… without the moonlight

(I wimped out when dusk approached, it was C*O*L*D today -20°C)

That was tons of fun!  There will be a posting about our day over on Bob’s blog, but here’s my account.

Bob VA3QV, Roy VA3CKD and myself set up 3 stations at Weston Park in the East end of Ottawa, a stones throw from the Canadian Science & Technology museum.   The museum amateur radio exhibit digipeated packets from my VX-8r H/T all afternoon.

Roy and Bob operated SSB and I operated CW.  We all operated using Bob’s VA3RCS callsign:

VA3  Really * Cold * Spot         …     and it was! 

Pictures

I was listening for winter field day stations but I never did hear any CQ (what would it be, CQ WFD ?)  I did hear polar bears though, a lot of polar bears.

My first few contacts while we were setting up the HF stations were all via the VE2CRA repeater.  Ante VA2BBW was up in Gatineau Park.   Larry VE2WEH was driving in Ottawa, ON.  Larry is polar bear #28.   When I finished setting up a 20m and 40/80m vertical antennas, I walked over to see how Roy was getting on.  He was trying to make contact with an aeronautical mobile amateur operating on 20m SSB out of a C17 Globemaster military cargo plane over Georgia.

On the way back, I got a call via IRLP it was Polar Bear #162 Bill, VE3CLQ in Kingston, ON.  Bill had been out earlier and had worked a couple of stations before calling.  It was great to work a new polar bear, thanks Bill!

Right after Bill was another polar bear, Michael VE3WMB Polar Bear #19.  Michael was setting up a station at the Central Experimental Farm in Ottawa.  Michael reported that the temperature was pretty cold there too (-20°C wind-chill ouch!)

I spent some time updating my APRS status and calling CQ on 40m with no takers, then I switched over to 20m and heard a station calling CQ, and David W0MHS came back to me but at a morse code speed which was much too fast for me.  I didn’t copy my signal report, I did get his name.  There was QSB and we terminated the contact quickly.

My KX1 was playing up in the cold -20°C temps.  It had a strange rushing noise which got stronger when I moved my hand near the radio, and odd carriers at each 10Hz tuning increment, it was hard to hear real signals, and the T/R relay kept sticking so the receiver was only on 50% of the time following a transmission – fun

I heard Jamie VE3JME call on the repeater, and we had a quick talk-in style exchange on the repeater, then I turned over to 40m and heard Michael calling CQ from the Central Experimental Farm.  I had a quick QSO with Michael, he mentioned having worked Ken WA8REI polar bear #21 and I earmarked that frequency to go back to.  After the QSO with Michael, Bob VA3RKM Polar Bear #171 showed up and called both Michael and myself.   Bob is in the West end of Ottawa.  Bob was hearing Michael more strongly than me.

I made a run for the washrooms after that QSO (nice to have washrooms at the park!), and on the way I had a chat with Cary VE3EV who was making some adjustments to the IRLP node on VE2CRA, then I went over to say hello to Jamie and his friend who were visiting.  At that time, I heard James VE3MYZ calling on the repeater and I gave him a report of the winter field day operation.  As I was doing that, an José VA3PCJ showed up.  A pleasant surprise!  It was great to see José I didn’t know he had moved back to the Ottawa area.

Bob VE3MPG also arrived at that time, it was great to visit with Bob, he took some photos of our stations before leaving.

Bob VA3QV shut is station down and then Roy shut his station down in the late afternoon, as 20m started to pick up and I started hearing some familiar polar bear callsigns around 14060kHz.  I called for Rem K6BBQ but he wasn’t hearing me, I struggled through the QSB to complete a QSO with N9SKN/P Aaron Polar Bear #126 out on the ice shelf in Illinois.  We were both feeling quite chilled by this point.  Thanks for the perseverance, Aaron!

Next up I heard John N0EVH Polar Bear #144 in Missouri.  It was a real struggle through the QSB but in the end we were able to make it.  Thanks for the hard work, John!

