Spiderbeam took up all his campsite…
I was using my FT 817/W3EDP combo and Michel was using his Flex 1500 and his mobile multiband antenna that he used earlier in Britannia…
The following pictures are courtesy of VE3EMB Michel unless otherwise noted.
Above- Early Portable Station
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Above -Early Mobile Station
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Above- Early Operators
On the left would be VE3ORP, the soldier in the center was not a ham but he owned the jeep and on the right would be VE3CBK
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Some additional infomation and Pictures can be found on VE3MPG’s blog, VE3CLQ’s blog, VE3WMB’s blog and VE3CME’s Flickr page
After all the visiting and drooling Michel and myself headed back to his car and got our gear out and started to set up to play some radio. We had to operate from the beach as we did not have a campsite to operate from… Michel operated from beside his car and I set up at the covered picnic area at the beach…
Above Photo courtesy VA3QV camera phone (and it worked)
The FT was set up on a picnic table and the W3EDP was up high (about 40 feet) in a branch of a nearby tree and was sloping down to the picnic table. The sloper configuration was meaning that there was a slight advantage to the south west which became obivious after a few contacts…
First contact was with VE3ORP/mobile on 7.085 am. Dave and his driver were driving towards Kemptville in the jeep. This was my first logged AM contact and my first contact with a military jeep. I have made an 80m contact (SSB) with a military scout car before but it was not a jeep…
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The second contact was with VE3CBK who was operating a fixed station in support of the military jeep from the campgrounds. His signal on 40m AM was much stronger… After that I spun the dial and got started for the afternoon…
After that… I found WX7P on 14.228, I found W7DK on 21.336, I found W7DX on 21.355, VE3NJG on 7.055, VE3CEB on 7.055, VE3PSV on 7.055, K7RL on 21.354, and N7BV on 21.383…
Averaging the Washington State contacts out at a distance of 21oo miles that meant my Washington contacts were a distance of 420 miles per watt… Not bad for a bunch of SSB contacts
And the scenery was Fantastic -VA3QV photo
As you might guess from all of my “non-Ontario” contacts the Washington State QSO Party was in full swing and the bands were cooperating. All of my contacts were south and west of Kemptville and so my choice of antenna setup was the right choice although it was a fluke to be honest…
Above shot shows the area I set up in- VA3QV Photo
As the sun was starting to go down and the thought of supper was starting to sound good… I decided to pack up and sit with the group and compare efforts/results and embellish as needed so it sounded respectable. Chatting over a drink of some sort is always a great way to kill some time while waiting for the supper to be delivered…
Yes… That was supper delivered…. I quote from Micheal’s Blog …:
Our Saturday night take-out Pizza Dinner had 14 attendees which is a record !
As usual, Capilano Pizza in Kemptville did a fine job and delivered a lot of
Pizza to the entrance of the park.
Back when the group started this “Chilicon” thing we used to have chili. Jim VE3XJ was the Chilimeister and boy did he ever do a fantastic job. Jim you have been missed the last couple of years…. Come back and see us again…. So recently Capilano Pizza has been feeding us on a Saturday night and I must say that they have a great pizza. Once again I am not doing restaurant reviews but I was happily filled by supper at a reasonable price…
Washing down the pizza was couple of 807s and the conversations were fantastic… I now know how many shots it takes to kill a skunk… any how deep to dig the hole after… and yes we also talked about radios and experiences….
Giving a bit of plug to my fellow bloggers with VE3CLQ, VE3WMB, VE3EMB and VE3MPG its safe to say the only Ham Meeting to get more media than Chilicon is that other little event you might of heard of that they hold in Dayton…
Around 9pm Michel and I said goodbye to the group and made our way back to Ottawa via the Walmart in Kemptville (thats another story) and the day came to a close…
Made it home by about 1015pm and then tried to get some sleep because the Mount Ste Marie Microwave DXPedition started early (way too early) on Sunday Morning but thats for Part 3…
CU tomorrow
73bob
A late ps….
I know at least 3 hams that I did not mention… I was even introduced to you but I did not write down your name/calls and my memory is not what I thought it was…
They do say the memory is the 2nd thing to fail…. Lets not even talk about the 1st!!!
Sorry… No offense intended if I did not mention you….
73bob
Tags: amateur radio, Amateur Radio Portable Operations, Chilicon, g5rv jr, Rideau River Provincal Park, Yaesu FT 857
November 16, 2012 at 2:52 pm |
[...] types and we have been out on a couple of event having fun. The last time I saw Micheal was the 2012 ChillyCon event held in early September at the Rideau River Provincal [...]