Embedded Files
Canadian National Parks on the Air or “CNPOTA” is a program intended to encourage amateur radio operations from units operated by Parks Canada in 2019. CNPOTA is closely modeled on the ARRL’s highly successful NPOTA program in 2016. Although the Radio Amateurs of Canada endorses and promotes the program, CNPOTA was actually developed and is maintained by a group of dedicated volunteer hams in the Halifax NS area.
CNPOTA: First Contact
CNPOTA: First Contact
I had a great time operating in NPOTA, mostly as an activator, and wanted to participate in CNPOTA to show support for their program. Since the nearest CNPOTA unit is about 350 miles north of my suburban Philadelphia home, any participation would be a significant commitment of travel time and cost. I planned a trip to the Kingston ON area for New Year’s Day, but fully expected winter road conditions would force a cancellation. Much to my surprise, the weather cooperated and I was able to make CNPOTA’s first contact in its first minute with VE3ZN. Then I completed CNPOTA’s first six park activations. My activations were met with enthusiasm from American and Canadian chasers during on-air contacts and in the Facebook groups dedicated to park operations.
An “activator” operates in parks, and a “chaser” operates anywhere to try to contact park activators.
Shortly after returning from my New Year’s Day rove, I began planning a more substantial CNPOTA trip in the spring when the hazard of winter weather would be over. One possibility was activating parks in southern Quebec. However, I noticed that perhaps the highest concentration of CNPOTA parks was in Atlantic Canada, with an added incentive of activating three or four provinces in one trip. I aimed my rove toward the Atlantic provinces even though the closest NB park is about 50% farther away from home than the closest QC park.
A “rove” is a trip to operate ham radio from several defined locations.
Maritime Canada Rove Plan
Maritime Canada Rove Plan
Each CNPOTA unit is also a unit in Parks On The Air (POTA), an ongoing parks activation program initially for U.S. parks but expanding internationally. Although POTA has slightly different rules, I would generally be able to submit contacts made in CNPOTA units to POTA too. Therefore, the much larger number of POTA participants could be enlisted to help boost my contact count for CNPOTA. POTA support improved my chances of reaching the minimum number of confirmed contacts at each park to qualify as a successful CNPOTA activation.
I tried to find a time of year when there was little chance of freezing weather, but early enough in the spring so cool temperatures would keep most other people away from parks. Most Parks Canada parks are officially open only seasonally, often not opening until late May…though unlike most U.S. parks, there didn’t seem to be gates or even nasty signs discouraging visitors while the parks are “closed”. Taken together, those factors pointed to the first two weeks of May.
By mid-January, interactive maps of CNPOTA park locations became available. I studied the maps looking for park clusters near towns likely to support chain hotels. After finding hotels in my preferred chain at all but one of the areas, I started outlining a route to take me from hotel to hotel. The goal in this stage of planning was to find places to stay that would support a full day’s worth of park activations while taking into account travel time between the towns. Only later would I plan each day’s park activations.
My initial goal was to drive to all four provinces in Atlantic Canada, a plan requiring a long and expensive ferry from Sydney NS to one of two ports on Newfoundland. I would require a full week just to make Newfoundland worthwhile with two days lost to its ferry crossings and its parks farther apart than parks in the other three provinces. One side effect of the initial desire to include all four provinces was a two-night stay in Sydney that might not otherwise have been justified. With the expense of a week-long trip in the low thousands of dollars, I reluctantly dropped Newfoundland and combined the other three provinces in a week-long rove—now a Maritime Canada rove.
After some tweaking and iterations, I had a tentative plan for hotel stops and made hotel reservations. The one reservation I could not make in late January was for the ferry that would take me across the Bay of Fundy from the Annapolis Royal NS area to Saint John NB. I made that pre-paid ferry reservation as soon as it was possible, although ultimately there were so few vehicles on board that prepaying wouldn’t have mattered. I published my plan in the form of an online map to the CNPOTA and POTA Facebook groups, but I’m not sure it was taken seriously by all the participants given its audaciousness.
Maritimes trip route, with all possible park locations. Hotel stops with letter markers, CNPOTA sites with teardrop markers.
Rover Preparation
Rover Preparation
In my first four years as a ham, I thoroughly enjoyed the challenges of taking my family's minivan on the road, operating from parks, in state “QSO Parties”, and as a rover station in VHF contests. Since it was also a vital family vehicle, I had to install the complete station and then tear it all out after each operation. Shortly before I retired, I bought an old “TV van” aka Electronic News Gathering (ENG) truck so I'd have a foundation to build a competitive HF and VHF mobile station. The project to finish this conversion is still ongoing, and probably will never really be finished. However, as of January 2019, I had reproduced the HF station I used to have in the minivan, featuring a Tarheel 200 screwdriver and 400w amplifier, but with more battery capacity and operating area.
During my first CNPOTA rove, I had some areas of intermittent cell data coverage. Spotting park operating frequencies makes activations much quicker and more successful. Discussing an operation live on Facebook with the close-knit parks community while making contacts is one of the most fun aspects of activating parks. Therefore, I wanted to improve my chances of having an Internet connection in remote areas. That goal was made even more important because the van is more of a RF-impervious metal can than my previous minivan station that has windows all round and a plastic skin.
After making the CNPOTA rove plan, the second antenna I installed on the van (after the screwdriver) was the external antenna for a cell signal booster. I drilled and tapped holes for the first time in 35 years, and ran the thin coax into the booster amplifier and mounted its interior antenna. I wanted to power that system with vehicle DC power, rather than station power, so the booster would still work while driving between park operations. That required reusing an existing DC cable from a 20A circuit breaker that once powered a hand-held light for TV production. I built a rack shelf for a 3-way distribution for cigar lighter barrel connections. I also added a small inverter to power two power bricks for the two different laptops I use for HF versus VHF operations, wanting to avoid the mess and unreliability of having the charging system laying on the floor of the van as it did in my New Year’s Day rove.
