VA3NFA Blog

SG-237 installation

2008-07-05T09:32:00.001-07:00

I have finally purchased a new tuner for my Mobile HF setup. I picked up a used SG-237 antenna coupler locally and installed it in my Ford Winstar mini-van. I was using a LDG RT-11 before, but it is not designed for mobile use and would only tune my 9' whip consistently on 28Mhz, 50Mhz and 18Mhz.

Here is the inside view of the installation from the inside. It is mounted directly to the ball mount in the inside of the read-drivers side of the minivan. Note that the SG-237 ground is attached directly to the ball-mount ground and that there is only about 2.5" of #10 wire between the SG-237 and the ball mount for the RF lead.

Here is the view of the ball-mount from the outside.. looks great!

Initial testing with my FT-857D is very favorable. It tunes in 3-4 seconds on all bands from 6m to 80m!! I made several contacts on 17m and 40m, so I think I am good to go!

Here is the link I found which gave me the idea of mounting the SG-237 the way I did:

http://www.sgcworld.com/237camryinstall.html

Many thanks to Ken, VA3KA, and Rick, VE3CVG, for the advice on setting this up. I am looking forward to many HF mobile contacts!!

Tom
VA3NFA

Field Day 2008

2008-06-30T13:51:00.000-07:00

I was not part of any organized Field Day activity (although I did visit the MARG field Day setup on Saturday...very nice!) this year and I had very limited time, so I decided to combine a short hike with ham radio. I headed out Sunday morning to one of my favorite hiking spots and setup near a small unnamed lake. Alana and the kids dropped me off at 9:30am with the promise to be back at the trail head for a 12:30 pickup.

Along with a snack, water and bug spray I brought in the following radio gear:

- Yaseu Ft-817
- MFJ 1899-T Multi-band whip antenna
- 7.5ah 12v gel cell
- Kenwood TH-D7A + Garmin eTrex Vista GPS for APRS

Here is the general location (West of Ottawa, Ontario), showing my VA3TRZ-7 APRS beacon courtesy of findu.com and Google:

As it rained HARD the night before thus the trail into my operating location was very muddy and wet, perfect conditions for mosquitoes. Here is a snapshot of the trail. What a jungle!

I setup at about 10:00am and settled in for about 1 hour or so of operation. The bugs were a bit nasty until a breeze picked up. Here is a picture of my operating site which is on a ledge overlooking this small lake.

For an antenna mount I used my Lee-Valley hiking stick. I stuck it in the ground about 5" and attached a simple antenna mount on it via the camera tripod adapter on top of the grip. The MFJ antenna connected via BNC as did my coax. I strung out a single counter-poise wire and I was good to go!

I was setup as "1B ON Battery" and started checking out the bands. I was amazed to hear lots of activity on all the bands 6m to 40m! I tried calling CQ on 20m, but with my low power I had little luck. At about 11am 10 m was coming in strong and I worked 5 stations in the US. At 11:15 I worked 2 stations on 40m. I also worked Dale, VE3XZT, on APRS ;-) I was having SWR problems on 6m, so I could not work the many station I heard on 6m. Considering that I was running only about 2.5w in to a compromise antenna, I was very pleased with my results.

I packed it in at about 11:30am and hiked back out to the trail head for my pickup.

I saw no-one else on the trail, but I did have a family of what I think were Golden Eagles keeping me company while at the lake and on my walk back.

I think I will try this location again, but perhaps in the spring or fall when there are less bugs ;-)

Tom
VA3NFA

Tour Nortel Event

2007-05-06T17:41:00.000-07:00

This year the Ottawa EMRG/ARES group volunteered to provided communications support for the annual Tour Nortel charity bike/run event.

Over 15 Ham Radio operators volunteered to help man Check Points, and Rest Areas and to assist with safety.

I was partnered up with Mike (VE3UMZ) and we posted at Check Point 6 which is located here along the 70km cycling route. The weather was PERFECT for this event as it was sunny and cool in the morning and then warmed up to about +12C by noon.

