VA3QV's Weblog

New Radios are popular search topics

va3qv — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 20:32:44 +0000

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….

va3qv — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:45:50 +0000

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

va3qv — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 22:17:34 +0000

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

va3qv — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 17:11:13 +0000

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

va3qv — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 14:10:18 +0000

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

Amateur Balloons–>What goes up…

va3qv — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 22:16:43 +0000

…Must come down and in this case both balloons have returned to ground level. The first to land was VE3REX-11 which almost set a world record with an unofficial altitude of 127,932 feet which was very close to the record altitude of 128,739.

You can follow VE3REX-11 here

and

You can follow VE3LCA-11 here

VE3LCA-11 did attain an altitude over 100,000 feet and stayed aloft much longer than VE3REX-11 but no records were to be had today.

At the time of posting (1710 hrs November 7th) we do know that both payloads are on the ground and have fairly good coordinates for them. A recovery team is approximately 2 miles away from REX and searching and the 2nd recovery is heading further south to start looking for LCA.

So neither payloads have been recovered yet but we do know where to look but darkness is starting to set in…

Ontario, New York and Vermont…Those balloons are well travelled and so are the guys trying to recover them…

More info when I get it…

73bob

New Yaesu HF Rig coming…

va3qv — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 22:05:45 +0000

Thank You to our Veterans from a Proud Canadian

————

I found this latest item from the www and I guess this is Yaesu’s idea of reminding me I can’t afford all the new toys coming out….

The Yaesu FTDX5000MP

The little information I can find on this new one is found at the Universal Radio Website

I should add that I “Plug” Universal Radio because they have an excellent well designed website that is always up to date. I have no financial interest in the company and to be honest have never even bought a coax connector from them…

But now when I was figuring out how I could afford the FT 450 or the FT 950 or the FT 2000…. I knew the FT 9000 was just out of range so they came out with the FT 5000 which I probally can’t afford either but…. The rig does look nice… Lets see how the specs will be on this one and how it compares or fills in the gap between the FT 2000 and the FT 9000…

Just in time for Christmas….

73bob

Changes to Saturdays Plans

va3qv — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:53:24 +0000

Thank you to our Veterans

I got an email this morning from Barrie VE3BSB who is part of the LASA Group doing the balloon launch scheduled for this Saturday who advises me that with the updated Jet Stream predictions it looks like the chase teams will be signing /W2 after their calls.

This greatly cuts into my participation because due to geographic reasons I am totally blocked on out of town repeaters to the South, the South West and the West. East is good for me and South East is tolerable and North is not an issue. Just my luck that the direction of the day should be south…

So this afternoon the beam comes down and the JPOLE goes up as high as I can without guying it and we will see what happens… From Gordon’s Blog comes the confirmation that he will be participating as one of the chase teams so you can check out APRS.FI and look for VE3XGD-9 as well as VE3BSB-9 with the Payloads being VE3REX-?? and VE3LCA-??.

Lets see if swapping out the antennas (again) work in my attempts to try and get my vhf fm signal south of Ottawa.

73bob

Winter Antennas going up

va3qv — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 04:36:03 +0000

Lest we forget

Well some decent weather in the late morning/early afternoon got me in the back yard and working on the VHF/UHF antennas. My dual band J Pole came down and was replaced by a higher masting and my Cushcraft dual band

which is a 10 element ( 5 on VHF/5on UHF) Yagi with a 6 foot boom. Its exactly like you see in the picture with the exception of the Palm Tree.

This antenna right now is on a 15 foot mast and is aimed east to give me a slightly stronger signal into the VE2RM Repeater just outside of Montreal QC.

Depending on where the wind carries the LASA Balloons the extra repeaters will or could be needed.

Once the flights are recovered the plan is to add another 7 feet of mast and put the dual band J Pole back on. But for the purpose of these flights the Beam at 15 feet has a stronger signal than the omni directional at 22 feet so I will take the Yagi for this special use,

I also will be installing a 2m 5/8w mobile antenna on a side bar off the masting just below the 10 foot mark for APRS. After the beam is switched back to the J Pole this antenna will be moved up to the 15 foot mark and you will be seeing VA3QV on the APRS system again.

For HF use I plan to continue using the W3EDP antenna in the inverted L configuration. Its working great so why mess with the closest thing to perfection I have found so far.

In addition to the W3EDP I also have a HYGAIN AV18VS which is a 10-80 m vertical antenna which uses a Tapped Coil for Tuning.

With a couple of wire counterpoises running around the fence it does a great job on 10m to 20m. I have also used it on 80m with some good results and its nice to have a different antenna to swich around for comparisons when in the RAC Canada Winter Contest or the upcoming CQ Contests.

I just wish I had enough room for a decent radial system like this one…

….but unfortunately he has a bit more real estate than I do for antennas…

And the reason for this massive amount of antenna work is because today it snowed in Ottawa… As you know the first minor snowfall is a reminder that we need to get off our duffs and do all the antenna work we have been procrastinating about all season long. There is a small window of opportunity between the time the leaves fall off the trees and the snow falls and the tempeture really drops and its easier to do work without gloves on so… Its now or never…

More on how much actually got done on Sunday…

73bob

LASA Balloon Launch on Saturday

va3qv — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 13:41:43 +0000

Thank you to all Canada’s Veterans

Although you can set up an Amateur Balloon with various payloads you are restricted by your goals. First off you want the payload back… If you are launching the balloon to get pictures from near space then getting the camera back is fairly important…

This Saturday (weather permitting) the LASA Group (Lanark Space Agency) is launching two balloons from Perth Ontario. These launches are “un sponsored” meaning the local schools are not involved …so the theme (goals) of these two launches would be to have fun…

“Boys with their toys” so to speak…

So this Saturday you might hear some strange callsign on your local repeaters along with some different beacons and callsigns on your APRS Screen as the boys go looking for their toys after the launch.

If you take a look at the Jet Stream Map (above) you might notice that its looking more South than East this time. Now every time we do one of these launches I try and predict the location just off this same map and so far I think I running about 60%. Its not as hard as it looks as the balloon will always have east in its direction…

The big question will be North East, East North East, East , East South East or South East…

In my non scientific calculations the biggest factor is how quickly the balloon gets into the Jet Stream then how quickly it rises above the Jet Stream. One of the many things I did not know was that a balloon can actually fly out of the Jet Stream. And this also means that after the balloon bursts as its on its way back to earth it can come back into the Jet Stream which will drastically change the landing predictions depending on how long it stays in the stream on the way back down.

Now we do know it will come down… The plan is to try and have a recovery unit near where it does come down… This time my quess is south east (Eastern Townships of Quebec) but a very good chance of New Hampshire, Vermont with a slight chance of Maine again. Lets see how close I was later.

But with lots of skill and a little bit of luck….Did I get that right??? the result should be the same as above…

So keep an eye on your APRS Screen this weekend…. Look for VE3REX-?, VE3LCA-?, VE3BSB-9 along with any other callsigns that seem to be following those above mentoned calls. I will be the recovery controller here in Ottawa using the APRS call VA3QV along with monitoring various 2m frequencies depending on where the winds blow us to…

Safe bets for listening would be The Lavant Repeater in the Perth Area, VE3MPC in the Ottawa and east AREA, VE2RM in the Montreal Area also along the St Lawrence river west of Montreal. We also will be active on 80m as a backup if things go where we can’t find a common frequency depending on location.

Normally I would be giving plenty of updates on the launch but this time it will be a quick blurb on Sat am to let you know if we are are a “GO” or not, and then a short launch notification along with the most current tracking APRS info and then the we found it blurb and where we found it… if we did!!!!