Before the CNPOTA rove in May, I had another ham event in late April: The triennial VHF Superconference in northern Virginia. I drove the van to the conference to activate some parks in the Washington DC area. During the Washington DC activations, a couple of problems emerged that could jeopardize the CNPOTA operations. I had operated in four DC locations over two days without a screwdriver problem, but when I next tried to use the screwdriver, it would not move. Diagnosing the problem as somewhat corroded control pins, I cleaned them. I also redid the screwdriver’s weatherproofing. For future trips, I resolved to bring a Powerpole extension cord, enabling use of a manual screwdriver switch from the operating position if the semiautomatic screwdriver tuner control became confused, as it does occasionally.
Another problem that had rarely occurred in the past became more frequent down in Washington. I use a Flex 3000 radio for HF, which sends a high volume of sampled RF to PowerSDR software via a Firewire connection. The once rare SDR shutdowns became a more frequent and serious problem. I had already planned to install my existing Icom IC-7100 as an all-purpose radio for a second operator, for casual VHF operating, and for the 144MHz IF for microwave bands—though not till later in the year. With the Flex radio system becoming increasingly unstable, I resolved to install the 7100 before I left for the Canada rove.
I brought the van in for service after returning from Washington because the check-engine-light was on. That service wasn't a schedule issue because I planned on having the nearly-twenty-year-old van thoroughly checked before leaving on my multi-thousand mile trip. Luckily, the warning light issue was inexpensive to resolve, though as expected, I had to get two new front tires. The technician who checked out the van said he personally would not hesitate to drive it on my planned trip. That endorsement was good enough for me.
The station DC power system I installed in 2018 was designed to operate medium power amplifiers (200-400 watts output) for an intense 48 hour contest without recharge. It could function for up to four days in a park rove where there would be longer drives between operations which would allow the vehicle alternator to partly recharge the separate station batteries. The Maritime rove would be eight operation days, far exceeding my design goals—though I would have two four-hour drives that would help the batteries recover.
Prior to planning this rove, I had considered getting a small and quiet generator to recharge station batteries overnight while I was at a hotel, but didn't have a compelling reason to buy one until this long trip. I found a Wen generator on Amazon that had good reviews and seemed to be nearly perfectly suited to the mission by providing adequate power output despite small size and low weight. I was happy that it worked as I had hoped: I could fill the generator’s small tank with gas and it would run about six hours, giving my built-in battery charger a full bulk charge before running out of gasoline. The generator fit neatly into otherwise wasted space between a rack and a rear wheel well. I could easily carry it outside with one hand. A bicycle lock and tough cable would secure the generator while in use.
Portable generator having just the right size, power, and weight
I had long considered getting the capability to reliably communicate outside of cell range. Driving an old van to isolated locations includes a risk of a breakdown, especially in serious cold during a January contest. Again this trip prompted me to accelerate a purchase. The smallest and “cheapest” reliable device I found was the Garmin InReach. Much smaller than a hand’s palm, this GPS device allows hikers to send and receive text messages via the Iridium satellite constellation. A senior citizen like me would struggle to operate this tiny device directly, but it can connect via Bluetooth to a phone app that makes its use more practical. To further justify the cost, a few virtual friends volunteered to relay activation frequencies sent to them via InReach messages, if I could not use cell data when I reached a park.
Two days before the rove, I realized I was done with all my prearranged rover preparation, so I decided to try to add yet another long-planned capability—even though adding last-minute functionality is usually not a smart decision. With the SDR software, logger, spotting pages, and multiple Facebook groups all vying for a relatively small 1366x768 laptop display, managing screen space while operating the radio and reacting to live messages became difficult. A second display would be a huge help. I had purchased a Samsung monitor years before with the intention of using it as a second screen for the laptop. The reason for picking Samsung was that it uses a separate brick power supply to input 14vdc to the monitor. That allowed me to use station DC power thus eliminating AC power for the monitor. Since the connector to the monitor was unfamiliar, perhaps proprietary, I reluctantly cut the vendor's cable and installed Powerpoles to connect the monitor to my station power distribution. A bungee cord temporarily secured the monitor base, and this second screen was indeed a big help during my rove to keep my park friends informed on Facebook while making radio contacts.
Operating position showing second monitor
Detailed Planning
Detailed Planning
The task of planning out each day of the rove in detail was left until shortly before departure, in case I found new information about parks, road closures, or recommendations from other park activators. Using Google Sheets made it easy to access, modify, and share the plan spreadsheet.
I have good experience in planning roves, so this otherwise complex process is pretty streamlined for me. The overall plan for hotel stops was already set. Each morning I'd wake up, eat “free” breakfast, and then activate parks along the route to the next hotel. I'd then check into that day's hotel in the late morning to early afternoon, briefly rest in the room, and then head out for the majority of the days’ parks in a loop back to the hotel at night.
Each spreadsheet row contains the name of the park, park codes for CNPOTA and POTA, arrival time, operation duration (generally an hour), departure time, and the vital travel duration to the next park. Times are calculated dynamically in the spreadsheet, making it easy to adjust the schedule. The most important column for a park row is the operation location. I use latitude and longitude for a precise parking location estimate, and because it provides an unambiguous destination for my travel route plotters. The downside to lat+long is that it's easy to make a single digit error that turns into a big mistake on travel days, so verifying that the destination location is at the desired park is always important. I used Google Maps for travel duration estimates for the spreadsheet, which tends to be quite accurate where traffic isn’t a major concern. For live driving directions, I use both Google Maps on an iPhone and my in-dash navigation/entertainment system. Getting a second opinion on travel routes is always prudent, and Google Maps relies on live Internet connectivity[1] that may not always be available.
The travel plan spreadsheet represents a plausible goal for each day, but depends on operational discipline and no travel disruptions to complete on time. I'm not a slave to the plan, but I do try to keep to the schedule when possible, because otherwise I will have to drop parks from a day or not get the rest I need. Having a good plan along with willingness to make adjustments is vital to meeting my overall rove goals.
When I was satisfied that I had a workable plan, I published a copy to the CNPOTA and POTA Facebook groups. Several of the more serious and successful chasers referred to that published spreadsheet during the rove, which helped them plan their days more efficiently while still meeting me on-air for QSOs.
