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Manpack Radio UPDATE

The manpack radio setup is complete (and honestly has been for some time now)! The remaining bits that I needed were a shorter length of coax to connect the remote antenna connector and a LiFEPO battery. I opted for a 1 foot length of LMR-195 (slightly less loss and more rigid than RG58) and a 9Ah Bioenno battery. I did also opt for a N9TAX SlimJim antenna for this kit. An in-line power meter was also added to the setup. For some reason Yaesu decided not to have the voltage be available on the radio’s screen for some reason, despite it being available on rigs of the same age and class as this one. Bit of a failure there, IMO.

Thanks Yaesu. I appreciate the extra bulk

I managed to get out for some testing at various points throughout the summer in its mobile configuration (just the radio sitting in the shotgun position in the car) with some good results. I also ended up taking it with me while I camped at Ferris Provincial Park in September to see what kind of range was possible with this rig. I chose Ferris because the campground is on top of a drumlin and would have better line of sight to distant stations

The antenna used for testing was the Arrow II. I did have the SlimJim on hand, but wanted the best range possible this time around. The SlimJim has been tested previously and was found to work decently in an urban environment with stations fairly close.

Nerding out in the dark. Yep, this is my life

The results of my testing are below:

Day 01 – 25W Output:

  • VE3PBO (Peterborough) – S9+. Contact made during net.
  • VE3CKL (Lindsay) – S1. No QSO.
  • VA3FOY (Bancroft) – S2. No QSO.
  • VE3BNI (Gilmour) – S4. No QSO.
  • VA3LTX (Dysart) – S1, heavy scratch. Unable to open repeater, but able to listen.
  • W2RUI (Lockport, NY)- S0-S7. Tropospheric ducting. Attempted contact up to 50W but not heard.
  • VE3KFR (Campbellford) – S9+. PROCOMM net in progress, listened only.
  • VE3RTR (Rice Lake) – S9+. PROCOMM net in progress, listened only.
  • VE3QAR (Belleville) – S2. PROCOMM net in progress, listened only.
  • VA3JWO (Picton Wide Area) – S9. No QSO.
  • VE3TJU (Picton Airport) – S5. PROCOMM net in progress, listened only.

Day 02 – 25W Output

  • VE3KFR (Campbellford) – S9+. Contact made, participated in the Professional Loafers Net.
  • VE3TOR (Scarborough) – S5. No QSO.
  • VA3ROG (Collingwood) – S0-S4. Tropospheric ducting. Station ID’d numerous times as WRQROC, and had a VE3 net controller, but not able to find any info on what this is, so assuming it’s VA3ROG due to its large footprint. No QSO.
  • VA3JWO (Picton Wide Area) – S9+. Contact made.

After 3 days out running at 25W, including 2 days at camp and 1 day operating mobile from the car, this rig only used 5.78 Ah of juice from the battery’s 9Ah capacity. This was with APRS firing away every 60 seconds on the second VFO while driving and sporadically (likely every 10 min or so) while at camp, and with voice being used as well.

APRS track for the return trip home

The weekend prior to the above outing, I was out and about with the manpack. A single packet was received in Pennsylvania on its first hop by station N3TJJ-7, a total of 257.7 km away. To date, this is the furthest simplex contact I’ve been able to make (automatically sent, but I still count that) and was very likely due to tropospheric ducting and also helped by the elevation of both the transmit and receive sites.

Furthest contact to date!

All results from my testing have been added to the page for each respective repeater on Repeaterbook.com.

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GSI Coffee Rocket UPDATE

Took this magical thing out camping with me a few weeks ago. Did as it was supposed to do during the 10 degree mornings without any issues, nice and hot!

Pretty much the same thing as during testing, just outside this time!

And here’s a bonus pic of what I use to make the go-juice happen. Nothing fancy, and just works.

And that coffee scoop is a bloody wonderful thing to have!
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Maxpedition Colossus Revival

This piece of kit had been sitting in tropical storage for 4 years. It, and some other gear, was unfortunately the target of a massive amount of mildew during that time.

