Ambleside Park

Ralph and I have not done a park since early June. The summer tends to have poor band conditions and with the crowds from empty schools we took time to do other things. Well, the schools recalled their inmates and the bands have improved. It was time to venture forth. Another factor leading to a slight downturn in activity is the distance to new parks and traffic. We have activated the parks close to our homes and though one can redo parks, our joint adventures have been to visit new ones. To that end we have been working through the list of Northshore parks with four to go.

Today’s adventure was to visit Ambleside Park. This park hugs the shoreline of Burrard inlet west of the Lions Gate Bridge. It offers many amenities and various activities, and parking is free for another two weeks. Ralph arrived at my place around 10:15 and we set out for – of course – coffee. Once in hand we continued on our way to West Vancouver. The drive proceeded smoothly though as we climbed ‘The Cut’ in North Vancouver we spotted and accident on the coming direction, there were responders on site helping a car that was rolled over. I thought this does not bode well for our return.

We continued along and soon were meandering our way through side streets as we approached the park. Once in the park we drove through a few areas before parking. Then it was out for some exploration and scouting for where we would set up our radios. We wandered to the shoreline and heading east to where I spotted a causeway to a totem statue. The breeze was lovely, it made up for the smoke in the air from the various forest fires surrounding our region. The smoke was obscuring the sun enough that even though it was a cloudless day the heat of the sun was greatly reduced. As I reached the statue, I snapped a few photos of Lions Gate Bridge which looks big over the Vancouver skyline from here. A plaque talks about the achievement of the bridge’s construction. Upon reaching the statue one sees that it is a depiction of a man welcoming people to the area. Another plaque describes its significance. 

Done we the causeway we returned along the beach front walkway looking for a nice location to operate at. I eventually spotted a table that had a nice grassy area to the side and not encumbered by trees. It was in the sun, but the sun was not a problem today. Ralph and I returned to the car, and I loaded my cart with my gear and Ralph gathered up his radio, he had selected a site close to the car on the edge of a large grass field. I walked back to the table and began to set up. Once I had my antenna in the air a couple of park goers came by to ask about it. One older lady was surprised that ham radio still existed. I said it was doing well.

Radio ready, I called Ralph on my handheld and soon he was also ready for our 11-band sprint. The nice thing with doing this is that it takes the pressure off of making more contacts as we already meet the minimum requirement. The day included a minor Geomagnetic storm and so I was uncertain as to how making contacts would go. Other Park activators were concentrated on the 20m band and so I dialed it in and scanned the band for any I could hear. My first contact was with a chap in California followed by Wisconsin and Utah, but those were all I could reach so I picked a frequency and began calling. It took quite a while but eventually another park activator from California responded and then a second. By now I could hear another station crowding me on the band, so I changed frequency. I soon had another activator from California respond. 

Time was running on and Ralph called me to ask if I was ready to pack up as he had completed 10 more contacts beyond ours. I was not feeling satisfied with the poor numbers I had and felt like continuing for a bit longer. Then I started hearing back from stations in quick order and over the next few minutes I made more contacts than over the first half hour. All were western states today the band was not reaching the eastern side of the continent. This was OK as I now had 26 contacts in my log. Checking back with Ralph we agreed to pack up and meet at the car.

I soon had my gear stowed and was back at the car where I watched Ralph packing up. He was having a tough time with a folding chair. It was one of those that folds into a small bag and has many elastic connected steel segments that must fitted together and now separated. Once he had it bagged, he carried his gear to the car and we set out for home. The initial drive went smoothly but as we approached Lonsdale on the highway the map showed deep red for heavy congestion. I was thinking well here we go thanks to that accident we saw earlier. In pondering the situation, I almost missed the fact that the navcom was showing me an alternate route off the highway.  I just managed to work my way to the exit and then followed the route that led us back to the highway after the accident site by following side roads on both side of the highway. It worked well and our travel time home was actually not much delayed.

It was a lovely time in the park, the air quality was not great but we were not doing anything strenuous so I guess we were OK. The adventure reignited our passion to get out again for the next park down the beach from Ambleside and hopefully we will be back next week. Only three more  in West Vancouver to do then we can take on the 15 remaining parks in Vancouver proper.