My local “watering hole” puts little gems like the above out on a regular basis. This one just seems to fit. I normally take pics of the good ones
But really… Recently the East coast of the US has been beaten on like a Narc at a biker rally.
.
First with “Hurricane Helene” attacking North Carolina and now with “Hurricane Milton” bearing down on Florida….
Just to make matters worse…. We are having a Major Solar Storm in between the two weather events
This might be a good time to remind you that the Hurricane Watch Net will be operating on 14.325 usb and also 7.268 lsb depending on the propagation (or lack of it) at the time. Please try to give them a clear frequency.
Depending on what time “Milton” arrives in Florida there could/might be some major disruptions to the two bands expected to be in use by the HWN.
As you can tell by the above graphic…. Its not looking too good… Hope it clears up before “Milton” arrives.
A morning like any other. Woke up, went to the kitchen and made the Coffee Maker do its magic…
Headed down to the shack (with my coffee) to read on line newpapers and check out the band conditions before I start my hour at 11am (1600 utc) on the Trans Provincial Net (7.100 on your dial)
Several words come to mind when describing how the weekends Radio events went for me….
Great and Fantastic are just two of them
Starting at 0000 hrs UTC on Saturday and finishing at 2359 hrs UTC on Sunday I was able to contact 57 different stations, in 17 DXCC entities using 4 different Amateur Bands.
Between POTA, the Worked all Europe Contest and the Alabama QSO Party the weekend was (for me at least) a success
Here is the breakdown (The “Pop Gun” gave out the following):
5 contacts on 10m (all DX), 24 contacts on 15m (couple of NA and the rest DX), 15 contacts on 20m (about 5 in NA and the rest DX) and 13 contacts on 40m (all in NA)
In the following DX Entities:
Belarus, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Oman, Poland, Republic of Kosovo, Russia, Slovak Republic and the United States of America.
One of the mini good things that happened on 15m was that I was able to contact Belarus and Germany from the list above.
The confirmation already received from the station from Belarus via Logbook of the World combined with an expected confirmation from one of the two German Stations (as one station does participate in LOTW) will bring my confirmed countries (DXCC) count to 100 for the 15m band.
Sadly, I was unable to make any contacts on 6m but I was able to make 2 contacts on 2m FM simplex which was about as good as my attempt in the ARRL VHF contest would get. I was just having too much fun with the HF Bands.
In my last post I mentioned the Ottawa Amateur Radio Club hamfest in Carp Ontario. From what I’ve heard on the radio and seen on social media it was a great success.
This is the first contest in a while were I had the time to sit in the chair and try and make contacts when the bands were cooperating.
I was really pleased with the performance of my Yaesu FT991a and the SGC237 autotuner along with just over a total of 140 feet of insulated Princess Auto automotive wire hidden along my fence and into a couple of trees.
I found the plans for a vertical that will cover 10-15-20 meters with no ground radials needed and I think that I will be able to keep it stealthy as well. This could (if it works) could (might) allow me to improve my DXCC totals for SSB. If it works I will share the plans with you.
Wonder if I can get it up and running in time for the CQ WW SSB Contest at the end of October?
But first of all a belated Happy Canada Day to my Canadian Brothers and Sisters and a Happy Fourth of July to my American Friends and Neighbors.
Now on to the Radio Stuff….
As you should remember from my previous post, I had to remove my Inverted “L” antenna as my new neighbor was planning to trim/remove some trees on her property as the branches were damaging her siding. Some branches had strayed onto my side of the fence and were supporting and hiding sections of my wire antenna.
In its place I put up a vertical using a Shakespere Wonder Pole and one of my Princess Auto(Canadian version of Harbor Freight) heavy duty tripods… This gave me an approximately 24 foot vertical to which I helically wound about 40 feet of wire to which connected to my SGC 237 Auto Tuner. I used my existing radials/counterpoises from the Inverted “L”. They were already connected to my SGC Tuner so it just made things easier.
The new antenna loaded up fine between 6m and 80m and I started doing some testing….
