Hugo Ray Park

H ugo Ray Park is found on the east side of West Vancouver. It is a huge spread of grass dedicated to the local Cricket club. The area offers a pair of wide-open cricket pitches and so offers a wide-open area for activity along with a clubhouse and officiating area for games. The park is one of the remaining six in West Vancouver that I had not yet activated in the Parks on the air program.  Last summer Ralph and I worked our way across North Vancouver, and we were about to start West Van when things got a bit hectic, and our plans got delayed. Well, we are back.

The drive to the park took an hour from my house, traffic was not overly slow so we made decent time along the highway. Arriving at the park at noon we found it empty of users but filled with some workers, one was cutting the wide lawn area another group was working on a broken water main. We parked in the central section of the lot and got out to walk the area. Ralph selected a spot near the South-western corner where he could use some of the open space and be shaded by the trees that run the perimeter of the park. We wandered to the opposite corner where I found a decent place to operate. 

As we returned to the car to get our equipment a maintenance worker met us and asked us to move the car out of the lot as they were locking the gates due to the water issue. I moved the car and then we loaded up the cart and took our gear to the two locations we were going to use. After dropping off Ralph’s stuff I continued across the entire area to the corner I had selected. The cart does make it so practical. Once I arrived, I quickly set up the mast and raised the antenna. An elevated bat house provided a square of shade, just big enough for my station. So, I set up near it with my table in the shade while planning to move it as the sun shifts the spot.

Once ready I called Ralph on my hand-held radio, and we proceeded to contact each other across 11 different radio bands. Once done with that it was about 12:40 and we decided to operate independently until 1pm at which point we would check in with each other. I proceeded to dial in the 15m band where I had heard an activator in Florida. I responded to his hail, and I had my first distant contact. The band was doing OK and soon I had a number of contacts from the mid-west and east coast. At one PM I checked with Ralph who had only a few contacts and we both felt like continuing for a while.  Around this time the fields started filling up with dozens of kids. They were here for a city-wide school frisbee contest. So much for the maintenance people wanting to close the park due to the water issue!

Ralph and I continued our calls, in the end Ralph made 10 distant contacts, and I made 24. My contacts ranged from Halifax down to Florida across the continent to California and then the ocean to Hawaii. A good spread of contacts for the short time I was operating. The one group I often get but which didn’t reach me today was Alaska. About 1:20 Ralph had made his 10th contact and we agreed to pack up as we hoped to get on the highway before the big slowdown on the road heading down the cut to the bridge.

We made good time getting onto the highway and across most of the Northshore. The final leg down the cut was backed up and moving slow but it was still doing much better than some days. The drive went quite smoothly and soon we were in Cloverdale and approaching the Starbucks where we were planning to stop for a drink. With drink in hand we sat at an outdoor table to talk over our results and plans for the next park.