Evening DX

Over the last few days I have had some good luck in the evenings working some DX…  Tonight I managed  YV5Z and YV1BYM from Venezuela along with Zs3D in South Africa and last but not least VP2MYZ from the Buddipole DXPediton on Montserrat.  I think there are 6 operators on the Buddipole event on Montserrat and so far I have 3 of them in the log.

South Africa was worked on 40m and the other 3 contacts were on 20m.. 

If you follow THIS LINK  you can see my most recent contact from my online logbook…

Talking about DXPeditons for a minute though…

The pieces are coming together and it looks like there will be 4 operators (could be more) heading from Ottawa to operate the Ontario QSO Party Saturday session from Renfrew County .  VA3PCJ, VA3QV, VA3SIE and VA3EpR will be heading out of Ottawa on Saturday April 21st to set up 4 QRP Stations at the top of Foymount Mountain…  Its a good mix with 2 cw operators (Martin and Tom) with Jose and myself operating SSB.  We will have two FT 817s along with an IC 703 and with a little bit of luck a brand new KX3 ( if Martin’s new toy gets delivered in time)…

Between the four of us we plan to operate 2m, 6m and the HF Bands from the start of the contest till the sun goes down and the temps drop…  Hoping to give out lots of contacts…

There will be more posted on this in the coming week….

CU tomorrow

73bob

 

W9W- a class act

Back on October 23rd (a Sunday afternoon ) while I was sitting in the shack blogging about the fun I had out at the Long Island Lock station with Jose VA3PCJ on the Saturday,  I managed a contact with W9W who was operating from US Island WI048R in Wisconsin.

Well today in the mail came a full color QSL card from them.  This was unexpected…  The postage on the card was almost a buck so its safe to say that for a two sided color QSL card it would cost at least a dollar a card so this group spent  an average of a $1.50 to send out QSLs to all contacts.  This is no mean feat…  In the past I have sent out QSLs out via the buro for special event stations and mini DXPeditions but to swallow the postage for every contact could cost them as much as the radio cost they made the contacts with…

Like I said…  A class act

Thanks to the crew of W9W which consisted of  W9MZ, KC9MRV, KC9KOO, KC9KOP, KB9TPG, KC9NHQ, KC9LBO, W9JR and KC9UJM

73bob

DXPedition info from RAC Bulletin Service

Thanks to the good people at RAC for the info

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Pitcairn Island Dxpedition VP6T – January 20 – February 4, 2012
2012-01-06

There is going to be a Dxpedition to Pitcairn Island (OC-044, CQ Zone 32) between January 20th and February 4th, 2012. The operator lineup is made of Jacques F6BEE, Gilles VE2TZT, Nigel G3TXF, Michel FM5CD and Vincent F4BKV

They will be on all bands 160-10 metres including the WARC bands during their stay.

They will try and upload the VP6T log to LoTW during the operation if they can. if not, they will upload the logs after their arrival home. They will try to update their VP6T log on “ClubLog” as often as they can during the operation.

For their operating plans, QSL information and other information, take a look at the Dxpedition web site at: http://www.vp6t.org/

Vernon Ikeda – VE2MBS/VE2QQ
Pointe-Claire, Québec
RAC Blog Editor/RAC E-News/Web News Bulletin Editor

 

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Thanks again RAC

 

73bob

 

More on Foymount and the upcoming week

First of all thanks to Martin VA3SIE I have 3 pictures from the Foymount DXPedition (daytrip) to show you.  They just show my setup for the day and if you look past the fat person and the tiny radio gear you will see a bit of the background scenery.

I was set up in what was at one time a parking lot.

(ABOVE) Ft817 with LDG QRP Autotuner- Hamantenna CN32 Horizontal covering 2m to 40m-  12AH SLA in the grey bag.  Yes it was as cold as it looked!!!

(Above) How do you smile for a picture when its below 0deg C with the wind chill and there is no protection from the wind?

(Above) thinking that next time I chose a DXPedtion location it should be someplace WARM!!!  Dreaming of a DXPedition to Hawaii maybe?

They left the pavement and some concrete foundations but everything else was demolished at the top of the hill.  At the bottom of the hill most of the base buildings such as admin and the PMQs are still there and most of the houses and a few of the buildings are still in use.  But all of the structures at the top of the hill…  These were the building that housed the actual electronic survailance gear have been brought down to ground level or at least concrete foundation level.

The only things at the top of the hill now are commercal towers for television rebroadcasting and other private commercal radio systems along with a Packet Node and an amateur repeater.

