DXPeditions and working split

I enjoy chasing DX. But operating a “Stealth Station” sometimes has its disadvantages when the pile ups are massive.

Often when listening you will hear the DX station giving out their callsign along with “listening up or up 5-10 or???”

Now the operators who can’t figure it out will toss their callsign out where no one is listening for it and then the DX COPS will jump in and scream at the operator for not following the instructions which now means the people who followed the instructions are not hearing anything but Lids and Cops…

Now here is the best video I have found (so far) that covers the topic so well that I wanted to share it with you.

Seems fairly simple and easy to understand… and although he is using a IC7300 for his example…. Most (if not all) of the newer HF Radios will work in the same way.

Thanks to Matt K0LWC for the video. If you like it head over to his YOUTUBE site more more content.

And that my friends is the view from the “Cheap Seats”

73bob

A weekend of “giving”

The weather this weekend was not nice enough (for me) to seriously consider taking the Portable Station out any of the local POTA Parks as I had previously mentioned. Although the temps were above the freezing mark I find the cold harsher now and it was a bit too cold for me to be sitting at a picnic table.

Now it was not as bad as the above but it sure felt like it so…

So my Plan “B” was to just operate from the shack and give out contacts….

So starting on Saturday (0000hrs utc) I started spinning the dial and giving out contacts to whoever I could hear in whatever contest/event they were participating in. Contacts were made in the following contests/event:

POTA Support Your Parks, Ontario QSO Party, Michigan QSO Party, Nebraska QSO Party and the Quebec QSO Party. A few Special Event Stations were also in the log as well.

All the contacts were given a 5/9 ON exchange with the Ontario QP Participants getting a “5/9 FRO (Frontenac County)”.

I managed to give out 40 OQP exchanges .

The POTA activators were really busy and I found (in some cases) hard to break the pileups. That part of our hobby is growing in leaps and bounds. I hope that some of the newer operators were not discouraged by the sheer numbers of stations calling.

According to my records I managed to raise my Unique Parks worked count to 2565 logged. Slowly heading towards the 3000 mark which is my next goal.

With the promises (would the Weather Person lie to me?) of better (warmer/dryer) weather in the next week I am still planning to give the Portable station’s new 17 1/2 foot vertical a testing out from the field. Don’t know which day (yet) as the band conditions have to cooperate along with a bit warmer weather from “Mother Nature”

Hope to get you in the log soon

73bob

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Antenna back up

This morning (after coffee) I went out into the back yard with a 33 foot pole with a hook on the end of it and about 60 feet of wire.

Above pic… Wishful thinking on my part

After about 1 hour of hooking thin green wire over the green cedar tree branches its back in the air and working so far. Its the same length as it was before but I was able to get the wire hooked over the branches a bit higher than before.

It seems to work… Using my SGC 237 auto tuner I was able to get a suitable match on all bands between 10 and 80m. 160 was a poor match before and it still is now. First contact was into the Mid Cars Net on 7.258. I received a 5/7 signal report from the NCS who was in OHIO.

As with any stealthy/portable/wire antenna that you re install there is a very good chance that I’ll never get it in the exact same location that I had it in before.

This means that it might work better (hoping) than before or it might work worse (with my luck) but no matter what it will be working at least.

I used to say that I would rather be on the air with a poor antenna than not having an antenna… I made that statement about 30 years ago and I still feel that way today.

73bob

Wire antenna down

Woke up this morning and after coffee went to the shack. Noticed that the signals were way down and I had no static showing on the meter… Went to the back yard and found 2 sections of green wire on the ground.

A short (25 foot) section still attached to the tuner and then the remainder of the wire laying across some tree branches then on the ground. This means that the break happened about 20 feet above the ground and after looking at the ends of the wire it was a clean cut/break.

No teeth marks on the wire so I’m thinking it as it happened in the tree it must of been the clean cut of a bird beak??? The support tree is not strong enough for someone to climb up 20 feet (or so) with a pair of side cutters so….

Anyway…. I’m heading off to the Kingston Antenna Parts store (some of you might of heard of Princess Auto) and pick up a roll of 18 gauge green insulated wire and try and hide it in the tree this weekend. If successful I will be back on the lower bands and if not then its 10m to 20m for a while.

This could be an issue with my plans for several radio events this coming weekend.

Lets see how this plays out

73bob

ps… I do have an EFHW I could put out as a temporary antenna but would have to take it down when not using it so….

Alexandre Grimberg PY1AHD – SK

It was brought to my attention via a posting on the Ottawa Valley QRP Society – Digest #1381 on Groups IO that Alex of “Alexloops” had passed away.

Although I had no dealings with Alex I know several hams in my immediate circle who knew the value of his product.

Most recently I was amazed by the performance of his loop when Martin VA3SIE and myself activated POTA CA-4877 (Murney Tower) in November 2022.

For this activation I used my XIEGU X5105 and a 40m End Fed Half Wave and Martin used his KX3 along with his “ALEXLOOP”. I think that if you were to compare our logs for the event the loop out performed the EFHW.

Alex made quality antennas and the proof would be in the logs….

73 Alex and thanks for what you have contributed to our hobby….

Bob

A month later

Taking you back to March 14th I mentioned that I had contacted 2500 unique POTA parks/locations.