The Big Day
The Big Day
No matter how well planning and preparation are executed, I am always anxious before a high-profile rove. There are many things that can go wrong, starting with the reliability of my twenty-year-old van. Those risks all lump together into a ball of angst peaking the night before a trip. My sleep is quite inadequate even on normal days, but the upside of that problem is being confident of waking up well before sunrise. May 11, 2019 was no exception, so I was able to pack my suitcases and get on the road from my suburban Philly QTH a little after 3:30am EDT. Getting through New York City by 7am is a big time-saver even on a Saturday, especially because the van cannot access the car-only less-stressful routes northeast of the city. APRS tracking allowed my park friends to see my progress, and I would make updates to a Facebook group whenever I stopped.
Milestones come regularly on the first half of the trip: Newark NJ, New York City, New Haven and Hartford CT, Boston, Portsmouth NH, and Portland ME came and went. The drive through Maine presented fewer milestones and lower speed limits, along with a hilly same-ness to the road that encouraged drowsiness.
The border crossing at Calais ME to New Brunswick is hugely improved from my trip in 2006. There is now a bypass highway, rather than a stop along Calais’s ridiculously congested town streets. I only had to wait for one car at the Canadian checkpoint. My van is unusual looking and capable of hauling a decent amount in its basic form, so I would always expect more than the normal amount of scrutiny. As usual, answering officer questions simply, directly, and with eye contact helps to lubricate the border crossing process. I answered why I was coming to Canada by describing ham radio and the parks program and the reciprocal US/CN ham radio operating agreement, none of which is easy to do “simply”. Then the officer asked me how much radio power I was using – a bit of a surprise that indicated he already knew something about radio transmitters, or quickly looked up the subject. I think it helped to have signs on the sides of the van that show I’m in a legit operation. Also I had confidence having already crossed the border in December. He let me go without an inspection, always a relief because there’s just so much stuff in the van.
Magnetic signs on the van in my driveway. The tall black cylinder is the cell booster antenna.
The first two parks in my plan were only about a half hour from the border. Frankly, when I made my plan, I expected that I’d be too tired to activate those on my first travel day, and that I would instead attempt them on the way back. But leaving home as early as I did allowed me to get to the first park before 3pm.
My first stop on this rove was a parking lot for Saint Croix Island International Historic Site. Like most parks on this rove, this park was officially closed but the parking lot was wide open. Getting set up took longer because it was the first stop, so the laptop and its connections had to be established. Soon after finding a frequency on 20m, the PowerSDR software for my Flex 3000 kept locking up, requiring a software and radio restart. Turning off the 400w amplifier and running barefoot helped, but meant my signal was 6db weaker. Despite spotting myself on the DX Cluster and Facebook, I wasn’t getting many calls; soon after announcing I’d be moving from 20m to 40m I had a short pileup. (I noticed this phenomenon starting with NPOTA: getting a series of replies after announcing I would be leaving a frequency due to lack of calls happens surprisingly often.) After moving to 40m, I stubbornly tried using the amp again, but once again had a lockup so I left the amp off the rest of the day.
The next park was mere minutes down the road at St. Andrews, a classic small blockhouse built to repel an expected American invasion during The War of 1812. My own invasion of Canada was peaceful, but it’s startling for an American like me to find many military installations here and in Ontario built to repel Americans. Without bothering with the amplifier and its attendant SDR lockups, this activation was more straightforward and netted 33 contacts on 20m and 40m in only 31 minutes, a very good rate for me.
St. Andrews Blockhouse National Historic Site, built to repel an American invasion.
While packing up in St. Andrews, I starting coming off the adrenaline high of the border crossing and my first two operations, and realized how tired I was from more than twelve hours on the road. I announced to my Facebook park friends that I was headed to the Saint John hotel. After a rest, I might or might not have the energy to make the final activation of the day within the city. The hour drive from St. Andrews, mostly on good highway along rolling hills, featured beautiful views over the Bay of Fundy. By the time I got to the hotel, I was nearly exhausted, and struggled to put one foot in front of the other to check in to my hotel room.
After a good nap, I considered my options for the last park on the plan for the day. My route home in one week would take me back to Saint John where I’d have another opportunity for an activation in the city, but I wanted to stay flexible on the trip back home to either stay overnight in Saint John or in Bangor, depending on my energy at that time. Although I was still quite tired, I was at least functional after the nap, so I decided to drive up to the final park of the day.
Carleton Martello Tower is another fortification intended to repel the Americans in The War of 1812. Built of masonry and on a commanding hill over the city, it’s much more impressive than the blockhouse at St. Andrews. With a great view over the salt water bay and at a high point, it should have been a good radio location, but instead it was marred by the second worst noise of the entire rove: S6 and above on both 40m and 20m. After a short, but intense, session on 40m netting 16 Qs in ten minutes, I went to 20m quicker than normal. Unfortunately, between the noise and the band condition, I couldn’t hear anyone answer my CQs. Short of patience and wakefulness, I packed up for the short drive back to the hotel, hoping that there were five chasers among the sixteen who would be kind enough to upload their contacts, so I’d get credit for the CNPOTA activation.
Carleton Martello Tower at highest point in Saint John NB
Sunday is Fundy
Sunday is Fundy
As is my curse, I woke up stupid-early Sunday. After two hours of failing to get back to sleep, around 4am I decided to at least do something useful. Dressing warmly against the almost-freezing pre-dawn temperature, I went to the van to see if I could improve the SDR lockup problem experienced the day before. The first problem I found was a guy wandering around the parking lot yelling at nothing … I felt like I was back in Philly. I tried to keep one eye on the yelling man, because seeing me adjusting things in the dark on an official-looking mind-control van could be a strong trigger for a schizophrenic.
I rearranged all the cables around the radio and amplifier, and lengthened the PTT-to-TX delay. Any power above 300w consistently locked up PowerSDR, requiring a restart of the radio and software. I didn’t think 3db (200w) was worth the risk of more lockups, so I decided I'd just use barefoot power. The alternative was to try my IC-7100, a conventional non-SDR radio, which I installed and tested only a few days before the trip. Though its receiver isn't bad, it isn't nearly as good as the Flex 3000. Plus the 7100 would make me more likely to pick a bad frequency to CQ because I couldn’t see the band spectrum as I could on the Flex.
