Kingston was a Great Success

Well I got back a couple of hours ago but it took a while to figure out how to get the pictures out of the camera. And if when you are looking for the picture I took of YOU at Kingston and you can’t find them lets blame it on the new camera.    You are seeing all the ones that I could save with Photoshop to correct for lots of operator errors… 

You wern’t snubbed but rather I should of tried a few sample shots or read the manual before leaving …

Anyways….  here we go… At 0645 I met up with Roger VE3NPO and Doug VE3DLJ at the local “Timmies” and we all got into Dougs mini van and headed off on our trip to Kingston for the event.

Roger VE3NPO on the Left  &  Doug VE3DLJ  on the Right

And just before 0900 we arrived at CFB Kingston at the C & E Museum for the hamfest.

This Picture greeted us as we entered the building

The admission at the hamfest was by donation to the Museum and from looking at the fishbowl the Museum was rewarded for doing the fantastic job they did of hosting.  In addition to gaining access for the hamfest we were also able to tour the Museum including the VE3RCS Station located inside the museum.

For a while today the C & E Museum had both VE3RCS and VA3RCS under the same roof and if Ken Halcrow had been there as well then VE8RCS would of been represented making it a triple threat.

Taken today at the C & E Museum

I thought I had a QSL from VE3RCS but… I guess not…  If I had realized I would of picked one up from Terry and scanned it in for this entry… If anyone has a file (.pdf or .jpg etc) of the VE3RCS QSL Card could they send it to me (va3rcs at rac.ca)

VE8RCS QSL From Last DXPedition.

And yes I still hold the call VA3RCS (Robert Charles Sharp)

I did get time to check out the vendors and even pick up a few toys such as Headset with a boom michrophone, a very used 4:1 balun along with 3 RG8 Patchcords and 2 RG58 Patchcords.  This was a bit of a shock to my system as I went there looking for those items and a bit more so although I did not get all I was looking for I did no impulse buying and only got from the list…  It kinda shocked my wife when I got home as well…

Now while I was there I met many new friends and old friends and once again I apologise for the poor picture quality or missing pictures due to my new camera needing a better operator…  The only thing worse than my camera skills are my CW Skills…

Barrie Crampton VE3BSB from Perth Ontario.  You know Barrie as the local EC from Lanark ARES and a Driving Force with the Lanark Space Agency (LASA).  We have worked together on all the LASA Flights so far.

Nick VE3NJG from the Ontario Swap Shop was there.  We managed a short eyeball QSO before we both headed off in search of more rare equipment and bargains…  Nick had brought two other amateurs with him, Shawn VE3PSV (from the Laurentian Net and the Ontario Phone Net and ONTARS) and Jason VE3JAS??? but they fell victim to my lousy skills as a photog…  Jason and myself had a short QSO last week on 40m when I was out in the park…

Center VA3RDC                                Center VA3MPM

You would be hard pressed NOT to find Darrel VA3RDC and Mike VA3MPM from the 3730 group not at a Hamfest.

Unfortunately the camera lost Dave VA3UI who I met in person for the first time and old friend Steve VE3SKP who I met for the first time about 20 years ago.

I managed a quick QSO with Al VO1NO/ve3 as we were both touring the room looking for bargains anlong with Tim VE3UO.  John VA3CAK from the ONTARS Net was there as well as Ian VE3MUD who is in the old friend catagory (circa 1993 or so).

It was however to be a short renunion as Doug the driver needed to get back to Ottawa to attend to other matters so after spending one hour of our time and about $35.00 of my allowance and paper route money we (Doug, Roger and myself) loaded up all the treats into Doug’s van and headed back home after a quick stop for a snack at the Gourmet Restaurant (Golden Arches) across from the Museum.  Chef Ronald and his staff did good and we quickly were east bound on the 401 heading back home.   Doug dropped me off at home around noon which brought an end to the excursion…

Just over 400kms, just under 6 hours and a whole bunch of fun later….  It was a good day…

A hearty well done to the Kingston ARC and the Museum Staff for providing such a fun way to spend a Saturday Morning.  I look forward to next years event and also to seeing some of you in the spring time at the Iroquois Hamfest…

73bob

Getting ready for Kingston

Today has been a lazy day in anticipation of an early departure (Saturday Morning) from Ottawa with Doug VE3DLJ for a trip to the Kingston ARC/ C and E Museum joint Hamfest at CFB Kingston in Kingston Ontario.