The cold was really getting to me at this point as the sun was setting.  But I wanted one more polar bear so I struggled through heavy QSB to contact Kelly K4UPG Polar Bear #173 in Florida.  Tough going RST 229 yikes!   Thanks Kelly!

Well that about wraps it up.  A super fun day and I’m looking forward to seeing how we did in the SPAR Winter Field Day too.

73

Martin.

Log

Videos

Saturday January 30th 2010 and Bob, VA3QV,  Roy VA3CKD and myself are setting up a Winter Field Day station in Weston Park, Ottawa, we’re also hoping to contact QRP Polar Bears.

We’re using callsign:

VA3RCS/P

Track Me on APRS

HF Pack Style!

Saturday 5th December 2009 was polar bear moonlight madness.  I hiked to the summit of Mont Ste Marie, which is a registered summit in the summits on the air program.  I had my hiking stuff and radio equipment in one pack and I had another smaller pack containing a PVC frame attached to it.  I wrote about that setup in some detail in a previous posting.  At 1520Z before I started hiking, I got an APRS message from Darin & Maurice André at the museum.

There was a dusting of snow

The last time I did this hike, it took me an hour and a half but this time, thanks to the lighter pack (I did not bring along a large mast and chair or wet weather gear), I completed the hike in just over an hour.  Shortly after starting the hike, around 1530Z I received a call from Darin and Maurice André at the Canada museum of Science and Technology amateur radio exhibit station VE3JW.  They were monitoring my progress on a TV screen on which they were showcasing for the visiting public APRS & my SOTA activation – very cool!

I received and sent a few APRS messages as I was hiking up also.  As I neared the summit, I received a call on echolink via the VE2REH repeater network from Jim, W1PID, Polar Bear number 83.  Wow!  It was great to hear from Jim, who also does a lot of outdoor QRP adventuring, just check out his website!  We set up a sked 7035kHz at 1pm Eastern.  Unfortunately I took 10 minutes too long to finish working a pile-up on 20m and when I went to 40m I did not hear Jim.  Propagation may not have been favourable, because I did hold a QSO on 7035kHz and later in an email, Jim mentioned that he tuned back to 7035kHz a few times but didn’t hear me.  Hopefully next time Jim!!

I reached the summit and decided to head for the gazebo, where I attempted a simplex FM contact with VE3JW.  It didn’t work though, at 50W into a 14 element beam(!) they were S5 on my H/T but they didn’t hear my 5W into a rubber ducky signal at all.

I didn’t check it out last time I was on the summit, but what a great spot for playing radio I discovered.  I thought it was the top of a fire-tower last time.  The gazebo is up on a rock ledge and there is rock all around it which looked like it would be good for pedestrian mobile.  There were some ice patches so I had to be careful where I walked!

Look at that big ice patch on the rock!

Preparation time:  I took the KX1 radio out of its protective foam shell, attached paddles, earbuds, and a pomona BNC to banana plug adapter, strapped it to a clipboard with rubber bands, strapped a rite in the rain logbook to the same clipboard with another rubber band and hung a couple of mechanical pencils from the rubber bands, then I put 8 energizer lithium batteries in a radioshack battery holder (with fuse!) inside my fleece with the wire dangling to my knees.

I then twisted the 36′ teflon coated silver plated wire around the fishing pole as I extended it to it’s full 20′ length, reinforcing the twist joints with electrical tape, and leaving about 4 feet of wire loose, then I seated the fishing pole in the harness, unrolled the counterpoise wires (1 X 16′ and 1 X 32′), passed one through the left corner of the backpack and one through the right corner (to separate the counterpoises somewhat), popped the banana plugs from the counterpoise wires and the helically wound fishing poles into the backpack straps.

Finally I put on warm clothes and my touc and shrugged on the backpack, then checked that the banana plugs were all accessible.  Finally I picked up the clipboard, attached the power plug which was dangling at my knees to the radio, detached the banana plug attached to the counterpoises from one backpack strap and plugged it into the ground side of the BNC adapter, and detached the banana plug attached to the antenna wire from the backpack strap and attached it to the hot side of the BNC adapter, then I put the earbuds in my ears and pulled my touc down to cover my ears.

