Happy New Year!!

Thank You!!

A huge Thank You goes out to all the hams who took the time and activated an island this year.  Without you guys there would not be a need for the Canadian Island Activators, and life would then be pretty boring.

2019 was a fairly quiet year as far as activations go, but given our position in the current solar cycle, we are not surprised.  It's a lot of work to plan and execute a good activation only to have it ruined by very bad propagation.  I know.....it happened to me on a couple of activations this year.

This year we have started to announce Canadian lighthouse activations as well.  We don't keep track of lighthouses, but if we can help drum up some business for those out there activating, so much the better.

We hope that 2020 will start to see some improvement in propagation, and in turn hope that will start hams looking at getting out and activating an island or two during the year.

Once again a big Thank You to this years activators, we couldn't do it without you guys!

Seasons Greetings..

Winter Field Day...

Planning on taking part in Winter Field Day, January 25th & 26th, 2020 ??

If you are, plot your location on this map located HERE, so far we have only one Canadian location shown....I'm sure there will be more, but let's get Canada on the map !!

The Rules for the event can be found HERE.

Early Winter

Well, winter seems to have come very early to a number of places around the country.  If you're planning on doing an activation...Island or Lighthouse...please use some common sense and watch out for hypothermia and thin ice.  We don't want any accidents and everyone needs to stay safe.

Light Activations

Just received from John, VE3ISE.....

Weather and Time permitting, he will be heading to Southampton, Ontario, to activate two lights on Wednesday, November 13th, at approximately 1700 UTC.

The lights are:

Chantry Island Light, CAN-619, and

Southampton Range Light, CAN-626.

Frequencies will be 7.260 to 7.270 +/- QRM.

Hopefully the weather will be fine and John can enter and leave the snow belt without much trouble.

Shuylers Island - First Activation.

Coming up this Tuesday, October 15th, Doug VE3VS and Heather VE3HQH, will attempt a first activation of Shuylers Island.

The island is located in FN04px, North-East of the town of Minden.

Call sign is use will be VE3VS.

Doug and Heather plan to start on 80m early in the morning, and by mid-morning will switch to 40m and perhaps 20m as well.

Let's hope the propagation improves so we can work them.

UPDATE:   Doug and Heather have successfully activated the island and it has been issued the number, ON-306.  Well done!!

Panmure Island PE-002

Coming up on Sunday, October 6th, George, VY2GF, will be activating Panmure Head Light - ARLHS CAN-363, located on Panmure Island, PE-002.

Grid Reference is FN86sd.

Activation will take place between 1400 UTC and 1800 UTC.

George will be on 20m SSB - 14.240 or higher +/- QRM.

You can check it out on www.facebook.com/groups/MLARG

La Grosse Ile – QC010

Coming up on September 29^th, Pierre, VE2GT will be activating Grosse Ile – QC010, and the Irish Memorial National Historic Site CNPOTA QC24.  The Island is also POTA VE-4910 and VEFF-1507.

He will be using 80m to 10m and will be on the air from 1445 UTC to 1815 UTC 

+/- delay of the boat.

You can follow him at: https://aprs.fi/#!call=a%2FVE2GT-5&timerange=3600&tail=3600

10 Days to go.....

Don't forget, we have 10 days to go until the W / VE Island QSO Party happens.  Have you picked out an island yet?

Let's see some more Canadian participation this year, it's been pretty dismal for the last few years.

Rules can be found HERE.

Lists of Canadian Islands by province can be found on the front page of this Blog.  Pick one, get out there, operate, and have fun !!

2019 W/VE Island QSO Party

Next up on the annual calendar is the W/VE Island QSO Party held each year in August.   This year the dates are August 24 and 25.

This year rules can be found HERE.

Canadian participation has been pretty dismal over the last few years.  Let's see if we can get a few more Canadian Islands on the air for this event.

Big Island, Bay of Quinte

Coming up next Sunday - 21 July, Big Island, ON-090, in the beautiful Bay of Quinte will be on the air.  

VE3FI and VE3MNE (both callsigns) will be on from 1500 UTC to 1900 UTC.  They will start on 14.270 +/- QRM and then QSY later in the afternoon to 7.270 +/- QRM.

Big Island has not been activated in over 20 years from the records we can find, so it's a rare one.

UPDATE:  We have added a CW Station to the activation. You will find him on 14.040 and 7.040 +/- QRM.

Jourimain Island NB-029

Here's another activation announcement received today:

George, VE9NLH, will be activating Jourimain Island, New Brunswick, NB-029, on July 12, 13, & 14.

He will also be activating the Jourimain Island Lighthouse, ARLHS CAN-258.

No frequencies were given, but I would assume the usual island frequencies.