View Larger Map

We will be leaving Ottawa around 0630 and be in Kingston around 0830 with the doors opening at the site for the general public at 0900.

Hopefully see you there

73bob

LASA Balloon update- VE3LCA-11 recovered

Well as you know last Saturday the Lanark Space Agency (LASA) launched two balloons on November 7th from Perth Ontario.

The following video courtesy Gordon Dewis VE3XGD and youtube shows the launch of VE3REX-11 which was one of the two flights of the day

 

The liftoff of both vehicles went quite well…

If you use the links below you can follow the flightpath of the two balloons using aprs.fi

You can follow VE3REX-11 here

and

You can follow VE3LCA-11 here

On Saturday November 7th we did know that VE3REX-11 had landed and was stuck in a tree at about the 50 foot mark above ground and as that payload only that the tracker unit we were content to wait for a while to see if  “Mother Nature” would assist us with the recovery by breaking a branch, or blowing the parachute enough to bring things the final 50 feet back to ground.

VE3LCA-11 however had travelled further south and we had asked a local amateur club to assist in the recovery.  They had tracked it as far as a section of private property and had asked the property owners assistance in finding then recoverying the payload.

From what I had picked up through the emails crossing my desk not much else had happened till today…  It seemed that VE3LCA-11 had met the same fate as VE3REX-11 and was up in a tree…

In my email comes the news that a treeclimber was employed and for a modest sum (much less than the cost of the payload gps/tracker and camera) we now have VE3LCA-11 back on the ground safe and sound.  No word on when REX will come back to earth but one out of two ain’t bad…

I also have this link for you to follow to see the Recovery Pictures courtesy of Ray K1XV who we thank for his assistance in the recovery and the excellent pictures.

A true show of amateurs helping amateurs…

73bob

Early weekend plans

Good Thursday morning,

Between now and the weekend there is plenty to keep any Amateur Radio Operator busy.  We have a nice mix of DXPeditions and a flea market to either keep you in the shack or broke…

Saturday will be a very busy day with Kingston Amateur Flea Market being sponsored by the  Kingston Amateur Radio Club and the Communications and Electronics Museum in Kingston  at the museum at CFB Kingston.  As it stands right now I have been offered a ride to Kingston so if nothing changes you should see me there…

View Larger Map

If you decide on not going out to Kingston, Saturday is also the day chosen for a SOTA (Summits on the Air) Activation Day and this will be the first activation for the first Canadian SOTA Group.

The VE2SOTA group will be active with two activations.  If your local to the Ottawa Area Martin VA3SIE will be operating in this event from Mont Ste Marie QC and will be beaconing his operating frequency on APRS using the ssid of VA3SIE-7.

Check out Martins Blog for more up to date info.

Now as Saturday is a SOTA Activity Day you should find lots of QRP Stations that are setting up putting lots of signals into the air.  Due to antenna constraints many of them will be also operting VHF so if you don’t hear anything on HF try looking around the VHF Bands in the simplex operating areas.  Don’t forget that many of them are using FT817s so listing on 144.200 USB or around there could be a good thing.  Seeing that the ICOM 703 along with the FT 817 also does 6m listening around 50.125 USB could be a good thing as well.  There will be people out there with ” Altitude and Attitude “ so you should be able to hear them somewhere…

Now if you check the Weather Network (for Ottawa) you will notice that Saturday is looking wet but Friday and Sunday are looking good so I’m pretty sure that I will be out in the Park with the FT 817 on Sunday.

As it stands right now the same operating schedule as last Sunday is looking fairly good with the Ontario Swap Shop on 40m at 1200, after that heading down to 80m at 1345 for the 2nd region Traffic Net on 3.925 and then up to 14.140 at 1400 for the Trans Canada Net. The afternoon will finish off as the Sun starts to drop over the horizon by checking into the Ontario Phone Net on 3.742 at 1600.  After the OPN it will be time to tear down and pack up to head home.  There is always two things I check before leaving for an outing like this and that the weather and the band conditions.

