June 11,12,13 2021 - Island Lake, Aberdeen Plateau, Central Okanagan, BC
Kevin VE7XY had the idea to take part in the ARRL June VHF Contest and called Mike VE7KPZ to see if he wanted to come along.
Normally, one would participate in such an event from a mountaintop... but, mountaintops suck for camping. First, the weather is quite variable and second, there's no lake to kayak on (can't play radio all the time, right?). So, a compromise was made with a decision to work the event from Island Lake, high up on the Aberdeen Plateau (~1400 meter ASL). It would not be a mountaintop, but might be decent for VHF SSB and some 6m work.
Mike and Jane VE7WWJ headed up around noon on Friday to grab a site.
Kevin headed up after work and arrived around dinner. Bud VA7ST had heard about the plans and offered to lend his portable 3-element 6m yagi. He hand delivered it on Friday afternoon and offered some sage contesting words of advice. We now had an antenna plan and an idea of what modes to work. Bud left to head home for dinner just as Jake VE7WEA arrived to help out as well.
The next morning the team assembled and mounted the antennas:
- Kevin's 9 element 2m yagi
- Kevin's high-gain 2m vertical
- Kevin's 6m vertical
- Bud's 6m yagi
For the radio, Kevin ran his trusty Yaesu FT-857D powered by Mike's camper's LiFePO4 setup.
The camper's battery capacity was easily sustained with approximately 800 watts of solar. The generator never saw use even with the mixed skies that were experienced.
Soon other radio lovers arrived. Jerome VE7JAR brought his 30' portable tower, a 9 element 2m yagi and a selection of HF antennas a little bit of afternoon fun on Saturday. His army of kiddos (2 of his + 3 Zauggs) made quick work of assembling his station. Nature did draw some attention away from the radio operation and soon some of Jerome's group were lost to explore the marsh and lakeside (kids like frogs).
Operation for the event was okay... but nowhere near as active as a classic HF contest. Kevin did manage to work some of the special mountaintop stations (Wilf VE7OHM on Tuktakamin and another fellow on Mt. Kobau). By the end of the event, Kevin had a fair number of entries in the log so it had been worth it. But, next time, maybe a mountaintop.
Otherwise, it was a good weekend of camping, fire cooking, kayaking, etc. The other campers were interested what was going on and stopped in the check out the activity.
The other reason for visiting this site was to scope it out for an informal Field Day event. There are a handful of campsites close to each other that would make a perfect group site in a big open clearing with some nice trees nearby for wire antenna endpoints.
We will likely return for ARRL Field Day 2021 to operate HF from this location.
It was fun,
Mike VE7KPZ