[TAC] [Fwd: [zone2] Quickie Report on VA2VFT Zone 2]

[Hank Kohl K8DD]

This is the report from three of the hams that Stan and I have gone
to Zone 2 with a couple of years ago.  They were up about 50 N 77 W
and we will be about 970 miles east at 47 N 56 W.  I would expect that
the conditions will be similar the weekend we are there to what they
were this past weekend and based on the propagation column in the Nov
CQ magazine.

73    Hank

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	[zone2] Quickie Report on VA2VFT Zone 2
Date: 	Tue, 01 Nov 2005 21:59:05 -0000
From: 	radiotoronto <radiotoronto at yahoo.com>
Reply-To: 	zone2 at yahoogroups.com
To: 	zone2 at yahoogroups.com



Hi gang,

Just got back a little while ago and cleaning up my stuff.   Paul and
I have to go back to Rick's place tonight to clean up the RV before
returning it tomorrow.

Anyway, lots of "Mr. Murphy's" this year but we had fun.

Rick had picked up a used Honda 5 KW generator that had a carburator
problem...couldn't get it fixed in time so ended up picking up a used
Coleman 5 KW generator...it had a bit of a problem with the governor
but then when we got it up there we discovered it was leaking oil
something terrible.

We took it into the repair shop in Matagami...arranged it through
Gilbert Cote.   They couldn't fix it in time so we rented a Makita
2400 W generator from the Rona Hardware in Matagami.   The Makita
worked like a charm...quiet...light on fuel consumption and because
the amp was solid state we were able to run it as well.

Then we had some big problems with the Battlecreek Special that Rick
built.   Its in the ARRL antenna handbook and has been used on a
number of the big dxpeditions...basically a 160/80/40 trapped vertical
about 50 ft. high.

We were having alot of trouble getting it to tune properly.   We had
that sucker up and down at least four times trying to get it to
work...finally got it more or less working on 40 and 80m but not on
160m...managed only a couple of Q's on 160m with a couple of the
really big gun stations.

On the higher bands we were using half-square antennas which worked
really well into Europe...had some good runs on both 15m and 20m.  Not
much in the way of JA.   In fact we were running EU on 20m near the
bottom of the band from Sunday morning till well into Sunday
afternoon.   Had a problem with a couple of fibreglass masts snapping
on the 20m EU half-square on Saturday morning so had to do an
"emergency fix"....but did a good EU run on 15m.

Had some pretty good USA runs on 40m and 80m...managed to work a VK on
80m Sunday morning.

Needless to say with running back and forth to Matagami with the
RV...and eating up gas and time...we never did get up to Camp 257.

Had a visit Sunday morning from the game warden...wanted to know if we
were cariboo hunters...also a couple of visits from the Cree trapper
who lives up the road.

Anyway...it was really quiet with just us being there minus the whole
gang.   Never did find the two tower sections in the bush.

There were several other Zone 2 stations...Yuri VE3DZ/VE2IM, the
KB3???/VE2 and a group of guys from Montreal running as VA3ZM.  We
worked Yuri and the KB3 but not VA3ZM...though heard them calling some
folks.

Gasoline prices weren't all that bad in Matagami...around 94-96 cents
a litre.   Actually the worst prices we saw were in New
Liskeard...around a buck or so a litre.  Prices were actually lower in
northern Quebec than in northern Ontario.

Anyway...don't have the file in front of me...but ended up with 1300+
q's and a total somewhere shy of 900,000 points.

10m by the way was pretty well dead except for very late in the
afternoon.  Not much JA either...80m was really crowded with signals
up and down the band on Friday night/Saturday morning.

Some mentions of bandswitches...they were a little on the slow side
with the Battlecreek Special not quite working properly and it taking
a little while to re-tune up.

If anyone is in Toronto in February, Gilbert Cote will be at the
"Outdoor Show"...might be a good idea for folks who can to drop by and
see him.   Gilbert has been really great to us.   Made "nice" with the
folks who run the Rona Hardware store in Matagami too.   The
"emergency" generator rental was quite reasonable at $35 a day.

With the mine having closed in Matagami, the town is really quite
depressed...population is down to about 1,000 now...lots of vacant
store fronts.   The folks in town were really friendly towards us and
very helpful.

Paul has some photos...and probably a bit of video too.

This was really just thrown together relatively last minute...but we
really wanted to keep the Zone 2 fires burning.

Anyway...gotta run

73 de Bob VE3SRE







SPONSORED LINKS
Zone 2 
<http://groups.yahoo.com/gads?t=ms&k=Zone+2&w1=Zone+2&c=1&s=12&.sig=qGmmy0fT3vyJogcCtdgEyA> 



------------------------------------------------------------------------
YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS

    *  Visit your group "zone2 <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/zone2>" on
      the web.
       
    *  To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
       zone2-unsubscribe at yahoogroups.com
      <mailto:zone2-unsubscribe at yahoogroups.com?subject=Unsubscribe>
       
    *  Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of
      Service <http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/>.


------------------------------------------------------------------------