Welcome to NORAC The North Okanagan Radio Amateur Club

Thompson-Nicola region of beautiful British Columbia, Canada - October 2023

Mike VE7KPZ and YL Jane VE7WWJ decided it was time for a little vacation. We would take our big Unimog truck named Ellie (with camper named the Lunchbox by Garry VE7EIY Garbutt) and visit some remote parks. Of course these parks would be activated for the Parks On The Air amateur radio programme, and if we didn't get first activation we would aim to get highest QSO count for the park.

Brake check view before heading down into Kamloops

We left Vernon late Wednesday afternoon with a couple of parks in mind for the evening stopover. Steelhead Provincial Park CA-4144 received us with open arms. This was the only park of our 8-park rove that needed payment to stay (but they also had nice hot showers included).

Steelhead Provincial Park in the morning light

We arrived at Steelhead in the dark, so early the next morning the antenna was erected and on the air we went. This park had previously been activated so top park QSOs was the goal. With 31 QSOs in the log we tore down and headed on to our next park and the pinnacle destination of the trip.

A bit of mud on the way in to Cornwall Hills Provincial Park

Cornwall Hills Provincial Park CA-3372 hosts an old fire lookout tower and makes it a big destination for 4WD folks. The road up was pretty fun (especially the mud sections). We setup a little bit downhill from the summit (to ensure we did not interfere with any of the radio infrastructure on the summit) and got to work on the air. A quick 37 QSOs were made including phone contacts from Laurent F5PYI in France, Rodolfo I4RHP in Italy and Manuel EA1GIB in Spain. The antenna was working great from the high elevation (2036 meters/6600 feet ASL) and with just 40 watts PEP power we were getting great reports from Europe.

Cornwall Hills fire lookout and mountaintop infrastructure

After the activation and lunch we spent a little time looking around the old fire lookout and enjoying the views.

The old Cornwall Hills fire lookout

Jane signs the guest book

Look for our entry next time you visit this spot

Great views from Cornwall Hills

Happy to have been the first activation for Cornwall Hills, we jumped in the truck and headed down and to another nearby park for another first activation: Bedard Aspen Provincial Park CA-1209. We arrived at dark (yeah, this is October in the Northern hemisphere and it gets dark early) and jumped on the radio for a good 82 QSO on both 20m and 40m.

Waking up to an ice-covered truck at Bedard Aspen Provincial Park

With frost/ice on the truck we decided to wait for the sun to rise (and melt it all off) before continuing on our POTA rove. We took a short walk into the lake and watched the sunrise come up over the water.

Sunrise at Bedard Aspen lake

We attempted to go direct to our next park but a farmer infomed us that the roads were private. We wonder about this. Could farmers be saying roads are private just to keep riff raff like us from using them? Anyways, we opted to oblige and take the longer way around. This was a boon, however, as we could stop at a park on the way that we had not really planned on operating from: Oregon Jack Provincial Park CA-3930.

The radio setup at the glorious Oregon Jack Provincial Park

We made a quick 24 QSOs at Oregon Jack and claimed another first activation. And then back on the road to our next park: Blue Earth Lake Provincial Park CA-3234.

The radio setup at the hidden treasure known as Blue Earth Lake Provincial Park

Twenty quick QSOs were made at Blue Earth and then we received a message via our ZOLEO satellite communicator that some friends of ours wanted to join our trip. A decision was made not to stay overnight at Blue Earth but to instead travel further to the next park on our list, a little closer to home, so we could meet our friends there the next day.

Our campsite at Tunkwa Provincial Park

We arrived at Tunkwa Provincial Park CA-4227 late in the afternoon and found our friends would be meeting us the following day. No worries though, as that meant lots of time to play radio. Tunkwa had already been activated a number of times so the goal was shifted to achieve the highest QSOs for the park. Over the next day 153 QSOs were put in the log. That doesn't sound like much, but it was now the weekend and the QSO parties and contests were taking up the bands. 40m and 10m bands were put to work with great results (versus the usual 20m workhorse band). 10m was especially fruitful.

A highlight at Tunkwa was working Mark VK1MK in Australia on 10m SSB. This was our first QSO with an Australian station. Thanks Mark for hunting us!

Tunkwa was a bit cloudy and windy so a decision was made with our friends to start making our way to a park that all of us had always wanted to visit. On the way to that park we stopped in at Lac Le Jeune Provincial Park CA-3720 for a quick activation.

The convoy setup for lunch (and some radio) from Lac Le Jeune Provincial Park

Right before tearing down the antenna, we were texted by radio club mate Howard VA7PWF that another club mate Colin VA7EEH was doing a SOTA activation from VE7/ON-005, Morton Peak 45-50. We were able make a QSO with Colin on 20m ground wave - that was very exciting.

Antenna setup at Lac Le Jeune Provincial Park

We then continued on to our main destination Roche Lake Provincial Park CA-4030. Arriving at 3 PM was a little close to the 5 PM local time UTC day cutover, so once the antenna was up, it was time for some POTA hunting. At exactly 5:01 PM local time (UTC 00:01) we started calling and within an hour had 78 QSOs in the log (and highest park QSOs). It was enjoyable to get such a pile-up on a Sunday evening. We expect the QSO parties were likely done so the band allowed for our 40 watts PEP signal to get to a lot more hunter ears.

