Tag Archives: Elecraft KX3

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

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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 →

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

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

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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

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

Sailboats at a lakeside activation

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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.

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

Big ships and 78GHz by chance!

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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-6341 Welland Canal System National Historic Site along with CA-6096 Battle of Beaverdams National Historic Site.

This activation took a bit of research to figure out the intersection of the two given that the landscape had been dramatically altered from the time of the Battle of Beaver Dams in 1813. For example, at that time, the Welland Canal did not exist! So the town of Thorold has a park located at the west end of the battle site, and I was able to locate a monument at the east end, thus I was able to extrapolate and see that Lock 7 was in a direct path between the two. Thus I settled at Lock 7 for the activation.

A borrowed grocery cart serves as a mast support given the hard soil. Antenna runs off to the vehicle on the right.

This activation was done later in the day after my “Cross-Border Activation between Friends” and I was pleased to note the conditions had improved a fair bit.

I started off on CW, hunting other friends that were activating (shout-out to Ed W4EMB!) and then switched to SSB QRP where Steve KO4AFL found me and we had a brief chat before we both moved on. I stayed on 20m for this activation.

A quick drive-up activation means operating from the trunk

The Welland Canal is an engineering marvel that allows lake freighters to traverse the 100m/326′ height difference between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario.

Opened in 1833, it sees an average of 3,275 freighters during the shipping season which runs about 9 months of the year. With that sort of traffic, you can be reasonably assured that you’ll see one of these huge freighters on the day and time that you visit the area.

List of gear used for these activations:

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

Summary

After my earlier activation with N2MAK, we drove down the Niagara Parkway past Niagara Falls and Niagara-on-the-Lake before arriving at the Welland Canal. It was a pleasant day and not terribly humid.

VA3ELE, Peter, with an attempt to set a new distance record on 78GHz

One last ham radio related story to the day was running into Peter (VA3ELE) about 1km from our home-away-from-home as he was attempting to set a new distance record with a friend who was well over 100km away.

Peter explained to me that his radio was 3W and the dish yielded 47dB of gain thus his ERP was around 14,000W see below. Needless to say that I did not stand in front of the dish.

[EDIT Sept 26] with gracious thanks to the math wizardry of David VE7EZM, the result of 47dB of gain with 3W of input is approximately 150,356W ERP.

All in all, labour day 2024 was full of beautiful scenery and lots of Ham Radio – exactly how a vacation day should be in my books.

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.

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

When three contacts equals a successful activation

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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-5367, McQuesten House / Whitehern National Historic Site.

View from the rear of Whitehern showing nearby office tower

This site is located in downtown Hamilton and among the tall building and features a walled rear garden. It is open to all visitors and there is no fee to visit the facility. This two-storey neoclassical house was the home of a prominent family, the McQuestens, and retains many of its original Victorian and Edwardian fittings and furnishings. It is now a museum open to the public.

This activation was strictly by chance and I had less than an hour before I was due to be someplace else. I did not check the solar conditions in advance nor anything about the site. Sometimes just showing up is fun in and of itself, am I right? So I found my way around to the rear garden and found a bench in an out-of-the-way corner and set up for a low impact activation.

I deployed my AX1 on it’s small tripod and placed it on the ground and ran out a 20m counterpoise wire beside the walking path. I set myself and the radio gear on a park bench along the path. It truly felt like a small enclave!

After calling for 10 minutes with zero replies I checked the solar conditions and see that a small flare had just hit. That might explain the soft conditions, and combined with the compromised antenna and its close proximity to me. I moved the antenna away from me as far as the feedline would allow. Only then was I able to log just a few contacts and those were hard-fought. Then I ran out of time.

The author in his temporary enclave
A partial log. Contacts were not obtained by calling out, but by hunting others.

List of gear used for these activations:

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

Summary

I’ve spoken before about “getting to 10” with a POTA activation. For me, that’s always one of my goals. But it isn’t the only goal. I also enjoy the new scenery, the journey, the research and the challenge. This visit was high on the scenery and the challenge end of the scale for sure.

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.

Field Reports, Guest Posts, Morse Code, News, Portable Power, POTA, QRP, Travel

Castles and Trains at Dundurn Castle NHS

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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 Dundurn Castle National Historic Site, CA-5360.

