We had a great turn out this past weekend at Rideau River Provincial Park for the annual Ottawa Valley QRP Society Camping weekend, affectionately referred to as Chili-con.

Fortunately both the weather and propagation gods were happy with us. With the exception of chilly weather on Friday night (about 2 degrees C) we had an exceptional weekend for camping.

For me this weekend is really about socializing and exchanging ideas, so I spent most of my time yakking off-air.  This is also the weekend of the New England QRP Club’s “QRP Afield Contest” so there was also the opportunity to do a bit of contesting as well as some casual operating. Unfortunately our “Chili-master” couldn’t make it this year so we settled for Pizza delivered by Capilano Pizza in Kemptville; which was pretty good. Along with Bill’s apple pie and a few “807s”, it really hit the spot on Saturday night.

A fire, some anti-freeze (“The Famous Grouse”) and interesting conversation finished off the evening nicely.

Best DX worked - Bill VE3CLQ (2 Australian Stations on 20m SSB !)

Most memorable weekend quote :

Bill (VE3CLQ)- “My radio won’t transmit on CW”.

Bob (VA3QV) - “And that’s a problem ... how ?”  ;-)

My most interesting QSO - CF2SG/SOTA (aka J.P. VE2SG) -  sent me his SOTA exchange, Polar Bear number and the contest exchange for QRP Afield, all in one transmission !

My best DX - Svein, LA5FHA near Oslo on 20m Sunday morning (me using KX1 @4W into W3EDP-zepp).

Many thanks to all who showed up. Special thanks to Pat, VE3EUR for keeping the wasps occupied so they didn’t bother the rest of us ;-)

Michael VE3WMB