Category Archives: Guest Posts

Articles, Field Reports, Guest Posts, Portable Power, POTA, Solar

Pushing My 2016 Subaru Forester to its Off-Road Limits to Activate Buse Hill in CA-3287

18 Comments

It’s another beautiful cloudless day in southern British Columbia (16 Sept, 2024).  My goal for today is to activate Buse Hill Lookout, located in Buse Lake Protected Area CA-3287, before the weather turns too cold and wet to venture into the area.

Buse Hill is about a 2.5-hour drive NW from Kelowna, BC where I live.  The last ¾ hour of the drive is on gravel range roads.  My wife Alexis (VE7LXE) is accompanying me on this trip, as always.

While planning for the activation, I closely studied Google Maps Satellite view, as well as Garmin GPS Birds Eye views of the activation area.  This helps me evaluate the terrain and access routes.  I also study the Gov’t of BC Mineral Titles online maps which give both satellite views and topographic views (before POTA, gold panning was my summer hobby and the BC Mineral Titles online maps were essential for knowing where to legally pan).

Access to Buse Hill Lookout, CA-3287. Ecological Reserve south-end access route. Tip: Click on images to enlarge view.

From these maps I can see that the last 1.5 Km is an undefined off-road access route.  From the satellite views, it’s very difficult to assess the viability of a route that my Forester can handle.  So, I knew there was a 50-50 chance I may be able to drive all the way up that last 1.5 Km.  With this in mind, we came prepared for two eventualities:  4-wheel it up, or backpack it up if necessary.

That means having two prepared POTA back packs; one with the KX3 for near car activations, and my KX2 backpack for hiking situations.

Continue reading Pushing My 2016 Subaru Forester to its Off-Road Limits to Activate Buse Hill in CA-3287 →

Articles, Field Radio Kits, Guest Posts, Kits, Morse Code, POTA, QRP, SOTA

The Design Philosophy of the CFT1: From concept to product

13 Comments

Many thanks to Jonathan KM4CFT who shares this article with us.  If you have an article in your head and want to have it posted here, let’s keep this community going while our friend Thomas continues to help his neighbours. Draft up your story in an email with reference points to the pictures you want embedded and their captions, attach photos to the note and send it my way to vincedeon at gmail dot com and note QRPer in the subject line to get my attention.

By: Jonathan Kayne, KM4CFT

About 10 months ago, I took the plunge to design my own Morse Code transceiver. It was a crazy idea, and this was certainly a massive undertaking, but somehow, I managed to pull off this monumental task. The result of the project was the CFT1, a 5 Band CW Field Transceiver specifically tailored for POTA and SOTA operations. Doing this project was a great learning experience and despite the monumental effort and work I put into it, I really enjoyed getting to design a new product. There is something special when you see something you love and put effort into appear in the hands of others and seeing them enjoy using said product.

The purpose of this article is to outline some of the thoughts I put into when I designed the CFT1. It is not meant to go into the meat and potatoes of RF design work as there are plenty of resources out there that go over that stuff. I have yet to see much discussed on design philosophy of a transceiver so I thought it prudent to document these things. That is; what I took into consideration when putting together the radio. And as I learned in this project, when pulled off correctly, can result in a great product.

Continue reading The Design Philosophy of the CFT1: From concept to product →

Field Reports, Guest Posts, Morse Code, Portable, POTA

Breaking the Speed Barrier at 1.8 Contacts Per Hour via CA-3459

9 Comments

Editor note – Please enjoy this guest post from Jeff Bourgeois VE7EFF.

Sometimes the elements just aren’t in my favor.  I knew activating Echo Lake Provincial Park CA-3459 would be a propagation challenge.  This POTA Park has never been fully activated before.  Last year one operator attempted it and was only able to log four contacts. Today, I not only had mountains to contend with, but apparently significant solar storms in action as well.

What initially made this activation so challenging is that Echo Lake is located on a valley floor and that it is surrounded by mountains on almost all sides.  I picked this particular spot to operate because it is the only location in the park that has a small window of opening to the South or South-South-East.  I was hoping I could hit enough stations in the USA to make a successful activation of 10 contacts.

Echo Lakes is about a 2-hour drive NE from my home in Kelowna, BC, and about 45 minutes ESE of Lumby, BC.  The last half-hour or so is on gravel roads. Now that we have arrived, my wife Alexis, VE7LXE, helps with unloading the gear,

This photo shows my narrow window of opportunity for southerly HF propagation.  Mountains on the left, mountains on the right, and mountains behind me.

