Alan VE7UBA, Brian VE7JKZ and Andy VE7PT spent a few hours chasing a few contacts in Queen’s Park just north of Oak Bay Marina. It was a beautiful day but propagation was very disappointing. We found that Alan’s home-made antenna with self-measuring radials (made out of tape measures) vastly outperformed Andy’s commercial Chameleon Antenna.
Recently the JDF Seniors EOC did some portable ops testing out their antennas and radios.
Participating were Dave VE7OU – Gary VA7NV – Alan VE7PE – Richard VE7NKR – Ted VE7TCA &
Pierre VE7AL.
As planned, QRP enthusiasts gathered at the gazebo at Finlayson Point, Dallas Road park in Victoria on June 23.
Attending were Scott VA7SNJ, Byron VA7BYR and wife Lise and, adding international flavour, Andy WA3LTJ, visiting from the eastern US.
The BBQ was hot for sausages🌭 and we had of course POTAto salad 🤗. The best desert award went to Lise for her delicious Cowboy cookies 🍪. The prize was a tiny handheld LED RF indicator (built by VA7SNJ from design by Don ND6T). Lise, not being a ham, kindly donated it to spouse Byron. (Note: a possible alternative use could be as a probe to test whether baked goods are done…😎).
After the BBQ, the group gathered radio gear and hiked down to the cobble beach. Scott set up his vertical monopole whip system to test an experimental top hat. He made SSB and CW contacts to CA on 17 m, and CW contact on 20 m. Most effort was repeated CQs for gathering comparative signal strength data from the Reverse Beacon Network. Data being analyzed.
Several hundred metres away, Byron attempted to set up his new homebrew 20 m EFHW but ran into technical problems. He concluded he needs to bring his antenna to the Veterans of Non-working Antennas (VNA) Hospital at his QTH in Sooke.
A bright, hot, calm day for good grub and /p radio. Next year we will try another beach with sand, easier access, and more space.
Best 72, Scott VA7SNJ
