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?

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:

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?

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.