As you can see below, the eastern direction is mostly blocked by a mountain and SE is the direction where I typically have the best success of traversing the USA.  I generally can’t rely on NVIS propagation; there just aren’t enough Canadian POTA chasers within NVIS range for me to make a successful activation.

Today,  I’m using my recently acquired Chameleon CHA Porta-Mount to support the 34’ (really only ~ 32’) carbon fiber telescopic mast.

Once again, I’m also testing my homebrew coaxial sleeve dipole, now cut for the 17m band.  I constructed it with RG-8X coax and terminated with a Fair Rite #31, 2.5” core as the RF block choke. My KX3 antenna tuner will take care of any SWR issues on all bands that I operate on.

Because I’m using a carbon fiber telescopic mast, I’ve previously noted that the mast has “significant” detuning effect on the antenna.  Thus, I operate it as a slanted coaxial sleeve dipole. This moves the antenna away from much of the mast influence.  The slant should also help with raising the propagation angle to hopefully clear the mountain tops (but not enough to make it NVIS).

The weather report was supposed to be mostly sunny.  However, it turned out to be just the opposite and was cloudy, threatening to rain, and somewhat cold. It’s colder outside than I care for and the fact that it is threatening to rain, I decide to operate from inside my 2016 Subaru Forester.  I only operate from inside my car when it isn’t viable to operate outside. Besides, I don’t want to risk getting wet today.

Now that my KX3 is fired-up and connected to the Bioenno 4.5 Ah battery and the antenna, I’m all set to see if anyone can hear me.  I should mention that I’m operating at 10W today so I guess that disqualifies me as a QRP operator. 😊

Here is the play-by-play report:

I started calling CQ on 20m at 16:55 UTC (09:55 PDT). My first contact came 15 minutes later with KN7D in Utah.  It took another 15 minutes to snag my next contact with WM2V in Arizona.

There’s not much happening for me on 20m, so I switch up to 17m.  At 17:40 UTC I log N5RLH in NM.  That’s it for 17m. Moving up to 15m, I snag a contact in NC with N4EX at 17:52. That was my only 15m contact of the day.

I went on to try 12m, 10m, and even 30m.  Absolutely nothing over the next hour of calling CQ on those 3-bands. Back down to 20m.  One contact with KE4KE in Minnesota. It took an hour and 15 minutes more to land just one more contact on 17m with KB6FPW/P in California at 21:00.

I’m definitely not breaking any speed records today. A tortoise could probably log more contacts than this.

Another hour passes until I land a contact with K0SX in Colorado on 20m.  Suddenly, 20m picks-up steam and I land 4 more contacts on 20m – two in California and two in Colorado between 22:00 and 22:47. I’m almost at the end of the POTA UTC day for this park, but I’m determined to try to pick up more contacts before 00:00 UTC.

Last crack at 17m band.  At 23:13 I land KJ7BS in Arizona. As my final contact of the UTC day, I snag KD7DUG in California at 23:15. I keep calling CQ for the next 45 minutes with no more results.  It is now 00:00 UTC and the POTA day is over.

But something drives me on to keep calling CQ. I keep thinking propagation will get better.

At 00:05 I log my last contact of the day on 20m – a P2P QSO with AF0E in Colorado.  I realize that this contact will have to go into the next day’s POTA log, but a contact is a contact. At the end of the day, I logged 13 valid POTA contacts, plus 1 into the next UTC day.


Tip:  Click on the map for a larger image view.

The Contacts Map above does seem to confirm that my narrow corridor of propagation was primarily due-south or SSE – squeezing through the mountains opening.  Some magic of propagation handed me North Carolina and Minnesota.

This is by far the hardest I’ve ever had to work to get sufficient contacts to activate a new park.  I was determined to get this park activated, though.  It took 7 hours of calling CQ to log 13 contacts. That’s a record 1.8 contacts/hour!

I don’t think the antenna is the real culprit for today’s weak results, especially considering that 6-days earlier I logged 68 contacts including 8 DX stations in Europe via Inonoaklin Provincial Park CA-3626 using this same antenna configuration. I wont get any awards for logging the most contacts per hour – but perhaps I qualify for an award for the least number of contacts per hour!  They could call it the Snail Award.  😊

Between being surrounded by mountains and muffled by solar storms, it was a challenging day. Time to pack-up and make the 2-hour drive back home before it gets dark.

