This morning after doing the email thing, the update the blog thing, the Twitter things, I thought…
“Why not go out and do the Radio thing???”
So I grabbed the Backpack and walked over to Weston Park….
I got the weighted line up about 30 feet or so and hung out the Par End Fed QRP antenna. I set the FT 817 up on the picnic table and started making contacts…
First in the log was…
20m … WA9BXB … Richard near Chicago … 660 miles (132 miles/watt)
Then…
20m … VE3JW … Museum Station in Ottawa … >1 mile
10m … VA3MPM/m … Mike in Ottawa … a few miles away
10m … VA3ES … Ed in Ottawa … 2 miles away
15m… K4CME … Doug in Tampa … 1250 miles away (250 miles/watt)
15m … GI0EJU … Victor in N Ireland … 3025 miles away (605 miles/watt)
And last but not least…
40m … VA3NP … Roy in Welland … NCS for the Trans Provincal Net
I also heard lots more stations on 40m on the ECARS frequency of 7.255 and the MidCARS frequency of 7.258 and there was a 8Land Traffic net on 7.280 (noon EDST) that all were strong. I could not check into ECARS or MidCARS as I could not seem to be heard with my 5 w signal and I decided against checking in with the Traffic Net .
From my days with the Ontario Phone Net I do understand that these Liason Stations normally have to be somewhere else rather quickly after a regional net or a section net concludes… They had good strong signals though…
After about 1 hour in the park the voltage indicator on the FT 817 reminded me that I had not charged things back up since I returned from my very busy weekend so I packed everything up
It was a great way to spend an hour….
73bob
Tags: amateur radio, Amateur Radio DX, Amateur Radio Portable Ops, Par end Fed Antenna, Yeasu FT 817
