Hello all,
I've made it back safe and sound from my little road trip. After my last contacts on the FN08/18 border near Amos, Quebec I put the Arrow back in the car for the last time and concentrated on driving. I went through Val-D'or, Mount Laurier, Mount Tremblant and finally Montreal where I picked my wife up from the airport the next day and we visited the city and Ottawa before heading back home.
The trip was a lot of fun. I didn't haul out the gear until I hit FO11, although in hindsight I should have paid more attention and got out in FO10 on the way up since the passes weren't very viable in FO10 on the way back. These first contacts were made from along side the Rupert River rapids. They're endangered as Hydro Quebec is going to dam off the river for another huge hydro project so I'm glad I got to see them. Most contacts were made pulled alongside the Route de la Baie James, a 2 lane paved road with a 100km/h speed limit that isn't patrolled from about km 6 to km 600. The road is very isolated, with a 375km stretch with no gas stations or services of any kind. Some were made in the community of Radisson, the furthest north you can drive on a paved road in the eastern half of North America, and the northern most non-native permanent community in Quebec. Some were made in Chisasibi, on the shores of James Bay and some along Quebec route 109 which leads to the James Bay Road. I had hoped to catch a boat to one of the islands in the bay of which there are numerous, uninhabited ones very close, as these count as Nunavut VY0, however between the weather not cooperating (wind) and those who I came across weren't coming back to be able to pick me up, I had to scratch that plan. If I had more time to work with, I would have worked something out. More money could have helped, too, as I could have booked a flight for about $500 to Sanikiluaq in the Belcher Islands, which is comparatively cheap to what it costs to get to anything Nunavut from down here! Although for you newly married OM's, you and your XYL can go with a 75% honeymooner discount, so start sweet talking her about how nice the Belcher Islands are this time of year! HI HI!!!
So here's the results:
5-Sept-2008 1815Z through 7-Sept-2008 1938Z
Total Satellite QSOs: 158 - AO-51: 81 - AO-27: 36 - SO-50: 41
Grids worked from: FN08, FN18, FN19, FO03, FO10, FO11, FO12, FO13
Here's a link to the log: http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pVYahBbb9c8aa3JJuIwiAOQ
Working conditions: Antenna: Arrow Handheld Yagi, 3-elements for 2 meters, 7-elements for 70cm Uplink Radio: Radio Shack HTX-202 at 3 watts with 6 2500mAH NiMH AA's in the alkaline pack, still charged even after 158 QSO's! Downlink Radio: Yaesu VX-7R still charged as well ;-) Logging done via voice recorder built into my cell phone, as that was about all it was good for up in the wilderness hundreds of miles from a cell signal!
I'm printing the cards this weekend. Thank you all for the many QSO's and the cards & stamps I've received! Hope that everyone picked up at least one new grid. QSL is via my N8TLV address, although if you sent it to my NL address I'll still get it, just will be delayed by a month hi hi.
73, Mark VO1ONE/N8TLV