Thank you Santa….

Well at 1510 hrs EST on Christmas Day it happened…. I got the bestest Christmas Present I could hope for…

Today the Blog had Visitor Number 50,000 for 2009

Now a while back you might remember me mentioning our 50,000 visitor but that was from the time I started the Blog in Feb 2008 and we had around 11,000 visitors in the first year.

Thanks to those who have visited and thanks to those who contribute by sending me emails and comments with suggestions, complaints or just to be sociable…

BTW….

After checking all around the Christmas Tree I seem to be missing one small box with a Yaesu FT 950 that should be in it…  Did it get delivered to your house by mistake???

Merry Christmas and…

73bob

Track Santa via APRS

Not sure how but…

Click on the Picture of Santa and his sleigh to track him via APRS

AHHHHH…., The magic of Amateur Radio and APRS

Merry Christmas and best 73

bob

Merry Christmas from my family to you

I just don’t feel like saying “Happy Holidays”…. Its not a holiday….  Its Christmas…  I was raised to believe in the miracle of Christmas and to be honest after 55 years I’m not about to change now…

I am not forcing my beliefs on anyone else… and I don’t mean to offend… and if you don’t believe… then please accept my best wishes anyway….

I wrote the following for a column I used to write for the Ottawa Valley Mobile Radio Club Newsletter called the Rambler…(My column was called “Ramblings”)  way back in December 2005.  I was club president that year.   It describes an event that occurred around the mid 1990s (I can’t find my old log books) but still holds true today….

“Try and find the time on Christmas Day to check into a couple of the HF nets on 20m. One of my best Christmas’s ever (as an amateur radio operator) was while waiting for the turkey to come out of the oven I managed to sneak into the shack and spin the dial. On the Maritime Mobile Service Net (14.300 USB) I heard a call for a Canadian Station. I jumped in and was able to make a contact with a VE0 (Marine Mobile) who asked me to contact his home and wish his family a “Merry Christmas” as he was not able to be home and had no Telephone Capabilities at sea.

Although I had no actual Phone Patch to use, a bit of improvising with a speakerphone did the trick and he was able to have an actual conversation with his loved ones.

Hearing the joy in their voices, as they were able to communicate made my Christmas.”

Back then SAT Phones were rare and expensive…

If you check out their website at www.ovmrc.on.ca  and follow the links to their newsletter and go back from August 2005 to June 2006 you will see that even back then I was an opinioned SOB but that’s another story…

Last year VE3GNA Glenn sent me this URL which I think is just fantastic and last year I asked you to visit it.  I checked and its still there up and running and so I ask again that you turn on your speakers or put on your headsets then click the url because its well worth visiting.  It brought a smile to my face and warm memories back to me so if it works on me… it should work on you…

Anyway before you click on the url…

I also hope that Santa brings you a new radio toy because I know all of you have been good…

The URL I would like you to click on is here

Merry Christmas and best for the New Year

73bob

Driving while distracted- what happened??

After reading a few different sources such as other Blogs and Group Postings and the like although people are Congratulating the VA7/VE7 Group they are starting to question why Ontario Amateurs got singled out with only a 3 year exemption.

Heres somthing interesting …  Check out the Kitchener-Waterloo Amateur Radio Club and the December issue of their Newsletter and I draw your specific attention to pages 8 and 9. This is what appears to be scan of a letter sent from the Ministry of Transport to a local Waterloo Area Amateur Radio Operator who voiced his opinions on the new law.  The reply is a bit scary (at least to me) as it seems we got the exemption (time limited) due to the fact that there is no real supply of Hands Free equipment and so they are giving the industry time to catch up with the law.

Now to the best of my knowledge this is the first time we have actually gotten the Ministry of Transportation to explain anything other than the standard reply of “Making Ontario’s roads safter…”

How did BC get the exemption and Ontario not.  We both submitted our comments and yet BC amateurs no real restrtictions and Ontario Amateurs get a time sentence kind oF like “3 years less a day…”

These are just a couple more things for you to look at…  You most likely will have some time on your hands over  the Christmas Holidays or early in the New Year…  Do some Google Searching…  Read the BC Submission made on behalf of the BC Amateurs…  Read the Ontario Submissions made on behalf of the Ontario Amateurs… Look at the Quebec Decision…  Look at the Manitoba Decision…  See what they did and how did it differ from what Ontario did…

I would like to discuss this in great detail starting early in the New Year and do a post mortem so to speak so we might gain some amunition in our attempts to change things in Ontario and also assist our fellow amateurs in areas where this has not been decided yet.

