Tag Archives: Vince (VE6LK)

Many thanks to Vince (VE6LK) who shares the following guest post and field report from Alberta, Canada:

#POTAThon1111 – report from the field

by Vince (VE6LK)

My goal is to activate all of the parks I can that have never been activated.

I’m blessed to live in such a beautiful part of the world and see these parks up close. One wall in my shack has a map of all the un-activated parks and routes within a day’s drive of me, and most are already planned with routes. There will be more #POTAThons!

[Click all images to enlarge.]

#POTAThon is what I call it when I plan on getting to more than one park in a day. Usually these things aren’t thought of for weeks in advance, they are more like a “tomorrow morning” kind of thing. Opportunistic, if you will.

But first, a note about the day I chose…

November 11 is called different things in different countries, but what we share in common is we honour our Veterans and we give thanks for the freedoms they fought for. So today I paused to give thanks and think of the lives they gave so that I have the freedoms I do today. I would bundle up that giving of thanks into an urgently needed day away from the office.

And with that, #POTAThon1111 was born.

#POTAThon is what I tag these activities on my Twitter feed and the month and day denote when it happened. By definition a #POTAThon is more than one activation in a day; I’m simple like that. #POTAThon1111 is the third such event.

The first was #POTAThon0930, an ambitious day attempting 8 sites with two operators and most of them in backcountry outside of cellular range. You can see the video from that day when you click on this link. We didn’t get to all 8 but we had a hoot trying.

Just before I departed for #POTAThon0930, Thomas Witherspoon K4SWL (you know him, right?) said words to me I’ll never forget: “Vince, just work CW at a speed where you are comfortable, people will adjust. If you work the sacred language, I will find you.”

With those words of encouragement, I gave it a go. On that day I worked CW and a bit of SSB, but since then it’s been all CW for POTA. While the propagation wasn’t with Thomas and I on 0930, we did connect some weeks later – KX3 to KX3 no less.

You need to understand that I think I’m terrible at CW, but I also need to let you in on a secret: there’s no such thing as a Bad CW Contact. I explain that concept in more detail on YouTube, and the essence is: just do it and roll with it, warts and all. People adjust their ways and usually their speed. Go out and have fun trying. Continue reading Vince’s chilly #POTAThon1111 run on Remembrance/Veterans Day 2022 →

Events, Field Reports, Hams, Morse Code, News, Portable, POTA, QRP, SOTA

W4G SOTA Fall Campout Recap

October 22, 2022 Thomas Witherspoon 7 Comments

As I noted last week, I participated in the W4G SOTA campout at Lake Winfield-Scott Campground in the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest in north Georgia.

In short? It was amazing!

I thought I’d share a few photos and memories…

Campsite and friends

These SOTA campouts typically involve an announcement via the W4 SOTA group then we all make individual reservations at the chosen campground. Since we’re not reserving the whole campground as a block, we tend to share our individual camping sites with others who might not have been able to reserve a spot.

At Lake Windfield Scott campground, the SOTA group did reserve one large group campsite, but only a couple months ago it was canceled by the park service due to a trail maintenance group that needed it.

Typically, I camp with my friend Monty, but he had other family plans that weekend.

When I found out my buddy Joshua (KO4AWH)–the fellow behind Tufteln products–needed a spot to pitch his tent, I offered up my site.

As you can see in the photo above, both of our tents fit on the tent pad with absolutely no extra room to spare. 🙂

It was such a pleasure getting to know Joshua. What a kindred spirit and super nice fellow.

KO4AWH (left) and K4SWL (right) on the summit of Black Mountain.

We ended up doing all of our SOTA activations together as you will see in upcoming activation videos and field reports.

Joshua is as pack and organization obsessed as I am. A proper pack nerd! I really enjoyed checking out his bags, cases and all of the brilliant accessories that are a part of his field kits.

He brought both an IC-705 and TX-500 along for the ride. He logs in the field using the HAMRS app (same one I do) but on an iPad Mini (see photo above) and I must admit that the size of the iPad mini is nearly ideal–much better than a phone for logging.

He also used the SDR-Control app to connect wirelessly with his IC-705 and operate digital modes.

Summits

We activated a total of three summits during the weekend (Big Cedar, Black Mountain, and Yonah Mountain). It would have been easy to activate six or more if that was the goal–the area is chock full of accessible summits.

Continue reading W4G SOTA Fall Campout Recap →

News, QRP

VY2SW: Woo hoo! I passed!

June 17, 2022 Thomas Witherspoon 31 Comments

I mentioned in a previous post that I’ve been studying for my Canadian Basic license exam.

I’ve been working on this in my very limited spare time for a few weeks now, balancing study from the book above and HamStudy.org–both brilliant resources.

Now that I’m actually on Canadian soil, I scheduled an online exam with my friend, the amazing Vince (VE6LK).

Vince must be one of the busiest remote examiners in all of Canada. He’s professional and has the process down to a science which makes the whole experience very fluid and low stress. His website has a load of resources!

Although I’d been on the road most of the day yesterday and was a bit tired, I was ready to write the exam. I gave Vince my schedule and told him I would even be willing to schedule as early as 9:00PM last night or anytime this weekend.

The 9:00 time worked for Vince, so he sent me a Zoom link and I did a bit of last-minute study before meeting him online for the exam.

The Canadian Basic is a 100 question test, so it takes some time to get through it all.

I was absolutely chuffed to pass with 94% which meant passing Basic with Honours.

Vince started the online process which allowed me to create an account on the ISED website.

Getting a call

I’d been giving my callsign a little thought.

Since my mailing address is in Prince Edward Island, I knew the prefix would be VY2.

Every new call issued in Canada is essentially a vanity callsign and you’re allowed to choose from available suffixes (and even purchase additional callsigns in the future).

PEI is one of the few provinces that also allows Basic licensees to claim a 2×3 or even a 2×2 call. If I were in Ontario, for example, I could only request a 2×3 as a Basic with Honors license.

This morning, with my first cup of coffee in hand, I finished setting up my ISED account and requested my callsign.

VY2SW

I decided that I wanted my Canadian call to reflect the suffix in my US call, so I requested VY2SW.

As soon as I hit the SUBMIT button on the ISED website, it confirmed that the call had been assigned to me. A couple hours later and I’m showing up in the callsign database.

The Canadian licensing system is incredibly efficient and effortless to use.

POTA and SOTA in Canada

Now that I’m VY2SW, I cannot use my US callsign as K4SWL/VE3 or K4SWL/VE2 while on the air.

I’ve already added VY2SW in the POTA system as my second callsign, so I believe it’ll compile all of my park activations under one account. I suppose there’s a way to do this in the SOTA system too.

Sometime within the next two days, I will be doing my first activation as VY2SW here–a park somewhere in the Ottawa region. I can’t wait and I certainly hope to work you!