Page 39 January February 2018 TCA
P. 39
An Amateur Radio Adventure Closer to Home
Al Duncan, VE3RRD
One does not need to travel great
distances or join a DXpedition to find
excitement in our hobby – setting up in a
park or on a beach or at a lighthouse can
also be fun and fulfilling.
For the past several years, members of
the Barrie Amateur Radio Club have taken
part in the International Lighthouse
Lightship Weekend (ILLW; https://illw.net/)
by activating the Victoria Harbour range
light under the club VE3GCB call sign.
A few of us arrive early to put up a dipole
in the trees and set up equipment beside
the small lighthouse which was
decommissioned in the 1990s and is now
a tourist attraction. Although we usually A little Internet research showed that the try to give at least one day warning of
only operate for five or six hours – from Wasaga Beach Provincial Park on the our park activation. October 18 became
9 am or 10 am until mid‑afternoon on the shores of Georgian Bay filled both the “the day” with a forecast of sunny and
Saturday of this 48‑hour event – it has WWFF and BOTA requirements – and it +19C or better and with HF radio
become popular with club members and wasn’t far from Barrie. This is the longest propagation looking quite good.
is now a fun annual August event. fresh water beach in the world with 14
Victoria Harbour is located on Georgian kilometres of sand so there should be I had decided that we would use a full
Bay, east of Midland, Ontario. somewhere within the park that we could 100W transceiver and a good multiband
set up. dipole to cover 20 metres and 40 metres.
Several of us were looking for a new We would use SSB so everyone could
“ham adventure” that we could also do Wasaga Beach is very popular and attracts have fun operating and visitors to our site
later in the year which wouldn’t be too far large crowds from as far away as Toronto could hear what was going on. My VE3RRD
a distance to travel. I happened to read and beyond. The spot we were thinking of call would be used for all contacts.
about the Beaches on the Air (BOTA) using (Beach Area 1) is one of the more
program (http://www.beachesontheair.com) popular locations and thus is quite crowded Our main equipment was my Elecraft KX3
and thought it might be something for us during the summer season. In addition, with KXPA100 100W amplifier (with internal
to take part in. day parking in the beach area is very auto tuner), which was powered by a 50
expensive (around $20 per vehicle) so we Ah battery kept charged with a 100W
Some other good programs are Parks on decided to wait until after the park and solar panel. A 25A battery‑boost regulator
the Air (POTA; https://wwff‑kff.com/) and beaches officially closed on October 9 – from TGE (http://stores.tgelectronics.org/
the World Wide Flora & Fauna (WWFF) in then parking would be free! the‑new‑n8xjk‑boost‑regulator/) was used
Amateur Radio (http://wwff.co/ and to provide 13.8V to the transceiver for full
http://www.qsl.net/va3rj/veff.html). Now the wait was on – watching the power output (MFJ offers a similar unit,
weather reports and HF propagation to the MFJ‑4416). I have found that most
100W transceivers don’t like to operate
on battery voltages below 12V or even a
little higher.
The antenna was a half‑sized G5RV
from Maple Leaf Communications
(https://mapleleafcom.com/) which
works very well. I use an LDG 1:1 balun
(the RBA‑1:1) with this antenna for better
efficiency.
We managed to set up the antenna
between two trees about 35 feet high or
so using a slingshot/fishing reel and then
ran 75 feet of RG‑8X coax down to the
ground and back to the picnic table
operating position.
Note: More information can be found in my
article “Slingshot Launcher or How to Get
that Dipole Antenna High Enough in the
Tree” at http://barrie-wax-group.dyndns.org/
files/Slingshot Launcher.pdf.
37
Al Duncan, VE3RRD
One does not need to travel great
distances or join a DXpedition to find
excitement in our hobby – setting up in a
park or on a beach or at a lighthouse can
also be fun and fulfilling.
For the past several years, members of
the Barrie Amateur Radio Club have taken
part in the International Lighthouse
Lightship Weekend (ILLW; https://illw.net/)
by activating the Victoria Harbour range
light under the club VE3GCB call sign.
A few of us arrive early to put up a dipole
in the trees and set up equipment beside
the small lighthouse which was
decommissioned in the 1990s and is now
a tourist attraction. Although we usually A little Internet research showed that the try to give at least one day warning of
only operate for five or six hours – from Wasaga Beach Provincial Park on the our park activation. October 18 became
9 am or 10 am until mid‑afternoon on the shores of Georgian Bay filled both the “the day” with a forecast of sunny and
Saturday of this 48‑hour event – it has WWFF and BOTA requirements – and it +19C or better and with HF radio
become popular with club members and wasn’t far from Barrie. This is the longest propagation looking quite good.
is now a fun annual August event. fresh water beach in the world with 14
Victoria Harbour is located on Georgian kilometres of sand so there should be I had decided that we would use a full
Bay, east of Midland, Ontario. somewhere within the park that we could 100W transceiver and a good multiband
set up. dipole to cover 20 metres and 40 metres.
Several of us were looking for a new We would use SSB so everyone could
“ham adventure” that we could also do Wasaga Beach is very popular and attracts have fun operating and visitors to our site
later in the year which wouldn’t be too far large crowds from as far away as Toronto could hear what was going on. My VE3RRD
a distance to travel. I happened to read and beyond. The spot we were thinking of call would be used for all contacts.
about the Beaches on the Air (BOTA) using (Beach Area 1) is one of the more
program (http://www.beachesontheair.com) popular locations and thus is quite crowded Our main equipment was my Elecraft KX3
and thought it might be something for us during the summer season. In addition, with KXPA100 100W amplifier (with internal
to take part in. day parking in the beach area is very auto tuner), which was powered by a 50
expensive (around $20 per vehicle) so we Ah battery kept charged with a 100W
Some other good programs are Parks on decided to wait until after the park and solar panel. A 25A battery‑boost regulator
the Air (POTA; https://wwff‑kff.com/) and beaches officially closed on October 9 – from TGE (http://stores.tgelectronics.org/
the World Wide Flora & Fauna (WWFF) in then parking would be free! the‑new‑n8xjk‑boost‑regulator/) was used
Amateur Radio (http://wwff.co/ and to provide 13.8V to the transceiver for full
http://www.qsl.net/va3rj/veff.html). Now the wait was on – watching the power output (MFJ offers a similar unit,
weather reports and HF propagation to the MFJ‑4416). I have found that most
100W transceivers don’t like to operate
on battery voltages below 12V or even a
little higher.
The antenna was a half‑sized G5RV
from Maple Leaf Communications
(https://mapleleafcom.com/) which
works very well. I use an LDG 1:1 balun
(the RBA‑1:1) with this antenna for better
efficiency.
We managed to set up the antenna
between two trees about 35 feet high or
so using a slingshot/fishing reel and then
ran 75 feet of RG‑8X coax down to the
ground and back to the picnic table
operating position.
Note: More information can be found in my
article “Slingshot Launcher or How to Get
that Dipole Antenna High Enough in the
Tree” at http://barrie-wax-group.dyndns.org/
files/Slingshot Launcher.pdf.
37