Located in the city where I was born, Hamilton, Dundurn Castle has been a landmark since 1834, when the land was sold to Sir Allan MacNab. The castle is located on Burlington Heights, the site of a fortified military encampment established by the British during the War of 1812.

MacNab was a railway magnate, lawyer and Premier of the United Canadas (1854-1856). Today Dundurn Castle tells the story of the family who lived above stairs and the servants who lived and worked below stairs. He was a defining figure in so many ways in the local history, and performed the original survey of home lots and land in the Hamilton area. Indeed, the home I was born in (on MacNab Street no less) was on land once deeded to its owner from MacNab.

And Dundurn Castle has a personal tie in for me as my father, a finishing carpenter, worked tirelessly on it’s restoration in the mid 1960’s leading up to Canada’s Confederation Centennial in 1967. As kids we spent a lot of time on the grounds.

Continue reading Castles and Trains at Dundurn Castle NHS →

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

CW Three Band Activation Among the Giant Timbers

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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 Hamilton Waterworks National Historic Site (CA-5365).

It was a rainy Friday morning as I departed at 0730h to get in some radio therapy before getting to the fishing store and getting some more of the Fishing Butler bungee straps I’d picked up a week prior. And, as it happens, Fishing World in Hamilton was pretty much around the corner from CA-5365. I’d chosen this site as it had never been activated in CW.

The Hamilton Waterworks National Historic Site is “…a gracious complex of mid 19th-century brick industrial buildings…” located in the North-East end of Hamilton near Lake Ontario. It is part of Hamilton’s original water works complex which sprawls along Woodward Avenue.

And it is delightfully radio quiet, however the noise from the local street was the real challenge for me. Next time I’ll use earbuds.

The original wood shed serves as a covered picnic and teaching area for students that visit the Hamilton Museum of Steam and Technology, part of this NHS.

This is one site I drove to without much research and I was prepared with a backup site were I not able to activate it for whatever reason. Thus I was pleasantly surprised when I saw a large covered area with picnic tables and a small grass area outside to stake down my Carbon Fibre mast. Hoisting/throwing the wire turned out to be a challenge given the shape of the giant support timbers (rounded) as the wire would fall into the narrow end of the crevice, so with some creative use of the CF mast, I was able to essentially fish it into place. Later removal was the reverse process for the same reason.

All set up and ready to go with my 20-30-40m EFHW trapped antenna

I checked the solar conditions and it showed low K and moderate A indicies, and then I verified with a spin of the VFO to see what I could hear. I set my power at 5W and began the activation on 20m. Being located in Ontario, I hear a different set of regular callers than I may otherwise when at home in Alberta. Still a fair number of callsigns are immediately recognizable and they put a smile on my face.

I had planned this to be a CW only activation to exercise my brain. I worked my way from 20m to 40m then to 30m. I was surprised with the short distances on 30m working a couple of stations in Ontario that were less than 75 miles away.

After catching 30 in the log my time was up and the rain had started -along with nearby thunder- so I hastily disconnected the coax and took down my antenna and got on with my day.

List of gear used for these activations:

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

Summary

It was wonderful to spend time among such elegant buildings that have stood there for 167 years. The park is a peaceful place in an otherwise industrial end of an industrial city and is a delight to visit. I hope to do so again soon.

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.

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

Summer evening activation with a buddy

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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 Canal Park Conservation Area CA-5567 in Dundas.

The chimney from the former greenhouse remains standing today

Canal Park is located at a former greenhouse site that is growing back to a natural state, and is long the bank of the former Desjardins Canal that was built in the early 1800s.

The story of the Desjardins Canal

Many of the timbers that were needed for the canal can still be seen standing today despite being immersed in water for nearly 200 years.

The canal’s historic timbers as seen inside the park

It is a popular spot for birdwatching; some of the visitors told me that they routinely see Herons gracing the area. It is also only a few minutes from downtown Dundas and nearby McMaster University. I arrived at 1700h local time and so I had about 3 hours of sunlight to work with which would be plenty of time for a chat and activation.

The site has a large deck and pergola overlooking the canal along with a few park benches, so I got to work setting up my 20-30-40m trapped EFHW that I built a few months ago. It’s short at only 35′, small and works very well. Look on Alan W2AEW’s YouTube channel for build videos.