I really don’t want to see the blanket comments and finger pointing such as ” Its RAC’s Fault…  I don’t think it was… They tried and we tried and we were not successful.  We had two RAC Directors (one still with us) along with several RAC Vice Presidents living in Ontario working on this…  Several Private Groups also worked hard on this and there were several blogs (including this one) that worked very hard to keep you up to date and informed…

So what did we do wrong???

Do some research and lets talk about it in the New Year….

73bob

An early Christmas Present- no not the radio

Well today “Santa” came early and although he did not find the chimney he did find my email inbox and I found in it my monthly copy of :

Which comes out as a FREEBEE from the good people at:

Now they saw the best things in life are free and in this case they could be right…  I look forward to the arrival of the magazine in PDF Format every month and read it faithfully.  I do appreciate the effort that goes into its production and will give credit where credit is due…

If you click on the World Radio Online Logo (above the CQ Logo) it will take you to where you can d/l the issue if you want to.

73bob

Revisiting Driving while Distracted

I just got this in from an amateur who gets a newsgroup/reflector style newsletter from VE7LAND.

Now this is Great News for BC Amateurs and just adding to the confusion for us here in Ontario.

Someone could/should correct me here because today I am just too lazy to go back and check but I seem to remember Amateur Gear being exempt in Quebec and in the Maritime Provinces.  Manitoba was still in debate and now BC says hams are welcome.  Did I miss anywhere???  Anyone know about VO1, VO2, VE4, VE5, VE6, VE8, VY1 etc…?

Wonder why we are so dangerous in Ontario or is that they just don’t want us???

I was asking myself the above question before but now it seems to be coming back into play and perhaps this time it should be asked out loud!!!

Why does most of the Provinces/Territories want Amateurs to operate their equipment (safely and carefully of course) and Ontario wants to give us the same rights for 3 years and then force us to purchase hands free equipment?

============================================

Sent: December-21-09 11:46 AM
To: ‘BCWARN Technical Discussion’; ‘BCWARN Admin List’; 
Subject: Distracted Driver Exemption for Amateur radio

The regulations have now been published. The following link to the Office of the Superintendent of Motor Vehicles outlines the banned and permitted devices and fines associated with each.

http://www.pssg.gov.bc.ca/osmv/publications/index.htm

As you will see from the document, amateur radio has been exempted from the regulations with respect to 2-way radios (page 4).

Once again, thanks to all who worked very hard publicly and behind the scenes to make this happen.

=============================================

Not wanted in Ontario but fine in BC

Now don’t let this get your “knickers in a knot so to speak…“  Lets all take a bit of time and do some background reading and I will open up this for discussion early in the New Year.

There might be a good reason for it….but somehow I doubt it…

73bob

Christmas Operating Schedule

With me as it is most likely with you the following 7 days will be “fairly busy” with last minute shopping details and lots of family activities…

If you were looking for me over the next little while the following might be your best chance…

With the exception of Dec 25…

Daily on 3.925 at 1345 hrs for the 2nd region NTS Net

Daily on 3.742 at 1600 hrs for the Ontario Phone Net (NTS)

Daily on 1.928 or 3.925 (depend on band) for the 2nd region NTS Net

I am not sure about the rest of the time but those above listed skeds I will be doing my best to keep up with…

73bob

EQSL’s Starting to arrive

Well after checking my EQSL account for VA3QV I find that a few have arrived and I will be sending out some shortly.  I plan to U/L my RAC Canada Winter Contest Log file to EQSL rather than do the manual entry as there are way too many to do.  If I remember how the system works this should get all the cards sent out at one time and make it easier for my administrational skill not to look so bad.

For the next couple of days (Monday and Tuesday)  I will be spending a little less time in the shack as I get all the last minute stuff done in preparation for the Christmas Season.

As I type this I am listening to Santa talking to a few lucky children on 3.755 on the ONTARS Net.  For years now Santa has been talking to the kids on 80m for a couple of days before the big day and to everyones good luck the bands are cooperating.

I can remember so many years ago my own children being amazed that they could talk to Santa on Dad’s radio….

73bob

More on the FT 5000

I just found this picture from a Japanese Radio Magazine showing us a different view of the Yaesu “5000″ series…

Thought you would appreciate it…

Thanks to  je1trv.blogspot.com for posting it on his blog for all to see.