Picture shows the Christie and Walter Tower on the left- Not sure what the little one on the right is and yes there is still a little bit of snow left at the top

All above pictures courtesy VA3SIE

Martin has more pics on his flicker page and if you want to take a look feel free…  The link is here

David VE3ZZU and Larry VE3WEH took some pictures as well and I know as Larry used to be posted to Foymount in the 1970s he took some pics of the base buildings as well so perhaps once he shares them with us you will get a view of history as well as radio.

In the mean time if you “Google Foymount” you will see several websites that serve of a reminder of when the world was a much more dangerous place that it is now.  Nuclear war is far more  threatening than Terrorism…

Anyway now back to the rest of the week…

Saturday starts with my most favourite time of the year which is the start of the Eastern Ontario Hamfest circuits.  I find the best deals will be had in the next few weeks as everyone who is thinking of heading to Dayton is sell off their stuff to get some extra $$$ for Dayton.  After Dayton they are selling off their stuff to appease the XYL after over spending at Dayton.  Yes there are deals to be had at this time of the year…

Saturday will (should) find me in Iroquois Ontario with the Iroquois Amateur Radio Club being the host of the Iroquois Hamfest.

View Larger Map

This is a smaller but well attended hamfest with not too many commercal dealers but the hall is filled with used equipment for sale.  Many good deals were found in the past as many amateurs were passing on their treasures…

I’m supposed to be heading down with Doug VE3DLJ and traditionally after the hamfest a large group heads over to the local truck stop at Camden Road and the 401 and sits down for a very large group lunch.  I’m looking forward to it…

Not sure what else is going to be happening radio wise as I am planning to let things warm up before I head outside again (other than an afternoon in the park)  No point in travelling several hundred kilometers just to freeze so it will be Hutton Park and Weston Park for a while…

Hope to work you on the air and also see you in Iroquois..

TALK IN FOR IROQUOIS IS ON VE3IRO 145.290

73bob

Northern Weather Update for VY0O

Well if the Weather Network Forecast is anything to go on today is the day…  In all fairness I can only find one forecast for  Nunavut and thats for Iqahuit but seeing that its in the same general area (same territory) I guess its better than nothing.

Check his QRZ.com site for updates later…

If I find any new info I will post it here…

73bob

VY0O DXPedition moved back

I got this tonight of the QRZ.com site for VY0O and wanted to share this with you…

UPDATE (August 4, 2009): Trip to Ottawa Islands (NA-230 new) has been re-scheduled for Sep 5 to 8. I would like to thank very much all the groups and individuals who expressed their interest and commitment to support this very difficult project. Meanwhile, I must re-iterate that since the islands are quite far from mainland, weather conditions can influence the above schedule. More info will be posted a few days before the trip.

73bob

VC8B-IOTA NA-129 Banks Island Expedition-UPDATE

Well if you head over to Johns( VE8EV ) Blog you will see that everything is going as planned and he should be on the air tonight( Thurdsay) for a few hours and then in full operation tomorrow…

I will be installing a 20m vertical and a 20m dipole up in an attempt to prove that the Canada Day Contact was not a fluke…

73bob

A chance for a Cross-Canada Special Event

Hi guys and heres hoping you have a great weekend.  A few days ago I was reading the RAC Blog and found this very interesting entry and decided to follow up on this a bit.

I sent off an email to “Spud” asking for a bit more information.  Although he did not really send me anything that was not on the RAC Blog Page the intent is that he would like to see an amateur station set up at the 25 points he has as “ Port Wave Stations“  The list is as follows:

CFH Halifax, Nova Scotia

CFI Quebec City, Quebec

CFL Gaspe, Quebec

CFS St. John’s, Newfoundland – this call sign was changed to CZP in November 1942

CGH Rigolet, Labrador (Lake Melville – Goose Bay area)

CKH Toronto, Ontario

CKK Shelburne, Nova Scotia

CKR Mulgrave, Nova Scotia (Canso Strait)

CZC Saint John, New Brunswick

CZD Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island

CZE Sydney, Nova Scotia

CZI Sheet Harbour, Nova Scotia

CZJ Quoddy, Nova Scotia (Eastern Halifax County)

CZP St. John’s, Newfoundland

CZR Rimouski, Quebec

CZS Bridgewater, Nova Scotia

West Coast:

CFV York Island, British Columbia (on the North East Coast of Vancouver Island)

CKE Discovery Island, British Columbia (Discovery and Chatham Islands lie just a mile or so west of Victoria in Haro Strait, off Oak Bay).