I used the toroid on the end of my RG-174 feedline as a crude throwing weight and chucked it up and over the steel structure and it dangled down low enough to grab it. I then attached it to my Spark Plug Gear transformer and antenna and used the feedline to raise it back in place. Yes, I leave the wire winder in place for convenience.

Feedpoint of antenna about 15′ above the ground

At the far end, I set up my Goture CF mast and ground stake. The antenna landed up being about 15′ in the air. I wasn’t expecting stellar performance on 20m with it but was hopeful. I was very wrong to think that, with the first station I heard from Macedonia.

CF mast staked into the ground for end support

But not only was I here to POTA, I was here to meet, in person, Wayde Nie VA3NCA/AD2GX. He and I have been delivering remote examinations on the Ham Radio Crash Course team for some time now. Our paths have crossed many times in the virtual world, and finally now would cross in the real world. Needless to say I was looking quite forward to this activation and the location and beauty in this small park were only part of the whole story.

VE6LK and VA3NCA enjoying some late-day sun and QRP SSB

After Wayde showed me his wonderful portable kit, and with mine already deployed, we got to work at 10W on SSB. It wasn’t a fast and furious pace but it was steady enough as a 2 operator activation that we were kept busy. The real surprise were the stations that called us back from Spain!

10W on SSB carries pretty far some days. One contact to Spain was 5W CW.

I rounded off the activation with a quick CW contact to Spain. Wayde is early in his CW journey and would depart for home to his LICW class later that evening but followed the contact along pretty well!

List of gear used for these activations:

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

Summary

I grew up in Hamilton and Dundas was one of my favourite place to visit. I did this activation in early September on a wonderful late summer day and the evening was warm and calm. While I live in Western Canada where there isn’t much in the way of humidity, I found the weather to be quite pleasant (until the mosquitoes dropped by) and the company was excellent too!

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.

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

Cross-border activation between friends

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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 the Battle of Lundy’s Lane National Historic Site CA-6216.

As like many sites around the Niagara Peninsula, it is rich in history from the war of 1812 between Canada and the United States of America. It would therefore be only fitting that I would meet up with my friend Mike Kennerknecht N2MAK for a joint activation. The plans were made, and at the last minute he surprised me with a request.. but I’ll tell you about it later on.

This site is at the top of a hill in Niagara Falls along Lundy’s Lane, one of the main roads in the city. It’s easy to see why it was strategically important for both sides to capture the hill, and indeed both sides claimed success in the battle depending on where you read up about it.

The words on this monument summarize the relationship between our two countries perfectly.

It was great to meet Mike in person as we’d only worked together virtually on teleconferencing platforms. The park was about halfway between us, not counting the stops he’d make at the border each way. It was 5 years since he’d last been in Canada and he was excited for the Duty Free stop he’d make on the way home. And he travels prepared for sites and brought along a couple of chairs and a small side table for our use, which beats a park bench any day of the week.

I was able to get my Goture carbon fibre mast up with my 20-30-40m trapped EFHW (see links below) just before he arrived along with my KX3,. He deployed his Gigaparts POTA Explorer 20 CF mast with a 20m EFHW to his IC-705; later he switched to 17m.

We both started off on SSB with me on 40m. Despite the very close proximity of our antennas, interference between us was very minimal.

Goture (left) and POTA Explorer 20 on the right. A similar amount of flex is seen despite the big differences in their construction.

At around 1100h local time we began calling at 10W on SSB. Mike was able to get to his 10 fairly easily but on 40m I was limited by the NVIS configuration with my average height at 3m for the 40m band, so once he was done on 20m, he switched to 17m and I moved to 20 to complete my activation.

And then he said the words that were magic to my ears: “Let’s do CW”. To be fair he gave me some heads-up that he wanted to do this when he asked if I had 2 CW keys with me. And he wanted his first CW contact to be made in Canada. Thus with a bit of pre-planning, and a pair of dummy loads, we set out to make the contact, Park-to-Park no less.

What I hadn’t realized is that he had never done CW before today, but with bravado and a Quirky QRP Reference Mat at his disposal, we got into it. I explained what each side of the paddle key does (dit vs. dah), however we both didn’t know how to adjust the speed on his IC-705 from it’s default of, I think, 15WPM. No matter, after a few minutes of rehearsing his callsign along with a handwritten chart I’d built him, he was ready.

