EQSL or mail QSL info: I will exchange/answer any QSL card sent to me.

Send direct to my mailing address & not through QSL Bureau pse.

A return sas envelope is appreciated.! Also as of Jan 1 2012,

I use QRZ logbook to log all international QSO's and first time on

all other bands so pse EQSL if you like.

Welcome, we are located in Colborne, Ontario (FN14bb), Canada, about 60+

miles due north of Rochester, N.Y. on the north shore of Lake Ontario, about

150Km East of Toronto. We have been a licenced Amateur Radio operator since

1992. and have 12WPM (Morse code) & Advanced Qualifications. Recently , and

for the past few years, we have mainly been operating APRS, VHF FM & Weak

Signal 50/144/432 SSB. Join us on the 144.205Mhz net 8AM Eastern, hosted

usuallyby KA1ZE/3 who has an excellent 144 Mhz SSB remote station in the

Condersport,PA area (FN01). Its a lot of fun and I encourage all HAMs with

144Mhz SSB capabilityin IARU Zone 2 to attend. Also you can log into the ON4KST chat

page to see what is goingon in the weak signal dept. Just google ON4KST Chat,

and join the 144/432Mhz IARU Zone 2 Chat Page. See you there.

Just moved my station as of March 8 2013, and just completed installing the station

antennas atthe new location. Was a lot of work, and went through a couple of failures

on the Tilt over trailer,but we have finally overcome the problems and are back on the

air on all HF Bands (except 60 Meters) and all VHF / UHF bands we had at the other QTH .

Repeater Antenna Tower - 90 Feet - VE3RTY - 147.165 Mhz 162.2 Hz tone & 443.375 Mhz no tone

Below: Stacked Horizontal Array : Top is a Jetstream Tri Band 6m/2m/70cm Vertical, then below

is horizontal 1296 Mhz 16 Element Beam, 432 Mhz 19 Element Beam & 144 Mhz 17 Element

Beam. Ham IV Rotor to turn it. Also use this tower for several VHF receive only antennas , HF

Vertical and HF Carolina Windom.

Below: Tower located at old drive shed, shed now removed. Will use for vertical beams in the future.

Below, tower trailer. Winch Cable snapped on it when loading the antennas on it at the new QTH.

Luckily, we had the two spare tower sections needed and replaced them the next day. Also had to get

replacment elements for the KT34A. Managed to locate a KT34XA close by, may put it up in

the future, but its a monster! For now, I have enough spare parts for the KT34A to last my lifetime!

Picture below - damage to the tower when the winch cable snapped, also lost one side of the tips on the KT34A Beam.

And the fix: change out the two bent sections, replace the broken HF Beam tips (decided to overhaul the entire beam),

took every connection apart,clean and apply aluminum anti corrosion paste (No-Lox) on all connection

points, and put it all back together, Then checked the measurements etc. Below you can see I oversized the

winch cable two sizes up from original, backed it up with a chainfall to a tree above the winched section as

well as balancing ropes, and hoisted the array back up.

Halfway up !

And Finally! Its up. KT34A 4 Element 10/15/20 Meter Beam, A505S 5 Element 6 Meter Beam & A99 10-20 Meter

Vertical with GPRK Kit. You can see the tree damage we suffered in the Spring 2013 ice storm (in the background)

 

Operating Equipment: Base

Upstairs addition to shack: Decided this year that a way to increase use of HAM radio is to move some of the

gear upstairs in my Office / Rec room / Master Bedroom. I occasionally work from home when estimating jobs,

so its nice to have something to listen to up here (but of course my xyl does not agree at night) Running Ham

radio Deluxe thru laptop and on the HD projector is neatl. Currently the screen is at 90 inches in the picture.

Running Signal Link SLUSB for digital modes upstairs with HAM 4 rotor control on HF Beam. connected from

the shack.

 

above ^ the on4kst chat room on the big screen

 

ICOM IC 746 / w HAM radio deluxe computer interface

Kenwood TS-140S HF 160-10M all Mode

Kenwood TS-940 (restoration Project).

Yeasu FT100D HF, VHF & UHF Base/Mobile

Kenwood TS790A, with the UT-10 1200 Mhz module installed <-as far as im concerned, the greatest VHF,

UHF all mode radio ever made. My favourite radio of the bunch

Icom 2320H Dual Band VHF / UHF

Kenwood TM-251 VHF TX/RX , UHF Receive

FT-8900 Quad Bander 10,6,2&70cm FM <- I love these radios, I have one in the house, one in the Pick up

and they work great !

ID-800H Dstar Dual Band 50W Mobile/Base

Above: Rolo: My cat who likes to keep warm on top of the TS 790A and occasionally bump the VFO. He is declawed on his front paws and does not scratch the unit fortunately.

