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by Vince (VE6LK)
Ahhhh, the midwinter get-a-way. Everybody does it a bit in a different way, however for many of us, when you have got just a few days and a few nights you don’t enterprise too removed from residence. And that’s how I landed in Jasper, Alberta, to remain for a few nights and pattern the very superior native eating places, and naturally to do some Parks On The Air.
I used to be accompanied by my spouse and Wrangler, our Shiba Inu, for this journey and thus my activations wanted to be family-friendly (ie. brief!) and in scenic areas. They needed to be parks I’d by no means finished earlier than and, right now of 12 months, be finished from the consolation of my truck. However most significantly they wanted to slot in among the many restauranting we needed to do.
Journey from residence to Jasper is 4.5 hours alongside the Trans-Canada Freeway after which Freeway 93, the Icefields Parkway, so named because of the massive variety of glaciers that come inside shut vary of the freeway. For the adventurous amongst you, there are two excursions, one takes you onto the glacier through a specially-designed tour bus with 60″ 3PSI tires, and the opposite is a glass walkway that overlooks the deep valley that’s the begin of the Athabasca River. My basophobia tells me that strolling on glass flooring overlooking a extremely deep canyon is a nasty concept, and I’m instructed that it’s spectacular nonetheless.
Jasper was the topic of an insane wildfire final Summer season. 40% of the city’s constructions and houses have been destroyed in a single day. This city runs on tourism and we have been welcomed with open arms for our mid-week journey. Sadly, everybody has a narrative of loss in a technique or one other. I’ve been to Jasper a number of instances earlier than earlier than, however the losses I noticed – blocks-wide swaths of houses – caught me off guard emotionally. I took no images out of respect to people who have misplaced every little thing; in case you are actually curious you may seek for them through information sources. The panorama is modified, for now, as you may see by way of the timber and see the valleys round you because of the denuded or fallen timbers.
On Thursday morning my HamAlert went off as K4SWL was out at Pisgah Nationwide Forest, so I jumped into the truck for a fast P2P sortie and drove to the sting of city the place electrical noise can be much less. Upon my arrival my trusty screwdriver antenna wouldn’t transfer and, with my plan to contact Thomas scuttled, I headed again to the lodge.
Luckily I had packed an iFixit model Professional Tech toolkit with me, and, together with my Leatherman ES4 and Victorinox knife -and a Breathe-Proper strip instead of electrical tape- I used to be capable of restore the motor drive wire the place a earlier restore had vibrated aside over the 15 years I’ve owned the antenna. That profitable restore set me up nicely for my activations for the remainder of the day.
And, sure, I did a correct restore together with a little bit of preventative upkeep shortly after I returned residence.
As soon as the restore was full, I headed out to the Yellowhead Move Nationwide Historic Website about 28km west of Jasper. The positioning is just about a roadside pull-out on the Alberta/British Columbia border and is adorned with historic plaques. Truck site visitors was rumbling by not too distant from me so the native QRM proved to be a problem. This park is a 2fer, and I had deliberate on turning round and going again to city till I noticed an indication simply 100 yards forward promoting Mount Robson Provincial Park – and that is one other POTA entity. Beside that signal was one promoting a truck pull-out 250 yards up the highway… so a fast plan was hatched so as to add Mt. Robson to my day’s actions.
I accomplished each of these activations with out an excessive amount of issue on 10, 15 and 20m CW and packed as much as head again to city to get a chew of lunch on the De’d Canine Bar and Grill because it had been really helpful to us. Suffice it to say that I couldn’t end the bowl of bison chili and I need to eat once more there on a future journey.
With our bellies full, we headed in direction of our last cease of the day, the Maligne Lake Chalet and Visitor Home Nationwide Historic Website. It’s a 45km journey by way of some beautiful surroundings alongside the valley ground, and climbs 500m in solely the previous few kilometres of the highway.
For this activation I used to be on 20m CW after which 20m SSB. The noise ground was zero, save for after I wanted to run the engine to remain heat within the -8C climate. My spouse took Wrangler out for a stroll thus I had time to accrue 30 contacts. Nevertheless it was late within the day and we couldn’t keep without end because the solar units quick within the mountains -so it appears anyways- and we headed again to city.
We have been reminded of the ability of nature with the burned out forests that out of the blue greeted us as we moved nearer to city. It additionally jogs my memory that wildfires don’t discriminate and generally stage one space and go away one other, instantly adjoining, untouched. As all of us do, I hope I by no means face that adversity.
What I’ve realized alongside the way in which
I used to be reminded of not solely the superior energy of nature, however of the necessity to preserve our tools. On this local weather, a screwdriver antenna must be torn down and inspected at the very least yearly, and I had not finished this for a number of years. I imply, in spite of everything, it has been working so why hassle, proper? Mistaken – like all bits of our equipment, upkeep is crucial to trouble-free operations once you want it. I’m grateful I had a small toolkit alongside on this journey or there would have been activations on solely 10m – the band the antenna was locked upon pre-repair.
Record of substances used for these activations:
73 and dit dit,
…Vince
First launched to the magic of radio by a member of the family in 1969, Vince has been lively within the passion since 2002. He’s an Accredited examiner in Canada and the USA, operates on nearly all the modes, and is regularly engaged on making his CW proficiency suck much less. He participates in public service occasions round Western Canada and is lively on the air whereas glamping, cell, at residence or doing a POTA activation. You may hear him on the Ham Radio Workbench podcast, observe him on Twitter @VE6LK, take a look at his YouTube channel, and view the tasks and articles on his web site.
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