Equipment list:
Elecraft KX3 with internal antenna tuner
Elecraft KXPD2 paddle
Bioenno 4Ah battery
Gigaparts 32ft carbon fiber telescopic mast
Home brew ½ λ 17m experimental coaxial sleeve vertical dipole made with RG-8X and Fair Rite #31 2.5” core.

73 de Jeff, VE7EFF

FT4, FT8, Guest Posts, News, POTA

Conrad has a sunny and beautiful activation at Silver Sands State Park

2 Comments

Editor note – Please enjoy this guest post from Conrad Troutmann N2YCH.

Thank you “deputy” Vince, VE6LK, for assisting in managing some guest contributor posts for QRPer.com. I’m so happy to hear Thomas and his family rode the storm out safely and send him my best wishes and hope things return to normal soon. Here’s my contribution to help keep QRPer.com going while Thomas gets his house back in order. 73, Conrad, N2YCH

 

September 22, 2024

Lately, the high frequency bands (15/12/10 meters) have been hit or miss, largely due to recent space weather events. Today, taking a look at WSPR beacon reception at my QTH on the Top Spotters web site, I noticed that 10 meters was open and I was spotting quite a few stations on the band.

Top Spotters Ranker – https://wspr.rocks/topspotters/

The weather here was sunny and beautiful and my batteries were all charged up, so it seemed like all signs were pointing to a POTA activation at Silver Sands State Park, US-1716. I usually activate on 20 meters, however with 10 open, I thought I’d try for some DX and give hunters that don’t normally hear me on 20 a chance to get the park. When I was trying for my Worked All States POTA award, I appreciated it when the Hawaii and Alaska activators activated on the higher bands so I had a chance to get them all the way from the East Coast. I like to return the favor when I can.

I decided to give my Elecraft KX2 a workout as well. Paired with my Buddipole vertical up 10’, I figured I would do well.

Buddipole Vertical with Elevated Counterpoise using Electric Fence Post
KX3, Samsung Computer and Bioenno Battery with a view looking towards Long Island Sound at Silver Sands State Park in Connecticut

I got set up, checked and adjusted my computer time using JTSync and started calling CQ POTA on FT8. I called and called and no one answered. I checked PSKReporter and I was being spotted, but still, no answers. I was receiving well, in fact, I was picking up stations as far away as South Africa. “Hello, is this thing working? Can you hear me now?”

Just to be sure my equipment was working, I shifted to “hunt and pounce” mode. Rather than call CQ, I started answering stations who were calling CQ. It’s not my preferred way to get the QSO’s needed to officially activate the park, but sometimes that’s what you need to do. I have JTAlert set to sort received stations from strongest received signals to weakest. I’ve found based on prior experience that my chances of completing a QSO are much higher with stations that I’m receiving with strong signals. So, I answered a CQ for a station in Texas coming in at +19 and he answered right away. One in the log.

I did this for the next 30 minutes or so and managed to get six stations, about half I called and the other half answered my CQ. I moved around the waterfall looking for openings, but it was busy and challenging. Just for grins, I decided to see if FT4 was active. Sure enough, I was receiving many stations there as well. I called CQ and immediately had stations answering. I did the rest of the activation on FT4 and had a steady stream of callers. I completed the activation with 17 total QSO’s, my map is below.  I make these maps using the Adventure Radio log analyzer. You can import the same log you upload to the POTA page and put the grid square in and it generates the map.

Activation QSO Map made with the Adventure Radio Log analyzer

Interestingly, all of the USA contacts were on FT8 and when I moved to FT4, I picked up all of the EU ones. I was happy to see after I uploaded my log to the POTA site that almost all of the hunters who got me were active POTA hunters and had accounts at the POTA web site. In fact, one was actually a park-to-park QSO. PA4PA was at the Sluiswaai Nature Reserve, NL-0219 in the Netherlands.

Equipment I used for this activation included:

 

Mission accomplished!

73 de N2YCH

Antennas, Field Reports, Guest Posts, POTA

Uncharted Trek into Trout Creek Ecological Reserve, CA-4221

6 Comments

My goal for this summer is to do more backpacked day-trip POTA activations while I’m still physically able to. This is my 4th backpacked-in activation this past week or so. And a thank you to Thomas K4SWL for letting me share my adventures from the Canadian out-back.

