The day was spent mostly in front of the radio. It was a rainy day. I still got in about 6 thousand steps of walking trying to find some lunch. Today is Sunday and everything is closed. Sandwich shops open in the evening at 6 pm. Y'a t'il un sandwich shop pres de la maison s;appelle Frangals. It is a small family run shop where they actually have cold sodas. The general store has a huge rack of sodas but it is not refrigerated.
The one thing that stands out about the life in Saint Pierre by the locals is that revolves around the family. You see them on Sunday riding their bikes with their children or taking a walk on the mountain despite the foul weather.
I took advantage of an opening on 15 meters and logged about 50 or so contacts.
30m was especially good today during which I had a good run of over 100 QSOs in a pileup
Hopefully I can muster generating pileups in my last two days
I managed to make a few QSO's on 17m phone and Bob ND7J also tried to make contact but was unsuccesful. Bob did manage to make a QSO on 20m via a SKED before posting myself on the cluster.
I tried to do some 80m but the band noise was S3 even in Saint Pierre. WM4AA said the band noise in the Carolinas was S4. With my puny signal buried in the noise, no chance. I had not really planned to do 80m and I published as such on my website in the operating plan but 80m is so rare for Saint Pierre that I had to at least try. Matt WM4AA listened for me but could not hear my signal. Bruce WA8IQF, listened and heard a couple of W1s trying to call me but I could not hear them. I got an email from some Japanese hams requesting 80m.
The ideal DXpedition to Saint Pierre and Miquelon is to have a team erect some tall verticals near the ocean for the low bands in the fall and it would have to be in Miquelon. An 80m inverted L and a 40m 4-square would be ideal. The high bands can suffice with either CrankIRs or dedicated monoband SVDAs. The Auberge de L'ile in Miquelon is a promising location. Bill Rodgers K3HZP is staying there for the weekend and will ask the owner to host a future DXpedition team. Bill and I shared some time together at the Dodeman B&B. He brought along his PFR QRP rig and a random wire. I even saw him posted on the cluster (even with his 5 watts) - so I know L'Auberge in Miquelon is a good site for propagation. An operation in Langlade will have to be a tent and generator operation. The only way to do the above is by car. Drive all the equipment to Sydney, Nova Scotia and take the 8 hour ferry boat ride from Sydney to Port Aux Basques, Newfoundland and then drive all the equipment to Fortune, Newfoundland and then take the ferry from Fortune to Miquelon with all the gear. This would only be possible with the help of the local hams like Jean Pierre Carrere and one would have to recruit them as part of the team. It has not been since 2004 for the last major DXpedition (by VE7SV and team) to Saint Pierre and Miquelon when they generated over 59000 QSOs.
Band/Mode breakdown
| Band | PH | CW | RTTY | Total | Total % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 40 | 1 | 146 | 0 | 147 | 9.6% |
| 30 | 0 | 326 | 0 | 326 | 21.3% |
| 20 | 1 | 749 | 9 | 759 | 49.6% |
| 17 | 11 | 232 | 0 | 243 | 15.9% |
| 15 | 0 | 56 | 0 | 56 | 3.7% |
| Totals | 13 | 1509 | 9 | 1531 |
Continent By Band
| Band | 40 | 30 | 20 | 17 | 15 | Total | Total % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AF | 0 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 10 | 0.7% |
| AN | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0% |
| AS | 0 | 3 | 7 | 46 | 1 | 57 | 3.7% |
| EU | 30 | 175 | 310 | 135 | 42 | 692 | 45.2% |
| NA | 112 | 143 | 434 | 59 | 13 | 761 | 49.7% |
| OC | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0.1% |
| SA | 3 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 9 | 0.6% |
| Totals | 147 | 326 | 759 | 243 | 56 | 1531 |
Have been listening for you a few times. Unfortenatly nothing heard. Did hear others in Europe making contact with you. I might be lucky in the last days....good luck. 73, Bas
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