After I was done inside the van, the agitated man was replaced by a police car with two officers inside, pointed at me a few parking rows away. Were the cops called to shoo away the yelling man, or to investigate a guy messing around in a suspicious van? I waved my best “Hey there, it’s okay. I’m okay; nothing to see here.” wave to the cops and went back to the hotel for breakfast and to pack up for the day’s ham adventure.
Sunday was to be my first day of the pattern of driving to the day’s hotel via one or more parks, checking into the hotel to get some rest, then activating parks in a loop back to the hotel. My first park was farther away from a direct route to the hotel than most others on my plan because I made a special effort to activate National Parks, as opposed to the National Historic Sites that make up most of CNPOTA’s park units. Fundy National Park is eighty square miles on the Bay, where visitors can find some of its most photogenic views, although I was aiming to activate at the first open area from the northwest gate on the shore of a pretty lake. I thought I would have to pay an entrance fee and probably buy a system-wide season pass, but there was no one at the gatehouse.
Fundy was the first of several parks on this rove where multiple park programs with overlapping parks required some contact juggling. Fundy NP is in the CNPOTA program; Fundy Biosphere Reserve encompasses Fundy NP plus a huge area all around the National Park. The Biosphere is included in the POTA program, but it’s not part of the CNPOTA program. Therefore, I was encouraging multiple calls from those who wanted two POTA parks, while the second contact would be a dupe in CNPOTA. I made a total of 42 contacts here with an average rate of fifty per hour, leisurely compared to most of my activations.
Sunny but chilly morning at Wolfe Lake, Fundy National Park
After a trip of about ninety minutes, I arrived at the Sunday hotel in Moncton NB, where I was able to rest and take a short nap before leaving to activate four parks to the south. Monument-Lefebvre is a large mid-19th century building and its grounds, located in the town of Memramcook. RF noise here made 40m and 80m utterly impossible; 20m gained a respectable 25 contacts in just eighteen minutes. Although many chasers were disappointed by the lack of 40m, by not even trying 40m I was back on schedule, after a delay to fix a sticky screwdriver antenna.
Monument-Lefebvre. Pretty picture, ugly noise.
Fort Lawrence is barely over the border to Nova Scotia. Although there was a wind farm close by, I was relieved that RF noise was fairly low and cell service was available, at this somewhat isolated location. The small circular gravel parking area wasn’t interesting to look at, but it made parking easy. Even without the amplifier, my SDR software locked up here, causing me and my chasers frustration again. Despite that delay, I made a good rate of 48 contacts in 45 minutes on two bands. The next park Fort Beauséjour[1] was a short drive back into New Brunswick. The parking here afforded a wonderful sweeping view to the southwest over flat salt marshes to the Bay. Since I got very good results at the last park, the topography and conductivity toward most of my chasers ought to make for even better results here, right? I was disappointed that results didn’t scale, and 40m was slow to start at all. Still, 32 contacts in 37 minutes is pretty good; I just had higher expectations.
Fort Beauséjour panorama from the roof of the van.
After a drive that rattled my bones on the rutted farm road, I found that the last “park” is nothing more than an historical marker for La Coupe Dry Dock, an area of dykes once built by Acadians; it is now farmland and marshes. There is no parking area at the head of a short trail to the marker, but I parked there at a curve in the dirt road. The wind was too strong to use my usual 17-foot telescoping whip on the screwdriver, so I defaulted to a standard 100-inch steel whip. Even though I was worried about a lack of performance because of the shorter whip, results were actually excellent at 34 contacts in less than a half-hour with an average rate of 73 Qs per hour. The contrast with my expectations here versus the previous park was amusing. Another worry was assuaged here—in my trip planning, this location had seemed to be the most isolated, but even here I had good enough cell reception, which is always a huge benefit in getting a good rate of contacts quickly.
The next intersection was a relatively long way in the direction I was pointing. I made a six-point U-turn, avoiding getting caught in the ditches on either side of the road. I could only hope one of the frequent fast pickup trucks didn’t show up while I was blocking the road and slide into me. I began the bone-rattling trip back to pavement and then the hour-long return to the hotel for a good rest. During the night, I uploaded my contacts from that day. I noticed that all three of my parks from yesterday were confirmed with five or more contacts uploaded by chasers, including the park with only sixteen contacts. I was very happy my POTA and CNPOTA friends were so diligent, and they continued to confirm all my activations the rest of my trip. Thanks POTA peeps!
Van of Green Gables
Van of Green Gables
Monday was dedicated to parks on Prince Edward Island (“PEI”). But before leaving New Brunswick, one park, Fort Gaspareaux Historic Site, remained to be activated with a few minutes detour off the road to PEI. This is an archeological and graveyard site on the shore, so there is not much for the untrained eye to see. Another small round gravel parking lot was easy for me to use. Two cars showed up after I did and parked for a few minutes, and I regretted that I partly blocked their view of Baie Verte, though I didn’t expect any visitors here in the morning on a weekday. 32 contacts were not bad at all, considering this was a morning activation which are typically slow.
Fort Gaspareau site, with historic marker on the right. Not much more to see here than this.
I crossed Northumberland Strait from New Brunswick to PEI over the surprisingly narrow 8-mile-long Confederation Bridge, which was built only a little over twenty years ago. Before driving to the hotel in the capital Charlottetown, the first PEI park to be activated was Port-la-Joye at the relatively narrow mouth of Charlottetown Harbor. Though the sky was grey, I could tell this would be nice spot to walk along the shore and view the Harbor. This pleasant start turned ugly though: Soon after beginning operation on 40m barefoot, the SDR locked up, requiring me to restart the software and radio. The lockups were now happening with the briefest transmission, which was intolerable. I couldn’t understand why this problem worsened, but this was no time to diagnose anything. I notified the POTA and CNPOTA Facebook groups that I was switching over to the backup radio, an Icom IC-7100. After unloading luggage and other cargo, I switched over the eight or so cables, grateful that I had tested this scenario and had already mounted the 7100’s main unit and supporting peripherals onto a rack shelf. After some testing and reloading the cargo, I was back on the air, albeit without the panadapter and logger-to-radio automation that I was used to and which contributed to my fast activation style. Although finding an open frequency to call CQ was much harder now, and the receiver was not nearly as sensitive, at least I could use the amplifier again. After 33 contacts roughly equal between 40m and 20m, I was done with this park, far off my day’s schedule, and already tired from the stress of the radio failure. I drove the winding roads to the outskirts of Charlottetown and to my hotel for a needed rest.