Today’s goal is to activate Trout Creek Ecological Reserve, CA-4221 which is about one-hour drive south of Kelowna, BC, Canada, which is where my wife Alexis (VE7LXE) and I (VE7EFF) have lived for the past 12 years. Alexis accompanies me on all my POTA activations.

It is a beautiful late August day. The temperature is expected to be about 31℃, or 88℉.  The one-hour drive is just the beginning of the day’s adventure. We were able to conveniently park at the Summerland Golf and Country Club, but this is where all conveniences end for us.

Trout Creek Ecological Reserve has never been activated before – I’ll be the first. It’s no surprise this reserve hasn’t been activated before. It’s all wilderness with no trails to follow. I have to rely on my Garmin 66sr GPS and Pixel8 smart phone with Google Maps with Satellite View to help me navigate to and through the reserve in search for an optimal operating location.

I expected the trek to only be about 1 Km in with about 600 ft elevation gain. It’s all uphill, all the way. From the golf course parking lot, the hike starts out relatively easy. At first, there appears to be some semblance of a trail.

Continue reading Uncharted Trek into Trout Creek Ecological Reserve, CA-4221 →

Field Reports, Guest Posts, Portable, QRP

VA2NW at Chillycon

2 Comments

Many thanks to Tom (VA2NW) for this report on Chillycon, aka Chilicon – Vince.

Canada’s capital, Ottawa, is the home of the Ottawa Valley QRP Society. The group holds an annual weekend camp-out at the Rideau River Provincial Park (POTA CA-0365) in early fall and it’s affectionately called Chillycon (also known as Chillicon). This year’s camp-out ran from September 20th through 22nd with some folks arriving a few days earlier. It’s a low key gathering which largely consists of casual operating, socializing, sharing tips and tricks, and checking out everyone’s portable radio gear.

On Friday morning I packed up my van with radio gear, camping equipment, and enough batteries to get me through a weekend of operating and cell phone recharging. Rather than tent camping, I decided to set up a sleeping pad in my minivan. The trip from Gatineau Quebec took a little under an hour, and I arrived just after 2:00pm local time.

Entrance to Rideau Provincial Park in Kemptville Ontario Canada

I brought my new toy with me, the Venus SW-6B (metal case + internal battery configuration). In just a few minutes I was on the air with the radio, an AlexLoop Hampack antenna, American Morse Equipment Mini-B paddle, and Apple EarPod wired headphones. I made several POTA contacts before it was time to start my shift as the Straight Key Century Club’s Canadian Straight Key Month special event station VC3Y/VE3. Conditions weren’t great and there wasn’t a lot of SKCC activity in the middle of a work day, so I only made one SKCC contact that day. After SKCC hour, I joined in on the weekly K1USN Slow Speed Test (SST). I contacted a few regulars, and then I returned to POTA and made another dozen or so contacts to bring the total up to 17 QSOs.

Reading ‘The CW Way of Life’ by Chris Rutkowski by the (citronella) candlelight

Continue reading VA2NW at Chillycon →

Field Reports, Guest Posts, Morse Code, POTA, Videos

Two in One Day for the POTA Babe

4 Comments
by Teri KO4WFP

After striking out at Pinckney Island National Wildlife Refuge, it was time for this POTA Babe to get back on track with my goal of 60 new valid park activations for 2024. As much as I enjoyed the historic sites and the refuge I recently visited, I needed to return to activating wildlife management areas.

Wildlife management areas (WMAs), properties set aside for conservation as well as hunting and fishing, are plentiful in the state of Georgia. Georgia has 163 WMAs and 38 are located within 75 miles of my home QTH. So it makes sense I would include those in my 60 new activations pursuit.

I set my sights on Morgan Lake WMA (US-9791) and Griffin Ridge WMA (US-3752) because  they are an hour’s drive from my home and across the road from one another. Talk about convenient!

map source: worldatlas.com

Daisy and I set out early Tuesday, October 1st. During the drive, I encountered two groups of ambulances moving north on Interstate 95. At a rest stop, several EMTs from one group were taking a quick break and wore t-shirts with “Disaster Relief” on them. It was a reminder of the recent events due to Hurricane Helene.

I chose to activate Morgan Lake WMA first.  According to the map, most of the property appeared to be wetlands but there is a boat landing for fisherman to access Morgan Lake. In fact, the road you use to reach the landing is built up a good 10-12 feet, I assume, to provide access even when the area experiences flooding.

boat landing and train trestle bridge

WMAs vary in their presentation. Some are nicer than others with shooting ranges and gravel roads. Morgan Lake was, frankly, on the dumpier side. This was not the place to come to commune with nature. But no matter. I was here to do an activation, so I set about getting my equipment up and running.

