VA3SIE in Quebec for the Nov PBMME

 

Well that was an adventure!

 

XYL-de-Ditti and I hiked from the Domain MacKenzie King to the Eardley Escarpment in Quebec. 

 

 

 

The trail was in great shape!  We got a nice dump of snow on Thursday and the snow was still nice and fresh.  The temperature was around 28F with a light wind.  The Laurialt lookout is beautiful 2.5 mile loop hike in the Gatineau Park, a leisurely hike.

 

 

We saw many cross-country skiers in the park as we hiked, it was very picturesque.

 

 

 

 On the way to the lookout, we came across a deer on  the trail - but the deer didn't seem to mind us bears :)

 

 

 I had my eye open for a suitable spot to hang my 110ft dipole along the side the trail, I didn't want to go off-trail, the Eardley Escarpment is a fragile ecology!  Eventually we came to a spot which seemed to have a little less scraggly trees so I decided to stop and throw up the dipole (I would later discover that only 400yds up the trail was a nice clear spot with a bench and two tall trees either side of it - Grr!)

 

 

Throwing up the antenna was where the adventure began!  I was using two fishing weights and some bright red string which I haven't used before.  This string really gripped the trees, and fishing weights just didn't have enough weight to overcome the friction.  I got the first string over a 50ft tree branch but it took about 20 minutes of jerking and flapping the rope to encourage the weights to come back down to me!

 

The second tree was more difficult!  I attached the weights to a new string and threw the weights up but I got the angle wrong and they went over the wrong tree, but when I pulled the string back it snapped leaving the weights up in the tree :(

 

I had a spare set of weights along but they were lighter and it took much longer to get the second set of weights over a 40ft branch.  I had to take two attempts at it and ended up trying to snag the weights with a fishing pole and pull them down... anyway 45 minutes later I had both ropes attached to the ends of the dipole and I started pulling it up, but then one of the knots came out and I lost one side of the antenna :(

 

Dusk was approaching so I decided to haul one side of the dipole up as a vertical and leave the other one running horizontally around 4-6ft off the ground.

 

 

 

I settled my camping chair into the snow and fired up the KX1 as Mrs. Ditti left to continue hiking the rest of the loop.  I was able to get a 1:1 SWR on 30m and 1.7:1 on 80m not bad at all!  80m was full of contesting stations, I did try sending 'CQ PB' for about 15 minutes with no takers, and I couldn't hear any bears, so I headed on up to 30m.

 

I didn't have too much time to spend on the air, and there were loads of stations on 30m but they were mid-QSO and I didn't have time to wait for the end of the QSOs to find out if they were polar bears, so I went searching for a bear, and there was Steve N0TU/P ... Great!

 

Steve was nice and strong in Quebec.  I really enjoyed the QSO with Steve, I have enjoyed reading Steve's articles on the web and reading about his homebrewed minimalist camping gear.  A girl out walking her dog stopped by during my QSO with Steve and asked me what I was up to.  I told her about the polar bears and the fact that I was talking to a fella who had climbed a mountain in Colorado with a pair of goats called Peanut and Rooster.  She enjoyed that.

 

 

I didn't stay too long on the trail today, Mrs. Ditti was waiting for me back at the car, I spent 15 more minutes calling CQ PB on 30m but no takers so I packed up and hiked back in the dark.  The clouds were light and the moonlight was real strong even through the clouds.  I didn't even really need the red light I was using.

 

This was a really fun polar bear moonlight madness, but I'm about ready to give up on dipole antennas, at least in these densely treed regions.  I spent more time playing with string than on the air.   I think I'll be taking a vertical next time :)

 

72 / 73 / dit-didi-dit dit de Ditti!

- VA3SIE.

 

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