The plan for the second half of the day was to activate two locations on the north shore, about an hour from Charlottetown. Both historic sites are also a part of the sprawling and segmented Prince Edward Island National Park. POTA chasers were encouraged to make multiple contacts there, so they could be credited with both the smaller historic sites and the enveloping national park. The drive to the shore area was a treat, with gently rolling hills whose peaks offered picturesque views of the ocean under a perfectly clear deep blue sky.
The first stop was Green Gables, part of the wordy L.M. Montgomery's Cavendish National Historic Site, containing the farmhouse setting which inspired the popular Anne of Green Gables novels. The visitors’ center was under construction, but most of the sloping parking lot was open, as was the gift shop where I could buy my rove sponsor (my understanding wife) a Green Gables souvenir. The Green Gables house itself was not visible and required an entrance fee and time, so that will have to wait for a future ham-free visit. Heavy construction equipment working on site did not generate undue RF noise as I feared, but general propagation conditions were unusual – signals from the west were weak and subject to large QSB, though I got a small string of European DX on 20m.
On the drive west to the next location, I stopped at a beach parking lot so I could take a selfie on the most northerly and most easterly beach I’ve walked upon in North America. With temps in the 50s and a stiff ocean breeze, it was not a good day for a swim. I easily imagined this beach being crowded in summer—although I wonder if even then the water is warm enough for a pleasant dip. Dalvay-by-the-Sea is basically a large formerly-private mansion, and is now run partly as a resort. The unusual on-air conditions I experienced earlier continued here, and I netted only 31 contacts, though they were made in just 30 minutes so I continued to make up time lost earlier in the day
Delay-by-the-Sea in the background, squinting activator in foreground.
My original plan was to try to activate two sites in Charlottetown itself in the evening, possibly after a rest at the hotel. I was now so tired I knew I wasn’t going to get out of bed once I got into it. I decided to compromise by heading straight to the easier of the two in-town locations and to skip the second one altogether. Ardgowan Historic Site is in a residential area and is used mainly by Parks Canada staff. Its relatively small parking lot included several official vehicles. Although a LEO-type car pulled in as I was setting up, he showed no interest in what I was doing; this is always a relief. I started on 40m as the sun was just starting to set. It is unusual for me to operate in the evening, so I’m used to 40m being a medium-distance band when activating in the Philly area. Therefore, I was unprepared for seven strong European stations and the new experience was exciting. Including a decent run on 20m, I logged 50 contacts total, one of my best of the rove. After a long, sometimes anxious day, I was glad my hotel was only a few minutes away.
Cruising to Sydney
Cruising to Sydney
Tuesday’s plan was a long trip from Charlottetown PE to Sydney NS with just a single activation along the way; this route also took me from Prince Edward Island (IOTA NA-029) to Cape Breton Island (NA-010). While planning this trip in January, ferry schedules were not available for May. I originally made travel plans for PEI assuming I’d be crossing Confederation Bridge both ways. When the ferry schedule was finally available just two weeks before the trip, I saw that the time of the second crossing of the day lined up well, saved me a minimum of 4 hours driving, and didn’t cost much more than the fuel saved plus the tourist-gouging bridge toll. During the hour drive from the hotel to the ferry port at Woods Islands, I encountered even more of the traffic circles that are favored on PEI. Engineers like me appreciate their obvious efficiency over traffic light-controlled intersections. But circles require courteous, alert, and skilled drivers—which are why they can thrive in Canada but were mostly removed from New Jersey.
This was the van’s first ferry ride and my first ferry ride on a ship this big. I was used to much smaller ferries in New England, so a ship that can roll-on tractor-trailers ignited my little boy sense of wonder. The lower vehicle deck is open-air, so the van also got its first splashes of wind-driven salt water, not counting the salty winter roads of Albany NY where it served its original purpose for a TV station. The wind also made the ninety-minute trip a bit rocky and me a bit queasy, so I made a note to get some motion sickness drugs before my next even longer ferry trip later that week
The van’s first ferry ride. Refreshing salt spray at no extra cost.
The ferry arrived on time, and I began my drive to the only activation of the day. Nova Scotia’s roads are, let’s say, of inconsistent quality. On four-lane segments of the road, I probably looked drunk as I picked the best track for my tires regardless of the lane markings unless a vehicle was overtaking me. The van is shaky even on good roads, so my version of “defensive driving” was defending my spine and kidneys.
St. Peters Canal Historic Site is located within St. Peters Historic Site on St. Peters Bay. So many Peters in one place, I was petro-fied. Parking was easy in a gravel lot at the mouth of the Canal. Before operating, I tried to get some connectivity between the IC-7100 and my N1MM logger, having had to correct frequencies in the logger a couple times because they were no longer sent by the radio. Although I successfully got them communicating, I had forgotten that I could either use CAT communication for the automatic screwdriver tuner or N1MM, but not both. I decided to use the autotuner for its ease of changing frequencies, and began calling CQ on 40m. Complaints were posted on Facebook about my weak signal and extreme QSB. On 20m, propagation was more stable but still difficult for many people, despite my 400w out. I packed up after a little over an hour, having gotten a good 58 QSOs mostly on 20m.
At St. Peters Canal NHS, in St. Peters NHS, on St. Peters Bay. Picture by non-saint Peter.
The ninety-minute drive to Sydney felt slow, as I was driving mostly on winding two-lane roads. By the time I checked in to the waterfront hotel, I was really bushed. I made the difficult decision to scrap my planned activation of Cape Breton Highlands National Park. Activating that one park would cost me six hours, which I figured would be better spent resting and recovering. This allowed me to not have to conform to a strict schedule the next day, so I could activate my remaining two locations planned for Wednesday at a more relaxed pace. My needed nap was interrupted by a loud horn that I initially thought was an evacuation warning. After the third burst, I thought I located the sound as coming from outside. When I opened my window shade, I saw an ocean-crossing cruise ship docked a few hundred yards away blowing its horn. This was a shock since it wasn’t there when I arrived an hour or two before, and because I didn’t know Sydney topography well enough to know that such large vessels had access here. That night, I had my first of only two real restaurant meals on the rove, and enjoyed the time off.