CKF Vancouver, British Columbia

CKG Prince Rupert, British Columbia

CKL Esquimalt, British Columbia

CZM Alliford Bay, British Columbia

CZN Bella Bella, British Columbia –

CZY Ucluelet, British Columbia

CZZ Coal Harbour, British Columbia (Coal Harbour is in Vancouver harbour, right next to Deadman’s Island, the site of HMCS DISCOVERY)

The hope would be to get the closest club to each location to touch base with Spud and start to coordinate the activation of that location complete with a special callsign that would hopefully bring the orignal callsign into the picture. 

With the rest of the world having the ability to contact 25 connected special event stations is guaranteeing that anyone operating one of those stations will be at the receiving end of a pile up…

Much to my dismay, the Naval Station that I grew up beside was not a “Port Wave Station” but a “HFDF Station” so HMCS Gloucester or CFS Gloucester (now the local Legion and a farmers field) callsign GCI will not be part of this event but seeing that Spud has reminded me about the 100th Birthday of our Royal Canadian Navy I might just activate the old base on my own.  It would be a DXPedition to enjoy…Set up on the Patio at the Legion….hmmmm….

I can just imagine it now…”The VK station please stand by… (Yes Steward… I ordered the “Blue” and my logger ordered the “Canadian”)…. OK the VK Station go ahead….”

So much for my fantasy dxpediton thoughts but….

It has been the contributions of the Canadian Military that have given us so much in the Amateur Radio Department.  Look at any of your long time amateurs and you would be hard pressed not to see someone who had served as a communicatior with the Military.  Back in the War Years the Navy sure seemed to have a bunch of them….   This would be an excellent way to honour them and the work they did for Canada and our hobby…

If you check out Jerry Proc’s website which in my opinion is the best source of Canadian Military Communication History that I have found with an Amateur Slant I think you will see what I mean.

If in any way you can convince your local amateur club to help out (or if you live near enough to activate one of the location on your own) please contact Spud and help him get this worth project on the air.  He can’t do it without our help…

Thanks for reading this

73bob

DXPeditons…

The sound of a pile up…  DXPeditons are the source of the pile up…  DXPeditons are the result  of an AMATEUR RADIO OPERATOR taking the time and trouble to set up from a “rare” location and offer the “rare” location to fellow amateur operators.  The defination of “rare” really depends on your interests but someone is taking the time to activate a location in order to allow you to talk to that rare location. 

It could be  a DX Entity as the “K5D DXPediton” or the DXPediton to CFS Alert . 

It could be something like a rare island or prefix such as the just finished VX8X IOTA (Islands on the Air) DXPediton  but in reality its for the most part is an amateur radio op taking the time and trouble and in some cases conciderable expense to operate from some location that is concidered rare (for whatever reason) to give you a chance to say you worked that location.

In the past I have worked on two DXPeditons with both of them being new activations for the Canadian Islands Awards  Program with the first Activation being Maple Island in Downtown Ottawa and the second Activation being Bate Island in the West End of Ottawa. 

The key words being in both Islands would be Ottawa.  I live in Ottawa and I was able to find something rare in my backyard.  The people at the other end of the mike don’t care how far I travelled to get there…  All they care about is that the location is rare to them…  In my case it was Islands and new ones at that…

As with most of the things I write about in my blog the above is not bragging but a feeble attempt to get you out there to do the same thing…  If I can do it (and I have) then you can do it… 

Take a look in your backyard (so to speak) I bet you can find a good location to operate from for a contest…  The Ontario QSO Party is one example where the multis are the counties and districts in Ontario and there are actually a couple of locations in the province that don’t have anyone either living in or operating from.  Do a little bit of legwork find the closest and set up and suddenly your at the receiving end of a pile up…

Anyone travelling east close to Prince Edward Island (VY2) who could detour onto the Island for the Canada Day Contest would cause a pile up with the /Portable VY2 added to the end of your callsign…   The same would be true for ARRL Sweepstakes or the CQWPX just to mention a few of the major contests. 

You can have fun, and it is fun to be at the receiving end of a pile up and it does not have to break the bank depending on how good you do your research before you set out…

73bob

VE8EV Back home

Well I just finished reading the latest entry from John VE8EV who was operating as VX8X.

He is back home and safe and will be updating his blog including a detailed report and some pictures soon.

Follow the link to check out his site.

73bob