Ready to hunt me some polar bear.

I checked that the radio would tune on 20m, 30m and 40m then I listened for a quiet frequency on 20m, sent a couple of QRL?, hearing nothing I plugged 14061kHz into my VX-8r APRS status text, shot some video, picked up the clipboard and sent a CQ call arounf 1750Z.

Right away several stations all came back to me and they were all zero-beat with each other!  I picked out Chuck AF4O’s callsign and called him.  Things were a little confusing because my signal was very weak and I kept missing parts of the QSO when other stations were calling me, but I exchanged GRRRs with Chuck who was in Big Hill Pond state park picnic area in Tennessee.  Temperatures in the low to mid 30’s and near calm winds at Chuck’s QTH.  After check, I picked out KI6NN, I wasn’t sure if John was activating a summit in SOCAL (last time we QSO’ed John was up Teutonia Peak (SOTA summit W6/CD-013).  I kept the contact brief because he was zero-beat with Paul W0RW and I found it difficult to pull out details.

After the contact with John, I called Paul W0RW/PM but it was tough going, my signal peaked at 559 with Paul but with heavy QSB.  Paul’s signal was really strong,  he was using a PRC-319 pedestrian mobile and a 10′ whip  in temperatures of 30°F.  He had been tracking my progress on APRS.   It was great to make a /PM to /PM contact with Paul!

I then got a call from Steve WG0AT, he was at 9ooo′ on Mount Herman in the Pike National Forest with his goats Rooster & Peanut.  Got a few extra dits from Steve, maybe that was his teeth chattering, it’s *cold* at 9k feet …  Steve had a 599+ signal *wow* really strong, my ears were bleeding.  Was that your buddipole, Steve?  What kind of power were you running?  Fantastic!

I popped out a QRZ? and Randy K7TQ was there.  I recalled images of Randy with is sled in FYBO   We exchanged GRRs then I figured it must be close to 1pm so time to seek out Jim W1PID on 40m.  Oops!  It was a 1817Z I missed the sked (Sorry Jim! ).  I popped over to 7035kHz and send a QRL and then a CQ call but Jim was not there at that time.

Lots of hills in all directions.

Ken was though.  Blackjack Bear WA8REI was with his Brother Paul in the motor home at Wagon Wheel Hill in Ogemaw County in the middle of the Huron National Forest.  It was 25°F and windy at Ken’s QTH and he had around 3cm of snow.  He gave me a good signal report 589 which surprised me I didn’t think the /PM antenna would do to well on 40m.  40m was really noisy from the nearby electrical equipment, but not too bad.  We exchanged GRRs.

After the QSO with Ken I took a break to eat some spicy samosas and drink some water, then at 1900Z I went back to 20m.  WG0AT was still really strong.  I listened around and didn’t hear any more polar bears, so I settled down to some CQ calls.  After a short while, NK6A came back to me from Southern California with an RST 559 report but the QSB was bad.

I heard a call on the VE2REH repeater, it was Roger VE3NPO.  Roger was keen to join me on the hike but couldn’t make it out this time, maybe next time Roger.  We chatted for around 10 minutes, I had one earbud in and through the earbud I heard my callsign really weak.  It was Darin and Maurice André at the Canada museum of Science and Technology amateur radio exhibit station VE3JW.  So I asked Roger to standby and I walked back out and tried to make contact but I guess they weren’t hearing me at that time.

I completed my QSO with Roger and then I walked around some more, then I got a call from WO5X, another polar bear.  I thought it was John AE5X by mistake and said ‘OK John UR 599′ and that confused things…   But we got back on track and I realized it was  bear I hadn’t worked before, Keith WO5X in Arkansas.  It was 37°F in Arkansas, great WX for polar bears.  Great that’s 2 new bears for me, nuthin better’n’ a new Polar Bear to GRRR to

After that BSO I got another call from VE3JW.  Stronger this time.  They send fast.  They sent slow.  They tried every trick in the book to make that QSO, and after about 15 minutes I think we did finally exchange all the pertinent details.  Vy FB signal on 20m!!  Must have been groundwave I think.  It was a team effort,  Darin was sending morse and Maurice André was digging the ESP level signal out of the noise.  Thanks for keeping at it guys I am really happy to have completed a simplex contact with VE3JW.