Loud cruise ship near Sydney hotel. Yes, that’s a giant violin between ship and building.
Down-Shift Day
Down-Shift Day
I woke up Wednesday having slept through the night for the first time on the trip. Also I was able to take my normally-daily cardio exercise, so I felt much better than the day before. The Sydney hotel was my only two-day stay, so I had the luxury of not having to pack up in the morning. I took my time to get on the road to activate two locations in a loop to the southeast then northeast of the city. The weather was predicted to be wet, windy, and in the 40s F, so that wasn’t motivating me to get out the door.
The Louisbourg area has three historic sites, but one of them appeared to be not operable by vehicle, so my plan was to operate from the Royal Battery Historic Site which is part of the large Fortress of Louisbourg Historic Site. The parking there near the rocky shore was a wet gravel mess; I positioned the van as well as I could to avoid tromping through big puddles to get to the screwdriver and operating position. The driving cold rain made operating conditions unpleasant, and added difficulty to installing the whip on the screwdriver. Even though propagation was predicted to be better today than the day before, I had one of the worst contact results of the trip: sixteen QSOs total, mostly on 20m. I didn’t think about needing at least twenty to be able to apportion ten each to the co-located POTA parks, so I missed making my minimum ten in the enveloping park—though who knows how long it would have taken to get those 20 QSOs.
You can’t see the driving cold rain in this pic. This was the only selfie I took without a smile.
The next site has a strong connection to the hobby: Marconi National Historic Site marks the location of the famous radio pioneer’s first transatlantic wireless station. There is a small museum and a permanent ham station on the site, but sadly, it was still closed for the season when I arrived. The wind here was even stronger than at the last site. I should have been using my stiff steel whip instead of the telescoping one, which was very difficult to install and subject to damage because of the powerful wind. Results here were better than at the previous site, but not great at 28 contacts in 36 minutes. At least I had a mini pileup of European stations on 20m, appropriate for this site. I drove the slow winding roads back to the slow bumpy roads in Sydney, for another good rest before the extended driving day planned for tomorrow.
On the left, my antenna whip is straining in the wind. The sea is beyond the fence.
Hobnobbing with Halifax Headquarters Honchos
Hobnobbing with Halifax Headquarters Honchos
My “vacation” in Sydney was over; I had a long Thursday ahead of me with a drive across much of Nova Scotia. My first activation site was about an hour from Sydney past fjords and over hills, including the highest point of the rove at a dizzying 240m (787ft) elevation. Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Site is a museum with artifacts from Bell’s experimental work at his estate across Baddeck Bay. The museum features his record-setting hydrofoil, and a replica of the aircraft that made Canada’s first successful heavier-than-air flight. I’m looking forward to returning someday to enjoy the museum. Radio conditions were not good, but were better than the day before. Before having to leave to keep on schedule, I made 27 contacts in a little less than a half-hour, not too bad for a morning operation.
The drive to downtown Halifax takes four hours from the Bell museum, not counting stops. The route was not interesting; especially since about half the distance was backtracking over the same roads I took two days before. About an hour away from my destination, I still felt strong so I announced on Facebook my ETA at the first Halifax activation site. Google Maps had me crossing the Narrows of Halifax Harbor over the Macdonald Bridge, rather than the more modern bridge to the north. Without much maneuvering room, I aimed the van at a manned toll booth lane. I explained to the toll attendant that I had no cash (I had gotten away with just using a credit card up to now) but did have a credit card to use. He instructed me that I would have to back up out of the way. Since there was already a line forming behind me I was thinking “Dude, you can tell me I can’t cross the bridge, but there’s no way I’m backing up.” Then I offered American cash, which hadn’t occurred to me till then. He ripped me off by exchanging a U.S. dollar for a Canadian dollar coin, and told me I had to drop the coin in a basket about five feet away. This caused a flashback to my youth; I hadn’t used a coin-toll-basket for more than 25 years.
Driving the van over the bridge and onto moderately challenging old city streets, I finally got to the prominent Halifax Citadel historic fort and paid an entrance fee that was probably unnecessary. After first turning down into the core of the fort through narrow passageways, I was a little panicked. Could I turn around? I surely didn’t want to operate with twenty-foot stone walls on both sides of the van. After a 4-point turn, I got out of that hole and onto the peripheral road around the top of the fort. A sign with an RV drawing finally gave me a clue where I could park and operate.
Operating at the Halifax Citadel.
Credit: Sheldon Hartling
A few minutes after I began operating at the Citadel, two visitors came into the van with all the aggressiveness that Canadians are known for (just kidding). Doug Grace and Sheldon Hartling, two of the core team that created and run CNPOTA, surprised me here, even though they had only obliquely mentioned wanting to meet. I was very happy that they took the time and effort to see me at all; showing up during my activation was especially great. I’m not used to being monitored live while on air, and I felt a bit rude continuing to operate after our initial greeting, but they insisted I continue. After 40m callers died down, I was able to talk to Sheldon and Doug for a few minutes and point out some features of the van. After I got back on the air on 20m, there was a genuine pileup of both N. American stations and DX; 37 contacts in just 24 minutes for a rate of over ninety per hour. We talked some more and took some pictures, and discussed plans for the rest of the day. I would check into my hotel before more activations as was my usual pattern, but Doug would lead the way around major construction in the area. Then we would get together after the activations were done.
CNPOTA official Doug Grace checking I’m within maximum distance from the site.
Credit: Sheldon Hartling
After I checked in and dropped off my bags, Doug got in the van’s navigator seat to help me drive to the two sites remaining on the day’s plan. The first was York Redoubt, a key defense of the Harbor up through WWII. I parked outside its gates and operated for just 22 minutes to get 26 contacts. Next, Doug directed me to a parking lot next to a park containing D'Anville's Encampment historic marker, commemorating the approximate camp location of what remained of a tragically failed military expedition from France. A slightly better contact rate was experienced here with more DX, probably due to the setting sun, including an exciting first contact from Gambia. As we were leaving, John Bignell arrived to visit briefly and to make my only HT contact on 2m. John is an enthusiastic local participant in CNPOTA, and has appeared on a podcast to explain the program.
