September 30, 2023 - Central Okanagan, BC
At the Western edge of the 1400m ASL Aberdeen plateau, overlooking Lake Country and the Kelowna International airport, sits Wrinkly Face Provincial Park.
Howard VA7PWF had been recently thinking of activating this not-yet-activated park for the Parks On The Air programme. This Saturday he invited Mike VE7KPZ and Michal VE7MHX to join him and finally get some QSOs done from this remote park.
The plan was to meet up where the High Rim Trail (HRT) crosses Beaver Lake road and hike just under 2 km into the park. However, with gear aplenty and an intimate knowledge of the area, Michal figured it would be possible to drive a lot closer to the park. And he was correct - the group was able to make their way over old logging roads to within 100m of the park boundary and another intersection with the HRT.
It took literally two-minutes of hiking along the HRT to get to the park.
The group discovered a lovely meadow to operate from. Care was taken, however, to stay close to the trail in order to tread very lightly on the park's flora (if at all).
Howard was setup first, with his SOTAbeams Travel Mast supported by two large rocks and his 20m monoband VA7SZ EFHW run vertically.
Howard's Yaesu FT-891 radio was hooked up but transmit SWR was too high. An inspection revealed a little bit of corrosion on the EFHW match's BNC but that was quickly cleaned up to start transmissions at an effective 100 watts PEP RF output.
Meanwhile Michal setup his fishing pole mast and 20m monoband VA7SZ EFHW as a sloper and hooked up to his Xeigu X108G radio. As soon as Howard had made his activation (with 13 QSOs), Michal took over and started his calling.
While the 20m band was S0-quiet (with the preamp on), the band also wasn't as performant as usual, so Michal had a bit of hard time running at just 20 watts PEP RF output. A handful of QSOs were made at this power level, but as it was just 6 degrees celcius (42 farenheit) with traces of snow in the nearby bushes, the group was getting cold so time was of the essence. Michal reluctantly switched over to Howard's setup and completed his activation in good time. Today was the day for QRO operation.
Mike chose not to setup his own gear at all and instead operated as "second operator" with both Howard and Michal. There's something nicely social about passing a mic back and forth, seeing if each operator heard the same thing, sharing calling responsibilities, etc.
Once everyone had their required QSOs the group quickly tore down the stations and ran back to Howard's warm truck for the ride home. It was a great day with this POTA park's first activation credit going to Howard.
73,
Howard VA7PWF, Michal VE7MHX and Mike VE7KPZ
Ps: here's the view towards the airport in the valley far below:
Routers Breaking News - September 19, 2023 - Michal VE7MHX reporting
On the weekend of September 8th, 2023, three intrepid Ham radio operators braved poor band conditions, high/low/just right temperatures, smoke, huge grizblackmurder bears, deathskitos, youths and their motor cross bikes, aggressive chipmunks, and lack of fish at the edge of the world Grizzly Lake Recreational site.
Their objective was to set up their radios and antennas, eat beans and hot dogs and chips, and get as many QSOs as possible.
First to show up were Sirs Howard "Christopher Columbus" Sisson (VA7PWF) and Cary "Leif Ericsson" Benson (VA7MXY) along with his friend Beau who established their presence and camp. Next to show up was Michal "Yuri Gagarin" Hoppe (VE7MHX/VE7TMZ). Last (but certainly not least) was Colin "Captain James Cook" Parkes (VA7EEH). Shanta (VE7TIT) also stopped by for a visit with his pedal bike.
The team, while fearing for their wives, setup the following:
Radios
- Yaesu FT-891 + tuner
- recently brought back from the dead Xiegu X108G + tuner
- NESDR smart
- Chinesium 2m/70cm mobile radio
Antennas
- Dave S. antenna workshop unun + 10m of electrical fencing wire EFHW attached to a fishing pole
- homemade 2m/70cm ground plane antenna
- Palomar 71' EFHW
- Chameleon 17' whip with "magic carpets" (aka two Canadian Tire aluminum windows screens) radials
- Wolf River Coils TIA1000+ vertical with a small “magic carpet” (aka one small Home Depot aluminum window screen) radial
When Colin "Captain James Cook" Parkes showed up on Sunday, the ante went up, as he set up his what might as well have been a 1000m tall "Princess Auto Surplus" antenna mast, HMS Parkes, with 3 Guy's wires and 2 antennas. Not having enough time to test the antennas with an actual radio did not deter as the RST reports came back <1 (sometimes even on Ham bands) from the fancy antenna analyzer on the following:
- fan dipole 40-20-15 in inverted V configuration
- PAC-12 portable vertical
Much fun was had, there might have been a few drinks, a lot of laughs, and Eddie Van "Hoppe" might have played his guitar at the propane camp fire (as an actual fire was banned). SSB interpretive dances were discussed. Of the 100 Tim Horton's Timbits that were brought, the team had 7, as the rest were stolen by the brazen Chipmunks. Other campers were met and our wonderful hobby was showcased.
