September VHF Contest in DN19 / DN09 : VE7BEE/R - Roving at Paulson Summit area near Rossland BC

After hearing from many VHF operators about needing DN19 and DO10, I decided to do a rover trip  for the Sept 2015 VHF Contest . Mike Tucker , VE7MJT joined me for the day. We were going to DO10 by Nakusp BC , but after reviewing the possible sites available for operating , we decided that DN19 and DN09 would be the best plan based on the time we had available. The operational sites we chose are located near Nancy Green Summit ( DN19 ) on Hwy 3A  and Paulson Summit (DN09) on Hwy 3 . Both are Near Rossland BC in the BC interior . Both 6 meters and 2 meters were operational for the day on CW and SSB. Band conditions were terrible to say the least with contacts limited to 300 mile range even on 6 m . Farthest grid worked was CN97.  Despite the conditions , we were able to scout out some new operating locations for future use that are easily accessible from the main highway in just a few minutes. A major bonus to some of the locations we have been to in the past .

VE7BEE/R in DN19 at ridge site (5500 ft) near Nancy Green Summit in BC 

VE7BEE/R in DN09 at 5500 ft near Paulson Summit in BC with "Old Glory" on the right in the distance

Packed up and Heading home after a fun day 

Set up and ready to operate at the " gravel pit " site near Nancy Green Summit in DN19

Large six meter opening today .  Contacts made to the Midwest USA , Mexico and Alaska all with in 2 hours !  Very good signals ranging from a normal s3 to a loud S9. Had a great chat with a guy in Wyoming and finished up th afternoon talking with KL7NO in Alaska. Here is the amplifier I use for working most of my contacts on six meters.

Celebrating 30 years of ham radio mountain topping : Here is the lastest pics I have scanned from the archives of mountain top sites I have been to, with a brief description . 73 s for now...

 1998 Mt Thynne outside of Merrit BC

4 Bay diamond 2 M array 1988 : Apex mountain , near Penticton.BC

Kathleen Mountain Near Summerland ,BC  in 1984

PICTURES : Kobau mountain near Osoyoos BC DN09

Winter is quickly approaching. There was a skiff of snow at the 6800 ft summit but VE7BBE and myself VE7BEE still managed to get to the top of Kobau mountain near Osoyoos BC last week.Very little snow at the top for this late in the fall. The view was fantastic with all the different fall colours decorating the mountain sides. For access to Mount Kobau take the road off to the left of Hwy 3 at the top of Richter pass east of Keremeos. It is a good wide gravel road all the way to the top. Lots of good spots to operate Ham radio, HF or VHF . Highly recommend the drive just for the view.(Late June to late Sept is when the snow is gone).There is also a back road ( 4 x 4) down the north ridge past the communications towers that has now been widened and comes out at the old Cawston /fairview mine road.(Ed note : the north access road from fairview/cawston can have snow in the treed areas late in to the spring, limiting access from the north until the end of June). From there you can drive down the hill to the East to Oliver and Hwy 97 or West towards Cawston and Keremeos and hwy 3 / 3a. Besy DX and 73s from Buzz

VHF WW CONTEST

The cq vhf ww contest this weekend was a bit of a dud out west here , with very few stations heard.If you have been monitoring the 6 meter propagation and chat pages on the net you could see that the east coast got treated to one of the best openings in many years, while out west there was very little activity.Later on in the late afternoon, there was an unusual qso out west between BA4SI in PM01 and K0GU in DN70 ! Congrats to Jay and Li. The video is of K0GU calling cq on 50.080 as monitored here in Dn09 averaging s8 to s9.Best dx and 73s from buzz

It can SNOW ANYTIME at APEX MOUNTAIN 7300 ft in DN09

Here is a interesting site for September VHF contest weekend. Apex mountain near Penticton , BC in DN09. No not the ski hill. That is actually Beaconsfield mountain. The higher rocky peak to the south of Beaconsfield is Apex mountain.The pictures that follow give an idea what it was like.Yes ....it can snow, even in late summer....The forestry lookout ,like so many in BC , is no more. All that remains is the base supports.

Ve7NUT/7 and VE7PRC/7 both were operational from this mountain top many times during the late 1980s and early 1990s. The 6 crazy amigos that went on this outing are : (top left to right then lower left to right) Denny Warner VE7ASY ,Jim Landcaster VE7RJ, Glen Borgens VE7GSB, Al Stark VE7EHQ (now VE7RS), Tom Jakes and Orin Beebe VE7BEE the BUZZ.....pics from 1980s

OLD KATHLEEN LOOKOUT DN09 in 1984 VE7PRC/7

Here is an interesting photo I came across in my ham radio album.It is a Picture of the Mount Kathleen Forestry lookout near Peachland ,BC in 1984 during the June ARRL VHF QSO party contest .That is Denny Warner VE7ASY standing in the doorway and the tent you see next to the lookout had frost on it in the early morning.... At that time ,the Penticton Amateur Radio Club VE7PRC had a few VHF operators including myself that were crazy enough to haul a whole lot of equipment and supplies to the top of some mountain for a weekend. We used a stacked quad array of 10 el lindsay yagis for 2 m with an Icom ic 211 running 10 watts into a 100 watt klm brick amp. For 6 meters we had a homebrew (old CB) pair of 4 el beams with an early Yaesu ft620 6 meter rig that put out 10 watts at best (more like 7 watts) .A large 6 meter linear was only a pipe dream in those days.(Later on the following year we managed to scrounge a 100 watt Brick amp for the weekend) Even with only 7 watts out on 6m , we still worked are share of grid squares in the northwest and in midwest and managed two hundred plus contacts on 6 and 2 meters from dn09 in southern BC. The road was almost impassable in numerous places that weekend and the last 500 ft was more of a creek bed than a road! more old pics coming soon......buzz