Merry Christmas

2016 was a busy year for Canadian Island Activators, and we hope next year will be even better.  There are a lot more islands out there that need to be activated for the first time.

It's that time of year when we spend more time with our families than on the radio.  Most of our islands are snow and ice covered and are rather inhospitable places.

I heard the bells on Christmas Day

Their old, familiar carols play,

And wild and sweet

The words repeat

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Winter Safety #3

Winter Safety #2

Going out to activate an island this winter?  Make sure you dress for the weather, and always carry the 10 essentials with you in your backpack.  I always add about 50 feet of paracord to this list and a small 5x7 tarp.

Winter Safety #1

All winter activities require layers of warm, dry cold-weather clothing.

Dress in a minimum of three layers: 

1. Thin moisture-wicking materials such as polyester should be next to the skin. 
2. Next is a middle insulating layer of wool or fleece. 
3. An outer water- and wind-proof layer made of nylon or Gore-Tex. 

An outer layer should be removed just before starting strenuous activity to avoid overheating, which will make you wet from sweat. Layers should go back on during rest to stay warm. Include a toque, mitts, a scarf and waterproof boots. 

BE CAREFUL OUT ON THE ICE !!!!!

Successful Activations....

Congratulations go out to Lee, VE4DXR for two successful first activations this summer.  

They are:  George Island, MB007 at EO12et, and Berens Island, MB008 at EO12hh.  Both islands are located in Lake Winnipeg.

Well done Lee !!

Successful Activation.....ON-300

Just got the news that Doug, VE3VS, had a successful activation of Tondern Island today.   Tondern now sets a record -  as of today Ontario has the highest number of activated islands, and Tondern becomes ON-300.

Twenty-Eight of the contacts made were on 40m and a further two contacts made on 20m.  

Well done to Doug!!!

New Activation - Wednesday, October 12th.

I’ve just received word of a late season island activation slated to happen next Wednesday, October 12^th.

Doug VE3VS / VE3CWO and Rob VA3RBM will be conducting a first activation of an Ontario island.  The actual island location will depend on the weather.

Frequencies will be 7.140 to 7.160, and on 14.250 to 14.265.  This will be SSB only, no CW.

They plan on being on the air by noon and will be there for approximately three hours.

The Results Are In !!

The results are in for this years W/VE Island QSO Party.

Call Class QTH Score Place

W4CN Exp KY037R 11,605 E1
NF4GA Exp FL528S 6,314 E2
W8RD Exp FL528S 6,045 E3
VA3TIC Exp ON-023 5,080 E4
N4SVC Exp FL528S 3,876 E5
W1NRG Exp CT037R 2,016 E6
VA3PCJ Exp ON-295 1,548 E7
NC6Q Exp CA060S 261 E8
N0KTK Exp MO003R 207 E9

W7PIG Fixed WA003S 113,113 F1
K9QJS Fixed WA004S 9,240 F2
W7VXS Fixed WA007L 8,742 F3

W0YJT Non KS 2,250 N1
VE2GT Non QC 90 N2
WB0IWG Non ND 5 N3

K3USI Rover TOTAL 3,076 R1
N7KRN Rover TOTAL 1,918 R2
ND9E Rover TOTAL 1,859 R3
AC7SG Rover TOTAL 1,158 R4

Thank's to all those who participated, we hope to see you all back next year!

A few weeks ago I posted an entry asking for information on various unknown islands and other missing general information.

The response has been great, and a good many of the "dark holes" have now been filled in. We still have some information to locate, but it is an on-going job.

Many, Many, Thanks to Dave VE3LDT, Doug VE3CWO, and Mike VA6FUN for the vast amount of information they have sent on to me.

One of the biggest tasks I have had to do is split the original activation list for the old NWT into two as many of the islands are now in the new territory of Nunavut.  I can say this without a doubt, you learn your Canadian geography running this site!!

Thanks again guys, I appreciate all your help.

Site Updates.......

We have started the slow process of updating the provincial island activation pages.

These pages have caused us some issues since we started C.I.A. as a lot of the actual locations of these islands was missing, or incorrect.