Map for Morgan Lake WMA. source: GA DNR

I opted for the Chelegance MC-750 today. Attempting two parks in one day meant I needed a quick and easy set up and a vertical would provide that.

Chelegance MC-750 with a train in the background
setting up on the gravel parking lot

Despite poor band conditions at some of my past activations, today the bands were great! (You’d really want that on a day you are attempting back-to-back activations.) Even better, I had internet access at this park, though it was on the slow side. I could spot myself (always a plus) and it wasn’t long before calls began coming in once I was spotted on the POTA website.

Forty meters gave me 15 contacts in 20 minutes – not bad! It was good to hear so many from the southeast, some I hadn’t heard from in a while. Given I had a second activation to attempt and I wasn’t thrilled with the site conditions at Morgan Lake, I called QRT after contact #15, packed up, and headed across the road to Griffin Ridge WMA.

QSO Map for Morgan Lake WMA (by home QTH) source: http://tools.adventureradio.de/analyzer/

Griffin Ridge is a much larger WMA than Morgan Lake. The park has two access points from the road and I chose the one farther to the north as it looked the more inviting of the two.

Map for Griffin Lake WMA. source: GA DNR

Again, given I was short on time today, I found a little area off to the side near the information kiosk by the road. If I visit this WMA again, I’ll drive further in and find a place away from the road noise.

entrance to Griffin Ridge WMA

The little place I found was somewhat shaded which Daisy and I needed given the warm weather. The day had been mostly overcast; however, I’ve learned to not trust that will persist. Nothing like being in the middle of an activation and the sun comes out from the behind the clouds to roast you.

the spot I found just perfect for parking Kai

For the North Carolina trip this past July, I purchased a Mountain Laurel Designs shelter. It was handy for my SOTA activation at Black Balsam Knob. I figured it would also be useful for POTA activations in the heat. Since I can activate next to my car for POTA, I used the front and rear wiper blades as well as the roof rack to attach three sides of the tent and the surrounding foliage to which to attach the other two. My hiking pole was not tall enough to support the center, so I used the outer rear door handle on the car to elevate the bottom of the pole to give me enough height so I could sit in my Helinox chair under the tent. It was not the best setup but good enough for today. I need to give more thought how to better support and use the tent as a shelter with my car.

Daisy relaxing

We all know band conditions fluctuate throughout the day and I hoped they would hold up for my second activation. Guess what? They did!!!

I opted for 20 meters given it was nearly noon and had 39 contacts in a little over an hour. I was thrilled! That is a “good” thing about bad band conditions. When the bands behave, you really, REALLY appreciate it.

QSO Map for Griffin Ridge WAM (by home QTH) source: http://tools.adventureradio.de/analyzer/
view from under the tent at my QTH

As I packed up my equipment, I reflected on the two activations. Of the two, I would return to Griffin Ridge. The foliage and landscape reminded me of Canoochee Sandhills WMA; however, it was nicer than Canoochee and not nearly as remote, which could be considered bad or good, depending on your perspective. I would definitely set up farther inside the property to avoid the road noise unless it had rained a lot prior to my visit. The road into the property was quite sandy and soft and deep in some spots. My car might not be able to navigate those conditions after a heavy rain.

A valid activation at these two parks put me at 41 out of the 60 new park activations for which I am aiming in 2024. There are only three more months of this year so I am running out of time to reach my goal. It would be easy to accomplish my goal if life didn’t keep getting in the way, right?

There are still plenty of wildlife management areas to consider as well as properties closer to the coast as I continue my pursuit. Where will I show up next? Stay tuned…

For those interested, visit my YouTube channel for a video about this activation.

Equipment Used

[Note: All Amazon, CW Morse, ABR, Chelegance, eBay, and Radioddity links are affiliate links that support QRPer.com at no cost to you.]

Field Reports, Funny, Guest Posts, News, SOTA

Seven Summit road trip with Canada’s first Double Goat

7 Comments

Many thanks to Malen (VE6VID) – Canada’s first SOTA Double Mountain Goat – who shares the following article about his trip in Alberta, British Columbia, Washington and Montana. Malen and I work together and I can read this in his voice – including his laid-back “Oh well…” – Vince.

