Almost forgot…..

I’ve been talking about the North American QSO Party and the SPAR Winter Field Day and the FYBO and totally forgot about the ARRL January VHF Contest which is happening this  coming weekend (Jan 19-21 2013)

You might notice that this year the NAQP and the VHF Contest overlap a bit which means that if the HF bands are dropping off for you then you can also try some VHF contacts and have twice as much fun… 

For me (so far) the weather is looking good in Ottawa with a warm front coming in that will bring a little bit of snow but also temps just below the freezing mark.  I am thinking of spending a couple of hours out in the local park with my FT817 on Saturday afternoon and give out some contacts  in both contests.

Later in the evening I will be at home and raise up the power and give out a few more contacts at the 100w setting of my FT 450.

If the weather person is incorrect (guessed wrong) then it will be 100 w from home for both contests…

Hope you get to participate from somewhere and also have lots of fun…

73bob

ARRL 10m Contest

This weekend we have the ARRL 10m contest…

Follow this link to go to the website and read up on it:

http://www.arrl.org/10-meter

This much like the 6m contests can really suprise you….  If the band is open it does not take much to talk around the world using just about any style of antenna…  Earlier this year I had commented that my 10m capabilites were not the best but when I looked at my contacts stats recently I found that I now have more countries on 10m than I have now on 12m.  3 months ago I would of said that 10m is a loss for me…

As you probally have figured out….  the bands they are a changing and usually for the better….

Good Luck in the contest and give a listen for me…  I have some commitments for the start of the contest but should be on the air on Saturday starting around 1600 utc and will run for as long as the band stays open for me…

73bob

Taking a break from the Sweeps

I’ve managed to give to give out 115 ONE’sa so far.  A few of the operators were REALLY PLEASED including the Michigan State University Stn who thought that this gave them a Clean Sweep…

A few of the stations must not of read the rules as they actually argued about me giving them a bogus section as it ON for Ontario and there is no ONE as there is no Ontario East…  Hope they read the rules before next year…

My big issue seem to be copying the exchange as most of the operators seems to cut over to a voice keyer for most of the exchange but I found it hard when the voice keyer comes back in a different voice than the operators…. The change of voices in mid exchange just throws me for a loop…  I gave up even trying to copy the exchange and just give out my exchange and won’t bother submitting my score….

My logs will be u/l to LoTW and Club Log after the event so if anyone needs a log check they can do it that way.  If you were in my log an EQSL was also automatically sent out so you will know if you made it or not…

After brunch I’ll get back and give out a few more… to the lucky “ONE”s….

73bob

Getting everything setup for the Sweeps

Well…  I think its all ready….

Radio, borrowed tuner and software all seem to be working….  The last issue (I hope) with the logging software was figured out a few minutes ago with the assistance of VA3GFD (Don) and so I hope think guess that I am ready for the start of the SS tomorrow.

As with every contest I go into I know that I am not going to win… and in an event this size placing or showing will be difficult but i do know that there is a very good chance that everyone who is aiming for a “Clean Sweep” in the Sweepstakes has about a 1 in 20 chance that my callsign will be in their log.

This 1 in 20 thing came from looking at the submitted scores from last year and seeing how many of those lived in what would now be concidered the New RAC section of Ontario East (ONE)

The band conditons at the start of the Sweeps will dictate what catagory I enter.  If the bands are really strong I will be QRP but if the bands are not the best (in my opinion) then it will be the Low Power (100w) Catagory…  I’m hoping for QRP but guessing Low Power…

After some testing with the tuner I will be active from 10m to 160m with the strongest bands being 15m, 20m and 40m and a reasonable showing should occur on 10m and 80m….  If you listen closely you might hear a low signal on 160 if you are within about 500 miles of Ottawa…

The deal is that I put the best signal I can out there….  and its up to the rest of you to have a good enough station to copy my signals and then we both look good…

Good luck and I hope to get you in log…

73bob

 

Getting ready for the Colorado QSO Party

This weekend the Pikes Peak Amateur Radio Association is sponsoring the Colorado QSO Party The rules can be found by the following link :

http://ppraa.org/downloads/coqp/2012%20COQP%20Rules%2012-1.pdf

After taking a quick read the rules seem pretty standard with a couple of exceptions.  Trying to contact as many Colorado Counties (see below map) is a given…

I guess their participants are a bit younger than here in Ontario as they run for a 16 hour period rather than stopping to take a nap in the middle of the contest… 