Doug Grace and I at the marker for D'Anville's Encampment.
Doug, Sheldon, and Bill Elliott generously took me out for dinner that night; Bill is another CNPOTA core team member and president of the large and very active Halifax ARC. They made me feel appreciated for the effort I was making, and I hope I made them feel appreciated for starting CNPOTA. The story I heard that night of the creation of CNPOTA was impressive and inspiring. These accomplished leaders created a national ham event on the scale of NPOTA with the tiniest fraction of the resources and only jawbone support from their national organization. I hope they publish their story someday. Ham operators should be grateful these volunteers built a fun program all can enjoy. CNPOTA demonstrates how enthusiasm, dedication, and generously donated hours can create an impressive on-air program, just as POTA did in the U.S.
Park Hopping to the Capital of Acadia
Park Hopping to the Capital of Acadia
Friday would be the busiest day of the rove. My next overnight stop was a B&B outside of Annapolis Royal. I planned to activate five park units in four locations on the way, get a good rest, and then possibly activate two more units in the evening, depending on how I felt. In case I was too tired that night, the close proximity to the B&B of those last two sites would allow me to activate them the next morning instead.
Fort Edward was the first park of the day, about an hour from Halifax. This is another blockhouse similar in design to my second rove park St. Andrews Blockhouse, though Fort Edward was much larger in its heyday. It played a key role in what we would today call the “ethnic cleansing” of Acadians from the Maritimes by the British in the mid-18th century. Almost one contact per minute in 36 minutes was a great start to the day, especially at 9am local time. The next historic site at Grand-Pré memorializes a major Acadian settlement destroyed by the British Crown through deadly deportations and property seizures. Because this location had a large parking lot and flat terrain and low RF noise, I figured I would have even better contact results there … but once again, my guess at on-air results was wrong. I got just a little more than half the contacts as I had at the last site in about the same operating time. At least the visitors’ center provided a civilized comfort stop before heading down the road again.
Fort Edward with blockhouse and historic marker in background
An hour’s drive to the next site turned into ninety minutes after a long detour to an overcrowded Tim Hortons. The Battle of Bloody Creek was a successful guerrilla attack by Acadians and Mi’kmaq against a British detachment. It is remembered with just a stone cairn. There is only a small gravel pullover near the marker, leaving the van close to a busy two-lane road. I put out traffic cones to warn the fast road users, hoping to get their attention to keep them from drifting into me. I had to jog the van back and forth a bit to find an opening in the branches overhead to fit my antenna whip, and still the whip was uncomfortably close to utility lines. On-air results were disappointingly similar to what they had been at the previous site, though at least here there was some justification with the close trees absorbing RF.
Van just off the road at Bloody Creek next to historic marker.
Only fifteen minutes away was Fort Anne, located on a hill in the picturesque village of Annapolis Royal, which was the capital of Acadia when it was named Port-Royal[1]. The former officers’ quarters were renovated to serve as a visitors’ center, but only the earthworks remain of the rest of the fort. Activating this location also activates Charles Fort, a site built by early Scottish settlers of which nothing remains, but is indicated by a commemorative plaque. This location on a high spot should have been a good RF launch point, but at least three commercial grass mowing machines in the park created high RF noise levels that made every contact a struggle. I just barely got twenty contacts, enabling me to make the minimum ten for each of the two co-located POTA parks. At least this time, I remembered to tough it out to get twenty, rather than repeating my mistake at Royal Battery on Wednesday.
At Fort Anne and Charles Fort historic sites. I’m smiling so this must be before operating.
I headed through the town and over the only tidal-powered electrical generating station in North America to my pretty Bed & Breakfast in Granville Ferry, across the Annapolis River from Annapolis Royal. I had decided earlier in the week to use my quiet portable generator here to recharge my radio station batteries, but a long rain was predicted later that day and throughout the night. So instead, I used the built-in Auragen generator that runs off of the van engine via a large alternator, after asking the B&B owner permission to run the van for several hours. This generator is much less efficient than the portable genny and taxes the van engine, but it’s *much*quieter than the separate built-in 5kW conventional generator.
Port-Royal was renamed Annapolis Royal after the British captured the fort and town in the early 1700s. Note that this “Port-Royal” is different from the older abandoned settlement downstream on the other side of the river with the same name, which I also activated later in the day. Confusing area!
After settling into the room, I was grateful I could take a deep nap to get refreshed from the last two days of frenetic driving and operating. The last two parks were close to the B&B, so after posting my schedule to the Facebook groups, I continued my rove to the southwest. Melanson Settlement National Historic Site had an American-style locked gate, but also had a short gravel driveway with enough room to park the van. Power lines ran along the same side of the public road, so I had to be careful installing the 17’ whip. If the day was even slightly windy, I would have used a shorter whip because a stiff wind might have pushed the whip into the power lines causing a Bad Day. As it often does, the approach of dusk seemed to enhance RF conditions allowing me to make forty contacts.
Squeezed between power lines and the closed gate at Melanson Settlement historic site.
The last site of this long day was Port-Royal National Historic Site. France’s first settlement in North America was the “Habitation at Port-Royal,” started here in 1605. A replica of the Habitation was built in the 1930s. This Historic Site looks very interesting given what I have learned about the Acadians during this trip; I hope to come back someday to visit when it’s open. I parked the van in the decent-sized visitors’ parking lot, glad to have an easy operating location for the last site of the day. I had the highest rate all day here, 37 contacts in 34 minutes for a rate of 65 per hour; 20m included a few DX from Europe. I drove ten minutes back to the hotel, satisfied to have finished this day with seven parks activated in CNPOTA and POTA, the most parks activated in a single day during the rove.
Keji-say-it-fast
Keji-say-it-fast
Saturday, the final operation day, was designed to be slow-paced, planned around the only ferry departure of the day from Nova Scotia to New Brunswick in the late afternoon. Missing that ferry would engender an additional day of angry driving around the Bay of Fundy, as well as wasting my pre-paid ferry ticket, so I wanted to leave lots of slack in the day’s schedule.