As a SOTA activator I challenge myself for certain goals every year. This year was SOTA completes where I chase and activate a summit. I had time off work so I figured, why not a short roadtrip from Alberta to BC to WA, then MT and back home? After some searching I figured 5-7 Completes in W7W land and at least 2 more in W7M lands as well as numerous points in VE7 land along the way. Was I ever wrong…..

Day One

After a trip to the post office, I departed Strathmore heading for PlumBob Mountain VE7/EK-026, a 6 point drive-up summit. Google told me 4 hrs, 42 minutes, I planned for 5 hours. It took closer to 8 hours due to traffic.

I setup my HF station (KX2, EFHW) and got 4 contacts, packed up and onto another 6 point drive-up summit, VE7/EK-040 Peak 23-35. This peak I landed 6 contacts between 20 and 40 metres, packing up as the sun started to go down. I had planned to spend the night here, so I had a late supper, made my bed and crashed for the night. Sleeping like an old over the hill baby I woke as the sun was coming up.

I awoke to this broken window on my truck cap

Day Two

However I had woken up to a broken window on my canopy. I’m not sure what happened but it was open for the night. After many curse words I made breakfast and coffee, then I relaxed slightly while Googling auto glass places in Cranbrook. After packing up and a quick phone call, I am off for repairs. Estimate was 2 hours for the repairs, it took just 1.5 hours with tinted plexiglass installed. I had planned for a 3 summit day, so I lost 1, Mount Baker, a 8 point drive-up, oh well.

The view from Eagle Hill was nice

Off to hike Eager Hill VE7/EK-048 4 points. Straight to setting up and getting the required 4 contacts before packing up and charging on with my day. After a Timmies pit stop and topping of the truck with diesel, I am off to the next summit.

Continue reading Seven Summit road trip with Canada’s first Double Goat →

Field Reports, Guest Posts, Morse Code, News, POTA, QRP

Sailboats at a lakeside activation

1 Comment

As always there are lots of links within the article. Click one! Click them all! Learn all the things! ?

by Vince (VE6LK)

In August and September 2024 I was travelling around Southern Ontario for some family matters and naturally I brought my radio kit with me to squeeze in some radio therapy stops along the way. This is the report of my stop at CA-5362 Fifty Point Conservation Area.

It’s my second to last day here in Ontario and, as I wasn’t needed for other things, it was time to do a POTA rove and make the best of my last full day. I’m always on the lookout for a park that is within striking distance of wherever I am that I have not activated before and/or has not been activated before in either SSB or CW. So I planned a route to get to 9 parks and managed to get to 7 and activate 5 before other matters called for my attention. All were planned to be drive-up activations given the area and time constraints I was working within.

In my day job, I’m a Project Manager in IT, thus my style is that I plan before I arrive. You’ve already seen evidence of this with my POTA and Checklist tools that I’ve spoken about before. I usually do an in-depth study of a site before I depart, including reviewing linked webpages from the pota.app site, a satellite view and street view of the entrance on maps.google.com, and if it’s available, a 3D view of the area from maps.google.com. Let me know in the comments about the other ways you review a park before your arrival.

However I was pleasantly surprised when I found picnic tables with a view of the water at more than one of them! Balancing the good with the not-so-good, there were also some frustrations… I could not locate one of my planned stops despite driving up and down the road with two different GPSs blaring at me. My experience has shown that the smaller the park, the harder it is to find mapping, and this one from the Conservation Authority was no exception, and thus I abandoned it and drove onwards. Another site was right beside the roadway and high-voltage lines, and I didn’t have time to do a walk-in and get away from the noise floor. I always have a back-up site in my list for situations like this.

The Hamilton/Burlington/Niagara area is very pretty and, with a late summer happening around the time of a harvest moon, I didn’t mind the extra driving. For those of you who have been to Hamvention at Xenia it will be somewhat familiar as the area is full of gently rolling hills and lush green pastures. The humidity is also familiar, ugh, and one of the main reasons I moved away from this area in 1997. But nothing beats the view of sailboats out on the water; I have always found serenity in this -even knowing I get boatsick if I get on board!

The view from my “shack” at Fifty Point Conservation Area looking northwards onto Lake Ontario. On a clear day Toronto can  be seen in the distance. Today wasn’t a clear day, but still quite serene.