I also like the idea of a power multiplier for the QRP stations…

Granted there is lots of areas in Colorado where a QRP station can get to a location with Altitude and Attitude and have a lots of fun.  Our old Friend Steve WG0AT (along with Rooster and Peanut) has made many contacts from the high altitude areas of Mt Herman and other areas

So on Saturday for as many of the 16 hours I have conditions for…  in the sprit of the contest…  my FT817 and Par end fed will be out in the field trying to contact Colorado Stations…

Now according to the Weather Network the weather will be cooperating so that is one think less to worry about.  If there is a slight breeze then the bugs will be kept away…  another issue solved…. and if the bands cooperate then it should be  a great time as well…

If your in Colorado I hope to work you on the air and no matter where you are if you hear me by all means give me a call and say hi…

73bob

A little more from the contest

Heres a bit of an update…  Concidering the conditions I can’t really complain so…

So far I have made 26 contacts and the breakdown is as follows:

21 contacts on 15m ssb

5 contacts on 20m ssb

16 DXCC entities

Furthest contact KH6 which is 7700 kms from Ottawa

As I mentioned earlier all of this is hard slugging as its all “Search and Pounce”…  I hear a signal I can make out and then call and call till either they come back with the ficticious signal report of 5 and 9 or I give up…  I freely admit that although I enjoy making contacts in a contest I am not a contester…

After looking at the above you can see that 15m is really the “moneymaker” today with just over 80% of the total contacts so far…

I would like to get VY2RAC in the log as the operators in PEI actually live just east of Ottawa and it would be a hoot to get some friends in the log especially as they are representing RAC (and Canada) in this contest.  They have one of the best contest stations in Canada at their disposal and they are good operators…  All they need now are good band conditions…

Back to my efforts in the contest….  Taking another break and I’ll try later on 40m and 80m as I can work Europe on both bands in the evening and then back to 15 and 20 for as long as the bands hold out…  No records to be made but it will be fun…

Seeing that I have been stuck at #134 in my DXCC entity hunt for a while now perhaps the DX Diety will smile upon me and perhaps #135 and #136 will be in my near future.

Heres Hoping

73bob

A quiet afternoon- before the contest

I’m not hearing much on the bands right now…  Hoping its because everyone is resting up for the RAC Canada Day Contest which starts at 0000 hrs UTC on July 1st… 

For this contest I will be operating 10-160m using my S9 43 foot vertical with my Yaesu FT450 as the radio of the day.  I am hoping for 160m if my LDG z100 autotuner can bring the SWR down low enough for the built in AT in the 450 to bring it down the rest of the way.  It won’t be very efficient but if I can just grab a couple of extra multis it could make the difference…

For the VHF side of the contest as we are allowed 2m and 6m I will be using my newly built 6m delta loop on 2m and 6m ssb with my FT 897 .  I’ll also have my JPOLE up at about 15 feet or so (where it usually sits) for the outside chance of some 2m fm contacts.  Actually after looking through my logs for the last few years I really could/should ignore the vhf stuff altogether as its just not really popular in the Ottawa Area unless its a VHF Contest.  It always amazes me seeing as Ottawa is on the border with Quebec so anyone in the National Capital Area could made an easy 4 multis (2m and 6m in VE2 and VE3) with very little effort which makes a weak station’s score a little more respectable…

I just got the RAC CONTEST SOFTWARE  (scroll down and follow the links) installed on the last computer in the house old enough to still run it.  Its a good thing that one computer in the house still runs XP.

For the rest of the day it will be taking life easy…  resting up… sitting in the backyard in the shade… and getting ready for the contest

73bob

Goodbye Field Day and Hello RAC Canada Day Contest

Get ready for one of the most laid back and fun events of the Canadian Radiosports Season…  The RAC Canada Day Contest.

The contest starts at 0000hrs UTC on July 1st and runs straight through till 2359.59 on July 1st

The rules of the Contest can be found here… as well as a link to some really easy logging software designed for the contest that makes scoring a breeze…

The RAC Canada Day Contest and the RAC Canada Winter Contest are the two most operator friendly contest I think you will ever find…   Highly recommended for fun and also if you are looking to fill in any gaps in your Worked all Canadian Provinces slot in your log…

This year the contest should be especially exciting as we havebeen experiencing excellent conditions on 20m and the VY0RAC station this year is a powerhouse.  Check out his QRZ.com webpage using the link.