Here are some pictures of our operating location:

Each check point was required to have two complete stations in operation. Each station includes a VHF FM radio, battery, and an antenna capable of getting into the main EMRG VHF repeater on 146.880. One station was to be tuned to the controlled net on the repeater, and the other was to be tuned to the Simplex net operated on 146.580 FM.

Mike's station consisted of a FT-1500 FM radio, deep cycle battery, and a 1/4 wave ground plane antenna mounted on a "painters pole" attached to a portable trolley. It is a very nice setup. Here are some pictures of the trolley and the antenna:

My station consisted of a Yaesu FT-8800 VHF radio, deep cycle battery, and a J-pole antenna up about 13' in the air. I used a 5-gallon pail filled with cement with a short mast pipe as a base for the mast. As the antenna has virtually zero wind load it is very stable and it proved to be an effective setup.

Here is a picture of the FT-8800 with a hat over it to keep it out of the sun ;-) :

It was a great event with just enough radio traffic to keep it interesting. Our radios and antenna worked very well. This check point is in a great position as we could hear all stations on Simplex and easily get into the EMRG VHF repeater using low power (5w).

We had one minor "emergency" at our check point when one cyclist had a breakdown and required transportation back to the start. We were able to relay his request back to Net Control and his ride arrived about 20 minutes later.

For next year I an going to add an external speaker as well as a headset to my setup, but other than that it worked just fine.

This was a great event, and a great excuse to dust off our "Go Kits" and to get on the air and help out a great cause like Tour Nortel.

Many thanks to the organizers for planning and executing this event.

Mission accomplished!

Tom
VA3NFA

2007 ARRL January VHF Sweepstakes!

2007-01-22T18:03:00.000-08:00

Here is some info from my recent contest entry.

Station and contest details: http://ca.geocities.com/tom_zinck2/rover/ve3wcc.htm

Click here for my ARRL Soapbox entry.

VA3WCC/R:

VA3CDD/R:

Working 10Ghz at -20C ! Brrrrrr!

903 and 1296 Antenna Testing

2007-01-06T12:19:00.000-08:00

This weekend I completed some testing on 1296 MHz and 903 MHz.

The goal was to test 2 home brew antennas. One is a 1296.1 FM ground plane antenna and the other is a 903 loop created by VE3CVG.

Here is a pic of the home brew 1296 Ground Plan:

And here is a pic of the 903 Loop made by VE3CVG that I created a Plexiglases mount for:

The other antennas I tested were commercial 903 Yagi. One Yagi has 3 elements and one has 7 elements.

Here is a picture of the "antenna test farm" with Matthew helping hold the 903 loop antenna mount (the plexiglass proved not strong enough) while I was conducting some receive testing. As you can see my QTH is up on a hill and is ideal for antenna testing!

The radios I used to test were my Kenwood Th-59 1296 FM HT and my Downeast Microwaves 903 transverter. The transverter was driven by a Yaesu FT-817.

In testing 1296.1 FM with VA3KA, the Ground Plane antenna was nearly as good as using the HT with just the rubber-ducky antenna. Considering coax loss I think this means that the Ground Plan is working just fine. The signal report Ken gave me while using he rubber-ducky was 56 and the signal report from the ground plane antenna was 54.

On 903 I was able to copy VA3KA when he transmitted on 904.5 FM, but he could not copy me. This could be due to the lack of sensitivity on his FM rig, or it could mean a problem in my setup. More testing is required to know for sure.

Just for fun I decided to check to see if I could copy the WCARC 903 CW Beacon with this setup. I was amazed to find that I could hear it the beacon Q5 copy on the 7 element bean, the 3 element beam as well as on the simple Loop! It was also interesting to note that the beacon was loud when I pointed to the South, away from the beacon. This is probably due to the signal being reflected off of something. Very interesting!

Here is video proof that I copied the beacon:

This map shows my QTH (VA3NFA) , Ken's place (VA3KA) as well as the approximate location of the 903 beacon (BEACON).

As you can see from this diagram the beacon is North East (about 35 kilometers) of me, but I was receiving a very strong signal while pointing south. Very interesting!

So, the bottom line is that it looks like my 903 antennas are receiving just fine, but I still need to test again to make sure that my 903 setup is transmitting properly. It also shows that my simple 1296 ground plan antenna is more-or-less working.

This testing also proves how valuable beacons are for testing, especially on frequencies such as 903 MHz that do not currently have a lot of amateur activity. It will be great once we have more beacons on the air, especially on 432 and 1296!

Next I want to make a more rugged mount for the 903 loop and also try to make a J-pole antenna for 903 and 1296.

73!

Tom
VA3NFA

WCARC 70cm cw Beacon

2006-12-29T13:40:00.000-08:00

The West Carleton Amateur Radio Club is building a CW propagation beacon for the 70cm band.

This weekend I am testing the transmitter and have asked local hams for signal reports.

Here are the specs on the setup:

Keyer: ID-O-Matic (built by VA3NFA ;-)
Transmitter: HTX-100 28Mhz IF into a Microwave Modules 432 transverter
Frequency: 432.300 Mhz (maybe a bit lower)
Mode: CW
Power: ~5 watts
Antenna: KU4AB E-Factor horizontal loop at 40' fed by ~70' of LMR400
Beacon Location: FN25bh (APRS Object: 432beacon)

Initial Signal Reports:

VA3KA: FN15wg (16Km): 559: Yaesu FT-736R: 28 elements at 40'
VA3WK: FN15xc (25Km): 519: Yaesu FT-897: 3 elements pointed NE
VE3CVG: FN25hm (45Km): 519: Kenwood TS2000: 19 elements
V01NO/VE3: FN24cw(40Km): 519: FT-736R: 20 elements at 40'
VA3SAX:Fn25bh(3Km): 519: FT857: Loop
VE3HXP: FN25eb(34Km): 519: Echo 70: 15 elements at 100'
VE3AKV: FN15vb(36Km): 559: 12 element K1FO at 8' (sat antenna)

Map:

The ideal CW beacon should have just enough power to be heard by a moderatly sized station within the area, but not so much power that it will cause interference with contest stations.

From initial reports it looks like a 5W beacon on 432 with a good location and a gain antenna (such as the proposed Big Wheel) will work well.

Many thanks for all the signal reports!

Tom
VA3NFA

p.s. Many thanks to VE3CVG for mod'ing the HTX-100 to be used as the I/F!

Aurora Propagation

2006-12-14T16:11:00.000-08:00

There was a MASSIVE solar storm here today that resulted in some amazing Aurora Propagation on 50Mhz.

Here is a pic of the Sun showing the sunspot responsible:

Here is an audio recording of W8IF that I head on 50.155 at about 0014 UTC: click here.

The approximate distance of W8IF from my home QTH is 1000 kms!

I was using my Ft-847 for a radio with a G5RV jr antenna to receive this signal. He peaked at about 55a on this antenna. WOW!

Here is a pic from Dxers.info showing the 50Mhz spots in the last hour:

Antenna Party at VO1NO's place!

2006-11-26T09:22:00.000-08:00

On Saturday, Nov 25, several hams gathered at the home of VO1NO/VE3 (Just east of SMith Falls in FN24) to help him errect a 56' tower to support his 6 element 50Mhz bean. It was a beautiful day for tower work and it was a complete success. Check out the pics! I took my kids with me to help out. Matthew is 7 and Anna is 4. They were great helpers!

Here is a pic of the "V01NO MkI Tower Base" setup to be raised using the "Falling Derrick" method.

Pic of the "Block and tackel" setup used for making rasing the tower MUCH easier!

Here are two pics of VA3RDC, VO1NO, and AL's son Jeremy (NOCALL) making some fine adjustments

Great pic of the guy wire anchors (e.g. "There is no such think as over-engineering for safety!"

Every antenna raising party needs a peanut gallery or cheering squad!

The tower is up!

Future tower climbers?

Al's current crop of Towers.. looking good!

222 Beacon Project : Update

2006-11-13T11:11:00.000-08:00

Some good news and some not-as-good news.

Click here for previous info on this project.

The good news is that Doug (VE3XK) and I were
able to fix the 222 board up a bit today (added
a cap and re-soldered some connections) and we
peaked the power output. The transmitter is
transmitting at 223.400 (we could not tune it
down to the Crystal freq of 223.340).

The other good news is that Doug brews a great
cut of coffee (even if is was decaf ;-)

The not-so-good news is that the power output,
as measured using Doug's QRP power meter, is
about 15mW. In reviewing the board it seems that
it was built as an exciter only with no final PA
stage included.

As well, we tried to key the transmitter via DC,
but there was a very strong "chirp" that may make
this not a viable option. The tone produced by
the transmitter, however, sounded great and the
freq seemed very stable.

I am still hoping to trace out the schematic to
better understand exactly what this thing is doing.

As I have the 1-10w amplifier provided by Al,
vo1no, one option may be leave the Tx on and key
the amp. This assumes that the amplifier will then
produce about 150mw output.. not really enough but
enough for testing the setup. Doug gave me a 12v
relay that I am going to use to try this... e.g.
use my keyer to trip the relay to turn the amp
on/off.

Another option, once I have the schematics figure
out, is to add the final transister and components
thus adding the final PA stage. Not sure if this
is doable or practicle... hmm I wonder if this is
a kit out there for a mini-amp for 222?

Comments and suggestion are most welcome (other
than suggesting I buy a 28 Mhz IF and a 28-222
Transverter for this beacon ;-)

I am not going to order a crystal until I have
all else figured out.

Tom

VA3NFA

70cm Test Beacon

2006-11-11T18:14:00.000-08:00

Update: Nov 13, 2006

Many thanks to all that provided signal reports for this 432 beacon test. I learned a lot from this project. First of all I learned that my becon keyer is working fine! I also learned that a low power beacon at 432 can be easily heard throughout the Ottawa area, but not much further. In planning for a permanent beacon I will be hoping to find a transmitter that puts out 1 or 2 watts. Assuming a good location can be found then a omni antenna can be used. The ideal cw beacon would be loud enough to be heard in the Ottawa area with a minimal station, but could also be be heard by very good Dx stations (e.g. big-gun in Rochester) when atmospheric conditions are favorable. Another option would be to use a small yagi antenna pointed South West. This would still have ok coverage in the Ottawa area, but would increase the ability of the beacon to be heard in Toronto, Rochester, and possibly Montreal via the back of the antenna.

Thanks again for the signal reports! Hopefully there will be more testing in the near future!

Tom
VA3NFA

To test out my cw beacon keyer I have setup a QRP beacon on 432.350. It went on the air at 8:45pm Eastern Time today and will be up for 24 hours. The purpose of this temporary beacon is to not only test the cw keyer, but to see how well a low-power 432 beacon will work with a omni-directional and horizontally polarized antenna.

Details of the beacon setup:

Keyer: ID-O-Matic
Transmitter: Yaesu FT-817
Frequency: 432.350 Mhz
Mode: CW
Power: 500mw
Antenna: KU4AB E-Factor horizontal loop at 40' fed by ~70' of LMR400
Beacon Location: FN25bh (APRS Object: 432beacon)

Signal Reports Received:

VA3KA, ~10 miles West, 549, 28 element yagi @25', FT-736R wth pre-amp
VE3CVG, ~30 miles North East, 519
VE2SHF, ~15 miles North East,519, Diamond X-50a verticle @16', FT-857
VE3BSM, ~26 miles, South, 519, X500 Verticle at 65', D700 FM radio
VE3XK, ~10 miles West, 589, 11 element yagi @65', TS-2000
Ve3MY, ~0.5 miles North, 599 (He's my neighbor ;-)
VE3BBM, ~7 miles South East, 519, 50-1200 Log Periodic, FT-897
VE3TUK, ~16miles North East, 519, Icom R10 HT with rubby-ducky, 8th floor apartment
VE3AKV, ~25miles South West, 519, FT847, 12 element K1FO beam at 8'

Please email reports to tomzinck@rogers.com and include your location, signal report, antenna and receiver used.

Many thanks!

More info on the WCARC member beacon project can be found by clicking here.

Tom
VA3NFA

CW Beacon Keyer

2006-11-04T06:02:00.000-08:00

While waiting for the manuals to arrive for my 222 transmitter, I went ahead and built another component for the 222 beacon project: the cw keyer. I sourced a very nice kit from N0XAS called the "ID-O-Matic". With my children sitting patiently watching (yeah right) I was able to complete this kit in about 45 minutes. It is a very nice kit and easy to build. The nice this about this kit is that it can be programmed via serial port (using a terminal or terminal emulator) and it can be used as a CW beacon keyer or auto-id for a repeater.

Here is a pic of the assembled board:

To test this keyer I connected it up to my Code Practice Osscillator. Here is what is sounds likes:

Next step is to put this in a metal case with reset switch, powerswitch, etc, and then it will be ready for use once the 222 beacon transmitter is ready.

Tom
VA3NFA

222 Transmitter/beacon project

2006-10-24T16:45:00.000-07:00

Updated: October 29th

Well, this looks promising! I spent about 2 hours today over at Doug's (VE3XK) house and we took a good look at this transmitter.

We walked though the design and how it is wired in the case using the schematic for the newer design (TX-220B) as a general guide. It appears the previous owner of this kit used a microphone (standard 4-connector) as well as a stereo plug for audio input. The stereo plug is a non-standard size (about 1/5 ") which may be a telephony plug. The RCA jack on the case was setup, we believe, as input to a frequency counter as the lead from the RCA jack was coiled (see yellow wire in picture) around the RF output lead in order to "sense" RF. Pretty smart!

We believe that the previous owner had a 12V battery installed inside the case (held in place by the copper clamp) that was wired to provide power in case the external power was down. We removed this clamp and leads to tidy up the case a bit.

We then noticed the writing on the label outside the case (probably should have read this first ;-) which stated that there was a missing capacitor on the output stage. On reviewing the board we found where this capacitor should go. In reviewing the design for the 220B we deduced that this capacitor is part of the PA circuit and would work with the coil to set the frequency.

At this point we decided to appy 12v to see what happens. Our best guess was that we would get some RF out at a frequency not to far from the crystal frequency.

We connected the transmitter to a dummy load and applied power. According to my Radio-Shack Frequency Counter (Model 22-306) we were seeing some weak RF at about 350 MHz. This is much higher than 223 MHz but this seemed reasonable considering the missing capacitor in the final stage. Success!

To try to impress me (and it worked ;-) Doug fired up his 1940's vintage Oscilloscope (pics below) and we took at a look at the output from the transmitter. It showed a nice signal at about 350 MHz. We then "keyed" the tranmitter via the power lead to see if the transmitter would respond quickly.. and it did! More good news!

Now that we basically know that this kit is complete (minus the missing capacitor) my next step is to wait until the manual arrives (ordered from Ham Radio Manuals) to determine what size capacitor to add. Then I will pull the board out of the case, add the capacitor and see if we are in good shape. The current crystal is set at 223.340 which in the FM portion of the 222 band. As this will eventually be a CW beacon I will need to order a crystal in the appropriate frequency (somewhere around 222.050).

Other changes I need to make include adding PowerPole connectors and a fuse to the power leads and also removing the microphone jack as it will not be needed.

Next I will need to determine how to key this tranmistter to act as a beacon. One option is to key via 12v which will requrie a voltage regulator as well as the beacon keyer. We will see! I have ordered a smart-keyer kit that, once built, will be used to provide the morse code to this beacon transmitter.

Thanks to VE3XK, VE3CVG, VE3BYT and VA3CDD for all the help and moral assistance !

***********************************8

First Post:

Here are some pics of my latest Ebay purchase. It is a VHF Engineering 222 transmitter (TX-220) thatI am hoping to press into service as a 222 beacon.

Some info on the VHF Engineering kits including the TX-220B (not quite the same as this one) are located HERE.

Hopefully this will eventuallly be part of a series of VHF/UHF beacons put on the air by the WCARC.

HIT-SAT heard!

2006-09-30T16:58:00.000-07:00

Yipee! Today I was able to hear the new amateur radio satellite called "HIT-SAT".

Hit-Sat is a new micro-sat put up by the Hokkaido Institute of Technology. Additional details can also be found on the AMSAT-UK site.

Here is a pic of HIT-SAT (before it was launched ;-) to give you an idea of how small it is:

Here is a pic of a CW transmission I was able to pick up on 437.275 Mhz during the 23:45 UTC pass over my QTH of Ottawa, Ontario.

My station consists of a Yaseu FT-847. The 432 antenna is a horizontal loop called the "E-Factor" that is produced by KU4AB and is on a chimney mount at about 35'. This is certainly not the ideal setup for receiving satilliete signals which explains the weak signal. However considering that HIT-SAT puts out about 200mw of power on the CW beacon I was just happy to hear it!

I was able to determine when HIT-SAT was overhead by using the free software package called "SatScape" which is an excellent program for tracking sats!

Here is a close up of the trace. I was "tuning" around looking for the signal when I finally heard it, which explain why this trace diagram show the signal frequency moving so quickly.

With a "real" satillete station this cw beacon should be very easy to hear and it wil be great once it is fully operational!

It Works!

2006-09-24T18:54:00.000-07:00

Those of you who know me understand that I have never been a "handyman" and I would much rather write a COBOL compiler from scratch then try to build anything, especially any thing that requires electricity to operate. This lack of hands on electrical skill/ability has always bothered me so I decided to do something about it.

While visiting Active Electronics here in Ottawa I bought a simple electronic kit to try to build. The kit I picked up is a very simple "Alternating Flasher: 4 LED" from CanaKit. After watching the kit sit on my bench for several days I decided to go for it! After 30 minutes of shaking hands and eye-squinting I yelled out loud "I did it!!" which scared the life out my darling wife who immediately jumped up and ran downstairs to see whatI was up to. Needless to say I was victorious! Check out the short video clip which offers proof of my newly acquired abilities with a soldering iron!

With my new-found confidence with all things electrical I am going to next make a microwave oven from scratch or perhaps re-wire the electronic fuel injection system in my van (just kidding folks!)

Tom

Scouting for Rover locations in FN24

2006-09-23T15:54:00.000-07:00

In preperation for future VHF contests I decided to head down towards South Mountain in FN24 to try to find a good operating location in that grid. Local Rovers currently use a Fn24 location in Oxford Mills which is OK, but I was hoping to find a better spot. Ideal location would have year-round access, space for a vehicle, no near-by power lines, good elevation, few trees, and excallent shots to the north and south.

I packed up the FT-817, a MFJ 2m 3-element portable beam, 8' of mast, and my 5 gallon pail mast support (bucket 1/2 filled with cement ;-) and headed down with my 4 year old daughter Anna for this grand adventure.

Unfortunatly "South Mountain" is more like a gully with the elevation ranging from 80m to 90m and no "Mountain" to speak of. Lots of rolling hills, farms, and mixed forest.

We stopped along the side of Route 1 just south of South Mountain proper in FN24gw. With the 3-element beam I was able to work (using 5w) Rick (VE3CVG) in Fn25mh (~60kms), Doug (VE3XK) in FN15wg (About 55kms) and Al (VO1NO/VES ) in FN24cw (about 20kms) with Q5 copy but very weak signals, which makes me believe that the higher bands would be a tough go. As time was limited we were not able to scout for any locations that were off the main road. Several side roads looked promising so we will try it again soon when we have more time to explore.

I was able to copy the VA3SJS CW beacon on 144.290 from the FN24gw location. The beacon was Q5 copy but very weak. That beacon is going to be very handy in the future to help find good operating locations around Eastern Ontario.

Here are a few pics:

Overview map showing approximate locations of stations involved in this test.

FT-817 and 7.5 Ah battery pack with a Heil Traveller headset packed in a PowerPort backpack in the back of the van:

Pic of my 5 gallon pail mast support with the MFJ 3 element beam pointed North.

This outing was not as sussessful as we had hoped, but it was still fun as Anna and I enjoyed fine dinning afterwards in the Kemptville McDonalds ;-)

Tom
VA3NFa

Pics from Sept VHF Contest

2006-09-11T18:37:00.000-07:00

Details on the VE3WCC/R Entry:
http://ca.geocities.com/tom_zinck2/rover/ve3wcc.htm

Click here for our soapbox entry on the ARRL site.

VE3SAX at the controls!

VE3WCC/R meets VA3CDD/R in FN24

Is that a Rover I see before me?

VE3XK working 10Ghz WBFM from his garage.

10Ghz WBFM Experiments

2006-08-12T11:28:00.000-07:00

Several Ottawa area Hams own Tellurometers which have 10Ghz WBFM full-duplex capabilities. On this fine Saturday morning we decided to head out and see what type of "DX" we can get with these devices.

Rick, VE3CVG, headed up to Brule Lookout (In Gatineau Park) which is at about 900 feel ASL and overlooks the Ottawa valley. Other hams, as you can see from the map and table below, operated from other locations in the area. Doug, VE3XK, operated from FN15 in Constance Bay. Tom (VA3NFA) and Ken (VA3KA) operated from 2 locations in FN25. Bryan, VE3ZRK, and Wayne, VE3CZO, operated from FN25 near Island Park Drive.

Details on the Locations:

Location A: Brule Lookout: FN25bm: N 45 30' 17.6" W 075 54' 18.7
Location B: Constance Bay: FN15??: N 45 30.83 W 076 08.07
Location C: Shirley's Bay: Fn25bi: N 45 21.713 W 075 52.058
(Note: some walking required to get to this site)
Location D: Corkstown Road: FN25bh: N 45 19.981 W 075 51.530
Lcoation E: Corkstown Road: FN25bh: N 45 19.486 W 075 52.627
Location F: Island Park: FN25cj

Completed QSOs:

A <> B @ 10:08am. Distance: ~10 kms (~300 degrees bearing from A)
A <> C @ 11:00am. Distance: 16.2 kms (~170 degree bearing from A)
A <> D @ 11:30am. Distance: 19.4 kms (~170 degree bearing from A)

Unfortunatly there was not a completed QSO between A and F. This may be due to either location or incompatabilites between Tellurometers.

The purpose of these experements, other to just have fun, was to find suitable locations for future operating and contests. The Constance Bay and Shirley's Bay location are now proven as excellent sites to work line-of-site to Brule Lookout.

Here is a pic of VA3KA making his first ever 10Ghz QSO operating from Shirley's Bay (Note Gatineau Hills across the Ottawa River ):

and a picture of VA3NFA setup on Corkstown road:

Here is a view of VE3CVG's setup at Brule Lookout:

Closeup of one of the Tellurometers used:

Initial Post

2006-08-12T09:23:00.000-07:00

Hi! One of my hobby's is Amateur "Ham" Radio. In this blog I will post pictures and stories of some of my activities and interests releated to this hobby.

Tom
VA3NFA