73bob

RAC Canada Winter Contest is Status Quo

I have heard that the best way to see how you did is to compare it against how you did last time.

Given that comment lets look at this years RAC Canada Day Contest which was held back on July 1 2009

VA3QV Single Operator Low Power

Band             Contacts               Multis

2                            2                            1

6                            5                            1

10                          1                            1

15                          4                            1

20                          55                        10

40                         19                           5

80                          37                         4

160                        2                             1

Now according to my logging program the actuals are:

95 Canadian Contacts (not counting RAC stations)  10 points each

9    Rac Stations 20 points each

20  DX Stations (non Canadian) 2 points each

124 Total stations  worked

1170 total points

24 Provinces as multis

28080 as a grand total score…

Now lets take a look at todays score- Canada Winter Contest

VA3QV Single Operator Low Power

Band             Contacts               Multis

2                             5                              1

6                             3                              1

10                          1                               1

15                          10                            4

20                          29                           7

40                          19                            3

80                          54                           6

160                        7                             1

Now according to my logging program the actuals are:

102 Canadian Contacts (not counting RAC stations)  10 points each

3   Rac Stations 20 points each

22  DX Stations (non Canadian) 2 points each

124 Total stations  worked

1128 total points

24 Provinces as multis

27072 as a grand total score…

Now how close is that?

Outside of a minor change with the 6m antenna going from vertical in July to horizontal in December and a few less radials on the HF antenna not much else changed.

The FT 847 was the radio of choice then as it was now…Same Auto tuner and balun.  The antennas basically were the same…  So how do I improve on my score for the next time?  I don’t think I can…

At  least not without help from others… We need more participants along with better band conditions.  Now there is not much we can do about the bands but if more people got out and participated then we might get a few extra multis and more people would have more fun.

This year I spent about 14 hours on the contest.  I could of spent a bit more but there were some minor family commitments which needed to be done especially if I wanted to eat for the rest of the week.  Groceries come before DX or at least thats what Liz is telling me.

So now lets look at the goals… as I mentioned before the contest started…

“Have Fun (a given…  if its not fun then why do it???)”

Well it was fun.  I wish I could of devoted more time to it but then again we did talk about the grocery thing.  On the brighter side of things the time I did spend was great.

Then I said

“Work all the 13 multipiliers ( so far I have worked all but one of the Canadian Territories (VY1… I am still looking for you…) It would be really fantastic IF I could manage at least one contact coast to coast and the North as well.”

This one could need a bit of work.  I was able to contact stations in all the 10 Canadian Provinces but this time I had no luck in VE8 (John was operating J6/VE8EV from St Lucia) and I heard no one from the land of VY1 or VY0.  To be honest I have never contacted the Yukon yet and it took a DXPediton to VY0 to finally get them in the log

Next time for sure (or so I say now…)

Try and improve on my one good score…  2003 Canada Winter Contest and I was operating QRP with my VA3RCS Callsign (before I had VA3QV) and things were going great.

This did not get done but at least I got the same average score I got last contest.  I really wish I could remember what I did so different in 2003 that got me the great score I have been trying to match ever since.  I was QRP for that contest and I have barely made 1/2 of that today running QRO so I guess its a band condition thing as I seem to remember working across Canada (VO1 to VE7) that year on 80m and 40m but thats about it…

That and without nagging about it the participation thing as well.

My local contacts were very poor.  5 contacts on 2m and 3 contacts on 6m.  Just about every new rig these days comes with 6m so there is no excuse for that.  You have the radio…Turn it on and get an antenna for 6m.

How will you know theres an opening on 6 if you never use the band?

In addition to the 14 hours in the contesters chair I also spent about 3 hours in the NTS chair and made my daily skeds with the usual stations and nets that I meet with on a regular  basis to keep the traffic smoothly flowing in and out of the Ontario Phone Net.

So in closing YES I did have fun… I got to hide in the shack for 14 hours and play radio.  I talked to lots of Canadians and a few new hams who have that great enthuasism that I used to have.  I still enjoy it…  My blood pressure just stays lower or is that the meds ???

The next friendly entry level contest would be the Ontario QSO Party which is held the third week in April…  Assuming the Maple Tree makes it through the winter thats the one I put it all together for.  I actually got some paper for the high score last year that says …

“Single Operator SSB City of Ottawa”

I think because every one else who competed from Ottawa was operating CW or QRP, but it was nice to get the 1st place certificate.

But as a wise old DXer told me once…  If you don’t sumit your score … you can’t win…

73bob