This year I will be participating from home…  Starting in the shack using the FT450 and the S9 Vertical along with the 6m homebrewed Delta Loop.  If the weather is nice later on in the contest I’ll move the rig and power supply out to the patio and enjoy the nice WX along with the advantage of shorter feed lines to finish things off…

Hope to hear you and work you in the contest

73bob

Results in from the 2012 Ontario QSO Party

Well this seems like a day for contesting…

Found out the the Ontario QSO Party (Contest Club Ontario) results posted on their webpage today…  I draw your attention to the following:

If you refer back to my blog posting of April 23rd 2012

You would get a gentle reminder that VA3PCJ, VA2EPR and myself (VA3QV) headed up to Foymount Ontario to operate QRP for the Ontario QSO Party from Foymount Ontario… 

Not only did it seem that we were the only 3 QRP Operators in Renfrew but it also seems that we were the only 3 Operators in Renfrew County because according to the final results (as follows):

Renfrew County

VA3PCJ— REN SOQRP — 741 points 

VA3QV — REN SOQRP —  432 points

VA2EPR/VE3—  REN SOQRP—  110 points

So there you have it…  What I would call a very successful mini DXPedition.  Three guys drive up the side of a mountain in a freezing rain/snow/rain storm and operate for a couple of hours and manage to sweep the top three places in our catagory.  (To be honest we were most likely  the only three who competed in our catagory but the first way sounds better to me…)

Here is a link to the results

——————————————

Now if we were to take it one small step further and you look through the results again you will notice that VA3RCS (the call I operated on the Sunday from Ottawa) managed to finish 13th out of 33 in Single Operator Low Power Phone catagory and as silly as it seems (with a single day score of  1680 pts) was also enough to be 1st in the City of Ottawa in the Single Operator Low Power Phone catagory.  This has to prove that not enough people are submitting their logs… 

So the moral of the story for all of you is that if you don’t submit your logs you can’t win and if you do submit your score you can be happily suprised at times…

Once again thanks to the Contest Club Ontario for running the contest and to all those who were there to give me the few contacts that I did get…

73bob

Getting ready for the “Larry Wilcox Memorial” 2m FM contest

If you look back to my posting of May 29 2010 you will get most of the background information you need to understand this posting.  And the rules of the contest can be found here.

Early in May the Ottawa Valley Mobile Radio Club has held a 2m fm simplex contest open to all amateurs in the Ottawa Area for a number of years now.  Actually any licensed amateur can participate but as the multis for this contest are the City of Ottawa and the City of Gatineau municipal wards it does give the locals quite an advantage in the contest.

Anyone who knew Larry also knew that he was always on the repeaters…  always on the radio… and always supporting the club…

 After his unexpected death in 2010 it was decided that the 2m simplex contest would be renamed in his honour and last year (2011) the Larry Wicox Memorial 2m FM Simplex Contest became a reality. 

So today a large ( I hope) group from the Ottawa Amateur Community will flood the airwaves with our contest callings from the simplex portions (according to the RAC Bandplan) of the 2m band.

The beam would look like this except the VHF Elements would be vertically polarised for the FM event

My gear will consist of my Arrow Satellite Beam on a Camera Tripod with a very short feedline (to get the least amt of line loss) along the the 5w of my Yaesu FT60 handheld.

View Larger Map

I plan to head over to Grasshopper Hill Park and set up at the top of the bleachers for the ball diamond so between the bleacher and my camera tripod the beam should be about 10 feet agl.  For the duration of the contest or till the battery dies I will be cq’ing contest…

Although you can’t tell it from the map…  Grasshopper Hill is one of the taller locations in Ottawa.  Not SOTA high…  but it does take less energy to head east on Kilborn from Alta Vista (on a pedal bike) than it does to go west on Kilborn to Alta Vista .  Kilborn and Alta Vista would be the top of the hill and Grasshopper Hill Park is about as close to the top as I can get with operating in some ones driveway…

But when you are talking a 2m simplex contest I’ll take any help I can get…

I’m figuring on being out for the duration and the battery is fully charged so I hope I have enough power to make the full 4 hours.  If your in the Ottawa Area give a listen on the simplex portions of 2m and/or swing your beams towards my location…  and lets talk on the radio…

And… I can’t honestly think of a better way to honour an old friend…

73bob