Beacon Hill and the Great Canadian Trail

For my last full day in Victoria, I planned to do another park activation. I had selected a visit to Beacon Hill Park as it is very close to my hotel and it is a lovely area to enjoy the outdoors.  The park extends south to the cliffs overlooking the Strait of Juan de Fuca, at the south end the views of the water are quite marvelous. It also happens that the Great Trail of Canada which is a trail that crosses through all the provinces has its western end just east of the park. The trail then meanders westward through the park continuing on around the harbour area. If one operates at the point of intersection, you can claim an activation for both in the Parks-on-the-Air program.  So that was where I planned to operate for the day.

I packed up the car a bit before noon and drove the few kilometers from the north side of the park to the south and selected a parking stall near the fence opening, through which I would be crossing. I had previously scouted the area back in February when I was here and planning for this activation, but I still wanted to review the location of benches and select the final site. Passing through the dog infested dog yard area I spotted an isolated bench between the trail and the cliff where there was a wider section with a trail that led to the beach. It looked perfect for my activity. The original location I had planned was Finlayson Point which is 150m east of here but it looked busier and there was not as convenient a bench.

I returned to the car and gathered up my equipment. Returning to the selected bench, I settled onto it and then selected a place for the tripod and mast for the antenna. This location also allowed me to erect the antenna parallel to the edge of the ciff which was in my preferred orientation, a double bonus – proper direction and out of the way. I then set up my small table and radio. Once the 38foot mast is up, people notice the odd interloper to their normal patterns and many stopped by to ask about it. I find it funny that some are seriously asking if I am fishing! They do seem to know the name – ham radio so that satisfies the curiosity of most.

Back at the radio I scanned the bands but they were very quiet, not a lot of activators today. I did find one pair at a double park in Arizona on 20m. Finishing with them I had 4 contacts logged. I then moved to the 15m band and began calling after posting myself on the list. After 12 minutes with no takers, I decided to give up on 15m and I moved to 20m. It took several minutes more but I eventually had a response from a station in Georgia. He reported that my signal was of middling strength and readability. A minute later an Arizona station came by followed an activator in a park in the Anaheim area of California. Five minutes later I heard a loud response from another California station. And then a prolific Canadian operator from Saskatchewan in a park north of Blaine Lake.

I kept calling out between opportunities to talk to passersby who were wondering about the radio and where I was reaching. All seemed impressed watching me talking to someone thousands of kilometers away with the wire in the air. It was indeed a slow day on the air but I kept at for about an hour and quarter netting 20 contacts by the time I packed up. My last two contacts were with stations activating a park in Virginia. They reported decent signals. I likely could have continued but the pace was slow and I felt like heading back to the room where I could get some lunch. One can’t ignore the demands of the body for too long.

It was a very lovely time out at the park, being sniffed by many dogs, some were wanting to share my potato chips more than sniffing me. The many people who were walking by and who stopped to ask about the radio were fun to chat to. One couple were ex-radio operators from many years back. They reminisced about the days operating radio but hadn’t been involved with it for a long time. Sharing the radio with the public is quite a bit of fun, they are quite amazed that the radio can reach such distances. Frankly it still amazes me. Now it is back to home and the local parks, they are all interesting to visit and to learn about new locations.