If either one is not what I expect then its a quiet afternoon in the shack instead.  No point in walking over to the park and setting up to freeze or get soaked and listening to static instead of voices is just as bad…

More on the weekend tomorrow but its going to be a busy one…

73bob

November 11th- “Lest We Forget”

“We will remember them…”

Thank You

73bob

 

 

New Radios are popular search topics

All I can say is WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!

After checking back and wondering WHY the hits were up through the roof recently if seems that a lot of you (about 350 per day) are really really interested in the New Yaesu Radios such as the FTM 350 Dual Band Mobile with APRS

Along with the New Yaesu FT5000 in various setups are really burning up the hit counter.

To be honest the last time I saw traffic numbers on a regular basis like this was when I started blogging about the Yaesu VX8-r

So it seems that new toys are a popular topic…

So even though I have made the offer before and I know that someone out there connected with the Larger Retailers are reading this I will make it again.

If one of the retailers from Canada or the States (Durham, Ekel, Radioworld, Universal Radio or HRO) would like to drop me a line describing some of the great things about the new radios mentioned above feel free to do so and I will quote your email into a blog post as part of an article I am planning on the new toys once I get a bit more intel…

Nothing against Elecraft, Kenwood or Icom but I am a Yaesu Fan.  I have operated them all and owned most of them.  Many of my QRP associated prefer the Elecraft line as compared to the FT 817 and after many times operating besides an Elecraft I know them to be fine radios but my personal choice is still Yaesu.

But if the other companies want to send me info I will work it into an article as well and who knows maybe some time in the future a different brand might find its way onto my desk,,,’

Like I have said many times in the past….

“Anything is possible”

73bob

The Weekend wrap up….

Well to be honest it was one HECK of a busy weekend as far as Amateur Radio went at the VA3QV QTH…

Friday saw me doing the usual NTS style stuff like checking into the 2nd Region Net on 3.925 at 1345 hrs,  hooking up with the Ontario Phone Net on 3,742 at 1600 hours and returning to the 2nd Region Net at 1830 hours.  This series of events runs 7 days a week if I can get near a radio at the usual times.  If you check back to Sunday Blog Posting you will see that I checked into the 1345 session of 2rn and the 1600 OPN using my FT 817 and a portable antenna as I was out during the net times.  It was much quieter in the park and it was nice to get into the outdoors.  The rest of Friday evening was spent on VHF/UHF with the Ottawa Valley Mobile Radio Club’s Wise Owl Net on repeater VE3TWO and just repeater hopping after that.

Saturday was the big day with the launching of Amateur Radio Balloons VE3REX-11 and VE3LCA-11 from Perth Ontario.  I was scheduled to be the Recovery Control Station but with the flightpath of the payloads heading further south than I could get repeater coverage to I was more of a spectatior but it was still great to watch via APRS along with some updates sent my way from VE3XID Jim in Morrisburg who took over for me as he was south enough to get the repeaters I could not reach and all was good.

You can track VE3REX-11 here

You can track VE3LCA-11 here

As of Monday at 1500 Eastern here is the into that I have received:

VE3REX-11 has been located and unfortunately it is stuck about 50 feet or so above ground in a tree.  It could be stuck up there till the cord that connects the parachute to the payload self destructs or the tree comes down, branch breaks or heavy wind storm etc…  We know where it is but we can’t get it for now…

VE3LCA-11 went a bit further south into the state of Vermont and the local radio club out there has been contacted for assistance.  The club contacted the property owner who will look for the balloon and then get back to the club in question.  If he can’t find it he might give permission for a more structured recovery mission but first things first.

So in reality neither payload has been recovered but we do have a good idea of where to look…  These things do take time…

While all this was going on my usual NTS Skeds were maintiained and traffic was passed in a timely manner…

Sunday saw me joining the Ottawa Valley Mobile Radio Club and their Pothole Net on 3.760 at 1000hrs eastern.  This is a local ragchew weekly net and fun to catch up with the locals on.

After the net I decided to dust off my FT817 and head out to the park to play for a while.  You can read up on my exploits here.