Cleanup underway

I was worried that I would end up losing the versipack. I had a three-day assault pack made by Tactical Tailor that I ended up ditching that was stored with this bag because it was much worse shape (the Colossus was stored inside the pack). The Colossus went back to Canada with me slung across my body. The smell was overpowering at times. When I got home, I just let it sit for a few months to see if the smell would lessen. It didn’t. Eventually I purchased some Borax and mixed it with a sink full of hot water and went to town scrubbing every piece of the bag, both inside and out. It took a few hours, but it was way better than it looked when I had recovered it. The smell had mostly abated, but was still noticeable. With a big camping trip coming up, I purchased a pack of cedar balls and tossed them in every pocket of the bag in the hopes that it would fix the remaining scent. This seemingly worked and the rest of the smell was gone after a week in the outdoors.

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Main Duck Island

Over the summer I had the chance to go camping on Main Duck Island in Lake Ontario. The place is rather inaccessible, unless you have a boat. Luckily, I do know someone who has a boat.

The trip out to the island was fun. I normally don’t get seasick, but I had a very light brunch before we departed and the choppiness of the lake didn’t play nicely with that. There was some talk about diverting to a closer island because of me tightly holding onto the bucket, but I told the skipper to keep on going. No point in turning back half-way to our destination.

We made it and I quickly got off the boat and kissed dry land (clearly I’m no sailor). We were told the island is a busy place most of the time, but when we pulled up to the dock there were no other ships in sight. We set up camp on some high ground near the dock.

The view from the port side of the vessel

We spent the next 2.5 days on the island, exploring what it had to offer. The island used to be settled for a time with a lighthouse, school, some homes and various other buildings. The lighthouse remains but is automated. Not much else exists except a few abandoned buildings and ruins.

The lighthouse. The water was apparently quite low this year, these rocks are normally underwater up to the treeline.
Lightkeeper’s Home
Big ole’ snapper on one of the trails

I also brought an HT with me as well as my Arrow II beam to see what repeaters I could successfully hit from the island. Some good contacts were made across a number of repeaters. My Yaesu FT-70D was programmed with a list of repeaters that fall within 80km of the island. The results of my testing are below:

Near Lighthouse:

  • VE3KTO (Picton) – S9. Had a QSO with VE3GSI.
  • VE3KBR (Kingston) – S1. No QSO.
  • VE3TJU (Picton) – S9. No OSO.

West Side of Island:

  • VA3LGA (Lansdowne) – S5. Had a QSO with VA3ASZ mobile.
  • AC2GE (Dexter, NY) – S6. No QSO.
  • KD2CPX (Dexter, NY) – S1. No QSO.
  • KC2ELX (Watertown, NY) – S4/5. No QSO.

East Side of Island

  • VA3LGA (Lansdowne) – S9. No QSO.
  • AC2GE (Dexter, NY) – S9. Had a QSO with WD0DBT, heard me calling on another repeater and was waiting for me.
  • KD2CPX (Dexter, NY) – S5. No QSO.
  • KC2ELX (Watertown, NY) – S9. No QSO.
  • W2OSC (Oswego, NY) – S9. No QSO.
  • WB2OOY(Watertown, NY) – S9. Heard another station but didn’t catch the full callsign, possibly K3QT-, no response to further calls.
  • W2WLR (Watertown, NY) – S9. No QSO.
  • WN8Z (Fulton, NY) – S1. Very scratchy, no QSO.
    Facing VA3LGA repeater in Lansdowne, ON

    The furthest repeater I was able to connect to was VA3LGA in Lansdowne, ON which, from the lighthouse at the northern tip of the island, is ~72 kilometers. Granted, this is mainly over open water, but has been my furthest VHF contact to date, excluding any packet connections to the ISS in orbit.

    I had originally planned to see if I could do some satellite operations from the island too, but I had forgotten to load my UV-5R into my bag when we departed for Kingston.

    All-in-all it was a nice and relaxing experience with some good testing thrown in. I am hoping to get back out there again next year with more transmitting capabilities.

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    RAM Stubby Mount Update

    As the months rolled by since first modding the RAM Stubby cup holder mount, the rubber fins on the mount began to give up on their job of preventing the thing from sliding around. As a result, the mount began to tip over whenever it was in use. This is not optimal so I fixed it!

    I had some closed cell foam kicking around and cut two small blocks out of it and wedged them between three of the rubber fins. The blocks are a bit thicker than the gaps between the mount and the cup holder. This is holding everything as it should and is now capable of holding 2 HT’s without falling over while cornering. The added benefit is that I can still move the mount between vehicles if needed as the blocks can be re-positioned or removed if necessary.