That contact wrapped up a superb polar bear moonlight madness event for me.  I hiked back down the mountain in the fading light of dusk a little sad that it was over.  My wife was watching my track on APRS and I chatted with her on the cellphone at the start of the descent, then Jim VE3XID called me up on the VE2REH repeater towards the end of the hike, and we chatted while I hiked the last part, Jim was following my APRS track as well.

It was so much fun, can’t wait until the next Polar Bear Moonlight Madness.

72 / dit dit de Dittie Bear.

Videos

Photos

I’m planning to activate summit VE2/OU-001 (Cheval Blanc on Mont Ste. Marie) for the VE2SOTA organization this weekend on Saturday 5th December.

The alerts for the other stations which may also be activating summits is here.

I previously activated this summit on November 14th, you can read all about it in my previous blog articles before and after the hike. Last time around, I sat in a chair at the summit with my KX1 HF QRP radio hooked up to a pair of fishing pole verticals strapped to nearby trees and fed with coax. This time around I plan to operate pedestrian mobile from the activation zone, details follow.

This hike will involve an ascent to the summit at 580m (1,910 ft), from the base of the mountain. That’s a vertical ascent of 381m (1,251ft) over roughly 8km. I’m giving myself 2 hours for the hike up and 1 hour for the hike down, so it should be fairly easy, depending on how slippery the trail becomes.

Track Me

Route

The weather forecast does not include rain, snow or ice and therefore I will follow the same trail that I did on November 14th, which I have included here courtesy of aprs.fi.

Planned Route

1° Celsius, dry/sunny.

Weather

The weather forecast as of today is excellent. Mainly sunny and a light wind, temperature climbing from -3°C (27°F) in the morning to 1°C (34°F) by mid afternoon, so I will not need to pack as much wet weather gear as the last time.

VHF Logistical Support

During the drive to Mont Ste. Marie, I will be beaconing my position using APRS as VA3SIE-9. Once I start hiking, I will be beaconing my position as VA3SIE-7. I will monitor the VE2REH repeater network throughout the day, using a Yaesu VX-8r hand held transceiver.

Pedestrian Mobile HF

I have operated pedestrian mobile many times before for this type of event, for example here in the December 2008 Polar Bear Moonlight Madness event. I will be using a 20′ shakespeare wonderpole fishing pole in its collapsed state as a hiking stick on the hike up (the rubber stopper on the end has great traction, and the base fits nicely in the palm of your hand).

My pedestrian mobile antenna consists of 36′ of #26 AWG teflon coated, silver plated wire wrapped helically around the same pole. I made a harness from PVC pipe which I zipped into a small backpack, which is strapped to my hiking pack during the hike up the mountain.  The wire is carried wrapped up in my hiking pack.

This is a frame to support a pedestrian mobile antenna.

Preparing to get on the air, I put the collapsed fishing pole into the harness, unplug the rubber stopper and then I attach the end of the wire to the tip of the fishing pole and then I pull each antenna section out and rotate the antenna section while holding the antenna wire spool, helically winding the wire around the fishing pole in a spiral fashion. The windings at the tip of the antenna are tight – about 1/2″ between each winding. As each antenna section is fully populated with windings I twist it tightly into the start of the next section and continue the winding. I decrease the winding pitch as I work my way down the antenna. In the middle of the fishing pole the winding pitch is around 1″ and at the base of the antenna the pitch is around 2″. The idea is to have lower distributed inductance in the higher current region of the antenna system.

The lower 2′ of the fishing pole sits in the harness center pipe, so the antenna wire covers roughly 18′ vertically on the pole. I tape the wire to the fishing pole at the 2′ level to keep the windings tight and leave approximately 4′ of wire free. There is a solder-less banana plug attached to the end of this wire which connects to the radio on the hot side of a BNC to banana plug adapter. Initially I tie the banana plug to one of the backpack straps so that I can easily retrieve it once I am wearing the pack.

