XPost: rec.radio.amateur.moderated, rec.radio.amateur.equipment

My Amateur Radio Life

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Was it only 16 years ago?

Posted: 17 Dec 2021 09:10 AM PST https://va3qv.wordpress.com/2021/12/17/was-it-only-16-years-ago/



Some days it seems just like yesterday and other days. well you know











RAC Winter Contest

Call: CF3RCS
Operator(s): VA3QV, VA3UMP, VE3SBC, VA3CKD, VA3SIE, VA3RKM, VE3WEH, VE3VIG, VA3TR
Station: VA3UMP

Class: M/S LP
QTH: Bate Island, Ottawa
Operating Time (hrs): 19

Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs CW Mults Ph Mults ----------------------------------------
160: 17 9 3 2
80: 11 37 3 6
40: 15 26 3 6
20: 10 46 1 5
15: 0 4 0 3
10: 0 1 0 1
6: 0 0 0 0
2: 0 0 0 0
----------------------------------------
Total: 53 123 10 23 Total Score = 46,860

Club: Ottawa Valley Mobile Radio Club

Comments:

C F 3 R C S
(Canadians Freezing - 3 - Real Cold Spot)

And we were! We operated 19 hours of the RAC Canada Winter Contest
from Bate Island in the Ottawa River. We set up tarps to break the
wind and we used a propane heater to ward off the cold. We ran two
radios, an FT-897 and an FT-857. The FT857 was used on VHF and the
FT897 on HF. We earned Bate Island a number in the Canadian Island
Award Program (CISA) - Number ON283.

We operated from battery power and the antennas in use were a 275ft
Carolina Windom up about 30/40ft in the trees for HF, a rotate-able
dipole for 6m and a halo loop for 2m. We operated VHF only for the
C.I.S.A. activation during the first few hours of the expedition.

We all had a great time on the island. Some of the highlights were
making contact with Garry Hammond (VE3XN), who manages the C.I.S.A.
program. Garry issued us a new island number right there on the air
to much jubilation on the island. We also made contact with two of
the USA special event stations celebrating the 100th anniversary of
the first broadcast of voice and music over radio by Fessenden. We
were using the CF prefix to mark the same event. We also ran a 40m
phone net from the island, that was great fun and we had great QSOs
in the net. And we had some visitors who enjoyed working some new
contest contacts.

We made contact with other islands as well. We contacted VE2IDX on
CISA QC-027 Blizzard Island and GM3PPG/P on South Uist, IOTA EU-010
in Scotland. For many of us, it was our first try at top band, and
we were amazed at how well top band performed.

73 and Thanks! from the Bate Island DXpedition team.












Back in our younger days a bunch of us (during coffee no beer involved) got
the crazy thought to make a group entry into the RAC Canada Winter
Contest. From that thought it mutated into the idea that we should operate from somewhere portable (yes it was winter time but being hardy Canadian
Hams it was still at the idea stage).




The idea was starting to morph into a plan.. How can we get more interest
and so we though why not operate portable from an island that we could
activate for the Canadian Islands Program. The plan (not sure if it was a
good plan) was now defined as much as we could and so we had the choice of
two islands easily accessable to play from.




Taking parking and structures into account we decided on Bate Island
(middle of the Ottawa River but accessable by the Island Park Bridge and
there was a roofed (no sides) picnic table there.








Long story short. about 2 bbq tanks to run the propane heater 2 deep cycle batteries for the radio(s) and one very large tarp to cover most of the
sides of the picnic table area and we did it.








We were POTA before POTA was cool but we were more than cool. we were
freezing.








My station at its best




The 2021 version of the RAC Winter Contest starts at 0000 UTC December 18th
and finishes 24 hours later.




Listen for the Popgun (VA3QV)giving out the rare 5/9 ON multi on SSB and CW




For more info go WWW.RAC.CA




73bob

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