Coupled with this is the fact that some island names have been used more than once, for example, in Ontario we have two Papoose Islands and 4 or 5 Cedar Islands.  Without knowing the actual initial location, trying to reactivate them is almost impossible.

So far we have the Ontario, Alberta, and Nunavut pages done.  Visitors will notice that on each page a number of islands have no Grid Reference besides their name.  This is because absolutely no information can be found on these islands.  If you know of the location of any of these islands we would love to hear from you to complete the lists.

We would also like to know if the readers of this site would like to see a list of islands, listed by province, that have not yet been activated, to give them an idea of what's still available for first time activations?

We can be reached at canadaradio.01 (at) gmail.com

The 2016 W/VE Island QSO Party

Coming up this weekend is the Annual W / VE Island QSO Party.  This event is sponsored by the US Islands Award and the Canadian Island Activators.

Rules can be found HERE.

We have received, so far, the following list of Canadian Activators.  Hopefully more will follow:

VA3TIC, ON-023, Howe Expedition

VE3HRW, ON-023, Howe Expedition

VE3DZE, ON-289, Washburn Expedition

VE3FCT  ON-009, Wolfe Expedition (20, 6, & 2 SSB)

VE3MNE  ON-022, Simcoe Expedition (40 SSB)

VE3RRH, ON-037, Byng Expedition (80-10 SSB) 

VE3RNF, ON-037, Byng Expedition (80-10 SSB) 

VA3PCJ, ON-295, Aylmer Expedition (80-10, CW/SSB, QRP)

LATE ADDITION:

VE7RSV, BC-041 Hornby Island, and possibly BC-022 Denman Island as well.

Email address

We have been having issues with the email address for this page, and apparently this has been going on since the beginning of summer.   We thought it had been very quiet on the island activating activities, and now we know why.

If you have sent us an email over the summer, we must apologize, but we have not been receiving anything.   Hopefully we have the issue corrected now and we can start receiving mail again/

Again, our apologies, but it was beyond our control.

St. Paul Island Dxpedition ( CY9C ) -- Aug 19 - 29, 2016.

Just received the news that St Paul Island will be activated as CY9C.  The dates for the activation are August 19 to August 29, 2016.

The actual location is 24 km north-east of Cape Breton Island and 71 Km south-west of Newfoundland, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. 

Grid Reference is: FN97.

For full details of this DXpedition, please see their website HERE

The lighthouse on the island

2016 W / VE Island QSO Party

Lots of advanced notice being given here.........

This event is for US and Canadian island activators.  Over the past few years Canadian involvement has been getting less and less.  In fact in 2015, only VA3PCJ bothered to submit a log sheet.

This country has so many islands I doubt we could ever count them, and with the constant complaints we hear about RF noise being too high to operate at home, this is the perfect opportunity to get out and do some great operating with a zero noise floor.

So, this event takes place from 1200 UTC August 27th till 0300 UTC August 28th.

The rules for this event are HERE.

Let's give this event a kickstart and breath some new life into it.  Pick an island and get out there and get it on the air.  You'll have a pileup in no time.

IOTA 2016

Coming up this weekend, July 30th & 31st, is the RSGB Islands on the Air Contest.  

This contest is for salt water islands only......and we have lots of those in Canada to activate J

Rules for this event are HERE.

Amherst Island ON-021

This coming Sunday the Frontenac Radio Group will be activating Amherst Island, ON-021.  Amherst hasn't been activated in a good number of years so we're hoping it will attract a bit of attention.

The last time we activated Amherst we made a remarkable two HF contacts, hopefully we can do better this time.

We will be on from 1500 UTC till 1900 UTC, unless propagation is in the toilet again and then we'll call it quits early.

Callsign will be VE3FRG, and the SSB frequencies will be:

14.250 - 14.260
21.350
50.125
144.200

CW Frequencies will be:

14.040
21.040
50.070
144.060

Aylmer Island - ON-295

Aylmer Island and Lighthouse.

Jose, VA3PCJ, tells us he has tentative plans to activate Aylmer Island - ON-295.

This is in Grid FN25bj, and the activation will take place on Friday, 17 June and Saturday, 18 June.