Camp setup at Roche Lake Provincial Park

Our friends went for a little paddle and really enjoyed the lake. We will be coming back to this park soon.

Dusk kayak paddle on Roche Lake

It was finally Monday and time to head home. We packed up camp and proceeded home via as many backroads as we could find.

Our friends' Westy leading the way home

Looking back on the trip we did 8 parks in 5 days. We could have been a bit more aggressive (as some parks were simply passed by) to activate more parks, but this was a nice blend of a classic vacation with amateur radio.

Now, getting technical for a minute, we do have to comment that the antenna setup used for this rove was epic. These were the first operations with our new Spiderbeam 12m HD mast. From this mast, strapped with velcro to the side of the camper, we hung a HyEndFed Portable Mini EFHW 3-band antenna. This antenna is made with 11.8m of wire (with a coil for the -5dB 40m section) and we normally run another 2m of coax between the antenna match and a line isolator, and then the coax back to the camper. The aim for our setups was to keep the total 13.8m of radiator and first segment of coax above ground... so while not exactly a vertical, the antenna+2m coax was hung almost vertically, pulled out to the side from the camper and away from the truck to get super-low SWR on all bands. The result was impressive working a handful of European stations and Australia with just 40 watts PEP SSB phone.

Additionally, some settings on the Icom IC-705 were adjusted: mic gain down to 40% (for Mike's booming voice), the compression set to level 5 (just the right amount of compression) and the transmit bandwidth was set to narrow (1.8k) to optimize for DX. That with bass -2 and treble +1 AF EQ settings made for some optimized SSB signal... and unsolicited reports reflected that. Band conditions were reported to also be very good, so everything together made for a wonderful experience for our first major POTA rove.

Since Mike operated the entire trip with his OM voice, big thanks again to KN6STX for his active cooling adapter plate for the PA500 amplifier. Without those fans attached we would not be able to get the duty cycle we push the amp to for these activations (80/20 tx/rx when starting up and then 50/50 as the QSOs flow).

Finally, biggest thanks to Jane for her support of the radio activities and her great pics.

It was fun,
73,
Mike VE7KPZ and Jane VE7WWJ

Ps: right-click on any image and open in a new tab to see a slightly higher resolution version.
Pps: if you have any questions about this trip, feel free to email me via my QRZ.com email address.

September 30, 2023 - Central Okanagan, BC

At the Western edge of the 1400m ASL Aberdeen plateau, overlooking Lake Country and the Kelowna International airport, sits Wrinkly Face Provincial Park.

Howard VA7PWF had been recently thinking of activating this not-yet-activated park for the Parks On The Air programme. This Saturday he invited Mike VE7KPZ and Michal VE7MHX to join him and finally get some QSOs done from this remote park.

The plan was to meet up where the High Rim Trail (HRT) crosses Beaver Lake road and hike just under 2 km into the park. However, with gear aplenty and an intimate knowledge of the area, Michal figured it would be possible to drive a lot closer to the park. And he was correct - the group was able to make their way over old logging roads to within 100m of the park boundary and another intersection with the HRT.

It took literally two-minutes of hiking along the HRT to get to the park.

The group discovered a lovely meadow to operate from. Care was taken, however, to stay close to the trail in order to tread very lightly on the park's flora (if at all).

Howard was setup first, with his SOTAbeams Travel Mast supported by two large rocks and his 20m monoband VA7SZ EFHW run vertically.

Howard's Yaesu FT-891 radio was hooked up but transmit SWR was too high. An inspection revealed a little bit of corrosion on the EFHW match's BNC but that was quickly cleaned up to start transmissions at an effective 100 watts PEP RF output.

Meanwhile Michal setup his fishing pole mast and 20m monoband VA7SZ EFHW as a sloper and hooked up to his Xeigu X108G radio. As soon as Howard had made his activation (with 13 QSOs), Michal took over and started his calling.

While the 20m band was S0-quiet (with the preamp on), the band also wasn't as performant as usual, so Michal had a bit of hard time running at just 20 watts PEP RF output. A handful of QSOs were made at this power level, but as it was just 6 degrees celcius (42 farenheit) with traces of snow in the nearby bushes, the group was getting cold so time was of the essence. Michal reluctantly switched over to Howard's setup and completed his activation in good time. Today was the day for QRO operation.

Mike chose not to setup his own gear at all and instead operated as "second operator" with both Howard and Michal. There's something nicely social about passing a mic back and forth, seeing if each operator heard the same thing, sharing calling responsibilities, etc.

Once everyone had their required QSOs the group quickly tore down the stations and ran back to Howard's warm truck for the ride home. It was a great day with this POTA park's first activation credit going to Howard.