Fast forward 30 days…..

To April 13th and you see the totals have increased

Still a long way towards 3000 Parks but closer than I was last month.

As always “Thanks to the Activators” and POTA on

73bob

Upcoming Amateur Radio Event

I got this from the Rideau Lakes Amateur Radio Club Website….

Its just a quick cut-n-paste to keep you updated…. I’m hoping to get there as well.

RLARC Hamfest 2024

Rideau Lakes ARC Hamfest 2024

Preliminary Information

May 11, 2024

38th Annual Smiths Falls Hamfest

Our 38th Hamfest of amateur radio equipment, we hope to include a large number of commercial and private vendors, a canteen, a consignment table and equipment testing table.

This event, and amenities will depend on the Personal Health Measures in Place at the time.

Tables and Admission

Vendors: Tables (approximately 2.5 ft x 5 ft) $20 (includes admission for one). Doors open for vendors at 7 AM.

Admission: $5 per person (includes door prize ticket), youth under 16 admitted for free.

Doors open for the public at 8:30 AM.

Location 

Civitan Club 12468 ON-15, Smiths Falls, ON K7A 4S4, Smiths Falls (new location!)

Talk-In

VE3RLR 147.210 + PL 151.4Hz AMS IN/OUT

Information and Table Reservations

Contact ve3rlr@gmail.com 

Amateur Radio Exams

Basic, Advanced and Morse Code examinations will be available at the Hamfest. Exam fee: $25, includes Hamfest admission. Age 25 or younger: free. Candidates must preregister by Wednesday 8 May 2024. Please e-mail Accredited Examiner Dave VE3KG at ve3kg@myrac.ca

73bob

Another antenna for the “Portable” Station

If you look back to my previous post in which I had covered my successful POTA activation of CA5143 I mentioned that I had used my 40m EFHW antenna to make the 23 contacts made.

Well one thing I neglected to mention was the difficulty I had getting 62 feet (or so) wire stretched out in the rather dense brush just off the trail. In the past I had mentioned about getting a 2nd antenna in the kit for when the EFHW was just not able to be deployed easily.

I had tried a BuddiPole but it did not (could not) do exactly what I wanted…. Using some parts from the BuddiPole and then adding a “Imitation” Shock Corded 9 foot whip (In my opinion…FWIW the Amazoon 9.5 ft shock cord whip is a real POS)was not doing it for me either. I tried following the instructions and when those did not work I tried (to no avail) to use what I tried in the past with other portable antennas but just no joy…

Fast forward to yesterday. The LDG 9:1 UNUN that I ordered on the Monday had arrived and so I decided to duplicate the “Coastal-20” antenna that I use at home for 10-12-15-17 & 20m. If you “Google Coastal-20 you should see the basic plans. Its a 9:1 UNUN along with a 17.5 foot vertical with a short counterpoise.

Now on my first build I found the short counterpoise version did not perform exactly as I had hoped so I decided to go with 3 elevated counterpoises. I cut 1 for 10-15 &20m and it worked quite well for me on 10 to 20m. By well I mean that I was making contacts and the SWR on all the needed bands was low or low enough that the internal tuner in my Yaesu FT991a was handling it.

Mostly copying my first version with the exception of swapping out 3 counterpoises for a single 11 foot counterpoise seemed to make no difference with the SWR and it was loading up just as well as the previous one did.

The next test for the new antenna will be when I get out into the Park (hopefully this weekend) if the forecasted rain ever stops. The plan is to have both antennas available for when I participate in the POTA Support your Parks event which happens April 20th and 21st and by strange luck is also the same weekend as the Ontario QSO Party, The Michigan QSO Party and the Quebec QSO Party so there should be no problems getting contacts to activate what ever park (parks) I head out to…

73bob

POTA activation of CA-5143 completed

This was a special one for me. The last I tried to activate the Marshlands Conservation Area I had an equipment malfunction and as such it was a “Failed Activation”.

Today I headed out to get the one that got away.

I set up (red dot on the map) and operated with my FT891 set at 30w , 40m EFHF and proceeded to give out contacts….

In one hour I had managed to make 23 contacts in Ontario, and the Eastern Parts of the USA.

In the “learning part” of my activation I still have to find a way to carry more stuff and also make the kit lighter… It was a 4 km walk there and back (thats almost 2.5 miles to those of you south of the border) and to be honest I was really glad to get home and get my feet up.

I mentioned a few posts back about using some sort of trailer to carry the kit and today’s effort reinforces that thought….

Anyway I did have fun…. and if I worked you I hope you had fun as well….. If you don’t see our QSO today in your Hunters Log let me know and I’ll try to figure out why not…

73bob

A upcoming “New” QSO Party

The following info came in via the RAC Bulletin Service but for me at least it was a bit difficult to cut and paste the info as my newly improved mail software insists on giving me adverts in the middle of the long messages. I guess you do get what you pay for….

Here is the link to the site with the information:

HamSCI Presents the Solar Eclipse QSO Party: April 8, 2024 – Radio Amateurs of Canada (rac.ca)

I will be listening around and participating…. especially if the sky is cloudy during the event. But seeing that Kingston is right in the path…. maybe not

Above graphic courtesy of : https://eclipse2024.org (its worth visiting their site)

73bob