Having done the two parks close to the B&B the previous evening, I only had one operation scheduled: Kejimkujik National Park and the co-located Kejimkujik National Historic Site. The Mi’kmaq used canoe routes in this area for thousands of years to travel from the Bay of Fundy in the north to the Atlantic shore of Nova Scotia in the south. The park contains several Mi’kmaw cave drawings showing Mi’kmaq life after European contact in the 1700s. Kejimkujik is now a very popular park for recreation and camping.
I would not have scheduled this park if I had known the condition of Route 6 through the central highlands, the only reasonable route from Annapolis Valley to the park. The rutted and wash-boarded road shook me and my van to the point I seriously considered turning around, which I might have done if I didn’t have plans to meet fellow hams at the park, where they were already camping. The hilly and curvy road didn’t allow many opportunities to aim my tires to avoid the worse parts of the road as I encountered them, making the experience even worse. Come on Canada, I know you can do better than this.
Grateful to be done with painful Route 6, I paid only my second entrance fee and proceeded to the visitors’ center. This is a large but heavily wooded park, so the best radio location I could find was at its visitors’ center parking lot, which also has the advantages of being close the entrance and having civilized comfort facilities. The parking lot was about one-third full, which doesn’t sound like much, but it was by far the most crowded park lot during my rove; I assume this place would be overflowing at peak season. As expected, the greater number of park chasers on the weekend balanced out only fair propagation conditions to net 52 contacts during a leisurely two-hour punctuated operating window. About two-thirds of contacts were made on 20m, including a small number of DX stations, and several experienced chasers made multiple contacts to get credit for both co-located POTA parks.
The highlight of this operation was meeting hams and their friends already camping at the park. After he saw my schedule a few months before, Robert Ewert VE1KS had asked if we could meet because he’d be camping in Kejimkujik that week. I had said that I hoped we could, but not really expecting a meeting to occur. Not long after I confirmed my arrival at the visitors’ center, I met him and Janet Northrop VE1JNT. They toured the van, and we took a picture together. I appreciated Robert making the effort to stay abreast of my plans that day and meeting me. He is also part of the CNPOTA team, so I was glad I could thank him in person for his work.
Robert Ewert, Janet Northrop, and me at Kejimkujik visitors’ center. Credit: Tom Redford
The drive back to the Annapolis Valley was back over horrible Route 6. At least Google was able to get me onto secondary roads a little early, as I made my way to the ferry terminal at Digby NS at the mouth of the Annapolis River. Before getting to the ferry, I remembered to get some mild anti-nausea pills owing to my previous experience. The Digby ferry was a larger boat and the winds were calmer, so I discovered I had less reason to need the pills. The crowding at peak season is unimaginable, given how few seats were occupied during my trip. I’ve been on relatively tiny ferries and huge cruise ships, but this was an interesting combination of the two, and I enjoyed the new experience. The ferry arrived in Saint John NB ahead of schedule, and I had been able to take a brief nap on board, so I decided to continue driving to Bangor ME instead of staying overnight in Saint John.
Goodbye Nova Scotia. I’ll be back. (On the MV Fundy Rose, Bay of Fundy.)
The border crossing back to the U.S. was fairly smooth. The border agent had never heard of ham radio, so that took some explaining. She greeted my explanation with a perplexed look that said, “That’s goofy. Why would anyone do that?” She asked me if the rear door was open. I said it was unlocked. She got out of her booth and again asked if the rear door was open. Was this a sophisticated test to throw me off, or was it just a different understanding of the word “open”? I again said the rear door was unlocked. As she walked to the back, she asked for a third time “So the back door is open?” I surrendered by answering “Yes, it’s open.” At least, she completed her inspection quickly and allowed me through. A border crossing is not a good place for someone like me who overthinks everything.
My ride back to Bangor was unremarkable except for my struggle against boredom and sleepiness. The surprisingly large Holiday Inn was crowded and under reconstruction, but I found my way to my room through the labyrinthine hallways and had a too-short sleep followed by a pre-dawn start toward home. As always, the drive approaching New York City on a Sunday was unpleasantly crowded; Google tried re-routing me several times, advising routes I knew I could not take with the van.
I was happy to arrive home mid-afternoon Sunday, with a tired body and a tired credit card, but also with an enormous sense of satisfaction, knowing I completed an adventure I wouldn’t forget. This trip left me with a strong desire to return with my spouse to many of the same locations, including the rolling hills of northern Prince Edward Island, the vistas of the New Brunswick’s southern shoreline, the highlands of Cape Breton Island, and Nova Scotia’s historic Annapolis Valley. I’d enjoy revisiting all the polite friendly people I encountered. Thank you Maritime Canada for a wonderful visit, and thanks to all the hams in the parks-on-the-air programs who contacted me or tried to.
Stats
Stats
892 total contacts; 248 unique callsigns; 50 DX in 15 DXCC countries
2,704 miles driven, the same as a one-way trip from my Philly home to Los Angeles
$2,255 spent (about CN$3,000), including $800 on fuel
26 unique operating locations
33 CNPOTA parks activated, many of which were first-ever activations
32 POTA parks activated, all of which were first-ever activations
Top chasers:
Carl W9OO, 48 contacts
Curt VE3ZN, 37 contacts
K8VOX, K8KP, and K8OD with 24 contacts each
At least 10 contacts each: VE2GT, KD4TTP, KD8F, VE3LDT, NO2C, K2RYD, K8HQ, K8RAT, KC1CBQ, KG5CIK, KG8P, KO4SB, N3ARS, N3KN, NE4TN, VE3JV, W2VDZ, W8TAM, WB9OWN
Bio
Bio
Pete Kobak, KØBAK, has been an active amateur radio operator since 2014, mostly as a mobile/rover/portable operator. His interests include operating mobile in state QSO parties, in VHF contests, and of course in park activation programs. Pete is currently converting an old TV station news van into an HF and VHF mobile ham station. He is a grateful member of the Pottstown Area ARC and the Mt. Airy VHF RC.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse