Special Event Station July 6th - Jul 8th, 2007

Well, judging from the number of contacts made during this week-end, the success of the event left something to be desired.  But then on the other-hand based on the response of club members and visitors to the exhibit this event, it was a re-sounding success.

I'm referring to the Special Event Station operated by the Rideau Lakes Amateur Radio Club, as part of Smiths Falls' celebration of the 175th Anniversary of the construction of the Rideau Canal. The event started at noon July 6th, 2007 and ran through until late Sunday July 8th.

Planning for this event started late and in fact was too late for us to apply for a special event call-sign.  However, given the 60 day deadline and the $60 fee, it was probably just as well that we didn't apply for one, but used the RLARC station call of VE3SFR instead.

It was decided to operate an HF station on 20m and 40m and a Packet/APRS/Echolink demo on 2m.  Jim VE3DJX kindly donated the use of the Kenwood TS 440 and Power supply, while Pierre VE3FLO donated the use of the 2M packet and APRS gear with a Laptop and Monitor.

The first day was spent erecting the antennas using a club multi-band dipole and a 20 dipole of Pierre VE3FLO consisting of 2 -20m Hamsticks back to back.

Pierre VE3FLO's twin Hamsticks back to back, lost in the trees. If you look really closely you can see the multiband dipole as well. We also put up a 2M ¼ wave ground-plane up about 20ft, but that proved to be the least problematic of the facilities we established. So we fired up Jim's HF rig and started to put out calls.

“CQ, CQ, CQ” says Art VE3CGD repeatedly into the microphone. And nothing was heard.  Maybe we should check the equipment?

So Art - VE3CGD and Richard - VE3CDO go about checking the equipment.

So after several hours of trying to find the problem..... Tony VE3XZT and John VA3JHA take a turn at the controls with Marshall VE3TXT and the Town Crier in the background.

The Town Crier had dropped by the tent and offered to shout out the messages for us. He figured he was reaching further than we were.

Even Bob VE2WSY was starting to wonder when we are going to make a contact.

At one point we even threatened Art with the firing squad.

Well at least the 2m APRS demo was working. Finally we discover that the 2m equipment was getting into the HF rig's power supply and shutting it down.

So Marshall hustles over to his house (maybe 100m away)
and brings his whole HF station back and we get back on the air.

But after all that we discover that our antenna facilities are less than optimum.

 

We did contact a few stations on HF such as Mike VE3WYK in Perth. PERTH!!! wait a minute that's only a few kilometers away!!

Then there was Mike W0EWD in Des Moines, Iowa, (That's better). But that's not very good for 20m and we are getting no answers to our CQs. Even when we try to answer calls, we have little success.

Finally, Mike VE3UIL pulls out his magic HT and hooks Ken – GW4GJA in Cardiff, Wales. (But wait a minute he did that through Echolink, that doesn't count. Even though he did it through the Echolink NODE ZL1VK in Auckland, New Zealand doesn't that count for something???? Oh! OK, I guess not).

So then finally Marshall – VE3TXT snags the big one, John HK3JJH in Bogota, Colombia. But what the heck it's his rig.  We also kept making contact with N4PN in Macon Georgia through-out the week-end. At least so he told us every time we contacted him. “You're already in my log!!!”

Richard VE3CDO and Young-Ham-To-Be Michael Mayne take a turn at the Mic.

Notwithstanding the frustration with our set-up operating at less than satisfactory performance, everyone felt that a good time was had by all.

Several people dropped by the station to ask questions. Some were non-hams just interested in what we were doing.

Some visitors were currently active hams that just happened to drop by.

Some visitors were “old” hams that had let their licenses expire but seeing our station and listening to us began to take interest in Ham radio again. Some visitors were those that had often thought about getting their license but never got around to it.  Hopefully we provided that spark to motivate them.

Then there were those for which it was just plain “too late”. Colonel By and his wife dropped by just amazed by our ability to instantly communicate with hams around the world, but it took them days to make the few miles up the Canal.

Several club members helped set-up or donated equipment. Several members although tied up with other commitments managed to drop by to say hello, some even did it by Radio. And finally others although unable to attend, offered comments and suggestions during the planning stage.

Let's hope we can do it again next year.

Mike Ligeza – VE3UIL
Secretary
Rideau Lakes Amateur Radio Club

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