Fifty Point is a sprawling 80 Hectare (198 acre) area located on the southern shore of Lake Ontario at Winona. It has a top-tier restaurant, multiple beaches, pavilions and 330 slips for boaters, along with a camping area. It truly is a multi-use area! You can read all about it here (.pdf warning).

After locating the day use/beach area, I found a table overlooking the lake. As it was a mid-week day, there were plenty to choose from. The view was quiet with a few boaters enjoying the beach in the small bay directly in front of me.

A slip loop style bungee holds the feedpoint in place on the picnic table. My new-to-me Tiger-Cats hat proudly on display.

I set up my 40-30-20m trapped EFHW given the solar conditions. I’m so very pleased with the performance of this antenna and it has become the one I reach for the most when activating on this trip. It is about half the length of a conventional 40m wire and is resonant on 3 bands. It has me musing about adding 17m and 15m to it… perhaps N7KOM will offer such a kit?

When I built this antenna, I tuned it so that best resonance was in the middle of the CW portion of each band, and with the feedpoint located just a few feet off the ground and then sloped upwards at the endpoint. That’s how I deployed it this time around. As you see in the prior photo, my newly acquired Fishing Butler bungee strap held the entire thing firmly in place without any movement once I set up the mast. You can get them at Fishing World in Hamilton as they ship around North America. They stock multiple sizes so a phone call may be needed as their online store shows only one size. Ask for the assorted pack.

Trapped 20-30-40m EFHW to my Goture mast and spiral rod holder

Because I never was a Boy Scout and able to know where north is based on the position of the sun and time of day or how many chirps the cricket is giving <grin>, I consulted the compass on my smartphone. I unfurled my antenna and clipped it to the stop of the mast, walked the mast out to the length of the antenna and anchored it into the ground beside some Sumac bushes. With enough repetition, I’ve gotten pretty good at estimating where the far end of my antenna will be. It comes in helpful for parking lot activation and operating out of the trunk or your vehicle with a mast supporting the far end.

For these activations, and when I can, I’ve been orienting my antenna east and west so that it radiates broadside north and south so that I can capture the most number of hunters in North America. This is a contrast to how I normally operate from Alberta when my antenna is oriented to be broadside from southeast to northwest.

The activation itself was pleasant and I was surprised with visits from QRPer.com comment regulars KQ4CW and K5KHK – and I appreciate hearing from them often! 45 minutes after arriving I was packed up and on the road to my next stop.

List of gear used for these activations:

Note: All Amazon links are affiliate links that support QRPer.com at no cost to you.

Summary

We do POTA (and other programs) for various reasons. On this trip, it’s a break from life’s stresses. As I reflect upon my visits with various people, I realize that I’m quite blessed to know so many friendly hams no matter where I am travelling.

72 and dit dit,
…Vince

First introduced to the magic of radio by a family member in 1969, Vince has been active in the hobby since 2002. He is an Accredited examiner in Canada and the USA, operates on almost all of the modes, and is continually working on making his CW proficiency suck less. He participates in public service events around Western Canada and is active on the air while glamping, mobile, at home or doing a POTA activation. You can hear him on the Ham Radio Workbench podcast, follow him on Twitter @VE6LK, check out his YouTube channel, and view the projects and articles on his website.

Antennas, Field Reports, Guest Posts, Morse Code

Experimental Antenna Reins-in Surprising Results

14 Comments

Editor note – Please enjoy this guest post from Jeff Bourgeois VE7EFF.

Today, September 6, I hope to POTA activate Inonoaklin Provincial Park CA-3626 in Southern BC, Canada, located on the shores of the Lower Arrow Lakes. On this activation, I will be using my novel experimental homebrewed Coaxial-Sleeve Dipole. The results were surprising!

We have been wanting to come back to this park since a brief visit to the area last summer.  I especially wanted to come back because, at that time, it had never been activated by anyone. I had plans to activate another park in the area that day.  Unfortunately, I was beaten to the draw just a few weeks ago by another ham.

The other reason I didn’t get here sooner was because it is a 3-hour drive east from our home in Kelowna, BC. 3-hours is pushing the limits of how far I’m willing to drive on daytrips, especially in mountainous areas. We rarely, if ever, do overnight trips.

We left the house very early in the morning on Sept. 6, 2024.  While the countryside is very beautiful enroute to the Arrow Lakes, I kind of dread the drive as the roads are often narrow, twisty-windy and up and down steep mountain passes.  At times it felt like being on a roller coaster.

Continue reading Experimental Antenna Reins-in Surprising Results →