Wednesday, August 31, 2011

PEI - Saint John

Coming out of PEI and cycling of the ferry in Cariboo led me into the Pictou-region. It was already 7 in the evening and looking for a spot to pitch up the tent was iind of difficult. Someone got me on track to a terrain close to Loans Point where I could sleep in the garden of some house. Asking the route again some km further onwards got me in contact with the family of that lady. They allowed me to stay over there's place in the garden and so I did. Nice area and people. Got some beers in the evening and got ready to go up to Truro where Tom, VE1DC lived.

He invited me to come over and in short, I remained over there for three nights until the storm Irene left the area since its path was not clear and I surely didn't want to get hit by crazy amounts of wind and rain. I did some radio on HF and stuck up with 149 qso's. 12 with Belgium, 3 with Holland, 60 with the rest of the EU and 74 with America on 20 and 40 meter. Nice station, a array of 3 vertical Butternuts. On Monday I said goodbye to Beth and Tom after a good breakfast and ended up near Windsor where I probably would have slept in the city parc .. until Andrew proposed to pitch my tent in his backyard which was more safe taken into account the small crime that went on over there. I did see the high tide come in into the bay of Fundy in Old Barns , really a wave of about 2 foot high that comes inland. Really a wonderfull view.


The next day I ended up near Lawrencetown and saw Simon next to a church. I stopped and asked him if it was ok to pitch my tent up beyond the church. I was allowed to pitch my tent up in his backyard and showered since I was maybe a bit smelly ? Talked into the evening and slept until the sun dried up the moist that got the tent kind of wet.

It's becoming very clear that the summer is almost gone. The temperatures are in the 20's and in the night it's only 12 dgrs. The sun goes down around 2000 and come slowly up by 0620 hrs.


I cycled for Digby during that day and the Annapolis valley is very nice, relaxed cycling and sunny ! I got onboard the ferry to Saint John, New Brunswick by 1600 where I arrived by 1900. It costed me an astonishing 50$ for me and my bicycle ! I Hope to find a free spot to pitch up the tent tonight to compensate.


I have 10 more days to arrive in the greater Boston area where I will hopefully meet up with Dave, KD1NA with whom I spoke on HF and invited me over ! Furthermore to the south Peter N1PQ , also a bicylist got in contact with me on twitter and have been talking about the bike since and how to get it to Logan ! He already got a box ready and proposed me bringing me over to Boston. That is a great peace of mind for the end of the big journey.

I Hope to do some easy 100 km a day and cycle into the US by Campobello island. There are some bicycleroutes that go to Boston.

I also hope to be once again radioactive during the fieldday next weekend in Europe to give my clubstation ON4OSA some points and hopefully speak with Eddy ON6EF ! I think he's eager to speak with me. Good luck guys ! I already heard that there are almost 10 of you so pile it up, spread out and don't fall asleep !


Saturday, August 27, 2011

QRV

I'll be QRV for the coming hours out of Nova Scotia on saturday and sunday on 80, 40, 20, 15 so I'll call on these frequencies :
SUN 08/28
1100 UTC 18145
1300 UTC 21290
1800 UTC 14278
1922 UTC 14292

Friday, August 26, 2011

Last hurdle : Irene ?

After a tsunaniwarning, hurricanewatch, hail, lightning, snow&ice, extreme heat and an earthquake.. the list gets complete this summer !

I hope my tent can handle Irene as she's moving right into my direction on the south part of the westcoast from Nova Scotia, Canada. Most probably she will have weakened by the time she's here to a moderate storm, hopefully that is.

At least I certainly will enjoy the fierce headwind that Irene is producing. The ARES emergency nets are up and running too. I may improvise some short 70 meter antenna.

Shall I battle her or just go indoors for a day or two, I don't know..

Update :
I made up my mind and I stay put here in Truro where Tom VE1DC has offered to stay over his place. Cycling against the wind and rain is no good idea after all ;-) Thank you very much !

On sunday a not very good forecast was made concerning windconditions for monday, rain would be ok ..

From his station I made some good contacts into Belgium with :
ON2ALI Robert, ON4PO Martin, OT4A Theo, ON7DS Dirk, OP2A Ivo, ON7GR Guido, ON4ANN Erik, ON8BV Pol, ON4KCY Yves qnd some other 100 QSO over the world.

For more info on the trajectory click this link.

Hurricane IRENE

Thursday, August 25, 2011

QSO on PEI part II

QSO's with Guido, ON7GR and Michel, F6COW.


Also ON5TN Karl, ON4CDX Roman, OT4A Theo, ON7USB Geert, OT2X Johan, ON5MA Nic, ON7GR Geert, ON4CAS Egbert, ON7XT Jean-Marie, ON7ZZ Gill, ON7KJW John and ON5WQ Bernard had made a QSO with my 2 / 5 watt station on PEI ! Nais ;-)

QSO on PEI part I

QSO on 20 with Arie, PD0ARI/MM out in the ocean near Rotterdam on 14208 kc at 0937 utc. He's working with 25 watts while I was putting out 2..
Later on in the clip Rene, PD2RKG/M joins in driving his car on the motorway A12 near Rijswijck Holland.
Very good signal strengths from both stations as you can hear. Enjoy the clip.