Lessons learned… and the weekend

Well I got home this am after spending the last couple of days doing antenna work up at Doug’s (VE3DLJ) Trailer at White Lake Ontario…  Things went really well and we managed to get his 2m JPole at the top of a 30 foot telescopic mast and no one fell off the ladder.  As I was at the top of the ladder this was a really good thing…  Not much else to say about this except its working…  He has his choice of a couple of Ottawa Area Repeaters,  a couple of repeaters up the Ottawa Valley and a few repeaters down towards the Kingston Area.  Without looking at exact distances going by the repeaters covereages as compared to White Lake he is looking at approx a 100 mile radius  from his trailer for reliable 2m communications…

Now on to the Lessons learned…

I learned that when packing my FT 817 back into its carry bag I really should remove the 12v barrel plug from the back of the radio before I put it in the bag.  I actually knew that before but I guess I forgot and so the  pressure on the barrel plug must of in turn put pressure on the plug receptiple on the radio which put pressure on the board and now my radio has to go visit the doctor to get the ground side of the plug re attached to the circuit board…  I might even take the cover off the radio and try it myself depending on how much room I have to work with once its opened up.  If its too tight lets leave it to the pros…

Now on to the weekend…

This Saturday I will be assisting with the operations of Special Event Station VX3W which will be operating from Fort Wellington in Prescott Ontario.  This Special Event Station will be celebrating the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812.  For more into on this please visit the Manotick Amateur Radio Group website.

I was planning to take my FT817 but now I think I am looking at the FT897 for the trip. (see my above comments on my FT 817)  I will be taking a homebrewed clone of the popular S9 31′ vertical which will give me coverage on 6m to 40m.  I have had exceptional results with my 43 foot version at home so I am hoping for the same good stuff with the 31 foot homebrewed version.  I guess the logs will let me know if it worked or not.  More on this Saturday evening when we get back….

For those of you who are looking to work a special event station…  We will be operating between 10m and 40m SSB and maybe digital from around 9am EDST and 4pm EDST with frequencies to be dependant on band conditions…  If you hear us please spot us on the clusters… and I hope to get lots of you in the log…

The rest of this Canadian Long Weekend will be spent close to home wondering what toys the Ottawa Group will be bringing back from Dayton…

73bob

 

Its a “Long weekend in Ontario”

Today is “Good Friday”… The start of the Easter Weekend…In Ontario which is the province I live in (as you can tell by the “VA3″ Prefix on my callsign) today is a stat holiday.  Saturday and Sunday would be regular days off and Easter Monday is one of those negotiated holidays.  If you are lucky enough to have a strong union who negotiated the holiday for you then this would be  a 4 day weekend for you…

In my case its just “another day”  as “I’m retired” and so….

This weekend will not be a working weekend as I plan to spend some time in the field beside the lighthouse at the museum and operate for the  Lighthouse QSO Party for at least a few hours of the weekend…  I would hope to be out from around 1400 eastern to about 1700 or so today Friday as the weather is looking good…  Saturday and Sunday and Monday time to be determined on the WX and family commitments but I would be hoping for roughly the same time operating…

Yesterday I mentioned the fact that all the antennas will have to come down for a few days…  The tear down has already started but I think I have found a way to stay on the air at least with HF during this time of renovations…  My issue with the work is that they tell you when you have to be availaable for the contractors … but thats like waiting for the cable guy…  I will have to be avaialable on Tuesday morning… but when he shows up…  anyones guess!!!  When ever I am bored over the weekend I will just drop an antenna or remove a feed line and by Monday evening the only thing left up will be the temp installation I will be mentioning a couple of paragraphs down in this entry…

I had visions of being off the air for a few days waiting for them to show up and then do whatever work…  This window thing was not expected and I have some fears of what they will be doing…  Sealing the basement window could be a problem as all my coax lines come in through the window…  Having the shack in the basement is nice and the coax runs are short but it  the window is sealed then that in itself could be an issue…

What I have decided to do is move the HF Longwire mount (actually its not move as the previous mount is no longer) so its really install a longwire mount (coupler) on the fence post closest to my back door.  The longwire will run from the coupler and then out to a tree branch (once again the famous Maple Tree) and this will keep me on the air untill I figure out what they are doing and that inturn will let me see how I can reconfigure all my antennas and feed lines. 

For a few days at least I can run the coax in through the kitchen door and operate using my FT 897 and the FC 40 from the Kitchen Table and just move thing out of the way when we are having family meals…  The antenna won’t be as high or as long but it should load up using the tuner and I will at least be on the air till they get the work finished…  Being on the air in the evenings let me be social and check into a few of the nets and say “hi” to the lads….

Forgot to mention earlier….

LISTEN FOR XL3RCS OVER THE WEEKEND AND FOR THE NEXT 10 DAYS…  Industry Canada is allowing those of us with VA3 Prefix to use the Special Prefix XL3 in honour of the 50th anniversary of the St Lawrence Seaway for the months of April and May.  I figure that if I’m operting from a lighthouse (technically the museums lighthouse is an actual light house) why not use a special event callsign that has something to do with water…  A Special QSL Card has been created and will be sent out to anyone who requests one after making a contact with XL3RCS during this time…

Thats it for now…  Enjoy your weekend…

73bob