73,
Howard VA7PWF, Michal VE7MHX and Mike VE7KPZ

Ps: here's the view towards the airport in the valley far below:

Routers Breaking News - September 19, 2023 - Michal VE7MHX reporting

On the weekend of September 8th, 2023, three intrepid Ham radio operators braved poor band conditions, high/low/just right temperatures, smoke, huge grizblackmurder bears, deathskitos, youths and their motor cross bikes, aggressive chipmunks, and lack of fish at the edge of the world Grizzly Lake Recreational site.

Their objective was to set up their radios and antennas, eat beans and hot dogs and chips, and get as many QSOs as possible.

First to show up were Sirs Howard "Christopher Columbus" Sisson (VA7PWF) and Cary "Leif Ericsson" Benson (VA7MXY) along with his friend Beau who established their presence and camp.  Next to show up was Michal "Yuri Gagarin" Hoppe (VE7MHX/VE7TMZ).  Last (but certainly not least) was Colin "Captain James Cook" Parkes (VA7EEH).  Shanta (VE7TIT) also stopped by for a visit with his pedal bike.

The team, while fearing for their wives, setup the following:

Radios

• Yaesu FT-891 + tuner
• recently brought back from the dead Xiegu X108G + tuner
• NESDR smart
• Chinesium 2m/70cm mobile radio

Antennas

• Dave S. antenna workshop unun + 10m of electrical fencing wire EFHW attached to a fishing pole
• homemade 2m/70cm ground plane antenna
• Palomar 71' EFHW 
• Chameleon 17' whip with "magic carpets" (aka two Canadian Tire aluminum windows screens) radials
• Wolf River Coils TIA1000+ vertical with a small “magic carpet” (aka one small Home Depot aluminum window screen) radial

When Colin "Captain James Cook" Parkes showed up on Sunday, the ante went up, as he set up his what might as well have been a 1000m tall "Princess Auto Surplus" antenna mast, HMS Parkes, with 3 Guy's wires and 2 antennas.  Not having enough time to test the antennas with an actual radio did not deter as the RST reports came back <1 (sometimes even on Ham bands) from the fancy antenna analyzer on the following:

• fan dipole 40-20-15 in inverted V configuration
• PAC-12 portable vertical

Much fun was had, there might have been a few drinks, a lot of laughs, and Eddie Van "Hoppe" might have played his guitar at the propane camp fire (as an actual fire was banned).  SSB interpretive dances were discussed.  Of the 100 Tim Horton's Timbits that were brought, the team had 7, as the rest were stolen by the brazen Chipmunks.  Other campers were met and our wonderful hobby was showcased.

The weekend wrapped up with many phone only QSOs made (as no one could get their laptops working), the Sunday NORAC net joined, a definitive win for Colin "Captain James Cook" Parkes in the my antenna is bigger than yours category, and great memories for all.

Here's to next time!

Cheers,

Michal, Cary, Howard, and Colin

Grizzly Lake

Camp and radios

Brazen Chipmunk with a stolen Timbit (who obviously does not care about getting fat or Diabetes)

Fishing pole EFHW and Chameleon 17' whip with "magic carpets"

And the winner of the my antenna is bigger than yours, HMS Parkes

Thompson-Nicola region of British Columbia, Canada - September 4, 2023

Mike VE7KPZ and Jane VE7WWJ decided to activate a couple of drive-up SOTA peaks that were also inside POTA parks - a little bit of "Salt and Pepper" action from the area southwest of Kamloops BC.

The objectives were Greenstone Mountain (SOTA reference VE7/TN-017, POTA reference CA-3572) and Mount Savona (SOTA reference VE7/TN-019, POTA reference CA-3849).

Greenstone mountain was chosen primarily for its great summit fire lookout and Mount Savona for the opportunity to snag a first activation for POTA.

Greenstone turned out to be epic - a gorgeous location and a great spot to operate from.

Jane gives two thumbs up for operations from the Greenstone summit "shack".

Antenna setup south of the Greenstone fire lookout with fiberglass pole velcroed to existing flag pole mount.

Inside the Greenstone fire lookout. One might even consider spending an extended period of time here...

The radio operating position in the Greenstone fire lookout.

It was so nice on Greenstone we decided to stay the night, camping just below the lookout.

The Unimog parked just below the Greenstone fire lookout.

Mount Savona was not quite as pretty at our time of visit because of an abundance of lower-elevation smoke - there simply was no view to be seen. However, there was something beautiful about the place, the deciduous trees on the way up, the story of a recent fire in the area. We may need to revisit when not in forest fire smoke season.

Some of the infrastructure at the top of Mount Savona.

Mount Savona antenna setup just behind the truck: feed point/match mounted high in dead tree and antenna wire run horizontally via guyed fiberglass pole.

The operating position at Mount Savona. QRM in the area required the use of NB, NR and headphones.

We would recommend Greenstone to all. You can make it nearly to the top with ANY vehicle although if you want to park near the fire lookout, you'll need a 4WD.

Visit Savona only if the skies are clear and you have a 4WD vehicle. The road is fairly steep in sections with a bit of loose gravel. A 2WD car might have a tough time.

Super fun and 73,
Mike VE7KPZ

Ps: right-click on and open each picture in a new window to see a higher-resolution version.