July 2019 Activations

A big package arrived in the mail today with the details of an eight-day island and lighthouse activation holiday from Chris, VE3CBK.

I have no actual timings or frequencies, just the date of the activation.  If I get the missing info I will add it to this page.

While this is a long list of Lighthouse numbers, the two islands being activated at the same time are fairly rare and are well worth getting in your log.

On 12 or 13 July Chris will activate the following US lighthouses:

USA-527 Nash Island Light
USA-597 Petit Manan Light
USA-526 Narraguagus Light

On 14 July he will activate:

USA-880 West Quoddy Light
USA-890 Whitlock Mills Light

On 15 July he will activate:

CAN-714 Pendlebury Light
CAN-948 Tongue Shoal Light
CAN-214 Green's Point Light
CAN-162 Beaver Harbour Light
CAN-366 Pea Point Light

From 16 to 20 July he will activate Grand Manan Island NB-003 and the following lights:

CAN-469 Southwest Head Light
CAN-192 Gannet Rock Light
CAN-282 Machias Seal Island
CAN-??? North Rock Light - First activation no assigned number yet.

The above four lights have severe Coast Guard QRM and will be activated on 40m only.

On 17 July in the AM:

CAN-??? Seal Cove Breakwater Light - First activation no assigned number yet.

Continuing the 16 to 20 July list he will activate:

CAN-709 Fish Fluke Point Light
CAN-210 Great Duck Island Light

On 18 July he will activate White Head Island NB-010 and the following lights:

CAN-644 Long Point Light
CAN-739 Gull Cove Light

Again continuing the 16 to 20 July list he will activate the following light back on Grand Manan Island NB-003:

CAN-491 Swallowtail Light
CAN-283 Long Eddy Point
CAN-470 Southern Wolf Light
CAN-166 East Quoddy Light
CAN-045 Bliss Island Light

Morris Island ON-124

Morris Island Lighthouse.

Just received news that Chris VE3CBK, will be activating Morris Island, ON-124, this coming Wednesday, June 19th.  Chris will be on the air from 1400 UTC to 1600 UTC.

He will start on 14.270 +/- QRM and then QSY to 7.270 +/- QRM. He plans to spend about 20 minutes on each band.  After that, he will choose whatever band is working for him.

As a bonus, he is also able to activate Morris Island Lighthouse, ARLHS CAN-1077, and Arnprior Island Light ARLHS CAN-1044.

He will be running QRP for this event. 

Advanced Notice of Activations...

So far this year we have received notice that the following Ontario islands will be activated over the summer months...

Hoople Island ON-082

Dickinson Island ON-086

Heriot Island ON-251

Philpots Island ON-115

These four islands are all part of the Long Sault Parkway near Cornwall, Ontario.  These islands have not been activated in many years so it's nice to see them being looked at again.

Iroquois Island ON-271 will also be activated, probably in late July, by the Upper Canada QRP Club.

Two islands, never before activated, will be put on the air this fall by the Frontenac Radio Club.  They are both located in the Rideau River.  More details on them closer to the date.

VE1 Update

Thanks to Len, VE9MY, for the huge pile of historical information on the VE1 island activations going back to 1993 and up to 2006.

If anyone can fill in the final missing bits it would be appreciated as there are about 10 activations we have no information on.

All of this information was missing and it's great to finally be able to fill in some of the holes in our information.

Thanks again Len !!

It's Springtime !!

The ice on the lakes is disappearing, and the snow is finally melting away.  Temperatures are actually up into double digits these days as well.

All that information put together tells us it's time to start planning this year's island activations.  This aspect of our hobby has been very quiet for the last few years, with mainly a core group in Ontario and Quebec keeping it going.  Luckily for us, our US counterpart, The US Islands Award is alive and well and provides us with many of our chasers.

Hams in Ottawa have already been inquiring about one of their planned activations.  Unfortunately, the island they were looking at activating didn't meet the requirement for what an island is, but they're still looking at other sites.

I think this year, given the price of gas, a lot of activations will be close to home.  Start your planning, and get out and activate a couple of local islands this year.

We do have frequencies (+/-) that we hang around on, and in case you don't know them, here they are:

SSB -

7.250
14.250 to 14.260
21.350
28.450
50.125
144.200

CW -

7.030
14.040
21.040
28.040
50.070
144.100

Send us your plans so we can get the word out to the island activating community - on both sides of the border.

Happy New Year...

Happy New Year to all our Island Activators !!

If you're going out to activate islands this winter please pay attention to the following....

Watch out for this...

Careful out on the ice.

Don't forget to dress for the occasion !!

And.....don't leave home without these !!

Know what to do if this happens to you !!

Have a safe winter and even safer activations !!