The frame helps to stabilize the antenna.

Once the fishing pole is extended fully and the antenna wire helically wound around it, I unwrap the counterpoise wire. The counterpoise wire is another 32′ of #26AWG teflon coated silver plated wire, which I keep wrapped up using a velco strap and attached to the back of the backpack. I run the counterpoise wire through tight fingers to flatten out the coils of wire and get it as straight as possible.

VA3SIE is in 'Pedestrian Mobile' heaven

The counterpoise wire is attached to the backpack at 4′ from the end of the wire. This is a strain relief measure in case it gets snagged. There is another solder-less banana plug on the end of the wire which connects to the neutral side of the banana plug to BNC converter. The remaining 28′ of counterpoise wire drags along behind me.

I then remove the radio from the backpack and zip it up. The radio is an Elecraft KX-1 radio with built-in paddles, antenna tuner and 30m/80m option. It is serial number 970. It will be powered by 8 lithium primary cells, generating around 2.5W on 40m, 2W on 30m and 1.5W on 20m, I have it strapped to a clipboard with two elastic bands. The radio is attached to the clipboard with the KXPD1 paddles, a pair of Sony earbuds and a Pomona BNC to banana plug adapter connected. There is a 3rd elastic band attached to the clipboard and that is used to secure a small rite-in-the-rain notepad. I may also hang a mechanical pencil from the rubber bands.

The clipboard is placed in a plastic shopping bag inside the backpack. When I have finished preparing the antenna I remove the plastic bagged clipboard from the backpack and sit it in the snow. The plastic bag protects the radio from the wet snow and allows me to have both hands free to swing the backpack antenna around and attach the backpack to my back – this is an operation that requires both hands free!

Note the helical wire windings on the base of the fishing pole.

Once I have secured the backpack straps, clips and the antenna is comfortably balanced, I can lean down and pick up the plastic bag. I remove the clipboard from the bag and stuff the bag into my pocket. At any point that I wish to take the backpack off I can place the radio clipboard back into the plastic bag and rest it on the snow leaving both hands free to manage the backpack.

I then reach down the strap to find the banana plugs at the end of the antenna and counterpoise wire and hook them up to the radio. Finally I reach into my fleece for the end of the battery wire. I carry an 8-AA cell holder with 8 Energizer lithium primary cells in my fleece where it is nice and warm and run a wire to the radio.

That’s it – the pedestrian mobile system is now fully ready. I can walk along making QSOs dragging the counterpoise wire along behind me. The antenna system is naturally resonant at 9MHz, and the KXAT1 internal tuner is more than capable of pulling it up to 20m or down to 40m.

Click these images for full-size!

The KX1 is so light that I just carry it on the clipboard.

20ft of fishing pole makes for a good antenna!

Operating

I will be monitoring the repeater VE2REH which is IRLP node 2018 and echolink node VE2REH-R 198724. I will therefore be able to arrange to QSY on sked to any frequency in the 40m, or 20m bands, or QSY on sked to 146.520MHz for a simplex FM contact with local stations.

I can accept APRS messages for skeds and I will beacon my HF operating frequency, so stations wishing to make contact can track me on aprs.fi to find out my HF frequency and status.

Polar Bean Moonlight Madness

December 5th is also the December Polar Bear Moonlight Madness event.

If you are a polar bear, lets exchange polar bear numbers too!

Wrap Up

My backpack is almost ready to go. As well as all the gear mentioned above, I’m also packing drinking water, clif bars, a wool sweater, light gloves, a touk, a thermal blanket and small first aid kit with waterproof matches and a lighter, a headlamp and a spare set of batteries, and a GPS with a spare set of batteries for safety in case something goes wrong and I end up having to spend the night on the mountain.

72 / 73, dit dit de Dittie Bear and hope to hear you on the 5th.

de VA3SIE/VE2/PM