With our respective radios in close physical proximity, signals were quite strong. I showed him the typical exchange for a POTA and then it was showtime. We did the exchange, and for good measure we did it on the 6m band. That CW contact was the first one done at the park as well.

Mike’s the tall guy on the left

We retired to a well-deserved lunch and went about our respective ways after the required team photo and a bear hug. I’m so delighted I got to connect with him on this trip, and especially for a cross-border activation.

Mike’s Video

List of gear used for these activations:

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Postscript

This was the first activation with my new Bass Pro Shops Extreme tackle bag and I am very impressed. It is the correct size for me and everything works as it should. As a matter of fact, It inspired me to create a new channel on the Ham Radio Workbench’s Discord called #bag-talk if only to prove that bags need not be expensive in order to be functional.

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.

Field Reports, Funny, Guest Posts, News, POTA, QRO, QRP, Videos

Fish Creek Provincial Park: My most frustrating activation to date

8 Comments

by Vince (VE6LK)

All I wanna know is howcome our local star decides to throw in a monkey wrench when I go to activate? Huh? Huh?

Monday August 5 was a statutory holiday for me and I decided to get out early at a popular picnic area in south Calgary and get some radio therapy. I listened to the IARU beacons while driving and even 15m sounded promising.

I’m not nearly as adept as Thomas at using an arborist throw line as I famously exclaimed once and had to be beeped out, so it took me close to a half hour to get my VE6VID OCF antenna how I wanted it with one end supported by the tree and the opposite my carbon-fibre mast. Given I was also setting up video equipment, It was an hour before I made my first contact from when I had arrived.

I started off very optimistic that I’d be able to get 10 contacts as I was hearing all kinds of DX on 20m FT8. I connected my iPad with iFTx software along with some cables I heard about via KD7DTS and I started working it off at 1 watt (just to be cocky) and it took me a while to get 2 contacts. This simply won’t do as I don’t have all day!

So I switched to CW. 10 minutes of calling and only one spot on RBN at 5 watts. So I did what any reasonable person would do and I moved to 10 watts because more is better, right?

Two entries in RBN, one for 5W and the other for 10W.

I then had a couple of contacts. At one point I did a visual check to ensure my antenna wasn’t on the ground (it wasn’t). So I proceeded with my logical thinking and moved to SSB at 10 watts, because after all, I was there to experiment! Clearly I was delirious to think that SSB would be better than CW – that’s my story and I’m sticking to it!

This got me nowhere, slowly. Me, I prefer nowhere fast, but beggars should not be choosers. After 20 minutes of calling on SSB I decided it was time for more powah! and thus I took down my gear and moved into my truck with the trusty FT-857D and the ATAS-120A antenna with the lengthened whip. By this point I had zero hesitation to run 100 watts as I’d been at the park for close to two hours.

I posted a spot and began calling. I even turned my spotting into something humourous in an attempt to woo callers:

I got creative when posting spots 🙂

Along the way I attracted at least one bystander and spoke with them about the hobby for a bit, and I worked 4 contacts between being hunted and being the hunter. At least those 4 “only” took 15 minutes. But they were getting progressively harder. Can you spot why in the image below?

A=46

I’ll give you a clue: it starts with the letter A. I had noticed some small M-class flares over the past couple of hours and they were adding up fast. Conditions were deteriorating for me. I must have been damn near a direct hit to those flares, as others in the southern USA were making 50 contacts an hour at the same time as I wasn’t. So I finally did the right thing and moved to CW at 100 watts. I felt like Scotty “I’m givin’ ‘er all I can Cap’n!” …

…and I was met with mediocre results. Nobody answered my calls so the remaining contacts I obtained were found by hunting. Some that were calling were super loud to me and giving out 72s -indicating they were QRP- but could not hear me after my callsign was given 4 times. My final contact was with my friend VE3JO who has just returned to CW and was at a slower pace which helped to bring my blood pressure down a notch 🙂

Summary

Yes, there is a video with plenty of wise-cracking with myself to reduce tension, one of my coping mechanisms.

It’s not a race, sometimes it is a marathon that you didn’t plan on and only takes patience to have whatever you define as success finally fulfilled.

Still, how bad is it to be out in a park for a bunch of hours? It’s not too bad at all if you ask me!

72, 73 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.