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VE6BLD 144 MHZ SSB horizontal Antenna install
Mar 18th
VE6BLD 144 MHZ SSB horizontal Antenna install. We had a beautiful March plus 15 degree day to get my SSB Quagi antenna up the tower. Many thanks to VE6CIA Garry, VA6MPM Paul and VE6MIM Mike for helping with this rather difficult install. I have quite a few other antenna that could have posed a problem but we found a hole to pull up the 14 foot long Quagi and get it installed above the HF beam, 2 m Quagis, 70 CM Quag-v antennas. Garry climbed to stand on the top plate of the tower and then stood on the HF antenna boom to be able to reach above the 440 MHZ Quagi. He was able to install the new quagi on the verticlal mast of the 14 foot long vertical folded dipole I used for my commercial antenna for my business. He would have been reaching up to about the 63 foot height! The antenna checked out with a great SWR. Thanks all three of you for all the great help!! I should now be able to work Calgary and Edmonton easily on SSB simplex with the other weak signal hams. I an barely remember when VE6BGT Skip and I with Sarina’s and some other hams help built the whole tower and antenna 32 years ago! Check out the great pictures Sarina took in this Gallery.
After you close the picture browser you will have to refresh your page to go back( New problem I have to figure out now !!)
U of A cubesat rescue
Mar 3rd
https://www.ualberta.ca/folio/2021/02/u-of-a-satellite-team-pulls-off-space-rescue-mission-in-the-nick-of-time.html
Even More CW Learning Aids
Feb 21st
As I was watching Paul VA6MPM’s very interesting Zoom presentation about Summits On The Air the evening of February 17, Ken Smith VE6AGR caught my attention by mentioning that CW is commonly used for SOTA and that he is using the internet to practice. What? Another group using CW!
I had made an earlier post to this site about the CWCOM system for practicing Morse Code via the internet, and I am interested what applications Ken is using. I got Paul VA6MPM to ask Ken on my behalf how he is practicing CW on the internet. I have edited Ken’s responding email a little, I hope without destroying his message.
The internet-based learning aid that he mentioned in the Zoom meeting is VBand which allows Practicing sending solo or sending & receiving with a few buddies, on the internet, with no embarrassment of actually transmitting on the air
Find it at https://hamradio.solutions/vband/  . You can make certain keys on your computer mimic a key or paddle but by far the best way to use this site is to buy the optional interface dongle they sell, which enables you to connect a proper iambic paddle to the computer. Some people have trouble with latency, though, so it’s not foolproof.
Other Learning Aids:
Android apps with no data connection required
For listening rather than sending practice:
Morse Machine — good tool for initially learning the characters and main punctuation signs
Morse Mentor – a next step from the above, adds prosigns & generates random-length groups of random characters. Is great for call sign practice, because you don’t get to infer things by anticipating the rest of words. Has Farnsworth timing options as well as the usual adjustable character speeds.
QSOSender3 — generates 2-minute or so messages with content from typical QSO’s – call signs, signal reports, QTH, rig info, 73 & other pleasantries, etc.
Downloadable Windows applications,
no internet connection required to actually use:
G4FON Koch Morse Trainer
Web site resources requiring an internet connection
ARRL Code Practice files (Code Practice Files (arrl.org)) – are great to practice receiving long blocks of actual text from old QST magazines. Various speeds available.
LCWO on-line (https://lcwo.net/) and Rufzxp.net seem to get good reviews in lots of places but Ken hasn’t used them. The latter apparently allows you to inflict noise and interference on yourself to really hone your skills.
Practice sending and receiving anywhere, anytime
Build the code trainer kit from QRP guys:   https://qrpguys.com/qrpguys-code-trainer Ken says, “This kit was so easy I even built one and it worked on the first try – which is something I cannot say about ANY of my other pathetic forays into electronics.†Use whatever paddle you like with this tiny keyer kit (great for travel):
Ken wishes us good luck with our CW learning exercises.
Thanks to Ken Smith VE6AGR for all this information!
John VA6SJA
RAC Canada Day Contest
Feb 3rd
I just received this in my in box today!
VE6BLD RAC Canada Day Contest 2020
Winter Field Day Fun VE6BLD
Jan 31st
I spent about 6 hours Sat and Sunday working the Winter Field Day. The bands were good until after 9 Saturday night. I slept in Sunday till 9:30 but managed a lot more contacts till noon.
Here are my results.
51 Sections, 38 States, 222 contacts, 1320 points,
80m, 40m, 20m, 15m, 6m, 2m.
I hope to see some more results from others here.
Bob VE6BLD

CW Ops
Jan 27th
I was surprised and delighted to see John’s (VA6SJA) post about CW and that a couple of Hams are looking to improve Morse Code skills. Because of Covid, the last couple of months I have been re-learning Morse as well. Licensed in 1982 I was at one time comfortable at 18-20 wpm. Not having used CW in very many years I also had a desire to get back at it.
I found a site CWops, that has a great training system tailored to all levels of operator skills. You can self train on your own at any time or they have structured classes with interacting instruction (3 times per year, January to March, April) to June, etc) (https://cwops.org/cw-academy/cw-academy-options/) They use the Farnsworth method, which seems to be the standard learning tool these days. There are a large assortment of training/student resources for receiving and transmitting CW (Practice QSO, words, abbreviation text files etc, too many to list here. They also have numerous on air tests “contests” for students. This is a large site with many features. If interested have a look. This is all free, the desire being to promote the use and operation of the CW mode.
When first licensed we had a group of locals in Kelowna that would meet on 10 meters which gave good local coverage (even with a closed band) for practice sending and receiving.
73
Neil VA6AK

VE6WCE Station
Jan 22nd
Ok, so here is my story.
As per frequent requests to post something. I will post my station. Granted it isn’t the most sophisticated station out there, but it works for me.
The pictures you see are my hf/vhf station complete with a CB I had from the 70’s. CB, the cell phone system of the 70’s. I have three radios, Yeasu FT-5000 that I bought as a retirement gift. Yeasu FT-857 that I use primarily for VHF and an old Heathkit HW-101 I bought at a fathers day picnic and it works. I remember dreaming about building and owning that radio in the 70’s as I started to seriously pursue obtaining a licence.
Anyway I also included a picture of my test equipment and parts.
I had always wanted to go digital and as you can see my space is very limited. Then I thought why not just install a keyboard tray and laptop and so I did. Now you can see how I have digital set up. Using Airlink Express software and a SigaLink USB sound card feeding into the Yeasu FT 857 for digital. The SignaLink is sitting just below the FT-857.
I have three antennas. Cushcraft R6000, Diamond X-200 VHF/UHF and a 40m vertical that I can set up if I want to work 40m.
You may notice the antenna analyzer hooked you to the antennas. Before I transmit I always sweep the antenna to ensure nothing has changed. I also use it to tune the antenna as needed so I am not sending out a carrier to annoy anyone and stress out the transmitter finals. Â
Finally Betty snuck up on me working a station or at least trying to, wasn’t successful that time.Â
Anyway that is it.
73’s