GBARC POTA #2 Hepworth Management Area 31 july 5-8pm

[Tom VA3TS]

Here are some details, the Hepworth Management Area is just east of Hepworth on Hwy6 

https://www.greysauble.on.ca/portfolio/hepworth/

https://pota.app/#/park/CA-5663

Adam Bobby and I will be there

[Tom VA3TS]

Pics from today...we even saw a black bear ..

[Adam_VE3FP]

Here we are at Hepworth Management Area CA-5663, doing another club activation with two(2) stations using Icom IC-705 on 20 m SSB and Icom  IC-7000 on 40 & 17m CW.  Unfortunately some technical issues with Icom IC-705 we were only able to log 19 CW contacts. It was still fun getting together as a group which also included special visitor Mr. Bear.
Hopefully we'll do better next time.
We are looking at doing another club activation.







Participants were: Adam ve3fp, Tom va3ts, Dan va3dny and Bobby ve3pav.

[Tom VA3TS]

Fault with my tuner ...... it seems the issue was present at the last pota event as well ..I found the small tuner power connection had broken off the circuit board

I added a red arrow to show where the surface mount connector had come loose, I was able to reattach it and seems to work. I did find some other little issues, mostly with coax connectors not making a good connection... the lesson learned is, when all you have is QRP or even 10 watts, every little bit counts and you can't afford to loose signal through a bnc connector



This shows the normal "TUNE" indicator when the radio detects a proper tuner


This one show the 2 green led's, one for power, the other to show the antenna is a match to the rig


So I guess I won't complain too much yet about the antenna, better try it again



In the meantime I ordered this to try out, this will make a full half wave of 20m ...now to set it up as a vertical or a horizontal



I can see the benefits of an end fed half wave as well, only 1 sky hook needed ...for next time
73

[Adam_VE3FP]

Good work. I don't understand, you would think for portable operations the equipment mfg would make it more robust, yet they charge you top $$$.
Anyway, I like that Hepworth MA, would do it again.