All in all it was a great weekend for Amateur Radio…

73bob

 

 

 

 

 

 

Afternoon Radio Report

Well I just got back in and was able to operate in relative comfort from 1300 to 1600 and shivered till 1630…

First contacts were made on 7.060 with Nick VE3NJG and a few others from the 40m version of the Ontario Swap Shop.  Reports were excellent for 40m daytime conditions as I was able to hear and work VE3s that were not groundwave.

After that I made a couple of local VHF/UHF fm repeater contacts as I had remembered to pack my ribbon JPOLE in the 817 bag and then at 1345 I QSY’d up to 3.925 (80m) for the 2nd Region Traffic Net.

I was able to check in with the NCS AK2Z Doug in Camden NY who according to the QRZ map is approx 145 miles south of Ottawa and the copy was good enough to pick up a piece of traffic destined for the Ontario Phone Net.

After that I headed up to 20m and checked in with the Trans Canada Net on 14.140 and got good reports (not great but they could hear me) from VA4GD Grant in Pinawaa Manitoba and VA7TA Tom on Vancouver Island BC.

I even managed a bit of real DX when I BROKE THE PILE UP WITH 5 WATTS and managed a contact with YW5F on 14.280 who is a:

“Special event station to celebrate the 20th Anniversary DXpedition of the Caracas DX Group in November 2009 from Farallon Centinela (IOTA SA-058).”

According to QRZ.com and their map it is a distance of  2551 miles almost straight south from Ottawa to  Venezuela and given my maximum output of 5 watts thats just over 500 miles per watt which is not too bad concidering I am using a wire antenna and no beams…

Quitting the DX world while I was on a winning streak I switched back to 80 meters and checked in on the ONTARS Net on 3,755 and also heard an old friend Ian VE3MUD checking in as well and then we QSY’d up to 3,765 and had a great chat catching up on all the news as its been a few months since we have had time to gossip…

At 1545 I stayed on 80m and joined the warm up for the Ontario Phone Net with the Net starting at 1600 with Shawn VE3PSV as the Net Control.  At the end of the Net I had a quick chat with VE3GNA Glenn and then tore down as the sun was falling and with it were the tempetures falling and it was getting cold…

A quick walk home after packing up the gear ended the fantastic day of playing radio outside…

Remember that “Radio Can be an Outdoor Sport…”

This fantastic afternoon was done with a measly 5w with a homebrewed wire antenna and a hombrewed balun…  Just imaging what could be done when the bands finally improve…

73bob

Heading Outside on Sunday Afternoon

Its an unusual warm sunny afternoon forcasted for Ottawa in early November so I am planning to take the FT 817 / W3EDP combo out to a local park to dust off the cobwebs from the gear.

Listen for me on 7.055 SSB for the Ontario Swap Shop if there are conditions on 40m for close in stuff….  That should be around 1230 hours as I’m getting ready to leave now…

(Photo courtesy of Larry VE3WEH)

If 40m is a bust then I will just spin the dial and see whats out there till the 2nd region Net

I will be trying to check into the 2nd region Traffic Net on 3.925 SSB at 1345 eastern but doubting if 5 watts can get heard when I sometimes have trouble with 100 from home but I will check anyway…

After 2 RN I will be checking into the Trans Canada Net on 14.140 SSB which normally runs between 1400-1500 EASTERN and after that who knows…

Home or away I should be on the Ontario Phone Net at 16oo on 3.742 SSB and the conclusion of that net should signal the end of my radio attempts from whatever location I am at…

Hope to hear you on the air….

73bob

A new blog from an old friend

This morning while checking my email I found out that one of my Best Friends in the Amateur World has started up a Blog.  We go back quite a while now…  They say that “Great Minds think like or Fools Seldom Differ…”

(Not sure who took the picture on this one)

But was taken at the Maple Island DXPedition

VA3SIE Martin has been with me on two DXPeditons along with a couple of Special Events and many QRP Outings.  If you are interested in QRP Portable operations I think that this would be one of the places you should visit…

Above Video shot at the 2009 FYBO operating as CF3RCS

Anyways it has been fun and so if you check out Martin’s Blog I’m positive you will find it interesting and informative.  As Martin was the person who got me interested in Pictures and You Tube you can bet that whatever event he is participating in will be well documented…

73bob