At the same time Jose will also activate Aylmer Lighthouse, ARLHS CAN-867.  According to the records on the ARLHS website, Aylmer Lighthouse has never been activated, so this is a great opportunity to get it in your log.

Jose will be using his Elecraft KX3 and a vertical or inverted-V PAR EndFedZ Tribander Antenna.

Frequencies will be:

7.260

14.260

and

7.060

14.060

Jose will also try to be on Friday evening if possible from his boat.

The weekend report.....

VE3FRG SSB station overlooking Kingston across the straight.

The day started off not so well........as we all headed to the clubs Sunday breakfast it was raining quite heavily.  Thankfully that only lasted about 15 minutes and then it started to brighten up a bit.

By the time we left the restaurant it was cloudy but really humid, and it was to stay that way for most of the day.  The ferry ride over to Wolfe Island, ON-009, was uneventful.....smooth sailing all the way for the 30 minute trip, and the boys who went to Howe Island, ON-023, also had no problems getting there.

The propagation numbers for the day left a lot to be desired:  SFI=87, SN=31, A Index=14, and the K Index=2 at 1420 UTC.

Wolfe Island had two stations on the air, both using the clubs VE3FRG callsign.  One was on SSB and the other was a digital station.  We had three other operators besides myself out for this activation, Dave VE3DZE, Brian VA3BAH, and Rick VE3ORY.  A total of 74 contacts were made from Wolfe Island.  The only band that was workable was 20m, the rest were a mess.

Howe Island also had two stations on the air using the clubs VE3UDO callsign.  Both of these stations were operating SSB, and they made in excess of 100 contacts.  The Howe Island operators were Tim VA3TIC and Derek VE3HRW.

Frontenac Radio Group will not be making any activations in June as they are busy with other commitments, including Field Day.

We'll see you in July when we activate another one of the Thousand Islands.

VE3FRG Digital Station using a 33' mast.

Howe Island Activation....

Next Sunday, May 29th, the Frontenac Radio Group will also be activating Howe Island, ON-023.

Grid location is FN14ug.

Callsign in use will be VE3UDO

All frequencies are +/- QRM:

7.260
14.250 - 14.260
21.350
28.450
50.125
144.200

Tim and Dereck plan on being on the air by 1430 UTC and will shut down around 1730 UTC.

Howe Island has not been activated in a number of years, and has never had a lot of contacts so it is pretty rare island in logbooks.

Wolfe Island Activation.....

Next Sunday, May 29th, the Frontenac Radio Group will be activating Wolfe Island, ON-009.  The Club will be operating from the winter ferry dock, which is not used in the summer, and provides a great clear operating location.

Grid location is FN14sf81.

Callsign in use will be VE3FRG.

All frequencies are +/- QRM:

7.260
14.250 - 14.260
50.125
144.200

They will have a digital station, using PSK31, on 14.070.

They plan on being on the air by 1430 UTC and will shut down around 1800 UTC.

Wolfe Island has not been activated in a couple of years so this will be a good opportunity to get it in your log.

Byng Island Activation....

This is a very short notice activation.....

Sunday, May 22nd.  John, VE3ISE will be activating Byng Island - ON-037 starting at 1600 UTC.

Grid: FN02ev.

John will start on 40m - 7.260 +/- QRM, and then will move to 20m - 14.260 +/- QRM.

It looks like island activation season is upon us.  We look forward to beating our activation record for last year.

Simcoe Island Report

Frontenac Radio Group activated Simcoe Island, ON-022, on Sunday May 15th. To read the report on the activation please click HERE.

Simcoe Island Activation

Simcoe Island Ferry

Coming up on Sunday, May 15th.......... The Frontenac Radio Group will be activating Simcoe Island, ON-022.

This is the groups first activation of the year.

The Group has invited the students on the local ham course to come along and operate HF under their supervision.

Timings will be from 1400 UTC to 1800 UTC.

Frequencies will be:

7.250
14.250 - 14.260
144.200

The operators will be operating from the Nine Mile Point Lighthouse, CAN-578, so you can get two for one with this activation.