The weekend wrapped up with many phone only QSOs made (as no one could get their laptops working), the Sunday NORAC net joined, a definitive win for Colin "Captain James Cook" Parkes in the my antenna is bigger than yours category, and great memories for all.
Here's to next time!
Cheers,
Michal, Cary, Howard, and Colin
Grizzly Lake
Camp and radios
Brazen Chipmunk with a stolen Timbit (who obviously does not care about getting fat or Diabetes)
Fishing pole EFHW and Chameleon 17' whip with "magic carpets"
And the winner of the my antenna is bigger than yours, HMS Parkes
Thompson-Nicola region of British Columbia, Canada - September 4, 2023
Mike VE7KPZ and Jane VE7WWJ decided to activate a couple of drive-up SOTA peaks that were also inside POTA parks - a little bit of "Salt and Pepper" action from the area southwest of Kamloops BC.
The objectives were Greenstone Mountain (SOTA reference VE7/TN-017, POTA reference CA-3572) and Mount Savona (SOTA reference VE7/TN-019, POTA reference CA-3849).
Greenstone mountain was chosen primarily for its great summit fire lookout and Mount Savona for the opportunity to snag a first activation for POTA.
Greenstone turned out to be epic - a gorgeous location and a great spot to operate from.
Jane gives two thumbs up for operations from the Greenstone summit "shack".
Antenna setup south of the Greenstone fire lookout with fiberglass pole velcroed to existing flag pole mount.
Inside the Greenstone fire lookout. One might even consider spending an extended period of time here...
The radio operating position in the Greenstone fire lookout.
It was so nice on Greenstone we decided to stay the night, camping just below the lookout.
The Unimog parked just below the Greenstone fire lookout.
Mount Savona was not quite as pretty at our time of visit because of an abundance of lower-elevation smoke - there simply was no view to be seen. However, there was something beautiful about the place, the deciduous trees on the way up, the story of a recent fire in the area. We may need to revisit when not in forest fire smoke season.
Some of the infrastructure at the top of Mount Savona.
Mount Savona antenna setup just behind the truck: feed point/match mounted high in dead tree and antenna wire run horizontally via guyed fiberglass pole.
The operating position at Mount Savona. QRM in the area required the use of NB, NR and headphones.
We would recommend Greenstone to all. You can make it nearly to the top with ANY vehicle although if you want to park near the fire lookout, you'll need a 4WD.
Visit Savona only if the skies are clear and you have a 4WD vehicle. The road is fairly steep in sections with a bit of loose gravel. A 2WD car might have a tough time.
Super fun and 73,
Mike VE7KPZ
Ps: right-click on and open each picture in a new window to see a higher-resolution version.
July 10, 1929 – June 27, 2023
In loving memory ~
“What a wonderful life, no regrets, sorry I had to leave so soon.” John Mitschke
The interesting journey of a farm boy born July 10, 1929, who moved on to Jesus June 27, 2023. The son of Henry and Augusta he was born on their farm in Langenburg, Saskatchewan. John was the oldest of three children, John, Cecilia, and Helen (who predeceased him in 1996).
At the age of 11, John was putting crystal sets together which led to his own repair shop at the age of 14. At age 25 he joined CKOS installing studio and transmitter equipment and later rebuilding stations in Weyburn and Estevan. John and his wife, Mary moved to Vernon in 1970 where he became a technical engineer for CJIB until he retired in 1990. They soon became snowbirds wintering in Yuma, Arizona He loved dancing, was an award-winning marksman and longtime member of the Vernon Collectors Club.
John was predeceased by Mary, his wife of 51 years, in 2011 and his dear companion Jackie Johnson in 2020. He is survived by sister Cecilia Desjardins (and Aurel in Calder, Saskatchewan) plus numerous relatives and friends including Jackie’s daughter Linda Myers. John also had his Mission friends Bobbe MacKenzie and Brenda Toews who were blessed to be his ‘volunteer’ caregivers over the past three years sharing many a smile and tear with him. Thank you to the hospital nurses on the 2nd and 7th floor, Dr Smith, Pastor David Hunter from Peace Lutheran Church and to the staff and residents at Orchard Valley Retirement Residence, who made his last months before hospitalization so comfortable and pleasant. A very sincere thank you to Sarah Verburgh, from Interior Health, for her guidance and compassion to John, Brenda, and Bobbe this past year.
Always a giver, John walked 36 blocks each day to greet at the Vernon Courthouse from 7-9 then volunteer at the Mission. He was 92 years old! He loved children and donated all the money he made as Santa through the years and his entire estate to Variety – the Children’s Charity of BC.
A Celebration of Life will be held at the Vernon Upper Room Mission on September 9, 2023, at 11 a.m. Pastor David Hunter and Pastor Brent Henderson presiding. All who loved this gentle, kind man are welcome to attend and share their memories. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Vernon Upper Room Mission.
June 23-25, 2023, Armstrong BC
This year's NORAC Field Day was back at Ralph VA7NU's field in Armstrong, BC. Having a location so close to paved roads made it much easier for club members and guests to attend. In total we had over 40 attendees with peak attendance at the fantastic roast and pot-luck dinner Saturday night.
Please note that this article does not include any pictures (it's more of an event summary than a magazine article), but you can find a wonderful gallery of event pictures here.
Setup for the event started Friday afternoon with the positioning and erection of Cranky, the club's affectionately-named mobile crank-up tower. Atop the tower was the club's 20/15/20m beam and very high gain collinear VHF antenna. This setup was led by Lorne VE7LWK and Paul VE7PDE.
With the beam ready to go, Lorne brought out his Icom IC-7300 and SSTV setup and entertained the kids in attendance with a little bit of educational activity.
On Saturday morning Ralph championed getting the wire antennas strung between Cranky's tower and a tree at the end of the property. Unfortunately none of the wire antennas were found to be resonant. With propagation for the lower bands forecasted to be poor, the group instead opted to erect Austin VE7QH's BuddiHex on Mike VE7KPZ's military fibreglass poles with Howard VA7PWF's pole support system. The BuddiHex would do 20m through 6m, and using Mike's competition band-pass filter for the 20m main beam station we could run either 15, 10 or 6 on the BuddiHex in parallel without the two stations interfering with each other.
Two stations (2A class) started the event strong doing paper logging. Work was still in progress to sort out N3FJP networking with David VA7DRS' and Jake VE7WEA's laptops. Fortunately that was sorted quickly and paper logging did not need to continue. Paper entries were transcribed into the logging software while operation continued. Once caught up, it was a pleasure to log exclusively in N3FJP. There was even a bit of competition between the two stations to see who could get a higher QSO rate on each station's respective band.
We had a large number of new HAM operators this year. It was great to see recent licensees Howard VA7PWF and Colin VA7EEH jump on the stations to log and also operate so quickly. And then we also had guests Simon VE7RIZ and son Bryson (who joined us from Merritt) who showed exceptional enthusiasm in getting on the air and operating with the great mentors present.
Speaking of elmer operators, we had Brad VE7WBM, Kevin VE7XY, Ralph, Austin and Mike all working the stations as well. Doug VE7VZ stuck around longer than he had planned and provided some additional mentoring for the newer operators late into Saturday evening.
A variety of radios were utilized (demoed) for the event. Brad brought his trusty Yaesu FT-991a, Austin his bombproof Yaesu FT-891, Mike his Icom IC-705/DIY599 PA500 combo and Colin his Kenwood TS-570SG.
We had a good number of campers this year, well equipped for the elements. Jake brought his new trailer and Austin erected his tent under Brad's trailer awning. Protection from the elements was critical as we experienced the same Saturday afternoon thunder and rain storm that we always seem to have each year at this location.
Both stations were shut down for a couple of hours Saturday afternoon due to the storm... and then it was pot luck dinner time with a great NORAC-sponsored roast expertly cooked by Ralph himself. With the rain, all parties ate inside Ralph's QTH - it was the largest gathering of HAMs we've seen in some time.
After dinner the stations got busy again. Interesting band conditions allowed our higher bands to run well into the night. 20m was open and usable until approximately 1 AM local (Pacific) time.
Sunday morning started early with Brad making some good rate phone QSOs, Ralph and Austin on CW as well as Colin and Howard working phone together... and then the group took a short break at 10 AM for the NORAC Sunday VE7RSS net - the net had never seen so many check-ins from Armstrong.
In the last hour of the event a few more QSOs were squeezed into the logs and then it was time for tear down.
Big thanks to David (event organizer), Kevin, Mike, Simon and Bryson for staying all the way to the end to clean up every last bit and leave Ralph's field looking like we had never been there.
Field Day really is a great event. The casual contest scenario with such positive happy stations on the other side of the QSOs makes for a wonderful opportunity for our new HAMs (and third-party operator Bryson) to get on the air in the most forgiving way. This event is both a showcase of amateur radio and a wonderful opportunity to build confidence and skill in radio operation.
Looking forward to next year's event,
Mike VE7KPZ
Ps: let's also thank these folks for their special contributions:
Ralph VA7NU - event host. Ralph's field in Armstrong is truly a great spot to have a FD event. Also thanks to Ralph's YL Pam for her generous, gracious hospitality as well.
David VA7DRS - event organizer, safety officer and many many other duties. David was instrumental in making this event as big a success as it was. Without volunteers like David stepping up to lead, events like this simply would not happen. Big kudos for David's contributions pre, during and post event.
Mike VE7KPZ - general fixer for so many little things to make the event as good as it was.
Simon VE7RIZ, Howard VA7PWF, Mike VA7XDM, Mike VE7KPZ - photograph contributors.
Everyone else who contributed to the success of this event. There are too many to name here.
Everyone who attended and visited. It was nice to see so many faces, even if some just for a short time.