Initial testing seemed flawed and the band conditions were not that good and spinning the dial (for the most part ) brought only static and/or dead air…. Blaming it on the band conditions brought me to the RAC Canada Day Contest on July 1st.
I operated SSB for about 8 hours of the 24 hours of contesting in a casual “Search & Pounce” mode. At the end of my contesting efforts I had gotten 60 stations in the log. I operated on 15m, 20m, and mostly 40m.
My part of VA3/VE3Land is the very North East Shore of Lake Ontario
Contacts were made in VY2, VE9, VE2, VE3, VE4, VE5 and VE6. Stations were heard in VO1,VO2,VE1 and VE7 but I was unable to complete the QSO. As usual the Northern Territories VY0,VY1 and VE8 escaped me.
I also managed to get a few 13 Colonies stations as well…
Well it seems that the old saying “If I can hear them… I can work them…” seems to come into play here except it seems I am not hearing much.
It seems I am as deaf as a post…. (as far as RF receive goes at least)
There is only so much that I can blame on the Solar Conditions, so until the Propagation Deity decides to smile on me again there is not much more I can do. No point in changing stuff if the bands are still questionable.
Over the years I have owned plenty of HF radios and sold/traded most of them away for something more “Shiny or newer”….
But out of all the ones that are no longer with me, there are two that I am now kicking myself for selling..
Mistake number 1
Flex 1500 QRP HF SDR Radio
This fantastic little radio was my first (and only so far) SDR Radio and my second QRP Radio. It took a while to get used to all that computer hook up stuff but once I finally got it right it was a dream to operate. Using it at home with my S9 43 foot vertical, 4:1 balun, along with a Elecraft T1 QRP autotuner brought a new spark to the hobby and I was a happy ham.
This was done with the help of my laptop for the computer control, CW decoding program, and a logging program.
Using the Flex and T1 combo I was able to:
Complete my QRP DXCC, add to my QRP DXCC totals, complete my WAS Triple Play and actually make a decent showing in the 2015 CQ WW CW contest:
That ranked me as 4th in Canada, 25th in North America and 100th WW
With the excellent recieve filtering the Flex had it made hearing the weak ones out there much easier and allowed me to work into the areas of the world I had never even heard before.
FT 817
The other rig that I regret leaving my possession was the Yaesu FT817. Not an 818 or a 817 ND but the original 817
Mistake number 2
I bought mine from Radioworld shortly after they were available in Canada and added the orignal LDG QRP Auto Tuner a few months later.
My favorite setup involved using a few adapters connecting the rig to the tuner direct with no coax in the picture. Also using a double male adapter connected the end feds balun directly to the tuner so there was no coax in the picture at all. Normally the antennas of choice would be a Par Endz Fed or my old homebrewed W3EDP antenna.
I would like to think that having no line losses (no coax) made lots of contacts a reality but most likely it was also operator skill.
W3EDP antenna (Tnx to VE3FI for the graphic)
Contacts were made on all the amateur bands (70cm/2m/6m) along with (10m/12m/15m/17m/20m/30m/40m/80m) in SSB and Digital (PSK31) using a NUE Modem.
Back then I was not really a CW operator (and that remains true today) so all of my 30m contacts were PSK31 only and the original 817 did not have 60m so no contacts were made on that band.
Given the fact that the family budget could not really afford new toys at the time…. Old toys had to be sold so new toys could be acquired so…. both the Flex and then the 817 left me so newer and shinier toys could come into the shack to be sold later.
Now that I am fairly secure in the hobby…. and not wanting to get rid of the FT950 at home or the FT450at that will be going into the new (to us) VA3QV/m (once we decide on what to get).
I have the hope that a gently abused FT817 might find its way into my shack again if I can find one at a good price (or trade deal.)
I do have the portable station from the camper (FT450, 25amp power supply and LDG Auto Tuner) and its a great cottage/camper station and its currently surplus to my needs… that is gathering dust so you never know.
VA3QV Listening more than talking 