Midland 70-3400 Syn-Tech 2 VHF Commercial Radio on 144.390 APRS ( Using Uiview 32 )

Midland 70-1340 Syn-Tech XTR VHF Commercial Radios on 2 Meters (2)

Midland Syn-Tech 1 mobile 50 watt UHF 440Mhz radio (3)

Uniden Bearcat BC785D Digital Scanner

Uniden Bearcat BCD396T Digital Handheld with BC96 control head

Uniden Bearcat BCD996T Digital Mobile / Base

Uniden BCT8 Analog Trunking

Operating Antennas: Base

Cushcraft A505S 50Mhz 5 Element Beam Horizontal

Cushcraft 17B2 144 Mhz 17 Element Beam Horizontal

Cushcraft 719 432 Mhz 19 Element Beam Horizontal

Comet 1296 Mhz 16 Element Beam Horizontal

KLM Mirage KT34A Tri-Band 4 Element HF Beam

Alpha-Delta DX-LB 10-160 Wire antenna (Up at the cottage), north of Napanee area (FN14lk)

Carolina Windom 160-6 meter wire antenna (Oriented NW-SE) ,

Carolina Windom 80-6 meter wire antenna (Oriented NE-SW)

Solarcon A99 10-20 meter Vertical with ground plane kit from Maco GPRK Works best on 10 and 12 meters

Cushcraft A148T20144-148Mhz "Twist" VHF 10 element vertical / 10 element horizontal beam

Homemade 10 Element VHF Beam

Cushcraft A44911S11 element UHF Beam (vertical) (UHF commercial radio on 440Mhz)

Several X200 Diamond antennas ( for commercial radios)

Jetstream JTB4 tri-band 6m/2m/70cm verticals (2) (FT8900)

Diamond D130J Discone wide band receive, resonant on 6m,2m,70cm (scanners)

Operating Equipment: Mobile

picture below: Just before I put the FT857 in the truck.

 

Yeasu FT-857D - HF / VHF / UHF all mode with YT100 tuner

TMD700A Dual Band APRS Tranceiver

FT-8900 Quad Bander 10m / 6m / 2m / 70cm FM

ID-800H Dual Band DStar

Uniden HR2510 10 Meter All Mode Transceiver

Uniden Bearcat BC796D Digital Scanning Receiver / Trunking Receiver

Uniden Bearcat BCD396T with BC96 control head (in wife's SUV)

Mobile Antennas:

HF - Using Hamsticks currently (80-10 m), but will be adding a screwdriver antenna at some point likely ATAS 120

VHF/UHF - Have Jetstream and Comet triband antennas on (6m, 2m & 70cm) for TMD700A & FT8900R respectively.

Both work well but the Jetstream antenna works the best on the TMD700A (though the radio does not have 6m) on

the MFJ 336 triple mag mount for S0 239 on the roof.

VHF/UHF SSB - M2 Halo for VHF/UHF Stacked array (shown in picture)

DSTAR - Jetstream Dual Band 2m/440 High Gain on Mag mount

Operating Equipment: Portable

Yeasu VX7R Quad Band handheld

Yeasu VX8GR Tri Band APRS GPS portable - excellent portable.use this primarily as a "to go" unit. Can carry it

around or use it in the work van since it has a built in TNC and GPS all in the compact little radio, though the GPS takes a long time to get a signal

lock, this unit works well for APRS when GPS is locked on.

Baofeng UV-3R Dual Band Handheld - I know, I know, its chinease, at $51.00 i could not resist trying it.surprisingly

compact, nice & inexpensive, and if it breaks, throw it in the garbage and buy a new one!

Several Commercial Midland 70-154 handhelds used as remote digipeaters

Alinco DJ S41 440Mhz mono bander (perfect for FM crossbanding in the house or truck @ 300mW)

In Canada we have three classes of licences; Basic, Morse Code and Advanced. A Basic licenced operator

has to receive 80% on his written exam or will not be able to transmit legally on HF (30Mhz & Below). If the

operator received 80% or more, they receive the "Basic with Honours" endorsement, and the operator can

operate legally on HF and transmit up to 560W PEP Maximum power. If the basic only operator wishes to

transmit legal HF operation,

he can either take the basic test again and must receive 80% or more, or obtain the morse code endorsement

instead. Advanced operators in Canada are allowed to run the legal limit of 2250W PEP and of course can operate

all bands, can own and operate repeater stations, be delegated examiners and work on transmitters etc.

As explained, there is no longer a morse code requirement in Canada for HF privileges for those amateurs

who have "basic with honours", but operators may still take the test to receive the endorsement.

Above picture was taken on a trip to Nova Scotia in the summer 2011, (My aunt on the left).

Taken at the Tidnish Bridge park. This was the site of a proposed over land railway to tow boats

from the Bay of Fundy in the south over to Tidnish on the south shores in the Northumberland

Strait south of PEI. The project died when they ran out of money in the late 1800's.

 

The xyl & I

 

Every year, my wife's family opens up an old church in New Dublin Ontario (north of Brockville) to have a

United Church service there. I take care of some logistics - power, ventilation and handing out some of the programs

 

73 de VA3VEC