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Hi all.
I had a fun trip, amazing scenery, good fishing, and
72 or so good contacts from 4 grids out of 6
traveled.
There is I-5 road work and only 1 lane open during
the day south of Bellingham. I took the suggested
detour via Sedro Wooley on Hwy 9 to avoid the stated
30 minute possible delay. I think it took more than
30 minutes to take the detour. Another 30 minute
wait to cross into Canada and I made the ferry with
15 minutes to spare. I had no problems crossing
the border either direction with radio gear. They
just looked at me funny ( which I have gotten
accustomed to by now).
Gabor , VE7DXG provided me with road and location
information, then chatted with VE7BZY and others on
the radio north of Campbell River about strategy on
the way up Wednesday, and met with Rick, VE7REH in
Port McNeil on Thursday evening and poured over maps
he had. He made several calls to his friends that
knew the roads there.
Scouted CO50 Friday evening from 6 to almost 9pm.
Not a thing heard except made some 20M contacts.
Went out SW of Holberg in CO50 to the west coast
near Raft Cove park, a road called coast main
(logging road). Water view, but I could not hear
Tofino CG radio from there.
I started the contest at the QTH of VE7REH, where I
had the opportunity to do a show'n'tell to the local
ham club meeting at Rick's place in Port McNeil. At
11am they gave me several CO60 FM contacts. Then I
proceeded to Zeballos in CN69 on the west coast.
This was a deep canyon of sorts, very tall steep
mountain walls and no good view to the SE. It might
have been close, but I heard nothing at all.
Next stop was Newcastle Ridge near Sayward in CO60.
This was a tough climb since the overgrowth was bad
and threatened to strip by yagis from the roof. It
lasted 5 miles on the 10 mile long trail so things
went very slow, not to mention a few cross ditches
that wanted to take out my truck bottom. Many
thanks to VE7BZY in Sayward and VE7UY and other
several other locals for help in navigating the
route up there. Newcastle was 4200ft up, and it
was raining big time. I met WE7UY up there briefly
since he was doing repeater work all day there.
Plus he needed to wait until I could get off the
road so he could come down. (more like a trail
really). Heard several stations that did not hear
me unfortunately. I heard N7OEP on 222 as well
really well, but I connected the power cable to my
222 amp to another amp and thus no amplification -
the miracle of power poles. The plan was to
operate the amplifiers off a large battery, but
something was going on that seemed like the voltage
was dropping too low and thus needed to run
everything off the truck battery, usually leaving
the engine running. Also I was getting enough RFI
on 2M that the 222 DEM transverter was rapid
chattering into transmit. So I had to disconnect
222 between uses, and recable the power connector to
each amp. I did away with the 432 amp.
I cabled up the rover rig on the ferry ride to
Vancouver Island. The 222 antenna got final tuning
on Thursday in Port Hardy after fishing. The coho
fishing was excellent by the way - several landed
many over 10 and 12 pounds each. The Halibut bite
was off on Thursday following a storm on Wednesday,
but Coho was good on Friday.
On Newcastle it got dark, and I dared not to attempt
coming down in the pitch black so I spent the night
up there and turned off the rig at 10pm. Up at 7am
and headed down the mountain to CO70 at Kelsey point
near Sayward (nothing heard there) and then on the
highway north of Campbell river was a high spot that
worked OK. Then proceeded to Campbell River town
on the water, and worked both sides of the CO70 and
CN79 grid line at 50 latitude. Good spot, worked
WA7TZY up through 432 and several others. Heard a
DN08 station on 222 well, but he left before I could
get any amp reconnected. Worked VE7DXG on 1296
from Campbell River also.
Ran out to Ucluelet in CN78, near the Coast Guard
station about 4pm. Worked several contacts then
moved north to CN79 close to Tofino, Radar Hill.
This was a good spot it seemed - worked KE7SW (also
heard well in CO60 but no contact), N7EPD, K7ND and
WA7SKT were coming in very well up through 432. I
did not hear any CN85 or southern stations
unfortunately. Hang up the mic at 7:30pm and ran
back to Nanaimo to catch my ferry at 10:45pm.
Had a car driving at me (wrong way on my side) on
the divided freeway at 1am on the Canada side of the
border, and there was zero line at the US border.
The guards did however look at me in amazement.
After explaining what I was doing, they said they
should probably expect others. I said not likely.
Home at 3am.
I made about 80 QSOs in CO60
27 in CO60
14 in CO70
22 in CN79
9 in CN78
Since I spent the night on Newcastle Ridge I was 3
hours behind schedule so missed getting to CN89 and
CN88.
I want to thank our VE7 friends for their
hospitality and navigational aid. Made lots of
eyeball QSOs on this trip. Since I go fishing up
here each year, I may combine the June radio
contests with my annual summer fishing trips in the
future. That will be a sight. Antennas plus towing
a boat - surely I must be planning to track whales
now.
FYI - We saw several hundred Pacific Whiteside
porpoise playing just off Port Hardy. We ran around
through them. They love to play in the boat wakes
and they come up beside you and turn sideways at
full speed to look at you. Hundreds of them jumping
vertically and under and around the boat. When you
slow down they get bored and frolic nearby, then
when we put on the gas, they all follow you.
Another boat showed up and a person snorkeled with
them. Really interesting. We had to idle out of
there to prevent stealing them away.
Mike Lewis
K7MDL, CN87
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